Storing metal/cast iron in the stove

[StormySar]

Due to lack of easy to get to storage, I've been storing my cookie sheets and metal bowls in the oven, and occasionally my cast iron also.

I normally remove these to bake. But is it necessary? If I leave my bowls and sheets on the bottom rack in the oven, ca I still bake or will those objects pose a problem?

[merrijayne]

Not sure i do remember my grandmother doing this. And on baking day the kitchen table would be covered with these items.

[snanna]

They'll block the free circulation of heat, and things might come out uneven. That's been my experience when I, say, bake three sheets of cookies at once-- the ones on the bottom stop the heat from getting to the ones on the top, etc.

[almadianna]

it wouldnt ruin the cast iron but it might ruin what you are trying to make.
alton brown from good eats had a whole part of a show dedicated to how ovens work and mentioned the importance of letting the heat radiate/circulate so that things would cook evenly/properly.

[hipmummy]

I know you can leave stoneware in the oven and it actually helps balance the heat. MOre even cooking etc. Maybe cast iron woudl do this as well. I would notleave cookie sheets and the like in there though. The would warp and reflect heat inteh wrong direction.

[cheenya]

I often leave a cast iron pan in the oven when I'm baking, it doesn't seem to affect the food, but I leave it at the very bottom of a gas oven, it probably doesn't prevent the heat circulation others mentioned as important.
I wouldn't leave non-cast iron metal in the stove while baking though.

[nd_deadhead]

The biggest problem to leaving cast iron in the oven is that it takes a fair amount of energy to heat up a heavy cast iron pan, which means it takes longer to preheat the oven, because you have to heat the pan as well.