This is just to say

They are always saying to check the temperature of your oven. Well, “they” aren’t kidding. I checked with an oven thermometer, and it was 30 degrees (C) higher than labeled. We were suspicious that something was going on, but who’d ever think it could be off by 30 degrees??

11 thoughts on “This is just to say

  1. The additional problem is that when you're reading a recipe, it's unlikely that the person who wrote it checked their oven. (It's also possible that ALL ovens are off by 30 degrees, in which case there's no problem).

  2. Jeremy:

    The motivator in our case was a cake that got burnt. The recipe was from a good cookbook, so I think they got the temperature right. What's funny is how many other recipes seemed to work fine with the oven 30 degrees too high and the cooking time unchanged.

    I'll report back after I try that cake with the new oven settings.

  3. I have a feeling that my rice cooker is off – it's supposed to shut off when the temperature rises above a hundred degrees, but it's started burning the rice on very firmly. (No, I don't live at a high altitude.) I wonder if those bimetal thermostat elements degrade with age?

  4. Is yours a digital thermostat or a dial? This year, ON Thanksgiving, I decided to buy an oven thermometer. Turned out our oven was lower by over 100 degrees F. I wasn't surprised since the knob on our analog thermostat comes right off in the slightest breeze and when you put it on, there is so much wobble to it.

    Luckily, the turkey was brined so it wasn't too dried out.

  5. So, it is not just me. Same thing: I thought to check as I was using a convection oven. I always use a thermometer with that setup. Anyway, had I not basted the hell out of that bird, we would have had dried turkey jerky. Not a bad thing in itself, but not what one expects.

  6. If its a natural gas oven, perhaps more important to check the rate of production of carbon monoxide.

    Unfortunately that too can vary from the _ideal_ and its very hard to discern without a monitor or alarm and a burnt drain is much more disappointing than a burnt cake.

    Not sure if this has been picked up in any case-control studies of brain injuries – would be interesting to check.

    Keith

  7. Burnt drain should have been burnt brain

    No, I don't currently have a natural gas oven in use, so that is not the reason for the typo ;-)

    Keith

  8. Depending on the age and elaborateness of your oven, you can adjust the temperature because they do run hot or cold. I mean a modern electric – less commonly gas – has an adjust because the reading will be off by 30 degrees hot or cold.

  9. If you don't have an accurate oven thermometer, the following tip (from America's Test Kitchen) will do in a pinch. Preheat your oven 1/2 hour to 350 degrees F, with rack in the middle. Fill a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup to the 1 cup line with water at 68-70 degrees. (Check with ordinary cooking thermometer). Put cup on the rack in the oven and heat for 15 minutes. Remove and measure the temperature. If it reads about 150 degrees F, the calibration is OK.

    Those of you in the civilized world will have to convert to civilized (metric) units. We here in the states are still backwards.

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