TIL the nuns who taught baking in my town used to test oven heat with a piece of white paper

Kevin Jackson · 2026-10-08T21:35:03.368557+00:00

I was digging through a box of old church cookbooks at a garage sale in Dubuque when I found a handwritten note stuck in one from 1962. It said the sisters at the convent would toss a scrap of white paper in the oven and count seconds until it turned light brown, and that meant about 350 degrees. I tried it in my own kitchen with my oven set to 350 and the paper went golden right around the 60 second mark, which honestly kind of blew my mind. No thermometer, no dial, just paper and counting. Has anyone else run into these old convent or farmhouse tricks in their own baking? I want to know how they judged a cold oven versus a hot one.

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TIL the nuns who taught baking in my town used to test oven heat with a piece of white paper | Bakers - Guest Forum