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Why is 350-degrees the magical baking temperature?

350-degrees is widely considered an ideal, magical temperature when it comes to baking and cooking your favorite items.
Credit: yocamon
Gas burning in the burner of gas oven

ATLANTA — It’s time to prepare your kitchen for some pumpkin spiced muffins, an act that will likely have you warm your oven to 350-degrees.

Many recipes call for baking at 350-degrees. It is widely considered an ideal, magical temperature when it comes to baking and cooking your favorite items.

Why?

Professional chef Nancy Waldeck tells 11Alive’s Why Guy that 350 is a good, moderate temperature.

And then, there’s the science.

“There’s something called the Maillard Reaction,” says Waldeck.

In 1912, a French chemist named Louis Maillard watched what happens to food is placed under high heat. He discovered a phenomenon involving sugars and amino acids.

The process begins somewhere between 280 and 330-degrees. The amino acids and sugars react and hundreds of flavor compounds are created. At 350-degrees, everything seems to come together.

“It makes your baked goods toasty brown, your meat products caramelized and crusty,” says Waldeck. “It’s cooked all the way through instead of raw on the inside and cooked on the outside.”

Waldeck says you can venture above 350, but be careful.

“After 400 is when I consider the danger zone,” says Waldeck. “You’ll get burned on the outside, raw on the inside.”

There are some foods, like fine French pastries, where 350 isn’t the ideal heat.

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