PSA: I ignored my oven thermometer for 2 years and my sourdough paid for it

I always figured the dial on my oven was close enough, so I never bothered with a separate thermometer. Last Saturday I finally hung a $9 one from the rack in my kitchen here in Boise and watched it for a full hour. The dial said 450 but the real temp bounced between 475 and 500 the whole time, which explains why my boules kept getting a burnt bottom and gummy middle. I dropped my bake to 425 on the dial and the crust came out even for the first time since I started this hobby. Two years of blaming my starter when it was the oven lying to me the whole time. Anyone else find out their oven runs hot, and did you just adjust your recipes or pay to get it fixed?

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grace5081mo ago

How did I not learn this lesson myself after destroying three batches of cookies last Christmas? My oven runs so hot that the smoke alarm basically became my timer, and I just kept blaming the recipe instead of checking the actual temp. I finally borrowed a thermometer from my neighbor and found out the dial was off by almost 40 degrees, so all those years of tweaking recipes were just me fighting a losing battle with a broken appliance. The worst part is I told everyone my baking was bad because of cheap flour, when really I was just too lazy to hang a nine dollar gadget inside the thing. Now I just keep a note taped to the oven door with the temp adjustments written down, and honestly it fixed more of my problems than any fancy ingredient ever did. Your burnt bottom and gummy middle story sounds way too familiar, and it makes me wonder how many other people are out there quietly blaming themselves for an oven that has been lying the whole time.

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