Oven Temperature Conversion Chart for Australian Kitchens

Half the recipes worth cooking were written somewhere else. An American baking book gives you 350°F, a British one gives you gas mark 4, your grandmother's card says "moderate oven", and the dial in front of you is in degrees Celsius. This oven temperature conversion chart puts all four scales in one place so you can set the oven and get on with it.

The conversion table is first, because that is what you came for. Below it are the things a bare chart leaves out: the equation behind the numbers, the fan-forced offset that makes a converted temperature wrong by 20°C, what "very slow" and "moderately hot" actually mean, and the working temperature bands that commercial deck, convection, combi and pizza ovens run at in a real kitchen.

Oven Temperature Conversion Chart: Celsius, Fahrenheit and Gas Mark

This is the full oven temperature conversion table, with columns for Celsius and fan-forced Celsius, Fahrenheit and gas mark. Use the chart to convert oven cooking temperatures between gas mark settings, degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit: read across from the conventional oven temperature you have been given. The fan-forced column already has the standard 20°C reduction applied, so you do not have to do it twice. The exact Fahrenheit column is the true mathematical conversion; the recipe column is the rounded rung cookbooks actually use.

Three dashes in the recipe column are deliberate. The Fahrenheit ladder climbs in 25°F steps and the Celsius ladder in 10°C steps, so they do not line up everywhere. Rather than invent a rung no cookbook uses, the chart leaves 170°C, 210°C and 250°C without a standard Fahrenheit partner — use the exact figure and round to the nearest 25°F.

The gap between the recipe column and the exact column is worth understanding rather than worrying about. At 180°C the two differ by 6°F, or about 3°C — no domestic oven and few commercial ones hold temperature that tightly. What is not inside that noise is the fan-forced offset, which is six or seven times larger.

Convert Fahrenheit to Celsius: Cooking Temperatures in an American Recipe

Most oven temperature conversions in Australian kitchens run the other way — you have a recipe from a country that still uses Fahrenheit and you need degrees Celsius. This table starts from Fahrenheit and gives you the recommended temperature to dial in, conventional and fan.

The single most-searched line in that table is 350°F, which is 180°C in a conventional oven and 160°C fan-forced. If you only ever remember one conversion, remember that one — it covers a very large share of American baking recipes, from biscuits and cookies to a standard butter cake.

How to Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit: the Formula

You do not need a chart if you can do the arithmetic. To convert degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, then add 32. To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32 first, then multiply by 5 and divide by 9. Written as an equation:

• °F = (°C × 9 ÷ 5) + 32. So 180°C becomes 180 × 1.8 = 324, plus 32 = 356°F.
• °C = (°F − 32) × 5 ÷ 9. So 350°F becomes 350 − 32 = 318, times 5 ÷ 9 = 176.7°C, which you round to 180°C.
• The mental shortcut: double the Celsius figure and add 30. For 180°C that gives 390 against an exact conversion of 356 — close enough to tell a slow oven from a hot one, not close enough to bake to.

Gas marks have a formula too, and it is simpler than most people expect. From gas mark 1 upwards, each mark is exactly 25°F apart and gas mark 1 sits at 275°F, so °F = 250 + (25 × gas mark). Gas mark 4 is 250 + 100 = 350°F. Gas mark 7 is 250 + 175 = 425°F. The two fractional marks break the pattern and simply have to be memorised: gas mark 1/4 is 225°F (about 110°C) and gas mark 1/2 is 250°F (about 120°C).

Gas mark numbers still turn up in older Australian cookbooks and on gas ovens in the UK. The temperature scale used on modern Australian gas equipment is Celsius, so gas marks are a reading skill rather than a setting you dial in.

Fan Ovens: Fan-Forced vs Conventional Oven Temperature Conversions

A fan-forced oven — the same appliance a recipe or a manufacturer may call a convection oven — has a fan that circulates hot air around the cavity instead of relying on heat radiating from elements at the top and bottom. Because the fan circulates hot air rather than letting it stratify, the oven cooks more evenly and heat transfers faster at the same dial setting.

The standard Australian rule is to reduce the temperature by 20°C when a recipe was written for a conventional oven and you are cooking in a fan-forced one. A 180°C conventional recipe becomes 160°C fan-forced. Some manufacturers nominate a smaller reduction of 10°C to 15°C for their own equipment, so if your oven's manual gives a figure, use theirs over the generic rule.

Three practical consequences follow, and they matter more than the exact number:

• Time moves as well as temperature. Even at the reduced setting, using a fan-forced oven usually finishes earlier. On a 45-minute bake, start checking 10 minutes early rather than trusting the clock.
• Fan-forced browns harder and dries faster. That is an advantage for roast vegetables, crackling and pastry, and a liability for delicate custards, cheesecakes and rich fruit cakes, which are usually better in conventional mode or with the fan off.
• Loading changes everything. The whole point of a fan is even heat across multiple shelves, and conventional ovens give uneven results the moment you use more than two. A fan oven with one tray in it still behaves very differently from the same oven packed with six, because a full load absorbs far more energy.

If you are weighing up the two heat styles for a venue rather than a recipe, the practical differences are set out in our combi oven vs convection oven comparison and the broader guide to commercial ovens in Australia.

