Leaving the house with the oven on?

[Anonymous]

I have a ribs recipe i'd like to do tomorrow, but it requires the ribs be in the oven at 225 for 8 hours. i'm assuming that 225 isn't much different than leaving a slow cooker on without anyone home, but i thought i'd see what you all thought. can i put them in the oven in the morning and go about my day as usual, which would put us out of the house for about 2 hours near the start of the 8 total hours. if i matters, my oven is gas, not electric.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't do it. I'd be too nervous. Can't you just start the ribs once you get home, or better yet do them in your slow cooker?

[Anonymous]

I would have no problem leaving the oven on while I'm gone. After all, it IS fireproof.

[Anonymous]

Sure, but your house may not be there when you get home.

[Anonymous]

I would not even consider it.

[Anonymous]

I would NEVER. Do people do this? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't have considered it.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't, but then again, I don't like to leave anything on when I leave the house. Not the washer, the drier, the dishwasher, not even the slow cooker, so I know I'm probably outside of the norm.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a recipe for a weekend.

[Anonymous]

You know I have done this b/f b/c my oven has a timer to go off if you set it. But I tell you, I was so nervous the entire time I was out and it was only for a couple of hours.

[Anonymous]

I would do it for sure with an electric oven, gas would make me a little nervous. Then again, I have a 12-hour oven recipe that I do overnight, and not sure that being asleep is really much better than being out of the house.

[Anonymous]

I've gone down the block with something in the oven, but wouldn't be comfortable leaving for 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your local fire dept. I am sure they could share stories about catastrophes with people who left the house with the oven left on.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't even consider it. Can't you use your crock pot instead?

[Anonymous]

I think being asleep is better than being out of the house, because you will wake up if the smoke detector goes off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have no problem leaving the oven on while I'm gone. After all, it IS fireproof.

Yes, but numerous fires happen when you leave an appliance like a stove or oven on unattended. What if your stew bubbles over,hits the coil and bursts into flame? And then when the flames surge up and hit the put, igniting the rest of the stew, it explodes blowing open the door of the oven and spewing flames out. And lest you think this doesn't happen, this type of accident happens more than people think which is why fire departments always recommend that you do not leave cooking equipment on unattended. Also, 212 is the boiling point of water. Many common additives to sauces actually lower the boiling point of a sauce so that it will boil at 190-200 degrees and at 225, you can easily have boiling sauce for your ribs. If you've never tried this recipe before and don't know whether it boils or not, then don't try it.

From the National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA) (cut and pasted from several pages within this long report):

"During 2005-2009, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 155,400 home structure fires involving cooking equipment per year. These fires caused an annual average of 390 civilian deaths, 4,800 civilian injuries, and $771 million in direct property damage.

Ranges, with or without ovens, account for the majority (58%) of total reported home structure fires involving cooking equipment and even larger shares of associated civilian deaths (84%) and civilian injuries (77%). Unattended equipment is the leading cause of cooking fires."

"[...]During 2005-2009, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 24,500 home structure fires per year in which an oven or rotisserie was involved in ignition. These fires caused an annual
average of 17 civilian deaths, 270 civilian injuries, and $33 million in direct property damage. These incidents accounted for 16% of the reported home fires involving cooking equipment, 4% of the associated civilian deaths, 6% of the associated civilian injuries, and 4% of the direct property damage from cooking equipment fires. Note that fires in ovens that are part of ranges may be coded as range fires. Therefore, these statistics probably understate the oven share of home cooking fires."

I don't think that miraculously, the number of home accidents of this type disappeared in 2010-2011. Don't do it. Don't become a statistic. One meal just isn't worth it.