# Hottest Part of the Oven



## shel

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


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## phatch

In my oven it's the upper racks.


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## ras1187

Hrmm... for me, Im leaning towards the bottom, at least for the oven we have at work. Stuff definitely cooks faster down there


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## kuan

There you go, top, bottom, everything in between. 

Top for nice and brown cake tops. Bottom for brown bottomed pizzas.


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## shel

Hmm, I'd have thought it would have been one or the other, but was unsure of which. This is something of an education for me. Thanks to all who've responded thus far.

Shel


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## foodpump

Depends.........On a regular Garland type oven with the heat source at the bottom, the hottest part of the oven is the ....(drum roll please) Top 1/3.

Off of his Meds you say? 
Well, heat always rises, and cold always falls, which is why air conditioning and refrigeration units are always mounted as near the cieling as possible, and heating systems are mounted as close the the floor as possible. In my limited 25 years of cooking with various ovens, I have always used this rule to my advantage, for a regular garland-type oven the slow roasts (prime rib, braised dishes) are always on the lower half, and fast roasts (indv. chix brsts, salmon, etc.) on the top half. Any quiches or pies with a crusty bottom go on the bottom half. 

With electric convection ovens, all bets are off, because you have fairly even heat all over the cavity. With gas fired convection ovens where the heat source is still at the bottom, the top 2/3 will be hotter. Years of baking cookies (all rolled out at preciesly 5 mm thick and evenly spaced out, all trays loaded within 30 seconds) have supported my findings.


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## mead

One of our Blodgett gas convection ovens has pretty much completely even heat, the other is warmer at the bottom and on the left side. 


And of course, you can guess which one is inoperable at the moment.  Makes for some fun trying to bake trays of potatoes in the funky one...


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## aprilb

Well, I agree about the top browning, pizza bottom post. I guess it depends on what you're after. Heat rises. So it sould be obvious that it would generally be hotter on the top racks. 

BUT if the heat source was only the top burner you're going to have a problem with overall heating. 

What do you need to do?

April


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