Fan assisted or conventional oven question

[Donner Kebab]

What is the general concensus when a recipe book gives you a tempreture but does not state if it is for a fan assisted oven or conventinal oven? I have always assumed that unless otherwise stated tempretures were for conventional ovens hovever having tried three different dishes on this assumption where the food has turned out undercooked I am now unsure. Any ideas? And if you had the choice which is the best way to cook?

[CheekyChops]

I would assume that the temperature/time related to a conventional oven unless otherwise specified. I have a fan oven so haven't experienced the problems that you have as I always have to adjust the settings to suit my oven anyway.

[grenaby]

I have a fan oven and hate it. I can't cook some of my cake recipes in it as the circulated air seems to knock the rising out of the denser cakes. I always subtract 20 degrees from any given instructions. I would not choose another one but saying that it does save time and money as the waiting time for the oven to heat up is so much quicker. I guess it all comes down to personal preferences and mine is now for a normal electric oven

[Consie]

There are three types of oven, conventional, fan and circotherm and most recipes would suggest you reduce the temperature by 10 degrees for a fan oven and the handbook for circotherm ovens recommends reducing the temperature by 20 degrees. I agree with grenaby - non-adaptable fan ovens are not the good. The more expensive ones which offer different functions are better, but I am still seriously considering going back to gas.

[WendyS]

We have a dual control oven - fan or conventional - and always use the fan option now although I don't bake any cakes which I can imagine might prove problematic. . It's fine for roasting, and caseroles. Roast potatoes & veg seem to take about 15-20 minutes less to cook and caseroles can be done on a lower temperature (which means using less power overall). I think the oven temperature guidance shown in recipes is for a conventional oven but as all ovens seem to be slightly different it seems to be a case of remembering how long it took to cook last time!