Because less than 5 is not significant and doesn’t matter.
Yeah, I’d also be surprised, if most ovens could even regulate the temperature that accurately…
that’s not base 5. That’s just increments of 5… in base 10.
base 5 would be: 2400, 3000, 3300
Because it makes more sense to mark 325, 350, 375, 400, and 425, on the knobs of the oven than 307, 337, 373, 401, 421, and 449.
Yea but most ovens are digital now a days.
And I don’t think anyone would rather press the temp button 375 times to get to a reasonable cooking temperature.
My oven lets me enter the temp on a number pad but still has 5 degree increments
It’s not even really 5° increments, it’s typically 25°. Ovens can’t really hold temp much more precisely than that, and even if they could you wouldn’t notice much of a difference. 342° is gonna behave basically the same as 359°.
Because we have ten fingers.
There is no real reason we use base ten numbers except that we ran out of fingers at ten and used that as a “round” quantity. Five is a convenient half of ten (and one hand of fingers) for higher but not excessive precision. We could have developed a base eight numerical system if we had four fingers per hand and in that alternate reality, you’d be asking why cooks and chefs cook in base 4 increments.
In metric countries, it tends to be in multiples of ten (180, 190, 200, etc). In imperial, it tends to be in multiples of 25 (350, 375, 400, etc) rather than strictly 5. And that’s largely because, as you’ve noted, that’s the smallest meaningful resolution; the difference between 210 and 212 in either system is essentially random noise. Even a very good oven is going to fluctuate in temperature more than that.
Want to know something crazier, though? Before cheap and accurate thermometers, bakers obviously couldn’t use degrees in recipes. Instead they used “slow oven,” "moderate oven, and “fast oven” or “cool oven,” “medium oven,” and “hot oven”–clarified with “very” intensifiers as needed–to describe cooking temps for food.
There’s no way Fahrenheit ovens are more accurate than Centigrade, and they use 10s and are like half as accurate anyway
