www.sausagemaking.org

when an "instant read" thermometer is called for, is that the "rapid read" that has a small round dial with a rubber ring, or is it some type of electronic gadget?

To be honest I'm not really sure. Most of the thermometers I've used tend to take 10-20 seconds to get up to temperature and ideally you don't really want to have bread out of the oven and cooling for that length of time so the shorter the time the better. I use my normal electronic thermometer.

This electronic thermometer is one of the fastest 4 secs and often recommended but its not cheap.

http://www.thermapen.co.uk/

Could it mean an infrared thermometer?

i ask because reinhardt swears by this device to measure the internal temperature of bread. however, it seems that opening the oven to remove the loaf for testing is iffy, and using my point and measure IR unit will only measure the surface temp, not the internal. ideally, one would want to put an ordinary round dial meat thermometer into the loaf. has anyone tried that?? does it degas the loaf?? could it be inserted halfway through baking when the loaf is rotated [i favor thato one]?? still confused.

When I bake bread in my wfo, I tend to leave the door on until its about time, take the door off pull a loaf to the entrance shove the thermometer in the centre of the loaf and take the temp. If the internal temp reaches 96c I take the loaf out otherwise give it an extra 5 minutes baking time.

Mitchamus, pretty sure it doesn't mean an IR thermometer, which as the CK points out would just measure the temp of the surface and it is the internal temp we are interested in.

I wouldn't stick the thermometer in until near the end of the baking as the crust may not be properly formed and the bread could, though probably wouldn't, collapse. There will be some de-gassing, I can normally see some steam escape when I push the probe in but not much, assuming that the bread crumb structure is good ie small air bubbles.

sorry didn't realise you guys were talking about internal temperatures...

Putting a meat thermometer into bread works. I've done it myself. Just wait until the crust has formed, so it won't collapse.

Just tried it for the first time

96 deg C and you are mine

It works

Dave