Why we bake everything at 350 degrees

Why we bake everything at 350 degrees

We all know those cooks that have that innate ability to sort of just throw a ton of stuff together and have it come out amazing. They're the ones that need no recipe, and sometimes, they don't even need a vague idea of what they want the final dish to taste like. Cooking can evolve organically, but baking is something entirely different.

Baking is a science, and getting the final product you're looking for requires careful execution of a recipe — and sometimes, even then, it doesn't come out entirely right. That's because there are a ton of scientific principles that come into play, and it's pretty much chemistry you can actually eat.

A large part of that science has to do with the temperature you bake things at, and you've probably noticed that a lot of recipes for things like cookies and cakes all seem to call for the same temperature: 350 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn't matter if it's banana bread or chocolate chip cookies... and that seems a bit weird. You'd think there would be some variation there, so why 350? It's not actually arbitrary, and the reasons why are an interesting mixture of science and history.