Last year I decided to find out just how accurate my oven really is, and I’m glad I did. It turns out that calibrating an oven is a very simple process that only takes a couple of minutes, but it can make a big difference in how your baked goods turn out!
And with the holiday season right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about holiday baking! I love baking….especially my Mom’s Sour Cream Cookies! I make a lot of these cookies as treats for family and friends around the holidays, but it’s very easy to over-bake them, so it’s important the oven’s temperature be set just so. It’s simple to check, and simple to fix if necessary, too.
First, you’ll need an oven thermometer. The inexpensive grocery store variety will work just fine! Once you have a thermometer, preheat your oven to 350° and set the thermometer in the center of the oven. When the oven is completely preheated (give it plenty of time,) check the thermometer. Ideally, you’d want to check the temperature through the oven door with the oven still shut. Quite a bit of heat can escape through the open door!
I was amazed that my oven was exactly 350°! Turns out the oven is not to blame when my cookies or bread don’t bake perfectly. ;-)
From here, you can move the thermometer around in the oven, giving it 10-15 minutes between readings. You may discover a few hot pockets or cooler spots. While there’s not much you can do about those variations, it’s much better to know they are there so you can properly rotate things.
If your oven isn’t perfect, you can be pretty happy as long as it is within 5-10 degrees. A reading of anywhere from 340°-360° is acceptable. You may notice that your oven needs more time to heat up than you thought, or that it heats higher than 350° after it preheats. Every oven is a little different, but understanding yours should help you bake things much more evenly. :-)
If your oven shows a temperature below 340° or above 360°, you’ll want to tweak things a little bit, so that you don’t have to adjust every time you set the oven. If you still have your owner’s manual, look for a section about calibrating. Otherwise, you can search for the model number of your oven and find the manual online. The model number is located on your oven, usually just inside the door against the left side. Most ovens will give you the same directions for calibration.
Adjusting the Temperature Gauge
Remove the oven temperature knob and take a look at the back. All you have to do is loosen those two screws and move the dial clockwise or counterclockwise to shift the numbers. Tighten the screws back up and turn on the oven to see if everything matches.
This easy process is just bringing the numbers on the oven dial into alignment with the temperature inside the oven. We’re not actually adjusting any of the inner workings of the oven itself. If your oven temperature is off by more than 100° or fluctuates a lot in temperature, you’ll need to call a professional.
Happy baking! :-)
Living in Central Texas we don’t use our gas oven often. Especially now that we have an Instapot Vortex. We couldn’t figure out why our pizzas kept turning out with an uncooked center LOL One day I decided to get a thermostat like the one in the link above. Turns out that ours was 25 degrees too hot. We use the same method about twice a year to check now.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.What do I do if I can:t see through my oven door?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You’ll just have to hurry to open the door and check the thermometer before the temperature starts to drop! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My Oven doesn’t have a knob….it’s digital. Can I still adjust? I hope you can tell me how.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.It looks like, from one of your photos, that you might have a convection oven. We were taught in culinary school that convection ovens bake as if it’s 50 degrees higher than regular ovens (of which I am sure you are probably already aware.)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I have a gas oven (which I love), but what do you do when the temp is okay but can not get the rack height right? If I move it up one level the bottom gets too dark and if I move it back down one the top does.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’d probably use something like a cookie cooling rack — one that’s safe to use in the oven — to put under the food and put the oven rack on the lower level. Maybe even an upside-down cookie sheet would work — anything that would raise the food a bit.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I would have never thought to calibrate my oven…………..NOW with Jillee’s helpful blog, I can. Just like Donna said, You learn something new every day especially when you go to the right place………………………….Thank you………
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Ha, ha. My oven doesn’t even have numbers; we lost the dial with numbers and it was $150 to replace so we didn’t and just use a knob. I take a wild guess where 350 is and work from there. Don’t know why I never thought about getting a thermometer.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Ha ha, sometimes cooking is all about intuition ;-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.My oven is so old it just has numbers on the knob, nothing else :) It’s pretty close though, I keep a thermometer in the oven just in case. Good info to know for a new one though, when I get around to buying one haha
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thanks, Jillee. And thanks, Carrie, for your helpful comment. Your information together gives me exactly what I need. Woo-hoo!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I found this page on how to calibrate electronic control ranges. Mine is an electronic gas range, so I was glad to find it! I’m going to get an oven thermometer today and see how close it is! Thanks for the tip, Jillee!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hope this helps others…
http://www.appliance411.com/faq/temperature-calibration.shtml
Thanks for sharing the link Carrie!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Like you, I have a frigidaire. But unlike you, mine has a digital readout and touchpad settings. I have had to recalibrate the temperature in the last couple of years. After having the service guy recalibrate it for me, he showed me how to do it myself and where in my manual the instructions were. Thanks for reminding me that it’s time to check it again!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Holy Cow! That old adage “You learn something new every day” is at work again! I just barely got my coffee made, man. Did a few stretchy moves, and sat down to mah keyboard and monitor and shazaam! AND, I will have you know, that your little lesson of the day couldn’t come at a more auspicious time. My oven has been giving me fits for the last 2 1/2 year, even after having a new element put in (yep, it’s an Eeelectric oven), it has seemed that that oven was still running hot. THANK YOU so much! After all these decades, I now have a means of figuring it out! You rock, lady, you so rock!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Perfect! So glad to help Donna!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.This doesn’t work on a digital oven. I was told by my repairman that gas ovens cannot be calibrated. Ended up having to buy a whole new oven after adjusting for a year.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I would get a new repairman.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I agree it’s amazing how people take advantage of people who don’t have the same knowledge. Always get a second opinion if it is a costly repair or if they tell you yours is no good anymore.
You always have such informative posts! Plus the added bonus of readers information.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Thank you for your blog!
Thank you Stephanie :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Great post!
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