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Vent: That $150 pork butt I ruined with a bad thermometer
Last Saturday I grabbed a 10 pound pork shoulder from Costco, spent over $150 with rub and wood chips, and set it on my offset smoker. I trusted this cheap $8 dial thermometer I've had for years, thinking it was fine. After 10 hours the internal temp read 195 so I pulled it off, but when I sliced in it was tough and dry as a boot. Turns out that thermometer was off by a good 20 degrees, way over cooked it. Has anyone else had an analog thermometer fail on them like that, or do you only use digital probes now?
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the_harper4d agoMost Upvoted
Dang, that's brutal... a 20 degree difference on an $8 thermometer just wrecked a whole day of work and a $150 hunk of meat. I honestly don't trust those dial ones at all anymore, they seem to drift so bad over time. Digital probes are cheap enough now that there's really no reason to risk it, I got a two pack on amazon for like twenty bucks a few years back. Still feel for you though, that's a rough way to learn that lesson.
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kim.hannah4d ago
@the_harper did you check if the digital ones stay accurate after a few years, or do they start lying to you too?
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