Oven Temperature Descriptions: What "Moderate" and "Very Slow" Mean When You Bake

Older Australian recipes — the community cookbook, the handwritten card, the classic weekly food pages — frequently give no number at all. They name a band. These are the conventional oven temperatures those descriptions refer to:

• Very slow: 110–120°C. Meringues, drying herbs, very long braises, keeping food warm.
• Slow: 140–150°C. Rich fruit cakes, slow-cooked shoulder, baked custards.
• Moderately slow: 160–170°C. Shortbread, cheesecake, loaf cakes, anything you want set rather than coloured.
• Moderate: 180–190°C. The workhorse band — butter cakes, biscuits, slices, most casseroles.
• Moderately hot: 200–210°C. Scones, muffins, roast vegetables, shortcrust pastry.
• Hot: 220–230°C. Puff pastry, roast potatoes, initial blast on a roast.
• Very hot: 240–250°C. Bread, pizza in a domestic oven, high-heat searing.

Every band above assumes a conventional oven. Knock 20°C off each if you are working fan-forced.

Commercial Oven Temperature Bands: Deck, Convection Oven, Combi and Pizza

A domestic chart stops at 250°C because that is where a home oven stops. Commercial equipment does not, and the interesting question in a production kitchen is not "what is 350°F in Celsius" but "what band should this oven run at for this job". These are the working cooking temperatures each format typically operates in.

Two things fall out of that table. A combi oven is the only format spanning the whole range, which is why it so often replaces two pieces of equipment. And pizza is a different problem: a base that cooks in 90 seconds needs a deck temperature no general-purpose oven reaches, which is why dedicated pizza deck ovens are their own category — our deck, conveyor and wood-fired comparison covers the trade-offs.

One temperature in a commercial kitchen is not a preference but a legal requirement. Standard 3.2.2 of the Australian Food Standards Code requires potentially hazardous food that is being held hot to be kept at 60°C or above. That is a holding temperature, not a cooking one — it is the floor your bain marie, holding cabinet or warming drawer has to clear, not a band you cook in.

Is Your Oven at the Correct Temperature? How to Check

Every conversion above assumes the appliance delivers what the dial claims. Very often it does not. A domestic oven can sit 20°C either side of the correct temperature, which is larger than the fan-forced correction you just carefully applied. Commercial convection ovens hold tighter, but they still drift as door seals age, elements weaken and thermostats wander.

A cheap oven thermometer hung on the middle shelf is the fastest way to find out. Set the oven to 180°C, let it run 20 minutes past the ready light, and read it. If it is consistently 15°C low you have an offset, not a mystery — write it on a card and apply it to every setting. Many commercial ovens allow calibration in the controller, which is a service call rather than a recipe change.

Four other things move the real temperature away from the set point:

• Recovery time. Opening the door dumps heat. A busy pass that opens an oven every two minutes may never let it return to the set point, which reads as "running cold" when it is really running interrupted.
• Load. Six cold trays absorb far more energy than one. Commercial ovens are rated on how fast they recover under load, and that figure matters more in service than peak temperature.
• Position. Conventional ovens are hotter at the top; deck ovens have independent top and sole heat for that reason. Fan ovens are the most even, which is why they suit multi-tray batch work.
• Thermostat cycling. A dial-controlled oven overshoots and undershoots around its target. What you set is an average, not a constant.

For a production kitchen the answer is repeatability rather than precision. An oven that is reliably 8°C low is easy to work with; one that is 8°C low on Tuesday and 12°C high on Friday will cost you product.

Taking a Home Cake or Biscuit Recipe into a Commercial Oven

Chefs and café owners scale up a domestic recipe constantly — a slice that sold well at home, a family biscuit recipe, a cake a customer asked for. Converting oven temperatures is the easy part of cooking and baking at volume. What breaks is everything around it.

Convert the temperature honestly first: if the recipe says 180°C and does not specify, assume conventional, so a commercial fan oven wants 160°C. Then adjust for what a bigger oven changes. Air movement is stronger, so surfaces set and colour earlier. Trays are bigger and often fuller, so the load is heavier and recovery slower. Flour behaves differently in a deeper commercial tray as well, so the first commercial run of any recipe is a test bake with a timer and a notebook, not a service batch.

Write the result down in the units your equipment uses. A card reading "160°C fan, 18 minutes, rotate at 12" is worth ten that say "moderate oven until golden", because the first survives a change of staff and the second does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is 180 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit?
180°C is 356°F exactly, and recipes round it to 350°F, which is gas mark 4. The 6°F difference is smaller than the swing of a typical oven thermostat, so 350°F is a safe setting. If you are cooking in a fan-forced or convection oven, drop the conventional figure by 20°C and set 160°C instead.

What temperature is 200 degrees Celsius in a fan-forced oven?
Set 180°C. The standard Australian rule is to reduce a conventional oven temperature by 20°C when you are using fan-forced, because circulating air transfers heat to the food faster at the same dial setting. Some manufacturers specify a smaller reduction of 10°C to 15°C for their own ovens, so follow the manual if it gives a figure.

Do Australian ovens use Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Australian ovens are marked in degrees Celsius, both domestic and commercial. Fahrenheit appears only in imported recipes, mostly American ones, and gas marks appear in older British and Australian cookbooks. That is why a conversion chart covering all three scales is worth keeping near the bench, rather than one that assumes a single system.

What gas mark is 180 degrees Celsius?
180°C is gas mark 4, the setting most standard baking recipes use. The gas mark scale runs in 25°F steps from gas mark 1 at 275°F, so the formula is degrees Fahrenheit equals 250 plus 25 times the gas mark. Gas mark 6 is 400°F or 200°C, and gas mark 7 is 425°F or 220°C.

How do I adjust cooking times when I change the oven temperature?
There is no exact formula, so work by proportion and check early. Raising the temperature by 20°C typically cuts the time by roughly a fifth; lowering it by 20°C adds roughly a quarter. Switching from conventional to fan-forced at the corrected temperature still usually finishes sooner, so start checking at about 75 to 80 per cent of the stated time.