Cooking
Cooking calculators: temperatures, ratios and substitutions
Oven temperatures and gas marks, pan and recipe scaling, ingredient substitutions, brine, syrup, dough hydration, grain ratios and thawing times.
This section answers the questions that come up mid-cook: converting an oven temperature from a gas mark, rescaling a recipe for the tin you actually own, finding a substitute for the ingredient you have run out of, and working out water for grains or time to thaw.
The rest is precision where guessing fails: brine in percentages rather than spoonfuls, syrup by density, dough in baker's percentages, coffee ratios by brewing method, and spirit dilution that accounts for the contraction of the mixture.
Tools in this category
Cooking time calculator: how long to cook in the oven
Oven times for 80 foods, starting from official safe internal temperatures and scaled to the size of your actual piece.
Recipe scaler: adjust ingredients for more or fewer servings
Scale every ingredient at once for a different serving count, and see which parts of a recipe do not scale linearly.
Oven Temperature Converter
Converts an oven temperature between Celsius, Fahrenheit and gas marks, and shows the setting to use when the fan is running.
Baking Pan Converter
Works out the factor to multiply every ingredient by when your tin is a different size or shape from the one in the recipe, and what that does to the baking time.
Ingredient Substitution Calculator
Suggests what to use instead of an ingredient you have run out of and works out how much of the substitute your recipe needs, in grams and millilitres.
Yeast Converter
Converts fresh, active dry and instant yeast into one another and shows the dose as a percentage of the flour in your recipe.
Brine Calculator
Works out the salt for a wet or dry brine, the salinity the food itself ends up at, and how long to leave it in for its weight.
Sugar Syrup Calculator
Works out the sugar and water for a syrup of the density you want, shows the sugar content as a percentage, and gives the temperature it will boil at.
Dough Hydration Calculator
Works out flour, water, salt and yeast in baker's percentages, starting either from the flour weight or from the weight of dough you need.
Coffee to Water Ratio Calculator
Works out how much ground coffee to use for a given volume of water in a pour-over, French press, cezve, AeroPress or espresso.
Grain to Water Calculator
Shows the water, salt and cooking time each grain needs, and how much cooked food your portion will turn into.
Thawing Time Calculator
Works out how long meat, poultry, fish or pastry takes to thaw in the fridge or in cold water, and flags the methods that are not safe.
Alcohol Dilution Calculator
Works out how much water to add to reach a target strength, and gives the real volume you end up with once the mixture contracts.
Cake Portions Calculator
Works out how many portions a cake of a given size yields, and what diameter you need to feed a given number of guests.
Related categories
All oven cooking time guides
Open the full list of oven baking-time pages: meat, chicken, fish, seafood, potatoes, vegetables, and baking. Each page gives a quick reference for time, temperature, and doneness checks.
Popular guides
FAQs
What is included in the Cooking category?+
Oven temperature and gas marks, baking pan conversion, ingredient substitution, yeast, brine, syrup, dough hydration, coffee ratios, grains, thawing, spirit dilution, cake portions, cooking times and recipe scaling.
Why is cooking time never exact?+
Thickness, starting temperature, cookware, batch size and the oven itself all move the finish time — a domestic oven often runs 15 to 25 degrees off its dial.
Do I still need a thermometer?+
Yes, especially for poultry, large joints and fish. It also settles sugar syrup: the boiling point tells you the concentration exactly.
Why measure in percentages rather than spoons?+
A spoon of salt weighs anywhere from 20 to 30 grams depending on the grind. Percentages of water or of flour repeat reliably; spoons do not.