Why Every Kitchen Needs a Thermometer (and Which One to Buy)

In all the years I’ve been writing about “food hacks,” there’s one that I’d like to completely eradicate from the internet. It’s the old “test the steak is done by touching parts of your palm” trick, and it sucks, man. There are thermometers here , and using them is the easiest and safest way to determine if your meat is “done.”

If you’re going to take cooking seriously or even remotely, you’ll need a thermometer, and it needs to be digital. Analog dial thermometers are slow and unreliable, and reliability is important when cooking anything that could potentially cause food poisoning (like chicken).

No one can tell the internal temperature of a chicken breast or a two-inch ribeye with their eyes (or even their fingers). The thermometer will tell you what’s going on there, so you can remove your food from the heat when it’s cooked to your liking, and not a moment sooner. It will protect you from your germ enemies, ensuring your food isn’t dangerously undercooked or disgustingly dry. I have discussed the importance of a thermometer in detail , but let me remind you that it is essential when preparing any of the following foods:

• Perfectly cooked steaks, chicken and more. Gone are the days of worrying about overcooking that beautifully marbled ribeye or drying out that fried chicken—you’ll always know the exact internal temperature of your favorite meat.
• Tempering chocolate. Tempering chocolate is a lot more complicated than just melting it in a bowl. In fact, it is a multi-step process involving heating and cooling to several different temperatures. This can be done without a thermometer, but it is much easier with one.
• Checking the Ice Cream Base: Unless you’re preparing the base sous vide , it can be difficult to tell if your custard has reached the right temperature. A good thermometer will help you make sure you’re making ice cream and not scrambled eggs.
• Bake better baked goods: Not only can a thermometer tell you when your breads, cakes and other baked goods are done, it can tell you when you’ve reached the ideal water temperature for the yeast, instead of relying on your finger. which is not so accurate.
• Making candy. Beyond chocolate, a good thermometer will help you make the perfect candy—from marshmallows to lollipops—without the hassle of fiddling with hard and soft balls.

Honestly, it’s worth it just for the meat. There is nothing sadder than overcooked meat.

How to choose your first kitchen thermometer

If you cook meat at all, you’ll need an instant-read digital thermometer. If you make candy or deep fry frequently, you may also want something that clips to the edge of the pan so you don’t have to hold a thermometer while stirring the pan of boiling sugar. You want a thermometer that responds quickly, is reasonably waterproof, easy to read, and most importantly, accurate.

The Best Budget Thermometers for the Home Cook

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a thermometer, especially your first one. Here are my favorite options under $50.

Best All-In-One Instant Read Thermometer: ThermoWorks ThermoPop

There is one thermometer that is regularly called “the best” by food experts and publications: the ThermoWorks ThermoPro. This thermometer will set you back $100, but it has a smaller brother, the ThermoPop , which costs just $35.

This cute, colorful thermometer provides “ultra-fast readings on a huge 1 ¼-inch auto-rotating backlit screen” and boasts “high accuracy to ±1°F (±0.5°C).” It is powered by a long-lasting lithium battery that has a service life of approximately 4000 hours. It’s also waterproof, so it won’t steam or break if you drop it into a pot of boiling sauce. It is easy to use; just stick it into your food, wait two or three seconds, and read the temperature on the dial (with confidence).

Best Thermometer for Smoking and Roasting: ThermoWorks Dot Simple Alarm Thermometer

This is a good choice if you tend to be forgetful, like control, or want to try your hand at smoking meat. Designed to stay in food for long cooking times, it’s not as fast as the ThermoPop, but that’s okay; it’s not obligatory. This is exactly the thermometer you need in your Thanksgiving turkey . Insert the probe, set the target temperature (using the only two buttons on the device), place the food in the oven and display on the oven (there is a magnet inside it for this purpose).

The Dot was designed with commercial kitchens in mind, is splash-proof and comes with a 4-1/2-inch sensor that measures temperatures up to 572°F and a cable that can withstand temperatures up to 700°F. If you want to upgrade it later, you you can always replace the probe with something more interesting .

Best Digital Clip Thermometer: ThermoPro TP510 Waterproof Digital Candy Thermometer

This is a thermometer for pastry shops and deep fryers. It has a long eight-inch probe and a large, easy-to-read digital display that gives accurate readings to the tenth of a degree and can be attached to pots of boiling sugar and hot oil. It has a wide operating temperature range, from 57℉ to 572℉, making it safe for high-temperature cooking.

Best Bluetooth Thermometer: ThermoPro Wireless Meat Thermometer

I don’t know if everyone needs it, but I can say that it makes things a lot easier. My Bluetooth-enabled thermometer is my best friend at Thanksgiving: being able to check my turkey with my phone quells my worries and keeps me mobile (which is super important for Turkey Day).

This thermometer has two probes, so you can measure two things at once, like the breast and thigh of a bird, or the temperature of the first pork shoulder , as well as the true temperature of the grill (those scales are on the top of the Weber kettle). are fake). This thermometer has a Bluetooth range of 650 feet and can measure temperatures up to 572°F with an accuracy of ±1.8°F. You can also set alarms to know when your food reaches a set temperature or even five, 10, or 15 degrees from this temperature, so you never have to worry about ruining an expensive piece of animal or bird.