Ask Lemmy

If I'm grilling I do.

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

Hell yeah I do and now my meat is always cooked to perfection!

Yes. A good one (reads fast, replaceable parts) makesoit easier to cook.

No

Pretty much only for poultry.

Yes.

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.

No, but I spent a lot of time and money practicing to cook the perfect steak. Now I can eyeball it and adjust the time as needed for a splendid outcome. My partner does most of the other cooking.

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.

Yes.

For what?

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, 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.

No. I overcook my meat but I don't really care since I don't eat it that often at home. Just another thing to wash up afterward.

Yes. Untrustworthy oven in old apartment, weird convection oven in house that I don’t fully understand yet.

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

I'm a pretty experienced chef and worked in kitchens for almost 10 years. I liked to pride myself in making steaks on temp by just touch or even looking at it, depending on the cut of course. But when it comes to things like chicken, absolutely. If I wing it (get it?) I end up overcooking it to "be safe." But with a thermometer you can get it just right without ruining the chicken. I used to hate chicken when I was a kid because my parents always over cooked it to hell and back. Nowadays, now that I know how to cook chicken and use a thermometer, chicken is easily my favorite meat.

100% but I like in the bird stuffing.

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.

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.

Nah. What's the Benefit of using one?

I was so confused for a moment

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

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

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.

Only for whole birds, everything else I pretty much low and slow cook so I know its done, and steaks I eat bloody.

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

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

for brisket and pork shoulder in the smoking chamber, or turkey in the oven, but never when cooking any meat on a skillet or in a crockpot

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.

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.

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