Meat Thermometers

[waskawood]

Reading all the great prime rib recipes reminded me that I have 4 meat thermometers and none read the same temperature. 3 analog and one is digital. One is a Taylor. Can anyone reccomend an accurate thermometer or how to test them? Thanks.

[metro 1]

test the temp.by putting them in boiling water ,should read 212º

[Tom Linderholm]

Or you can go the other route and put it in ice water and it should read 32. I usually calibrate my thermo once a week. You shouldn't need to drop a lot on a thermo. They all perform the same function. Its just taking the time to calibrate.

[Duckerdave]

ultimately you want to calibrate using distilled water for best accurancy. In this day and age the digitals are so relatively cheap and have fast readout u can't go wrong. Just remember to sanitize them between use and/or when checking different meats, etc... You dont want cross contamination ( salmonella, e-coli etc not a good time)

[waskawood]

I hate to sound simple but.... How do you calibrate. If it is 15 degrees off at boiling (212) Is it off by 15 degrees at 140??? I don't see any way of adjusting the thermometers that I have.

[Paul Waldowski]

If it is a stem thermometer there is usually a small nut at the top of the stem and just under the gauge that you adjust.

You can see a stem thermometer in the far lower left Here

[BobT]

While that may be relatively close, 212 degrees is not necessarily accurate. The boiling point of water can vary depending on altitude and barametric pressure. For example, if your altitude is 1200 ft. the boiling point is a bit closer to 210 degrees give or take depending on barametric pressure.

The freezing point is a more accurate calibration point because water expands less when freezing than when boiling and so it is less subject to the effects of atmosphere, although it still has some effect.

Bob