Your Grill Thermometer Needs Potatoes
Last week when I was prepping my grill for this lamb shoulder , I ran into a problem: I couldn’t find the little metal clips that came with my grill thermometer. If you’re unfamiliar with these clips, they’re designed to hold one of the thermometers above the grill grate so it can measure the temperature inside your grill. I can get by without it if I’m roasting chicken thighs or whatever, but knowing my grill’s temperature is critical when I’m smoking that meat (be it pork , turkey , or lamb ).
Usually when this happens (and it happens quite often) I use a strip of aluminum foil to make a small probe holster, but now I’m out of foil and keep forgetting to buy more. I managed to find a binder clip (a disposable unofficial Lifehacker mascot) and it worked, but as the smart commenter panthercougar pointed out in his smart comment on my mutton post, I could have used potatoes.
“Regarding that ‘Poke one thermometer probe into the thickest part of the lamb and the other probe into the clip to measure the ambient temperature of the grill,'” they wrote, “if you don’t have a clip (I don’t), you can either wrap some foil around around the middle of the probe, or pierce the probe with a half of a sacrificial potato so that it does not fall through the grates.
Personally, I love the idea of a sacrificial potato and I love how stable it is. Prick the potatoes, place the potatoes on the wire rack. The potato will hold your probe for the duration of your cook, after which you can thank the potato for its service and reward it with a purple heart. (Eventually, he was both stabbed and roasted in the line of duty.)
If you don’t have a small potato like the one in the photo above, you can cut a large potato in half or quarters. Whether you eat potatoes after that is up to you. I would probably try at least a piece.