Trying to up my baking skills. Mainly breads right now. I don't have an oven thermometer, and I'm pretty sure my readout is lying to me about temps. Anyone use their BBQ therms indoors? How do you set it up? Any cool engineering ideas to replace the usual grill clip (which is useless on my oven racks)? Any thoughts or advice appreciated!
Edit: My apologies for posting this in the wrong place. I didn't scroll down far enough to see the Digital Thermometers sub-forum. Thanks for the kind soul who moved it!
Last edited by Raijer; September 18, 2019, 11:36 AM.
I do it all the time. I check the oven temp occasionally, and I use a probe in protein and bread so I can pull something at the desired temp. Almost forgot, I use a probe for baked potatoes too.
Just ball up some foil and push the probe through it. That should keep the probe off the grate.
I use my Thermoworks DOT for most of my oven cooking. Simple to use. I have seen some people use a chunk of potato to hold their probes when a clip doesn't work but I haven't done that. A ball of foil like RonB mentioned seems like a great trick.
If I am just temping bread or chicken or whatever I use my Thermopop.
I second the others - I've used my Dot and my Smoke to monitor the oven before, and just danged the air probe over the grate, suspending it midway in the oven. My oven has more swing (+/-20) at 225 than any of my smokers!
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Anova sous vide circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
I should have given more detail above. I have never had a gas oven, so none of this applies to gassers.
I have posted this info before, so if you have already read it, there is nothing new here. 😎
The electric ovens I have had cycle on and off, and it's normal for them to have a fairly wide swing for any set temp. 15* to 20* either side of the set temp is common for the electric ovens I have had. And just like the thermometers built into cookers, they are not necessarily accurate. But electric oven thermometers are adjustable - ya just have to google your make and model for directions.
A simpler, but less accurate method is to bake a can of refrigerator biscuits according to directions. If they are too dark at the minimum temp, your oven is running hot. And if they are not brown enough at the max time, your oven is running cool.
The electric ovens I have had cycle on and off, and it's normal for them to have a fairly wide swing for any set temp. 15* to 20* either side of the set temp is common for the electric ovens I have had.
I just tested my gas oven, and RonB, and at least mine performs the same way - perhaps moreso.
Pic #1 is the oven setting.
Pic #2 is the initial blast of heat, going about 50° over
Pic #3 shows the sorta-stabilized temps
Pic #4 shows the big dip in temp as the oven shuts itself off for a bit.
The thing that bugged me the most was the difference between the thermometers. I thought one of them must be off. They were placed fairly close to one another in the center of the oven, but the temps were off by as much as ~50°!
But nope. That was the oven! Both thermometers were put through the boiling water test, and BOTH stabilized at 212°!
Results: My oven is really terrible!
Attached Files
Last edited by Raijer; September 18, 2019, 11:53 AM.
Since the most common baking temperature is 350F, I would check it again at that setting. Since that is what 90% of recipes call for in an oven temp, that might be the sweet spot for most of them too. My oven has bigger swings at 225 than it does at 350. I've not checked it at 450.
Couple of thoughts. On your original question, the outdoor thermo units we use for outdoor cooking were originally designed for use indoors in commercial and residential kitchens. Thermoworks (makers of the Smoke, Signals and Billows devices for bbq) were slow in coming around to the outdoor market, originally catering to commercial clientele. So yes, a thermo device is a thermo device doesn't matter how you use it if it's used properly.
Also, looking at your devices they too seem to be way off (not surprised about your oven). You may want to do the boiling water test for both those. They should agree with about a 210-212* degree range of temps +-5* max. As for your oven, once you get it calibrated with a known temperature source, just adjust your oven temps up or down to match what you calibrated. That should help with your baking needs.
Couple of thoughts. On your original question, the outdoor thermo units we use for outdoor cooking were originally designed for use indoors in commercial and residential kitchens. Thermoworks (makers of the Smoke, Signals and Billows devices for bbq) were slow in coming around to the outdoor market, originally catering to commercial clientele. So yes, a thermo device is a thermo device doesn't matter how you use it if it's used properly.
That's really interesting. My original search was for a digital therm specifically made for the oven, and I couldn't find any. All the search hits were for the "BBQ" variety. Admittedly, it wasn't an exhaustive search! I guessed my "outdoor" therms would work, but I figured this place would have lots of info and opinions, which proved true!
Also, looking at your devices they too seem to be way off (not surprised about your oven). You may want to do the boiling water test for both those. They should agree with about a 210-212* degree range of temps +-5* max. As for your oven, once you get it calibrated with a known temperature source, just adjust your oven temps up or down to match what you calibrated. That should help with your baking needs.
Amazingly, I did just that, and BOTH therms passed the boiling water test. They stabilized at 212°, so it was the OVEN that was so off!
Last edited by Raijer; September 18, 2019, 12:32 PM.
I use my Maverick ET-732 all the time in my oven. Also have a Thermopro Mk4. For bread want the center at 202F and meats as designated in the recipe. You can calibrate most good ovens under the oven knob.
I've been using my maverick in the oven also, but only because my wife said the upper oven in our new double oven set was running way too hot. Sure enough it was. When set at 350 it would warm to 435 then go down to 360 and kick back on. After 3 service calls and several parts it works as it should, about a 40 degree swing between 330 and 370.
Last edited by Oak Smoke; September 19, 2019, 01:59 PM.
All good advice above. But I'm thinking you probably have some kind of thermocouple built in to yourself that Dr. Smith can show you how to use in your oven. Love the avatar!
My electric over runs about 20°F cooler than the set point on the contrl panel. If however I use the convection function, the deviation is very small, along the lines of ± 5°. That's an acceptable variation in my opinion.
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