Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Temperature Issues

Unknown
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I cooked a bottom round last night for 1 hr.The taste was outstanding
I used Lawery's Garlic Pepper to season it.The meat was fairly moist but was well done.I cooked it at 275 according to my temperature gage.
Granted I have not calibrated it in boiling water.Once calibrated is the thermometer accurate?Is dome temp the same temp the meat is cooking at or is it hotter/colder??I am cooking some ribs this coming weekend and don't want to over cook.

Comments

  • BlueSmoke
    BlueSmoke Posts: 1,678
    Gator Bob,
    Once calibrated, most thermometers/temperature gauges are reliable "for awhile", say six months or so. When yours seems to be getting inaccurate, it's time to recalibrate.[p]Most (if not all) the recipes you read here are given as dome temperature, not grill temperature. That is, when I say to cook wings at 350, I mean as indicated on the dome thermometer. Grill temperature, in my experience, will be cooler by about 20 to 30 degrees.[p]HTH
    Ken

  • Gator Bob,
    Here's some information about thermometers and why they get out of calibration:[p]TNW

    [ul][li]Thermometer Information[/ul]
    The Naked Whiz
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    Gator Bob,
    at what internal temp did you pull the meat?
    and did you mean 375 instead of 275?[p]you can't really overcook anything if you are using a probe thermometer in the meat.[p]dome temp guage is fine for relative understanding of how hot the fire is, but i find you really can't trust the old cookbook kind of info where they say "X hours at X temp for X weight"

    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • Gator Bob, I'll ditto what Strike said. And personally, since I bought my Maverick, I cook by the grid temp. I reference the dome temp to get an idea approximately how hot it is, but then I fine tune the temp at the grid, which of course is where the meat is. So, for instance, if I'm cooking a brisket I keep the grid temp about 250, at which point the dome temp might be 300 or higher. If I had cooked at a dome temp of 250, the grid temp might be 200 or lower, approaching the danger zone. The longer the meat cooks, and therefore the higher it's internal temp is, the less the disparity between the two temps will be. All of this was explained to my by Nature Boy when I was having a problem with briket. Understanding this fixed that problem. That said, I think for shorter cooks, like direct spatchcock chicken, you can pretty much go by the dome temp.
  • Gator Bob,
    Here's a tip. I've been cooking on the egg for about 5 months now. When I was assembling the egg I cut off about one-half inch from a wine bottle cork (real cork, not the plastic ones) and stuck the BGE thermometer through it before I put in into the dome hole. This added insulation between the dome and the bottom of the thermometer. It also prevented the nut from being accidentally adjusted. I recalibrated this weekend. After 5 months, it was only off about 7 or 8 degrees.