Just read that a lot of home bakers get their oven temp wrong by 25 degrees or more

I was reading an old baking blog, 'The Tough Cookie', and they said something like 80% of home ovens run hot or cold. I checked mine with a thermometer I got for five bucks and sure enough, it was off by almost 30 degrees. It explains so much. For years, my cakes were a bit dry on the edges or my cookies spread too thin, and I just blamed my mixing. Now I'm wondering if a lot of our 'fails' are just from our tools being off. But then, is it really a win if you need a special gadget to get it right? Shouldn't a basic oven just work? What's the biggest oven fail you've had that turned out to be the oven's fault, not yours?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer35811d agoTop Commenter

My old apartment oven was off by a solid 40 degrees. I tried making a simple pound cake three times, and each one came out with this weird, gummy, undercooked line right through the middle. I was ready to throw my mixing bowl out the window. Finally bought an oven thermometer on a whim, and it was like a lightbulb went off. All that wasted butter and sugar. It makes you wonder how many recipes we mess up because the machine itself is lying to us.

gibson.seth11d ago

Ugh, @jennifer358, that's the worst kind of kitchen betrayal! It's like your oven was gaslighting you, watching you fail over and over. I had a toaster oven that did something similar, turning my frozen pizza into a sad, cold mess while burning the edges. Makes you wonder how many "bad cooks" are actually just victims of bad appliances. That pound cake deserved better!