I got a new oven a few months ago, and I don’t think it’s getting hot enough. I checked the owner’s manual to see how to adjust the temperature, and it specifically says not to use “oven thermometers such as those found in grocery stores” to check the temperature, because they are not accurate.
Well, that’s very nice, but I have to find out the temperature somehow. There has to be a reliable oven thermometer out there somewhere. I also thought of getting several cheap ones of different brands and seeing whether they agree with each other.
Yeah, I’d just get 2 cheap ones and assume that if they read the same or close, they’re accurate enough. I’d imagine they’re more accurate in the beginning and maybe less so as they get older.
This Thermapen is supposed to be a very good, accurate thermometer, but it’s almost a hundred bucks and it’s a probe thermometer, which may not be what you want. Personally, I bought a relatively cheap probe thermometer and then calibrated it in a pot of boiling water and a bowl of ice water.
Get a Polder or something like it. The probe goes inside, the unit stays out side.
Check it with boiling water and you will be good to go. It’s only rated to 392F, but you can check 300,325,350,375 with it.
If you are feeling luck buy a cheap grocery store one and put it in the oven at the same time. If they read the same, you are golden.
I ALWAYSALWAYSALWAYS have an oven thermometer in my oven. I do not trust the dial of any stove, even a brand new one. You will be ASTOUNDED at how far off your oven dial is. No kidding. I just get one from the grocery store. They’re not expensive. They’re pretty simple and NOT electronic. You will be so glad you did!
I first noticed this phenomenon in 1972 when I had just gotten married. We lived in an apartment complex. I’d set the oven for 350 and whatever I was baking inevitable burned, and rather quickly. This happened a couple of times, so I told the apartment manager and they switched out the oven. Being a complex, they had a supply of ovens. It happened with the second oven, and the third.
Then I got an oven thermometer and observed that the oven appeared to go right to 500 degrees when it was set over 300. I learned to adjust the dial accordingly. Don’t know what was going on with the previous two ovens, but prolly something similar.
I’ve lived in MANY places since then (and have absentmindedly left behind many oven thermometers when I moved from rentals), and have come to rely on the oven thermometer. It is your friend.
I assume it’s correct because when go by its temperature and not the number on the dial, stuff doesn’t burn and my recipes turn out. The proof of the pudding-- and the thermometer-- is in the eating. I also assume it’s fairly accurate the way I assume the thermometer you stick in your mouth is fairly accurate.
But that’s the question in the OP; how can you know that the oven thermometer you bought in the supermarket is accurate, and actually more accurate than the one built-in to the oven? You can accurately calibrate a thermometer at 0 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit using the freezing and boiling points of water. I don’t know if that tells you anything about how accurate it is at 300-500 degrees.
Sugar water behaves visually differently at various temps up to about 400 degrees:
Oil behaves very differently from 300-500 degrees. Easier without experience is to use a Thermapen or a calibrated infrared thermometer. They’re electronic and therefore very accurate, and the Thermapens are laboratory calibrated to +/- 1 or 2 degrees (F) before they leave the shop.
But in general, even the cheap ones at the store will be good to +/- 10 degrees or so. Buy two or three if you don’t trust 'em.
The real question is why the built-in ones (generally in cheaper and older ovens) are so bad. I’ve never seen one 200 degrees off before like a previous poster, but I’ve never had one that was accurate within 25 degrees, either (which is enough to mess up baked goods).
I recently bought one of those after coveting them for years. Fuckin’ thing is the bomb for meats. Instant read; accurate to decimals, if desired; C or F; calibrated at the factory in England. Wouldn’t work for what the OP needs, but it’s sure great for things like pulled pork.
