dcbc

Boil some water and test the analog thermometer's reading. It may need recalibrating.

I was gifted an All Clad food mill. It was super heavy duty and beautiful. The only problem was that it was a lousy food mill. I returned it and got the OXO I'd asked for originally. It's heavy duty enough and works as advertised (just remember that food mills require a back-and-forth turning motion as opposed to a single direction).

With Thanksgiving approaching, I'll recommend the OXO Food Mill and the humble, Amco 32 oz. Fat Separator with a bottom drain. It may be cheap, but it works perfectly and is extremely easy to clean.

I edited my last post. For how I use them, I wouldn't worry about 5 degrees if the idea is that it's a heads-up tool to enable me to keep the door shut and the ambient temperature from fluctuating wildly.

I haven't heard that before. Mine have always been pretty close to instant read checks. But I'll keep an eye on that next time I use it. edit to add: Theoretically, this makes sense. In the wild, particularly on a larger piece of meat, I wonder how much the variance is. Regardless, I speculate that the remote probe is very useful in giving you a heads up as to what's going on in your smoker/oven, which is useful to the extent that it enables you to keep the door closed and the ambient temperature from wildly fluctuating. Once it's time to wrap, spritz, pull, or do whatever else mandates that you open the door, the instant-read is there to get the most precise reading (or simply probe for tenderness). My remote probes (also ThermoPro) haven't let me down thus far.

I agree with this sentiment, but a vast majority of the heat you lose from opening an oven door happens as soon as you open the door. Yes, you'll lose a lot more over 20 seconds than 3--5 seconds, but any time you open it, you're probably dropping the temps 30% or more. What's retained will bleed off more slowly. This post isn't an argument about thermometer choice by any means, and getting in and out quickly is certainly important. If anything, it's an argument for remote probes and leaving the oven/smoker door shut.

Very well. Per the websites we're talking 2--3 seconds for Thermopen versus 3--5 for a ThermoPro. Mathematically, that time will add up eventually, of course. I don't feel like I've missed it though. If I were replacing it constantly or if the temp. readings weren't accurate, I'd feel better about spending 7x for El Supremo over El Cheapo, I suppose. But as it stands, no regurts. It's been surprising and I'd buy another one but haven't need to.

Mere seconds, eh? Happy probing.

What do you guys do with all the time you save? Don't get me wrong. It's top-notch and fast. And if it makes you happy, go for it. But when it boils down to a few seconds to get the same temp, I'm spending the money I saved on some other gadget.

I'll chime in on the even cheaper option. Let's say you have a few seconds to spare between inserting the probe and seeing the meat temp, I've had the same $12 ThermoPro for going on eight years. It gets the job done.

I've really enjoyed it as well. I read The Outsider before I started reading the Hodges stories and didn't enjoy the Holly character much. But in the trilogy, I finder her quite likable.

I need to reread (relisten to) it. I got the audiobook early in my dive into his catalog and, despite my having read nearly universal praise for it, I wasn't grabbed by it compared to other books of his I'd read. End of Watch is next for me. Then, I might jump into Duma Key again.

We have some good friends, who, despite plenty of other great qualities, do this regularly. My wife and I and our two kids go to their place. They have 3 boys. 5 strips go on. Maybe two get sliced up for nine people, and 2 or 3 remaining strips go into the fridge. I need to have them over again and cook strips for everyone to model good behavior.

This batch will go into the dressing and the gravy. The stock from the T-day bird, well, you know where that's going.