Oven Temperature

Asked by KGB. Answered on 28th August 2014

Full question

Hello, I have a fan assisted oven with top and bottom heating. Should I always use it at a lower temperature than the recommended temperature in your recipes? Thank you, KGB

Our answer

Nigella's recipes always give oven temperatures and baking times for conventional ovens. Usually fan assisted or convection ovens cook more quickly than conventional ovens and some adjustment is required, usually by lowering the oven temperature by 20c/50F and sometimes by reducing the cooking time.

However all ovens vary and some modern ovens have "bake" or "roast" functions that are programmes that will do some of the temperature adjustments for you. So we always recommend that you refer to your manufacturer's handbook and follow their instructions for adjusting the temperatures in recipes. Also if your oven has top and bottom heating elements you may need to use only one of the elements, rather than both, depending on the type of cooking you are doing. Again your manufacturer's handbook should give gudiance on this.