Dacor Distinctive DR30D, Use And Care Manual

20

Operating the Oven

Dehydrating/Defrosting (cont.)

Solving Discoloration Problems

To prevent darkening during dehydration and storage, you 

should steam blanch apples, apricots, peaches, nectar-

ines, pears or foods that will oxidize.

To steam blanch:

1.  Add one inch of water to a four quart sauce pot. 

Insert the steam basket and place the fruit in it.

2.  Cover the pot and steam for one to two minutes.
3.  Remove with a slotted spoon and dab with a paper 

towel to remove excess moisture before dehydrating.

4.  Apples, pears, pineapples, and some other fruits will 

brown or darken during dehydration. To prevent dis-

coloration, dip fruits in pineapple juice or lemon juice 

after steam blanching.

Creating a Candied Effect

To give fruit a candied effect and to help retain color, 

blanch them in a simple syrup. You can candy the fruits 

mentioned above as well as figs and plums. The basic 

ratio for a simple syrup is one cup of sugar to one cup of 

water. Add these ingredients to a four quart stock pot and 

bring to a boil. Stir until all the sugar dissolves. Remove 

the saucepan from the cooktop and allow it to cool. Dip 

fruit into the simple syrup after it has cooled.

Preventing Tough Skins When Dehydrating

You should water blanch items with tough skins such as 

grapes, prunes, dark plums, cherries, figs and some types 

of berries. Water blanching these types of fruit will crack 

the skins so that moisture can escape and dehydration 

can be done more effectively.

To water blanch:

1.  Bring two quarts of water to boil in a four quart sauce 

pot.

2.  Drop the fruit in the water for one to two minutes, or 

until the skin begins to crack.

3.  Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and dab dry 

with a paper towel before dehydrating. The pit can be 

left inside or removed half way through the dehydrat-

ing process.

Defrosting Tips

•  Food that takes an exceptional amount of time to 

defrost will not defrost well in a convection oven.

•  You should not defrost anything that would normally 

take over two hours to thaw. The food will begin to 

spoil because the defrost temperature is not high 

enough to cook the food.

•  If you have a partially defrosted turkey, rib roast or 

other large cut of meat, you may continue to defrost it 

in your convection oven. If wing tips and legs begin to 

dry out when you defrost poultry, you may wrap the 

tips with aluminum foil.

•  If you are defrosting a small cut of meat, lay it on a 

flat cookie sheet with a one inch rim to catch juices as 

the meat thaws.

•  Thick, frozen casseroles such as lasagna will not 

defrost well in your oven. Instead, defrost accord-

ing to the food manufacturer’s suggestions. You may 

also defrost casseroles in the refrigerator overnight. 

You should leave the food in its original container and 

keep it covered.

•  You can bake some foods from frozen. Some exam-

ples are: pizza, frozen pastries, croissants, cookies, 

etc. Before baking frozen food, allow the oven to 

preheat.

Proofing

You can use your range to proof yeasted doughs at a low 

and draft-free temperature using the bake mode.
1.  Touch the 

BAKE

 key.

2.  Enter the temperature of 100°F on the number 

keypad.

3.  Touch 

START

.

4.  Place the dough in a greased bowl inside of the oven. 

Cover it with either a damp cloth or plastic wrap 

coated with a nonstick spray.

5.  Turn on the oven light.
6.  Set the timer for the amount of rise time in the recipe.

Sabbath Mode

The Sabbath mode on your oven complies with Jewish 

laws for use on the Sabbath and Holy Days. This feature 

allows the oven to perform two types of cooking, bake 

and Pure Convection.
When the oven is set to Sabbath mode, it disables the fol-

lowing features:
•  The oven light
•  All keys, except 

CANCEL

·

SECURE

, 

START

 and the 

0

 and 

2

 keys on the number keypad.

 NOTE

• 

“SAb”

 appears on the display when Sabbath mode 

is in operation.

•  As with all other cooking modes, when setting the 

control panel for Sabbath operation all keys must be 

touched within six seconds of each other. Otherwise 

the control panel will automatically clear.

•  Sabbath mode will not work with the meat probe 

connected (the meat probe symbol will flash).

•  Delay-timed cooking cannot be used in Sabbath 

mode. 

•  In the event of a power outage, the oven will return 

to Sabbath mode at the temperature it was last set 

to when power is restored.

•  If one or both timers are running, the oven cancels 

timer operation when Sabbath mode is selected. 

•  You may want to use a rack thermometer to keep 

track of the oven temperature.