Pro tip: your oven thermometer is probably lying to you

I just found out last weekend after 3 years of baking that my fancy built in oven runs 45 degrees cooler than what the dial says. My friend brought over a cheap analog thermometer and I about dropped my mixing bowl when I saw the difference. How many of you have actually checked your oven temp with a separate thermometer?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_mary1mo agoMost Upvoted

Got a friend named Jen who's an AMAZING baker, makes these gorgeous layer cakes for every birthday. She was complaining her chocolate chip cookies kept coming out like hockey pucks but the tops were raw. I told her to grab a ten dollar oven thermometer from Target. She brings it over, sticks it in her oven, and the thing reads 350 when she's got it set to 425. She about cried. Turns out she'd been baking at the wrong temp for YEARS. She replaced her whole oven and now her cookies are PERFECT every single time. It's wild how many people just trust the dial without ever double checking.

maxmurphy1mo agoMost Upvoted

So she replaced her whole oven? Not just got it recalibrated? Seems like a lot, but I guess if she was that frustrated. @the_mary, I get that it's a pain, but a seventy five degree difference is pretty wild. Most ovens are off by like ten, fifteen degrees tops in my experience. Makes you wonder if the thermometer was even right to begin with. Either way, glad her cookies are working out now, but I'd have tried getting the old one fixed before dropping cash on a new appliance.