Kitchen (not meat) Themometers.

[Ahleckz]

I need a themometer. I've always been anti themometers, never really seeing the point in them. I trust my ability, I don't need to probe my chicken to make sure it is cooked. However, I am now deciding that my cooking could improve with the addition of better temperature control (I'm led to believe that my hobs have 7 different levels of heat, from 'off' to 'holy hell, too hot for Satan!', unfortunately I only know those two.

My other reason for getting one is Heston says it's the most important piece of kit you can buy (bar the essentials), and he knows his shiz!

So yea, what kitchen themometers do you use?

 

[Glaucus]

A Thermometr to do what?
An oven thermometer is pretty essential for baking. Most oven are well off the mark. This is what I use the most often. Especially as I have a crappy gas oven.
A probe temprature for carefully meat cooking, especially when you want it very rare but not raw.
And a jam theromometer for jam, some caramel/sugar based stuff, presserving stuff, oil temprature for deep frying.

It's sounds like you want one for the job, not sure why you would want that though, I haven't seen any used in that way.

 

[Ahleckz]

I was after one that would be a good all rounder really, can't afford to be getting a large assortment of them.
Would a digital probe, the kind you use for meat, be the best all rounder and OK for baking uses and what not?
Like I said, I've never felt the need for one, I cook based on my own judgement and sticking my finger into things. I just think that closely monitoring temperatures will make my cooking better.

 

[Glaucus]

Oven thermometer is about £4 of ebay and if your into baking cakes is pretty essential.
I used a cheap probe for everything else, but it broke. So can't advise much on that.
They come into there own for precise cooking. You can monitor meat and when it hits the exact temprature you want it's good to go.

 

[Jonny69]

Got a glass jam thermometer here.

 

[glitch]

So yea, what kitchen themometers do you use?

I use a Thermapen for everything outside of the oven and two oven thermometers for everything inside.

I should probably invest in a sugar thermometer too, if only for safety's sake.

 

[glitch]

I think you can get the wired probe ones which have two probes, so you whack one in the meat, then one to measure the oven temperature.

More for novelty factor than anything else. A decent oven thermometer and a cheap-ish probe would be a better combination for most people.

And the Salter Heston Blumenthal one is particularly useless. In fact, all of that range is!

 

[Doctor McNinja]

A word of advice regarding oven thermometers... pay no attention to response times. They don't matter when it comes to thermometers that are kept in the oven (as long as they're put in before the oven is heated or are given long enough to provide an accurate reading).

I use a Thermapen for everything outside of the oven and two oven thermometers for everything inside.

I should probably invest in a sugar thermometer too, if only for safety's sake.

I also have a Thermapen, it was a rather pricey but the readings are fast, reliable and and the range, which can be measured in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, of the thermometer is very good (-49.9 to 299.9°C). Another couple of words of advice to anyone who is considering buying a Thermapen-

1) It's quite common for the original Thermapen to be sold in place of the new "SuperFast" Thermapen 5. I ordered a Thermapen 5 only to get a Thermapen 1 through the post despite the fact the website in question had a picture of the Thermapen 5 and it's name in the description!...
2) ...which brings me to my second piece of advice. I ended up ordering direct from the manufacturer. That way I got the correct Thermapen and at a price that was cheaper than anything I found on amazon.

 

[Participant]

I have sugar, oven and meat / probe thermometers. All are extremely useful and get used every week, especially the meat thermometer.

 

[oli collett]

Does anyone know of a really good probe thermometer? I've had a couple die on me. I want something I can leave with some meat in the oven rather than a thermapen.

 

[bsoltan]

Ahleckz - did you settle on one in the end?

I'm in the need for an oven thermometer and meat thermometer but one for other uses would be good too.

At the moment I'm not convinced my oven settings is reaching the correct temperature.

 

[Van Hellseek]

I use a digital probe I picked up for a tenner, and also what's known as a "milk thermometer" though it can be used for other things ofc.

 

[Participant]

The thermometers I have are...

Meat (leave-in during cooking style):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Cra...WVDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330937345&sr=8-1

Meat (probe style):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/eSecure-Dig...40EW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330937345&sr=8-2

Oven:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TALA-4104-O...r_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1330937485&sr=1-3

Sugar / oil thermometer:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Cra...r_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1330937654&sr=1-1

All the above do their jobs well, though the probe version is quite slow to decide on a temperature. But then it's a lot cheaper than many others.

 

[Ahleckz]

Ahleckz - did you settle on one in the end?

I'm in the need for an oven thermometer and meat thermometer but one for other uses would be good too.

At the moment I'm not convinced my oven settings is reaching the correct temperature.

In the end I just got a cheepy dial one like Robbie posted above which I shove into my meat. Someone also bought me a fancy probe one which has different meats on which you can select and the doneness and it tells you when it's done.

However, I don't really use either of them that often.

 

[DcD]

My cooking ability increased ten fold when I got thermometers. Love the things. Don't have to poke and prod things to makes sure they're cooked. Sausages are perfect every time now - and none have to dissected first!