When the thermometer says 375°F and the beignets go up in smoke in their normal fry time, something is amiss. My first response was to question my dough. Did I make something wrong? It didn’t occur to me that the infrared thermometer could be off. I fried another single doughnut, a different dough, and it too went up in smoke quickly. Only then did I begin to question the thermometer. I shut the heat off and began searching the kitchen for a second thermometer. I was alone, prepping in a strange kitchen, cooking doughnuts in a pot on the stove. I finally got relief when another chef showed up with a thermometer in their kit. Their thermometer registered 475°F. I had the answer to my burnt beignets. I added additional oil to the pot to cool it down and waited. When the oil reached 375°F I was off to the races. I re-learned a lesson I thought I knew quite well. Travel with a backup thermometer. Because not all thermometers tell the truth.
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