Temperature Measured at the Lid

[KenB]

When the recipe states measured at the lid, is it referring to the dome thermometer on the WSM?

 

[Len Dennis]

If its a weber recipe, yes. 0therwise, it would say at the grate/rack/food/etc level.

 

[timothy]

When the recipe states measured at the lid, is it referring to the dome thermometer on the WSM?

If your referring to recipes from this site, than it could be top vent also. I believe most if not all were posted before Weber added a stock dome thermo.

Tim

 

[J Hasselberger]

I have found the dome thermometer to be unreliable. For instance, if it's sunny and hot, the dome will read hotter than the grate. Vice versa if the weather is cold and cloudy. A candy thermometer hanging in the vent or a grate-level sensor is more consistent.

 

[KenB]

I did a Weber recipe that stated 250 at the lid. I kept the dome thermo temp at 250 for the duration of the cook and the meat wasn't even close to done. I would think the temp would be higher at he grate than at the lid and the meat would have been overlooked. I bought one of those cheap oven thermometers and will compare the dome thermometer to the oven thermometer on the grate this weekend.

One thing I did notice is that some of recipes are from when the WSM did not have a factory installed thermo in the lid. I'm not sure how the temp was being measured at the lid.

 

[Tom Golden]

The issue is that the crap therms you get OEM are, well crap. So your 250F might be someone else's 300 or 200 or 225 or...

 

[KenB]

Thanks for all the replies, I picked up a digital.

 

[Charles H.]

It's a little pricey but I really like the Maverick 732 thermometer.
Two probes to monitor the grate temperature and the meat temperature at the same time, wireless so you can monitor while doing other things, and each probe has alarms so you can take a nap/go to bed and be alerted if the cooker goes crazy.
Really can't imagine cooking BBQ without it now.

 

[timothy]

One thing I did notice is that some of recipes are from when the WSM did not have a factory installed thermo in the lid. I'm not sure how the temp was being measured at the lid.

Something like this. http://virtualweberbullet.com/measuretemp.html#lid

I like using the top-vent method, pretty easy, just let the therm run 10-15 deg higher than target.
HTH

Tim

 

[J Hoke]

Attaching the probe to the grate you are cooking on is the most accurate method, but if you can't get at least 2-3" away from the outside of the cooker where the heat rises and about the same distance from a piece of cold meat that will also affect an accurate reading, hanging the probe though the top vent as close to the cooking grate as possible will be the most accurate.