Cookaholics Bulletin Board

My stove, Italian made has only Gas Marks, similar to the British stuff. The owners manual gave suggestions, but I use a Thermoworks Kitchen Thermometer with probe to keep an eye on mine. Parked there semi-permanently except when I need it on my BBQ setup. No fancy convection to my gas oven, very plain jane. But I had a horrible time until I made a half height paver brick baking stone (6 bricks in an aluminum frame) for it, which made it purr like a kitten from that point on. Hopefully you won't have similar problems. I would not rely on a bi-metal therm (like the Taylor) for accurate readings. Drop a few pennies on a good Thermoworks or Maverick probe unit and no doubts. Once you know your settings, oven-wise, they can be stuck in the item being cooked for a good read on when it is actually done.

Tatoosh,

Actually, I'm using a Taylor mercury theromometer. Since it's old, weve' ordered a new one so that we can double-check.

Amusingly, I have a $400 pyrometer, but it won't register anything lower than 500F, so it's not really helpful ...

I used a Tyler mercury for a long time but it went whacky on me when I brought it to the Philippines. Maybe the altitude had something to do with it. Spring for one of the Thermoworks $19 kitchen thermometers with probe. Handy stuff for monitoring done-ness and great for seeing what your oven is actually up to. Though I do respect those that choose other cues for their cooking.

I am sure the pyrometer comes in very handy in other thermally intense situations, to be sure.

Tatoosh,

Hmmm. Link? For the thermoworks.

I have had 4 of these units. One unit failed after 4 years, becoming unreadable. Probes read to 392F and can fail at above 500F if exposed for longer periods, I think. So if you go higher than 450F, such as making pizza in the oven, take the probe out. I am down to 2 units right now since they also make great birthday gifts. I do keep a few replacement probes on hand but I'm half way around the world. They also make the Thermapen which is pretty darn sweet but pretty darn dear too.

Other probe units to consider is the Maverick brand, which has a very strong following on the BBQ circuit. They make a wireless unit that smokers and BBQ folks love, it has a single probe with two sensors, the tip goes in the meat, the end sticking out measures oven (or smoker) temperatures. Not sure the temperature limits of that unit, though.

Thermoworks Kitchen Probe Thermometer Here

Steve,

Darn, wish we'd talked about this before ordering another mercury thermometer; it's only a couple bucks more. Although I'd have to remember to take it out whenever I turned the oven to more than 400F, so maybe not ...

Yeah, the 450F limit is annoying but it will do 500F for short periods. On the other hand, I love mine and the one's I've given away have gotten pretty good reviews from the giftee, though what gift receiver bad mouths a present? The digital accuracy is nice, easy reading from outside the oven is nice, plug in the roast or chicken or whatever is very nice. Then the oven temperature isn't even an annoyance since you know what your food is doing.

The flip side, like you say, is the Taylor doesn't require removal at higher temperature, doesn't require a battery, and has a wonderful en vogue retro look to it. My Thermoworks dual probe k-type read head, which I thought was going to be the cat's pajamas, is a drunken sailor when it comes to juice, I wish it had a wall socket option, that unit is not retro but rather industrial, sort of like cooking with a Dewalt power tool. But it laughs at oven temperatures. However, unlike your pyrometer, it will measure them.

All,

So now that the repairmen have been and gone I see why Summit doesn't want you calibrating it on your own. You have to remove the stovetop (difficult in itself), remove the thermostat, adjust one fairly inaccessible screw using a Torx, reassemble the stovetop, test if the temperature is correct, and repeat if it's not. Now, why Summit made things that difficult is another question entirely.

Steve, I did take your recommendation and buy a Thermoworks digital thermometer, because Summit wasn't willing to accept the reading of a mercury thermometer as proof that the stove was off. Now that I have it, it's more useful than I expected -- especially for making cheese! I can just lawyer-clip it to the side of the pot and have constant readings of what temp my milk is, without a lot of sampling. And I can set an alarm once the milk gets to the right temperature.

Fuzzy, what do you mean by lawyer clip? Those black metal binder clips or is this some kind of new slang that I don't know?

Darcie,

Yeah, the black metal binder clips. They used to call them "lawyer clips" here because you'd always find them holding together fat legal documents. I suspect that's fairly dated slang now though ... dates back to a time when South Park in San Francisco was legal services companies, not dot-coms.

Anyway, if you want to dangle something in a pot, like a probe thermometer, you just clip one on the edge of the pot and run the thermometer through the little "wings". Another tip which, IIRC, CI never published ...