Common oven temperatures (such as terms: cool oven, very slow oven, slow oven, moderate oven, hot oven, fast oven, etc.) are set to control the effects of baking in an oven, for various lengths of time.
| Table of equivalent oven temperatures | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | °F | °C | |
| Cool oven | 200 °F | 90 °C | |
| Very slow oven | 250 °F | 120 °C | |
| Slow oven | 300–325 °F | 150–160 °C | |
| Moderately slow | 325–350 °F | 160–180 °C | |
| Moderate oven | 350–375 °F | 180–190 °C | |
| Moderately hot | 375–400 °F | 190–200 °C | |
| Hot oven | 400–450 °F | 200–230 °C | |
| Very hot oven | 450–500 °F | 230–260 °C | |
| Fast oven | 450–500 °F | 230–260 °C |
Before ovens had thermometers or thermostats, these standard words were used by cooks and cookbooks to describe how hot an oven should be to cook various items. Custards require a slow oven for example, bread a moderate oven, and pastries a very hot oven. Cooks estimated the temperature of an oven by counting the number of minutes it took to turn a piece of white paper golden brown, or counting the number of seconds one could hold one's hand in the oven.[3] Another method was to put a layer of flour or a piece of white tissue paper on a pan in the oven for five minutes. The resulting colors range from delicate brown in a slow oven through golden brown in a moderate oven to dark brown in a hot oven.[4]