What is cooking in bottom thirds and/or upper thirds?

Asked by Laurette (4

) April 22nd, 2010

Many recipes call for cooking in bottom thirds of the oven. Does this mean that I cook on the shelf starting from the bottom upto the third shelf from the bottom?
And is it the same for cooking in the upper thirds? Counting shelf from the top going down?
Confusing

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4 Answers

If your oven has 5 rack positions think of them as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 top to bottom. Top third would be 2, bottom third 4 – that’s where you place your rack.

wonderingwhy (10815

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Talking about thirds instead of top or bottom or middle shelf is kind of strange. Seems like it’s hard to do with a small household oven. For bottom third I would just go one up from the bottom position and top third probably one or two down from the top.

Snarp (11272

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I just visually divide the oven into thirds and proceed accordingly.

Jadesfire (56

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Divide your oven roughly into thirds and use the shelf in the top or bottom third as suggested. It’s not an exact dictum, you can estimate and be just fine.

janbb (63219

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