I recently moved into a new rental house, and I've been having serious issues with the oven. Every time I use it, the bottom of my food burns right away. Halfway through cooking, smoke starts pouring out, filling the house with a terrible smell. I've even noticed that one of my pans has had its top layer burned off, and there are charred bits on the oven racks. I've cleaned both the racks and the oven inside, but the burning continues. I thought it might be a calibration problem, so I tested it with an oven thermometer, and it reads the correct temperature. I've lived in two other places in the last three years without any issues with my cookware—now they all look discolored and burned. I've tried using different pans, and it still happens. Has anyone experienced this before? What could be going wrong?
3 Answers
Another possibility could be that your oven’s thermostat is malfunctioning. If it can't properly sense when it reaches the set temperature, it might just keep cranking out heat nonstop, which would definitely lead to burning. This could explain why your pans are getting wrecked too.
Have you checked if you're preheating the oven properly and placing the racks in the middle? Those two things can make a big difference in how evenly the heat distributes. Sometimes, an oven can misbehave if the settings aren't just right.
It sounds like your oven might have a heating element issue. I had a similar problem with my toaster overcooking food on the bottom because the top element was faulty. If it’s the same case with your oven, maybe it’s overdoing it on the bottom element and not enough heat from the top. Might be worth checking out!