Stop Looking at the Stupid Little Thermometer on the Grill

With one big, notable exception , I have few enemies… But I also hate the stupid dial thermometers you find on top of a lot of charcoal and gas grills, and I get disproportionately angry when respected food publications sanction their use. . I would make them illegal if I had any legislative power, but I don’t have any, so instead I’m posting this letter to the world wide web, hoping it will convince my fellow grillmen and BBQ dads to completely ignore his.

Unlike an oven, most grills do not have a digital temperature reader. My Weber Kettle definitely doesn’t. They come with a small dial that supposedly tells you the ambient temperature inside your grill. Only it’s not. It tells you the temperature of your grill in one place, which is pretty much useless.

If you’re grilling more than just hot dogs, it’s important to know the temperature inside the grill. This is especially true when cooking large smoked cuts of meat, such as pork legs , turkey , lamb , whole duck and brisket, as well as small cuts of protein, such as chicken parts and ribeye steaks . Many of these recipes call for two zones. If you’re using a charcoal grill – which I always do – that means you stack hot coals on one side (for searing and browning) and on the other side, no coals (for slow cooking and smoking). If you are using gas, this means that one side of the grill is on and the other is off.

If you’re using a gas grill, adjusting the temperature is quite simple – you move the little knobs. If you’re using charcoal, it’s a little more difficult. You control the amount of air coming in and out of the grill by opening and closing the vents under the coals and on the top of the lid. The more open they are, the more oxygen your coals see and the hotter they get.

By positioning the top vent against a pile of coals and placing food on the same side, you create a kind of convection oven. Air enters the bottom vents, rises up through hot coals (and smoking wood if used) and around your food before exiting the top vents.

On most charcoal grills, the vent and dial thermometer are located on opposite sides of the lid. Even if this dial is accurate – and it will never be as accurate as a digital thermometer – it will only show you the temperature of the air directly above the coals, which is (obviously) much hotter than the other without the coal. side. It’s no better on a gas grill – this dial is usually in the middle of the grill, between the two zones, giving an inaccurate and useless average. (If you tend to grill during the winter, this dial can also be affected by the elements, resulting in even more inaccuracy.)

Buy a digital thermometer. Please.

I’m cheap and lazy and always looking for ways to cook without additional specialty equipment, but if you’re serious about grilling accurately and safely, you need an external digital thermometer – preferably with at least two probes so you can control the temperature of your grill and food simultaneously. Luckily, you can get one for about 30 bucks , which is about the price of a good steak (and ensures you don’t ruin your good steak).

High Rated Probe Thermometers:

• The one Claire uses: ThermoPro TP930 500FT Bluetooth meat thermometer (choice of two or four sensors)
• Truly cordless so you won’t get tangled up: the Urduin Wireless Meat Thermometer
• A cheap model with two sensors that sends temperature data to your phone: Govee Bluetooth Meat Thermometer.
• Inexpensive four-probe meat thermometer ThermoPro TP17H.

Not only does this give you better control, but it also takes the guesswork out of cooking, which is a good thing because guessing the temperature of the meat is a dangerous gambit. To be honest, I thought we as a society had gone through this, but just a few days ago I saw a smoked chicken recipe instructing the reader to smoke the bird without a thermometer, “until the juice runs clear.” This is a bad, potentially dangerous recommendation because the color of the juice is not directly related to temperature .

By attaching a probe to the cooler side of the grill, you can control the temperature that really matters – the temperature of the environment your food will actually be in. remove it so as not to digest (rudely) or undercook (even worse). You’ll also have better control over the speed at which you cook your food, allowing you to adjust the vents as needed to reach the ideal low and slow temperature of 250℉ for the best smoky (safe) BBQ taste.