Which rack is hotter in an oven

When in doubt, stick with the middle ground. For most baking and cooking situations, the middle rack will cook and bake food more evenly. But keep in mind, this rule applies only when you're baking on one rack at a time. For baking on multiple racks, consider When baking two baking sheets at once, arrange the racks on the top and bottom thirds of the oven.

Halfway through cooking, rotate the trays and swap to ensure even cooking. This move is especially useful when baking multiple batches of cookies. If you want to brown the underside of your roasted vegetables, bread, or crusty pizza , move the rack to the lowest position, which is closest to the heat source. Food Director Rhoda Boone especially likes to start fruit pies on a preheated baking sheet in the bottom rack, because it helps the bottom crust get nicely browned! But, armed with the knowledge of how your oven works you can make adjustments to your cooking that will lessen the effect of hot spots.

Avoid placing baking pans in the hottest parts of the oven, and rotate baking sheets to prevent burning or overcooking. In an attempt to lessen the effect of hot spots, many recipes already instruct you to rotate your baking sheets, but you should do this anyway. Finally, be aware that the placement of your oven racks will also affect cooking. Most if not all ovens are hotter at the top than at the bottom.

Thus, if you have two baking sheets in your oven, one on a higher rack and one on a lower rack, the one on the higher rack will cook faster. Therefore, it is important not only to rotate your pans from front to back, but also from top to bottom. A note on convection ovens: One of the purported benefits of a convection oven is that it produces a more even heat, but this does not necessarily preclude it having hot spots. Often, the area right in front of the fan tends to get hotter than the surrounding areas, so it pays to do the hot spot test with convection ovens as well.

Also remember that convection ovens tend to cook things faster, so if you have a convection oven we recommend setting it 25 degrees lower than a recipe instructs unless the recipe is written specifically for convection ovens. To amend your oven's uneven heat, I also recommend placing a baking stone on the lower rack of the oven as it preheats. The stone will act as a heat sink and lessen the effects of hot spots and temperature fluctuations. Do not use a baking stone when broiling.

The stone can crack or shatter. In the nearly ninety years since Irma Rombauer self-published the first Joy of Cooking , it has become the kitchen bible, with more than 20 million copies in print. Joy is and has been the essential and trusted guide for home cooks for almost a century. This new edition continues that legacy.

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It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Hottest Part of the Oven. For some reason I often forget whether it's the upper or the lower rack in the oven that's the hottest part. Can someone help this absent-minded soul remember? Thans, Shel. In my oven it's the upper racks. Stuff definitely cooks faster down there. There you go, top, bottom, everything in between.