Unexpected uses I'm finding for my BBQ accessories

[Lost in China]

Ever since I got my Smoke temperature sensor, I've been finding unexpected uses for it. First, my oven. I have a crappy Chinese oven that is basically an oversized toaster oven. I used the Smoke grill temp sensor to find out what temperature it is inside. After a few failed oven cooks (think batter-y brownies and undercooked cookies) I decided to stick the thing in to see what the problem was.

The oven has a dial marked with degrees Celsius, but I have discovered that that gauge is worthless even when you convert to Fahrenheit. So what I did was turn it to the round numbers, wait for it to stabilize, and then write the actual temperature in F on a card. Now, when I need a certain oven temperature for a recipe, I consult the card and turn it to the appropriate dial number. Necessity, the mother of invention. I also found out it tops out at about 420 degrees F despite claiming to go up to 250°C (482°F). This kind of sucks for pizzas.

The other day I took it out of the oven and left it on by mistake. I come back, and it's accurately reporting the air temperature. (Brr it's 55 degrees in my kitchen because it's unheated.) Good thing it hardly uses any batteries and will last for a long time. I then had the idea to take it outside and leave it there, and use the remote control to tell me at a glance how cold it is outside. The main unit will show high and low temperatures, making it a portable weather station. I could even put one sensor outside and the other inside to tell me both temps.

Just tonight I used my Thermopop to measure the internal temperature of the frozen tamales I put in the microwave, to see if they were hot inside and didn't need any more time. They were still cold and needed another minute to get over 165 as recommended on the back of the package. Has anyone else put their BBQ accessories to unexpected uses?

[Steve R.]

I'm curious about the oven experiment. Have you found that the dial thermometer is consistently wrong by the same amount? The crappy ones that came with my smoker seem to have a mind of their own. At one point I thought I had them figured out, only to discover that the error seems to change with the outside air temp. Oh well, at least they do a solid job of plugging the holes in the door where they are mounted.

[Lost in China]

I regard the dial thermometer on my grill's lid as purely decorative.

[Thunder77]

My downstairs refrigerator was acting wonky a while back, and I used the Smoke to monitor the temps, and set off the alarm if it got too warm. That was really handy. Last night I used it to keep track of oil temperature while I was deep frying in the Dutch oven.

[ecowper]

I calibrated my Maytag oven with my Fireboard a couple weeks ago. Turns out that it is about 25 degrees F cooler than the digital setting on the stove says.

When I'm heating oil to fry chicken, I use my thermapen to get it to 350

[Potkettleblack]

I've used my iGrill for fry oil temp, and use my thermapen for all sorts of stuff. I also use my SV cambros for bread making and wet brines. I'm planning on using Joule to do a warm levain bread.

[scottranda]

Bbq dragon as a baby stroller fan. And use my thermapen for temps inside of food all the time. Like egg rolls in the oven. Or is this hot chocolate too hot to drink?

[RonB]

All of the above - except the hot chocolate.

[mayapoppa]

I have an IR thermometer, which I use for both checking searing surfaces, and finding where my home is losing heat.

[Thunder77]

Good uses. I think fuzzydaddy uses his to see if the sidewalk is too hot to walk the dogs.

[fuzzydaddy]

Thunder77 yes I do! If I see more than ~120 I hold my hand on the surface for a few seconds as a second check.

[richinlbrg]

We use the thermopen for just about anything we are cooking. We use the Redi check in the oven frequently to both calibrate the oven temp and monitor the food temp. Mitts instead of hot pads.