1,605 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do.

But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.

9,735 5/5 (4 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Oven Baking Dosage Height Rack Hearth Levels

Last modified on: October 8^th 2025

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

First of all, it's worth noting that kitchen ovens all have the same square shape, with the roof and grill at the top, and the hearth at the bottom.

Between the two, there are a number of positions, or levels, usually 3 or 4, into which a grid can be inserted, allowing you to choose whether you want to bake in the middle, or towards the top or bottom.

These positions are often numbered, from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest) on the side of the oven entrance.

Bottom in oven (1)

This is the lowest position in the oven, bringing the underside of your dish closer to the heat coming from the oven hearth.

You want the heat to come from the underside of your dish, because it needs to cook more from below.

This is the case, for example, with tarts/dishes with puff pastry in the bottom, which need a lot of heat to cook properly.

You may also need to move the top of the dish away from the heat of the vault, to prevent it from coloring too much or even burning, and here too you position it low in the oven.

In the middle (3)

This is the standard baking position, where your dish or mold is placed at roughly equal distance from the hearth and vault, and baking is not accentuated either above or below.

Top of the kiln (4)

This is the highest position in the oven, bringing the top of your dish closer to the heat coming from the oven's vault, or perhaps even the grill.

You do this when you want to get the best heat from the top of the dish, for au gratin for example.

You may have noticed that I didn't mention position 2, as it's an intermediary between 1 and 3 (of course), and allows you to dose things down a little and do "not so low".

Some remarkable points

If we had to sum it all up, we could say that :

It's always interesting to play around a little with where the heat is going to come from to cook your dish, simply by positioning it in your oven.
If you don't know where to position your dish, simply place it in the middle.
If you're baking puff pastry, a thick cake, or anything else that needs to be cooked well on the bottom, put it on the bottom.
If you need to brown a dish, put it in the top oven.
There's nothing to stop you changing levels as you cook, finishing by raising a dish to bring it closer to the grill, for example.

To sum up: It's always a good idea to control the cooking time in your oven, by putting a dish in the oven at a higher or lower setting, depending on the type of dish.

Lasts posts

Serving Temperature for Wine

When it comes to serving wine, you may (like me) have a fairly simple rule of thumb: red wine at room temperature, and white, rosé, and yellow wines in the fridge until it’s time to serve them. It’s very easy to remember, but it’s a bit simplistic, and you’ll see that there’s a much...
September 23^th 20268145

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20261,2335

Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes

When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2^nd 20269713

In baking, cold is your friend

When you bake at home—especially when making pie crusts—you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite difficult to work with the dough when it’s hot. It gets soft, is hard to roll out, and breaks or crumples very easily. And this doesn’t just happen when it’s hot—even in a comfortable...
August 26^th 20269995

With vinegar?

When you buy a jar of pickles labeled “in vinegar,” you’re looking for their tangy, crunchy flavor to go with cold cuts, sandwiches, or salads. You expect to find small gherkins preserved in vinegar, with salt and herbs, but is that really the case?
July 15^th 20261,9544.8

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other articles you might also like

The so-called "nervous" meats

You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
April 16^th 202142 K4.5

Parsley stems

Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?
July 28^th 202511 K 13

Your oven in "proofer" mode

In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...
September 27^th 202415 K5

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 202512 K3

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017138 K 14.2