Oven Temperature Testing
Back in the old days great-grandma didn’t have a reliable temperature gauge on her oven.
Modern cook stoves still don’t have a reliable gauge.
Never the less grandma was a wiz in the kitchen.
She wasn’t as dependent upon an exact oven temperature the way that today’s modern cooks and bakers are.
Her recipes were written different than ours are today and gave no exact temperature for baking.
Her “receipts” as she called them them, suggested a “slow oven” or a “very hot oven”. Sometimes you can still find these older recipes and it’s a good idea to know what they meant if ever you should have cause to try one.
Great-grandma used a used a few different methods to judge her oven temperature and I thought I’d share the ones I know about with you.
To check an oven for a good baking temperature place a tablespoon of flour into a piece of oven proof crockery or glass.
If the flour turns brown in 1 minute the oven is a perfect temperature for baking – between 325ºF and 350ºF.
My personal old time favorite is the bare hand into the oven for a count of 20.
If great-grandma could stand to have her bare hand inserted into the oven for a count to 20, the oven was hot enough to bake a cake or slow roast meat – about 350º.
If she could only take the heat to a count of 5 or 6 the oven was very hot oven – well over 475º.
Another way to check oven temperature without toasting your hand is to put a piece of white paper into the the oven for 5 minutes.
If the paper turns a golden brown the oven heat is medium. If the piece of paper turns a dark brown the oven is hot.
Here’s some general guidelines for oven temperatures in case you do run into an older recipe but don’t want to fiddle with flour, paper or the flesh on your hand.
A Slow Oven: 250ºF. to 300ºF.
A Moderate Oven: 350ºF. to 400ºF.
Hot Oven: 400ºF. to 450ºF.
Very Hot Oven: 450º F.to 550ºF.
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Thank you so much for this! This is the kind of information that needs to be passed around. I have so many old cookbooks (well, copies of) that use this terminology for baking. I always had to guess, or reference a newer recipe that was close.
Hi Granny – Just an FYI that I can access your sites now. Thank you so much for the time you take to make your sites so informational. This is by far the most educational one I read.
Thanks,
Stacey
I am so happy you are back blogging again! I was very excited to wake up and receive your new post. Your information, tips, and recipes are all very much appreciated.
Melina W.
I have a wood burning cookstove, and haven’t had the luxury of using it, as we live in Glendale, Az. and there aren’t building codes to allow us to hook it up. When re retire we are moving and we are going to a town where I can use it. My grandmother and greatgrandmother always used theirs, and I cherish the memories. Now I am a grandmother, and I want to pass the knowledge and experiences down to my kids…etc. Thank you so much for all the information you give regarding the wood burning stove. I love it!
This is GREAT!! Thank you SO much for sharing this with us. I was looking for something exactly like this a while back, and just happened to stumble upon your site while looking up how to render tallow. We recently got a wood cook stove, but have not used it yet. I’m dying to get it hooked up!! You don’t know how excited I am to have found this
We are new to homesteading, and have been learning so much along the way!