Oven temperature - How to measure and what do you do?
Discussion
So I saw Heston's recipe for very slow cooked pork belly and thought that would be nice for tomorrow's dinner.
http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Heston's_Slow-cooke...
He says 9 hours at 95°C or 8 hours at gas mark 1/4.
We have a gas oven and I've put one of those cheap dial thermometers in it in the past which did confirm my opinion that our oven is generally colder than the setting suggests. Gas mark 9 on our oven gets it to just over 200°C in the middle, or a bit hotter at the very top. The dial thermometer is long gone and I decided I better try and measure the temperature more accurately before tomorrow.
I found a digital remote probe thermometer online and ordered it but it won't be here until next week.
So in the meantime, I gathered all my temperature measuring devices (all 3 of them) to see if I could reach a consensus before tomorrow morning. I've got a sugar thermometer, a digital meat thermometer and a non-contact laser thermometer.
First, I boiled a pan of water with a small, black aluminium block suspended in it. I measured the temp of the ali block with the laser thermometer and it was 100.3°C, so almost spot on. I then measured the temp of the water with the meat therm. and that read 98.8, so not far off. The sugar therm. was about 96, so was the least accurate.
I decided the meat thermometer would be accurate enough to rely on, so I then put a Pyrex jug of water in the centre of the oven and set the dial to gas mark 1. My theory is that the water should heat up to the temperature of the oven.
After a good 30 minutes, I checked the water temp and it was a lowly 72°C. Turned it up to gas mark 2, left it a while again and measured it at 85°C. Tried again at Gas mark 3 and it was 91°C.
So, is it just that my oven is really slow, or am I using an inaccurate method? I will use the meat probe tomorrow at various intervals to see what the temperature of the pork is during cooking, but it's a bit odd that I'm getting such low readings.
Thoughts?
http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Heston's_Slow-cooke...
He says 9 hours at 95°C or 8 hours at gas mark 1/4.
We have a gas oven and I've put one of those cheap dial thermometers in it in the past which did confirm my opinion that our oven is generally colder than the setting suggests. Gas mark 9 on our oven gets it to just over 200°C in the middle, or a bit hotter at the very top. The dial thermometer is long gone and I decided I better try and measure the temperature more accurately before tomorrow.
I found a digital remote probe thermometer online and ordered it but it won't be here until next week.
So in the meantime, I gathered all my temperature measuring devices (all 3 of them) to see if I could reach a consensus before tomorrow morning. I've got a sugar thermometer, a digital meat thermometer and a non-contact laser thermometer.
First, I boiled a pan of water with a small, black aluminium block suspended in it. I measured the temp of the ali block with the laser thermometer and it was 100.3°C, so almost spot on. I then measured the temp of the water with the meat therm. and that read 98.8, so not far off. The sugar therm. was about 96, so was the least accurate.
I decided the meat thermometer would be accurate enough to rely on, so I then put a Pyrex jug of water in the centre of the oven and set the dial to gas mark 1. My theory is that the water should heat up to the temperature of the oven.
After a good 30 minutes, I checked the water temp and it was a lowly 72°C. Turned it up to gas mark 2, left it a while again and measured it at 85°C. Tried again at Gas mark 3 and it was 91°C.
So, is it just that my oven is really slow, or am I using an inaccurate method? I will use the meat probe tomorrow at various intervals to see what the temperature of the pork is during cooking, but it's a bit odd that I'm getting such low readings.
Thoughts?
Well, the pork is in the oven now at mark 1 and with the meat thermometer in the pot, it's around 95°, so I'm leaving it there. Just another 7 hours to go...
I can't remember much about the Physics experiments I did at school with calorimeters and Bunsen burners, but presumably the reason the water doesn't get as hot as the meat is something to do with specific latent heats, density and all that stuff.
As long as the crackling turns out well, I'll be happy.
I can't remember much about the Physics experiments I did at school with calorimeters and Bunsen burners, but presumably the reason the water doesn't get as hot as the meat is something to do with specific latent heats, density and all that stuff.
As long as the crackling turns out well, I'll be happy.
Edited by FasterFreddy on Sunday 10th October 14:13
No worries, crackling is looking just right for a quick blast at 200.
I'm quite optimistic about this recipe.
The only slight pain was removing the skin at the start, but I reckon the crackling could be epic done this way.
The belly is looking lovely and tender in it's vegetable & stock bath. Feeling a bit hungry now...
Next Sunday is going to be very slow roast lamb shoulder - 6-7 hours at 120.
I'm quite optimistic about this recipe.
The only slight pain was removing the skin at the start, but I reckon the crackling could be epic done this way.
The belly is looking lovely and tender in it's vegetable & stock bath. Feeling a bit hungry now...
Next Sunday is going to be very slow roast lamb shoulder - 6-7 hours at 120.
That is a great recipe for pork belly. The pork itself was lovely and moist and perfectly cooked. Might put a few complementary spices in next time.
Crackling done this way is a real revelation. It ended up really light and crispy and as almost all the fat had rendered off the skin, it could almost be described as low-fat crackling... The only thing I'd change next time would be to sandwich the skin between two wire racks to stop it from curling up too much.
All things considered, probably the nicest pork belly dinner I've had in a long while.
Crackling done this way is a real revelation. It ended up really light and crispy and as almost all the fat had rendered off the skin, it could almost be described as low-fat crackling... The only thing I'd change next time would be to sandwich the skin between two wire racks to stop it from curling up too much.
All things considered, probably the nicest pork belly dinner I've had in a long while.
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