Top rack. Bottom rack. Middle rack. These shelves in your oven are useful for a lot more than just giving you those artistic stripey burns along your forearms. Each level has its own place and its own purpose in that wonderful world of culinary creationism you’ve got going on in that kitchen of yours. So here is your handy guide, to help ensure that you can always enjoy gastronomic greatness, and prevent anything from ever going to rack and ruin.  

When should I use the top oven rack?

As anyone who sat through high-school science knows, heat rises. This means the top of the oven is going to be the hottest, and so is ideal for faster cooking and browned, crispy results. It also means that things can burn more quickly, so you shouldn’t wander off and start reorganising your sock collection after you’ve popped in that tray of nachos. Use this rack to cook things that don’t need too much cooking time, like fish, mac ‘n’ cheese and smaller vegies. The top shelf is also great for using the grilling function on your oven, if it has one. Think garlic bread, cheese toast and finishing off a potato gratin to ensure the perfect golden topping. However, dishes like a potato gratin, with dense, starchy veg, will need to start on the middle rack. Which brings us to…

When should I use the middle oven rack?

When in doubt, this is your go-to shelf position, but you will want to keep an eye on things, and adjust positioning as necessary. However, the middle oven rack is the prime position for cakes, muffins and cupcakes. This ensures that the cake cooks evenly both on top and underneath, and allows the centre to come to just the right level of tender cakey goodness without the top or bottom burning. If you’re making an extra large, tall cake, you might need to adjust your oven shelves to ensure that the centre of the cake is in the centre of the oven. You’ll want to cook your lasagne here, too, but feel free to move it up to the top shelf for the last minutes of cooking to ensure a crispy, golden cheesy topping.

When should I use the bottom oven rack?

This one is the perfect spot for cooking pizza. While many people are thinking about their pizza toppings and all that melted cheese, the most important consideration here is really the base. Cooking your pizza on the bottom rack (and setting your oven to bottom heat and fan-forced, if you can), will ensure a perfect, crispy base, while the circulating heat in the oven will still melt and crisp up all those toppings nicely. For extra browning and crisping, or if you’re cooking pizza from frozen, start cooking on the bottom rack, then move it to the top rack for the final minutes, to really get things moving to pizza perfection. 

What about baking pies and breads?

The bottom rack is also the place for pies because, let’s be honest here, no one likes a soggy-bottommed pie. You want that base level of pastry to really crisp up and get all nice and golden brown. The same principle applies to quiches. Bottom racks are also good for baking bread, so you get a nice crusty base on that loaf without the top burning, and ensuring a nice, fluffy centre. Finally, the bottom oven rack is where you should put your roasts. You need these to cook for a longer period of time, without burning, so here’s where they’ll find their sweet spot.

Related article: Here’s how to bring your stale bagels back to life

What if I need to use all my oven racks at once?

It happens. Say you’re baking a big batch of cookies, and you have three baking trays taking up all three racks. This is an easy fix. Use the fan-forced option, if your oven has one, and be sure to rotate the trays during baking, to ensure that each tray gets the same amount of heat exposure throughout the baking process. If you’re using all the racks to cook different dishes, try to stagger the positioning so that they’re not placed directly over each other. This will ensure a better flow of air, and heat. 

Does it matter what type of baking dish I use?

Yes, it can. Thinner equipment, like baking trays, will conduct less heat than a big, heavy cast-iron casserole. This means you wouldn’t use a thin baking tray to roast up a giant side of meat. However, heavier dishes will take longer to heat up, so you also need to take that into consideration. A quick cook – such as biscuits, slices or other flat items that don’t have much of a centre to cook through – will turn out better on a baking tray or shallow slice pan. Slow cooks – like roasts and casseroles – are better in larger, deeper, heavier baking dishes that surround the food as it cooks. 

Which baking dish is best – glass, ceramic or metal?

For the bigger dishes, you can also opt between glass, ceramic and metal. The benefits of glass include the fact that it doesn’t keep any lingering flavours or aromas from previous cooking, and while it takes longer to heat up, it retains heat for longer than metal. So bringing a dish from oven to table in a glass baking dish will keep it warmer for longer. Ceramic dishes perform similarly. Both glass and ceramic are also better for cooking dishes with acidic ingredients, as things like tomato and citrus can react with metal cookware, potentially affecting the taste of the end product. This isn’t the case with stainless steel, though. Cast-iron pans take longer to heat up, like glass and ceramic, and then hold a nice, steady heat. They have an advantage over glass and ceramic when you’re making something that needs to transfer from the stovetop to the oven. 

Related article: How to make the perfect Yorkshire pudding, according to British scientists

Does a metal baking dish cook things faster? 

Metal cookware can heat up more quickly, but this doesn’t mean it will cook food any faster than glass or ceramic. In fact, glass cooks things faster. Either way, it’s always a good idea to be keeping an eye on your dish as it cooks. Further, darker metal cookware will cook faster than light, and dull or matte cookware will cook faster than bright, shiny ones. So if you want to ensure nice, even cooking on your cakes and loaves, go for a shiny light metal pan, and leave the glass and ceramic for your pasta bakes, casseroles and other saucy delights. Pies, quiches and tarts with a pastry base will also get the best crispy base when baked in a metal pan. 

Should I use conventional or fan-forced?

If you have a fan-forced option on your oven, the heat will be better distributed and the choice of the rack setting won’t be as important. But it’s still good to keep all of the above in mind. Also, fan-forced is better for faster cooking at higher temperatures, while conventional will do a better job with your low and slow dishes. 

Related article: The correct way to stack a dishwasher and no, those bowls don’t go there