Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer?

Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer? - Stone pizza oven with stainless flue placed in lush summer garden for picnic

I've got a new oven, I haven't baked in it enough to really gauge its accuracy. Is there a way to test it without an oven thermometer?



Best Answer

First, buy a thermometer, they're cheap. This one topped America's Test Kitchen testing: Thermometer

Barring taking the plunge and spending $6 on an oven thermometer, this method comes straight from an online class I'm taking from Harvard through edX.org. Course Description

To test the oven, you can either use an oven thermometer, or you can find a material that has a transition at some critical temperature, and then tune your oven near the critical temperature where the transition occurs -- to find out if it actually happens.

Jeff Potters has suggested a wonderful idea in his excellent book Cooking for Geeks. Namely, he suggests that oven testing can be done with melting sugar. His protocol is here.

The calibration is based on the idea that the melting point of table sugar (sucrose) is 366 F (186?C), [google "melting point sucrose"] and so if you put the temperature just above 366, the sugar should melt. And if you put it just below 366 F it should not melt. It is important when doing this procedure to not use a lot of sugar, as otherwise the heating time for the sugar could be too long.

Materials:

~ 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Procedure:

1) Preheat your oven to 350F (177?C).

(2) Place the granulated sugar in an oven proof dish or on aluminum foil

(3) Place in oven for 15 minutes

(4) If the sugar doesn't melt, raise the temperature of the oven by 10F (5?C) and repeat the experiment.

(5) Continue raising the temperature until you find the temperature setting where your sugar melts. Let's call this temperature Tmelt.

(6) You have thus found that the sugar melts somewhere in the interval Tmelt-10, Tmelt. (i.e., if you found that the sugar melted at 400F, but not 390F, the melting temperature is between 390 and 400.)

(7) Your measurement suggests that your oven has the approximate calibration curve

T = Tdial + 366 - Tmelt (if you use degrees Fahrenheit)

T = Tdial+ 186 - Tmelt (if you use degrees Celsius)

where Tdial is the temperature of the dial. Note that if your dial says that sugar melts at 400, this formula states that the actual temperature in the oven is the temperature that the sugar melts (366F)."

Here is another method, this one is from Cook's Illustrated, AKA America's Test Kitchen. I copied and pasted the technique from Water Temp Test

Preheat oven to 350F. Start with 1 cup of room temperature water and check its temperature with an immersion thermometer. Adjust the temperature with either warm or cold water to make it 70F. place in oven for 15 minutes. Check temperature again and it should read 150F. Adjust oven temperature accordingly.

Another way to check oven temp is to simply boil water. Put a couple of cups of water in an oven proof pan and set the oven temp to 200F or 90C, the water shouldn't boil no matter how long you leave it in the oven. Set the temp to 225F or 110C. Eventually, the water should boil.

All that said, buy a thermometer.




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Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer? - Brown Wooden Table and Chairs
Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer? - A Stainless Oven Thermometer Gauge
Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer? - Kitchen and Dining Area



How do I know the temperature of my oven without a thermometer?

Place a small amount of granulated sugar in an oven-proof dish or on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Place in oven for 15 minutes. If your oven is calibrated correctly, the sugar will melt. If your oven is running cold, the sugar will not melt.

How can I check if my oven is reaching the correct temperature?

To test the oven: Hang an oven thermometer in the center of the middle rack and preheat the oven to 350\u02daF (176.67\u02daC). Allow the oven to preheat for at least 20 minutes and take a temperature reading. This will tell you if the oven is even reaching the desired temperature from the beginning.

Can I use a meat thermometer to measure oven temp?

If you want the most reliable thermometer you can get your hands on, then we highly recommend the ThermoPro Meat Thermometers. These thermometers are perfect for oven use, can withstand high temperatures, is the incredibly accurate thermometers, and has an easy to read display along with simple controls.

Is an oven thermometer necessary?

An oven thermometer is especially important when you're baking at a very low temperature. (Meringues, for example.) Even ovens that are spot-on at higher temperatures can struggle to hit the mark at 300\xb0 F or lower.



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Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Lachlan Ross, Max Vakhtbovych, Ronaldo Guiraldelli, Mark McCammon