I believe my thermometer let me down Saturday

[Chris Smith]

I had a 14 lb turkey in my Big Easy Saturday afternoon and put the thermometer that came with it in the right breast lobe just before putting the bird in the cooker. The thermometer read 165F close to the 3 hour mark, so I pulled the bird out and sat the basket on the counter to rest. I pulled the thermometer out and stuck it in the left breast, and was horrified to see it shoot past 200F. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I pulled it out and put it back in the right breast just a few cm away from the original spot that gave me the 165F reading, and it too spiked into the 190s. I was crushed. Guess who served dry turkey to the party?

Doing a post-mortem on the process, the left breast was closer to the cooker wall than the right, as it was leaning slightly off center in the basket. It was not so much though that I figured the thing would cook so unevenly. Secondly, I was stumped as to why the probe in the same breast a very small distance apart would give me drastically different readings. Is it bad practice to leave a probe in poultry through the whole cooking process?

I've been very good this year and Santa knows I'm dying for a Thermapen, so hopefully I'll have better luck in the future.

 

[Paul K]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Is it bad practice to leave a probe in poultry through the whole cooking process?
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, I do it all the time. While a thermapen is accurate and handy, I prefer a probe thermo that continuously monitors the bird. That way, I don't have to periodically lift the lid and check temps. You probably have a faulty thermo. Try testing it on boiling water to see how accurate it is. Check a number of times to see if you get the same results.

Paul

 

[Jim H.]

Chris -

Bimetal thermometers are notoriously inaccurate, and the one supplied with your Big Easy is especially so. This may be a real PITA to do, but when cooking any type of poultry (except wings),I pull out the basket and I check temps in at least 3 places, using a digital thermometer.

It is very difficult to check the accuracy of the thermometer that came with your Big Easy, so I learned not to rely on it. I think I ended up throwing it away.

I also hope Santa brings me a Thermapen for Christmas!

 

[Mike P.]

I guess the bi-metal therm that came with mine was one of the good ones. 3 years in with no problems. Of course since becoming a member here, I also track it with a ET 732 for fun.

Placement of the them is very important. Here's a pic of a 14 lb'er I did last Christmas with therms still in...

You need to bury it deep without coming close to any bone.

Good Luck!