Why does nobody talk about oven thermometer drift?

I was scratching my head last week why my batch of croissants came out pale and doughy inside. The oven dial said 375 but I finally grabbed a second cheap oven thermometer and it read 340. Checked my old one against boiling water and it was off by 25 degrees after two years of use. Anyone else bother to check their thermometer accuracy more than once a year?

2 comments

2 Comments

evac721mo ago

Yep, been there. I learned the hard way after a whole summer of baking that my oven was running 30 degrees cool. Now I keep a cheap oven thermometer inside at all times and check it against boiling water every six months, like clockwork. The spring-style thermometers that clip to the rack are the worst for drifting, the liquid-filled ones seem to hold up better. If you bake a lot, it's worth investing in a digital probe thermometer that you can just leave in the oven. That way you can catch the drift early before it ruins another batch of expensive pastry. Croissants are too much work to waste on a dumb thermometer.

paulperez1mo ago

Yeah "expensive pastry is too much work to waste on a dumb thermometer" pretty much sums up everything in modern life honestly.