Ask Lemmy

I use one.

I am an experienced cook and use one to produce consistent, on-target results. It more often prevents over-cooking, not under-cooking.

Yes. Accurate temperatures guarantee good results. Sous vied is also wonderful for stress free prep of expensive meats.

Yes. Especially for chicken breasts. It's easy enough to know for sure they're done, but they're much easier to eat as soon as they hit 155F. My immune system has never questioned my chicken, but my taste buds are very thankful for the meat thermometer.

Yes, on the rare occasion I cook meat. Too unpracticed otherwise. I originally got one because I'm colorblind and was scared of undercooking red meat and tired of eating leather. As a bonus, I used it to get the temperature right when I got into fancier teas and inadvertently trained myself to judge the temperature of water pouring into my mug by the sound it makes within a couple °C, which is kinda neat. Now, if I could figure out how to do something similar so I stop overcooking food, that'd be grand...

Yes! There wasn't a lot of meat prepared in my house as I was growing up, so I didn't get any experience with it. Having a meat thermometer means I don't need to guess. It's good.

I've started cooking meat a lil cooler than recommended, in theory that it's more tender. With a meat thermometer I know it's still good.

Only for chicken, for salmonella reasons, and steak, because I'm terrible at judging doneness without it.

Yes. It will tell you what's happening where your eyes cannot see.

Yes, I have several of various types and use them extensively.

They are not necessary to cook, they are necessary to cook consistently.

Yes, vitally important when running a grill. I have one with 4 probes, one measures grill temp and 3 for meats.

https://buythermopro.com/product/tp25

Yes, but never for meat. I use it when I make toffee, bake bread and some other things.

Perpetually, when cooking meat.

Every time.

If I'm grilling I do.

I also use one for the bathtub for my toddlers bath. Haha

Hell yeah, if I didn't everything would come out of my kitchen double well done.

Yep, I am absolutely crap when it comes to judging the doneness of meat. I'll often over or under cook without one.

It also It makes things a lot less stressful when I cook. Rather than constantly going to the kitchen and checking if the roast (or whatever) is ready I just have a wireless thermometer I can look at while I play video games, read or something.

No

I only really need to for chicken.

Yup, all the time, whether I'm cooking meat in the oven, on the grill, or on the stove top. They're so handy!

I find that the metal ones work better and are easier to keep clean. The meat one I had just didn't last long enough to be useful before it started to smell bad.

Yes. I like meat cooked medium well and husband prefers medium rare. He's as grossed out by overcooked as I am by undercooked. Without the thermometer he brings mine in too early.

Yes, I frequently cook for my family and I use it on steaks, roasts, whole birds, pretty much anything big or where temperature is super important. I don't use it for chicken breast though as I tend to like that cooked beyond the recommended temperature anyway.

Every time. Worth doing every time as well.

Don't you?

I use for chicken and fish. As others have stated, it's as much to prevent overcooking as to ensure doneness. Especially with uneven sized filets it helps to know which ones to remove to rest and which to leave in a little longer.

Nah. What's the Benefit of using one?

I always use one and the feeling when the meat just kisses the done temperature while it’s resting is almost as good as sex.

I have one of those ones with an external probe, so I just set the temp I want on the thermometer and it beeps when the food is done.

Sometimes. Probably should more often, but when you cook something enough times to know when it's done, it makes it a bit redundant.

Yes.

100% but I like in the bird stuffing.

I was so confused for a moment

I don't eat meat, and don't seem to need them for other foods. I do use an IR thermometer though to check the temperature of the pan before putting food on it.

Depends on what I'm cooking, but always for chicken breasts. Roasting at a high temperature works great (it's not the only way), but can mean the overcooking time is pretty small. It's an easy way to respect the bird and get the best results possible.

Thighs on the other hand, I just go by eye, you really have to try hard to overcook those.

Might be worth noting that using a thermometer well does require some amount of skill and experience, you need to insert it into the right location for the data to be repeatable. Easier to learn than cooking by eye, though.

Yes.

Absolutely, and not just for meats. Anything that has a temperature requirement for best cooking method.

An instant-read thermometer is a game changer to make sure fish, meat, and anything else that needs it is properly cooked, and just as importantly, not over-cooked.

Yes and always. Between learning how to reverse sear and using a meat thermometer, my steak game gained 99 levels once I had quantitative data as to the actual temperature of the meat.

I'm sure there are savants out there that can tell doneness by poke or reading thrown rat bones but most of us without a thermometer are only pretending to know and likely ruining an expensive piece of meat.