I had read about the importance of an oven thermometer years ago, and purchased one for my apartment oven. The difference wasn't much, but it was great to know what was really going on in there. However, when I moved, I forgot the little thing and left it hanging on the middle rack.
And then I forgot about oven thermometers. That is, until I baked a pie.
My new apartment kitchen was finally set up and I decided to make an apple pie - the same pie I've made more times than I can remember - as a house warming gift. The pie looked great and I proudly presented it at my friend's dinner party. Once the meal ended and we sliced into the pie, I was mortified! The once crisp apple slices, delicately coated with sugar and cinnamon, were reduced to apple sauce. Everyone smiled through dessert, but I knew something was wrong. When I finally bought another oven thermometer I found the reason: my new oven was a full 75 degrees hotter than the settings would indicate.
Do you have a favorite oven thermometer?
Related: How Do I Calibrate My Oven?
(Images: Flickr member PetroleumJelliffe licensed under Creative Commons)
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haha- when I moved into my apartment we had a lovely old gas stove (big stovetop, all white, totally old-school), but for some reason all the numbers on the oven dial had been rubbed off and I had to guess what temp it was baking at (didn't work very well). Needless to say, I bought an oven thermometer and everything's been peachy since.
^Same.
Would the heat of the oven turn the apples into sauce? This seems strange to me as I would expect your crust to have burned before the fruit mushed. Hmmmm... I've always thought the type of apple made a big difference in how they kept their shape (and how thick or thinly they were sliced). For example, golden delicious apples, sliced at 1/4", retain their shape really well.
Back to the oven temp, I find it makes a big difference with cakes, especially pound cakes b/c they are so thick.
I finally bought an oven thermometer (a couple years ago now!) after reading enough about them on places like smittenkitchen.com. It was then that I discovered that, while the temperature is accurate overall, my oven takes WAY longer to reach the set temp than the preheat alert tells me, which explains why everything always took much longer to bake than the recipe indicated. Seriously, it will beep and say it's at 350 and my thermometer will say 200. Such a help!
I've found that my oven thermometer actually takes longer to come up to temp than my oven, so for an accurate reading, you have to wait a while.