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A Turkish oven we recently purchased has no thermostat, but it did come with two metal trays. They are like (American) broiler trays but without a cooking rack.

I could believe that they are just broiler trays, but (1) there are two of them; (2) I believe I have seen people adjusting the position of these trays in similar ovens when making bread.

What are they for, and how can I learn to use them appropriately?

Picture of an oven with and without the aforementioned trays

enter image description here

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  • The trays you mention don't really show up in the photos. The one on the left might just be an ordinary shelf, and the one on the right might have some depth to it but that's all I can see. It looks like a gas oven with an uncalibrated temperature control running from little flame to big flame.
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 6:40
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    I've pushed the shadows hard in Photoshop to make the interior more visible & exposed the previously hidden picture cation. Looks like a standard rack left & two roasting trays right; though I'd have expected at least one to have a grill rack in it.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 7:58
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    A) do you mean "Broiler trays"? B) If you are asking about the tray on the right it's "Cooking trays" which is used in most american houses. Cooking rack is just cooling rack that can be also used in the oven.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 8:34
  • Why are there two?
    – adam.baker
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 12:16
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    @adam.baker so you can have two trays in the oven at the same time or if you are making e.g. cookies you can fill one tray while the other bakes, then swap...
    – Tinuviel
    Commented Dec 17, 2019 at 11:50

1 Answer 1

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Unlike American ovens, some European ovens come with built-in baking trays. These are designed to slide in and out using the oven rails, and take the place of sheet pans that you would put on top of a rack in an American oven.

They're actually quite convenient, except that there's only two of them.

For example, if you watch this Spanish cookie video, you'll see that Albert is using one of those pans to bake cookies.

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    Yes, I often use the one built in tray that came with my oven, and another tray on a normal shelf, especially at this time of year when I'm making a lot of roast veg dishes. Two would be handy. Because they're sized to the oven, they make better use of space than a generic baking tray
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 17, 2019 at 14:07
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    🇪🇺 here. I never knew that there are first-world countries where people don't know how baking trays work. Great to learn!
    – eckes
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 20:40
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    Eckes: they really aren't a thing in American ovens. No idea why.
    – FuzzyChef
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 23:38

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