Ditching the digital thermometer for an old-school probe

I used to think my instant-read thermometer was the only way to check bread doneness, but last month in Portland it started giving me wild readings, 10 degrees off from the same loaf twice. Out of frustration I grabbed my grandmother's analog probe from 1987 and trusted the feel of it sliding into a sourdough, and the crumb came out perfect. Now I only use the digital for meats, and I bet half my bread issues over the last two years were just a bad sensor. Has anyone else gone back to a simpler tool and gotten better results?

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fionarodriguez4d ago

Wait, you actually trusted a needle from 1987 before a digital thermometer? That's insane to me, I would have tossed that thing years ago. My grandma had one of those and I always figured they were just for decoration after a certain point. But hearing that your crumb came out perfect makes me want to dig mine out of the junk drawer right now. I've had so many dense loaves lately and just blamed my starter, never even thought the thermometer could be the liar. It's wild that a simple piece of metal can outsmart something with a battery. Maybe I've been overcomplicating this whole bread thing for way too long?