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Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 42 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 1,399,512 times. Before you bake something, your oven needs to be heated to the proper temperature.
While it takes only a few seconds to turn on your oven, it can take several minutes for it to reach the right temperature. The act of turning on your oven and letting it heat up to the right temperature is referred to as “preheating. Consider preheating your oven before starting your recipe. Electrical ovens often need 10 to 15 minutes before they reach the proper temperature. This is often enough time to prepare your recipe. If you need more than 15 minutes in which to prepare the food, then consider starting the oven half-way through the preparation process.
Open the oven to make sure everything has been removed. If you store items in your oven, such as baking trays, remove them and set them aside. Rearrange the rack levels, if necessary. Most oven racks are set in the middle of the oven, but sometimes, the dish that you are baking will need to be placed higher or lower in the oven. Refer to your recipe, and if necessary, take out the oven rack and set it to the right level. There should be narrow ledges on the inside walls of your oven for the rack to sit on. Items that need to get brown and crispy at the bottom, such as flatbreads and pizzas, are placed towards the bottom of the oven.