Mondo Knows Facts

Oven dials are often wrong by degrees

Domestic ovens swing around the set point rather than holding it steady A domestic oven usually cycles its element on and off, so the temperature rises and falls by 10 to 20 degrees around the setting. The dial is also calibrated loosely, and hot spots near the back or above the element can differ from the middle by far more. An oven thermometer left inside shows what is really happening. It sits in Mondo's food collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: oven, measurement, baking

Oven dials are often wrong by degrees: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Domestic ovens swing around the set point rather than holding it steady. The figure is taken from National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a food fact?
Yes. It sits on the Food shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.