The week I ruined 40 loaves of sourdough by trusting a new thermometer

So last Tuesday I was baking my usual batch of sourdough, about 10 loaves for a local market. I bought this cheap digital thermometer off Amazon for like $8 because my old one finally gave out. First batch came out looking fine but the crumb was gummy and dense. Thought maybe I messed up the starter. Second batch the same thing. By Thursday I had 40 ruined loaves and literally like $120 worth of flour down the drain. Finally on Friday I borrowed my neighbor's thermometer and checked my oven temp. Turns out my new thermometer was reading 50 degrees low the whole time. My oven said 450 but it was really at 400. Now I'm wondering if I should just stick with the old dial thermometers or if I just got a dud. Has anyone else had bad luck with those cheap digital probe ones?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettywilson16d agoTop Commenter

Wait and see if it happened again after you tested it with your neighbor's thermometer to confirm the difference. Did you try calibrating the cheap one in boiling water before you gave up on it? That might help you figure out if these things are all just junk or if yours was a one-off lemon.

jessica_miller16d ago

Right? Maybe the cheap ones are just fine and your real thermometer is the liar.

the_elliot16d ago

Does your oven have one of those little windows on the door? I had a similar thing happen with my oven last year, except I was making a big batch of cookies for a bake sale. My oven said it was at 350 but the cookies were coming out pale and flat. So I taped my old mercury thermometer right to the oven rack and closed the door on it. Turns out my oven was actually running 25 degrees hot, not cold like yours. Fixed the whole problem for like five bucks.