Go to the Article: How to See the Future with a Thermometer
It is stuff like this that I take completely for granted. Thank you!
Great article. What temp should bread be taken to?
Bread starches will set at 185f/85c. This is good standard for most baked goods. Rustic breads that have a higher percentage of hydration you will want to bake to a temperature of 205f/96c.
Does induction also cook faster from the side of the pot? That would explain the issues with my "impossible" pecan pie...
With induction it’s useful to think of your pot as the actual heating element. The cooker is more like an electro-magnet and the atoms of iron in your pot jiggle and get hot. If you cook on a normal hot plate or with gas the heat is transferred from that source to surface of the pot in contact .... and then the heat spreads to the food and the rest of the pot.
With the prime rib example - bone heats faster than meat so if the bone is sticking out, the meat in the center that is touching the bone might be heating a smidge quicker than the bit where the thermometer is placed. But for fillet or something without a bone - idk - I think I’d put the thermometer in the middle but aim for a lower temp to account for carry over.... I’m not a very experienced cook though...
What's the best way to temp a brisket? I normally use the probe to check for softness in the meat and pull it once the consistency is there. However, when resting for a few hours in a cooler, I think the temp would continue to rise and dry it out. I've never thought about carry over cooking in a brisket (or pork shoulder for that matter).
Is there a table for internal temps for everything? Bread, meat, custard, etc....?
Hi Daniel, We don’t currently have a table for internal temps for everything, but it’s a great idea—passing it along to the team. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hi Ayan, Just follow the guidelines above for thermometer placement—the placement takes carryover heat into consideration.
Hi Terry, If the brisket has been cooked to your desired temperature, resting in a cooler won’t affect it to any notable degree.
These would work better with a 3D model that you can turn around and look at, or at least a short video demonstrating the exact position we're talking about from different angles. I assume a "middle" for the dimension not shown, but it can get a little trickier like how far from the bone for the chicken thighs? I'd also like to see diagrams for some trickier items like seafood like scallops, mussels, and shrimp.
In the mean time you could try Thermowork's tables: "Chef Recommended, ThermoWorks Approved"
https://blog.thermoworks.com/thermometer/chef-recommended-tw-approved/
Be sure to read the little notes under the tables for hints about pulling things out early to account for carry-over cooking.
Not so much. The molecules that are induced are those in the induction field which are mostly at the contact point of the pan with the burners surface. The energy does not "wave" up the sides of the pan.
This is great. One question, if you are smoking meats on a smoker, where to you take the smoker temperature, at the grill level or at the top of the smoker?
I still don't get the probe placement for the large roast. I get that carry-over happens, but there's no way to predict how much carry-over will occur for a given roast. For example, if I want a final temp of 137F for my rib roast, and I have the probe placed off-center (as in the diagram), and I pull the roast when it reads 137F, I have no idea what the temp is at the core (i.e. what the gradient is), and can't predict how much carry-over will occur (1 degree? 15 degrees?). So, measuring the temp at the depicted location doesn't really seem to be that helpful. Thoughts?
At the cooking plane of the food. The dome is much hotter.
The concern is hitting the desired depth. You can get small silicone "o" rings that slide onto your thermometer probe and limit you to the set depth. They make it easier to hit the center of a slab of meat without pulling it out to enter from the side. For things like shrimp you use seat of the pants. The time it takes to probe the things is sufficient to overcook them.
This article was super helpful. We used it to properly place the thermometer in our new June Oven and made an amazing prime rib for Christmas Eve (the cut selected using the new cuts tool!). Thanks for the awesome content and resources.
Good information Thank you!
