Yes. Accurate temperatures guarantee good results. Sous vied is also wonderful for stress free prep of expensive meats.
Sous vide was a game changer for me. I don't use mine often but break it out when I want to convince people I am not terrible at cooking.
Just wish that it wasn't necessary to use so much plastic for it. If there was any sort of plant-based film that food could be sealed in instead, it'd be perfect.
Try the reverse sear method instead. You get sous vise like results with no plastic, no water bath, just an oven and a pan.
I use my toaster oven to do the precook while searing off vegetables in my pan or baking in the larger oven, then get the pan wicked hot and sear the steak. Fast, excellent mutlitasking. Works well for pork chops too.
Its a much better cook than sous vide imo.
I find it to basically be exactly the same, but almost no setup. No filling a pot/container with water, putting the stick heater in, ziplocking or vacuum sealing the meat, then waiting an hour+ for it to hit temperature.
Toss the steaks on a tray, preheat toaster oven in 5 min to 225f, prep and cook the rest of the meal and the sear off the steaks after 20min. Easy as fuck.
It's also great for cheap beef. You can throw a tri-tip or brisket in there and run it for literal days until you have meat as tender as the deli counter, while also being med-rare throughout.
I think possibly the best steak I ever had/made was a cheap chuck steak that I gave a nice long sous vide treatment
There is a whole lot of flavor there, but it can be as tough as shoe leather, but with sous vide it came out as tender as any filet, but way beefier
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.
Interesting. I heard that chicken needs to be cooked to 165F. Do you let it rest (and does that get it to eventually reach 165F?)
I just want juicy chicken that won't give me diarrhea!
I always heard 165 too, but I looked at the chart on the meat thermometer and it said 155 for breast. I tried it out and it's much juicer.
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...
Only for chicken, for salmonella reasons, and steak, because I'm terrible at judging doneness without it.
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.
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.
My SO bought something like this, used it twice, and never again. I find it to be kind of a pain in the ass and have never used it. But I mostly grill shrimp or fish.
Every time.
Perpetually, when cooking meat.
If I'm grilling I do.
I also use one for the bathtub for my toddlers bath. Haha
Yup, all the time, whether I'm cooking meat in the oven, on the grill, or on the stove top. They're so handy!
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. 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.
No
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.
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.
I was so confused for a moment
Sometimes. Probably should more often, but when you cook something enough times to know when it's done, it makes it a bit redundant.
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.
100% but I like in the bird stuffing.
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 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.
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.
Yes.
No. I bought one but ended up continuing my practice of looking at the meat and then taking my chances.
That's what I call it when my SO gives me a BJ when she has a fever.
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.
Only for whole birds, everything else I pretty much low and slow cook so I know its done, and steaks I eat bloody.
For roasts, yes. For steaks, no.
Mine has been upgraded to an oil thermometer, as meat consumption is not only highly immoral, but also self-destructive in the long run.
You're not a tool because you're vegan/vegetarian. You're a tool because you're a stereotype of one.
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.
Im vegan
Depends on the meat, if it's beef, I don't. If it's poultry or pork, yes, because I don't trust myself enough to not get food poisoning.
Yes. A good one (reads fast, replaceable parts) makesoit easier to cook.
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