Birds Eye and McCain settle debate over what 'turn halfway through cooking' actually means

In recent times, you might have seen some claims swirling around which reckon you've been doing your cooking wrong.

This all seems to have kicked off after a TikToker named Bea told her followers she'd started wondering whether when it says on the bag to 'turn halfway through cooking', it didn't mean the food.

She posted a video of her turning a tray of chips over one by one, with the implication that this might not be what they actually meant.

Plenty took this to mean that you were actually supposed to spin the tray the food was on around in the hope that different parts of the oven being different temperatures would cook your meal all the way through.

Could the instruction to 'turn halfway through cooking' really mean we ought to be turning the tray rather than flipping each and every chip?

This caused no small level of commotion over here at LADbible towers as we were struck by the horrible feeling that we'd been cooking food wrong all this time.

What we needed was more evidence before working out whether to listen to Bea, or not to Bea.

So, we decided to ask the frozen food titans of BirdsEye and McCain's what they actually meant, and they both agreed on what the instruction was trying to say.

The verdict is in and the debate has been decisively settled, with both frozen food giants saying that to 'turn halfway through cooking' means turning over the food instead of turning around the tray it's on.

"When we advise to 'turn halfway through cooking' in means turning the food over," BirdsEye told LADbible, and McCain were right there with them.

They told LADbible the cooking instruction 'means to turn over the product so that both sides are cooked evenly', and with them both saying the same thing we don't think the debate could be settled any more than that.

With most ovens being fan assisted the heat in the middle is going to be pretty consistent, and the bit that needs most attention is the part that's been pressed against a tray for a while, with spinning it around doing nothing to help that.

If you thought you'd found a way around lovingly turning over every chip in the oven to ensure they're crispy all the way around, then we're very sorry.

We say lovingly, you could just get stuck in with a spatula or establish dominance by shaking the tray, with anything that doesn't get flipped over in the maelstrom suffering the punishment of not reaching its greatest potential as a delectable morsel.

So there you have it, when your food tells you to turn it while cooking, it means you've got to flip it over.

Now you know something which is apparently half the battle, the other half is presumably remembering to pre-heat your oven.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images

Topics: TikTok, Social Media, Food And Drink

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker