I smoked three wild hog hams today on the same smoker, at the same time.I put a probe in the ham on the right and one in the ham on the left. Both probes were on the same unit. https://www.amazon.com/ThermoP...05B7WJVF5QEERWVSXZVY

Both temperature readings started within two degrees of each other. After a while I looked back and they were reading almost fifteen degrees different. (I was smoking at between 225 and 250 degrees). I took the Probe-2 with the high temp. and put it back into Ham-1 with the low reading. The temp started dropping immediately. I plugged Probe-1 into Ham-2 and it started rising to approximately the same temp. as Probe-2

Late in the cook, the temps got back within five degrees of each other.

I understand "stall", but this sounds ridiculous. Have you encountered anything similar?

I was questioning whether the probes were bad, but they seemed to react the same to the same piece of meat.

The ham closest to the firebox was the hotter ham. I may still get an instant-read meat thermometer, just to have a second opinion. https://www.amazon.com/Thermom...31KWFTS9V3Z8HDQNG5QY

I can recommend Thermapen. I have MK3, now there is also MK4 with fancy display function.

Jiri

I have a gage on my bar b que pit. The pit weighs 900 lbs and its made of 56 inch 3/4 thick steel oil field pipe on wheels..

The gage flucuates a lot if I neglect it..I hold it at 180 by stroking it with additional wood and controling the air intake at both ends of the pit..it is a lot of work..I don't use gages, but I have learned this pits secrets over the last 50 years as to time and heat.

Found controling the pit and not the thermometer works best for me as the thermometer varies as to position of the thermometer and the position of the meat, and that gets complicated, its best for cakes and pies in the kitchen IMO..I don't know if this works for others..I suppose one could punch a thermometer in the finished product to see if its done..The thicker the meat the harder for a thermometer to read out accurately..

Ken, I would not be totally surprised -- if the two hams were from different animals -- that there might be enough dimensional variation and/or variation in fat content to account for that difference. The position relative to the firebox could also account for it. If you have a way to do it, try measuring the temperatures in various parts of your pit. Might be hot and cold spots.

quote:

I was questioning whether the probes were bad

Thermometers/probes should be checked periodically for accuracy and recalibrated if needed, an easy metric is to put the thermo/probe in a glass of ice water, if it's not at 32F then readjust if your equipment allows for it.

That's how we adjust our pocket A.C. thermometers. On them, they have a 5/16" adjustment under the dial face.