Outdoor cooking, especially cooking for a crowd can mean use of your trusty meat thermometer. But how do you really know the reading it's giving you is correct? Did you know you can calibrate them to ensure an accurate reading and in turn, perfectly cooked food? It's super simple, we'll show you how...
How To: Calibrate Your Meat Thermometer
There's only a few steps to calibration, but you will need a set of pliers or small adjustable wrench. Here's how:
Step 1: Bring a pot of water to boil on the stove.
Step 2: Fill a glass or small bowl with ice and cover with water
Step 3: Test thermometer in the boiling water; If it doesn't read 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius, adjust the small nut on the backside of the thermometer, located where the face meets the probe. It won't be a large turn, so easy does it!
Step 4: Test thermometer in bowl of ice water. If it doesn't read 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius, make another slight adjustment. It should now be calibrated to read correctly in either temperature of water.
One great thing to note, from food writer Dana McCauley, is that many thermometers have a mini wrench built right into the shield or sleeve that protects the probe and keeps it clean. Check yours before you go digging through your tool box!
Digital thermometers aren't as easily adjusted and either have to be done by a pro, or at least tested to see how far off in either direction they are. If you know your thermometer reads 15 degrees hotter than it really is, just make sure to do the math without worrying about the expensive fee to have it repaired (which is why we still love our inexpensive, no bells and whistles, instant read thermometer!)
Related: Kitchen Tools: Instant-Read Thermometer
(Image: Flickr member joeflyde licensed for use under Creative Commons)
Comments (7)
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While this is a good way to calibrate a thermometer, most meat thermometers (and, may I point out, the one in the picture above), does not have a range that large, and does not have a marking for 212F nor 32F.
view jumpyfroggy's profile
That is an excellent observation! Many look more like this and have at least a boil test marking on them! Thanks for catching that error!
view sarahrae's profile
i have an instant read thermometer like the one you linked to in the article, and tried to calibrate it recently exactly as you described. here was my experience:
-dip into boiling water, thermometer is way off, so adjust it so it reads 212 while in the boiling water.
-let thermometer come to room temperature
-dip into ice water and find the thermometer is way off, by like 30 degrees. adjust so it reads 32
-let thermometer come to room temperature
-dip into boiling water and find that, yet again, its off by 30 degrees
How the heck do you calibrate a fairly new (few months, rarely used) instant read thermometer that apparently doesn't have a big enough range, even though its face has markings from 20-230 degrees???
view mh330's profile
Glad you found my tip helpful!
I prefer the cold water and ice method since the temp stays stable for a fairly long time. It's also the method that many departments of health here in Canada prefer and expect you to use in your answer on safe food handling exams that they give to chefs.
view Dana McCauley's profile
My only reminder is that the 212 degree F. for boiling water only holds at sea level, at 29.92 inches of mercury. In Denver it would boil at 202 deg. F. As for mh330, you might be able to cross-check it with your oven, but unless you know the oven temp is good...you will be like a man with two broken watches...always confused. I suspect your thermometer is faulty. (Yes, I am Clif Claven's brother).
view JD523's profile
mh330 - After your calibrating was it off the 30 degrees in the same direction each time? If so it could mean it's time for a new thermometer (if it doesn't show any signs of wear, there could be attempts to get a retail store to take it back, even without a receipt).
My next question would be to ask if you left your thermometer in the boiling water while the pan was still over the fire, and if so how close to the bottom of the pan was it? I've had it throw a reading before when it's been too close, even if it wasn't touching.
view sarahrae's profile
Not actually having one of these, perhaps I'm speaking out of ignorance, but I don't think that the adjustment nut does anything but set the offset of the needle relative to the marks on the dial (that is, twist the dial so that the displayed "32F" mark matches the needle's position when in a bath of ice water).
If that is the case, then "calibrating" at both freezing and boiling is mostly pointless except to let you know if your thermometer simply scales wrong: if it is adjusted to match at 32F but then is way off at 212F (corrected for altitude, says the Denver native!), then your thermometer simply doesn't scale right - a 5F actual change in temperature might result in the needle moving 7 degrees as indicated by the thermometer's scale.
Fiddling with the offset isn't going to change that and I sincerely doubt that there's an adjustment for scaling on anything less than a "laboratory grade" thermometer (which is probably tested for scale anyway).
I think that the best you can hope for with a badly-scaled thermometer is to have a thermometer that reads relatively accurately at either near-freezing or near-boiling temperatures, but not both.
view PhilMills's profile