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Just realized my oven thermometer was off by 40 degrees the whole time
I kept burning the bottoms of my cookies no matter what temp I set. Finally brought my cheap thermometer to my mom's house and compared it to hers, turned out mine was lying the whole time. I had been baking at like 390 instead of 350 for months, every batch came out dark and crispy. Got a new one for $12 at the hardware store in Denver and now my shortbread actually looks edible. Anyone else ever trust a bad thermometer for way too long, or am I the only one?
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elizabeths511mo ago
Those cheap oven probes drift worse than mine did, so check yours against boiling water too.
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parker18329d ago
Exactly why I stopped trusting the fancy ones too, @elizabeths51. The whole "lab grade" sticker on cheap gear is basically a lie half the time. I remember checking mine against ice water and it was off by 8 degrees, which would've ruined a whole brisket. Same thing happens with those digital meat thermometers you get in a kit, they look so precise with the numbers but drift worse than my old analog one. Now I just treat every probe like it's lying until I prove it right with a known temp. Seems like everything these days is about looking accurate, not being accurate.
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