Ask Lemmy

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.

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.

For what?

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

Is that a euphemism?!

Only when I'm slow roasting something that take hours. I got a bluetooth meat thermometer as a gift a little while back and it's really convenient. There's an app that goes with it. I just set what type of meat it is and insert the thermometer and let it cook. The app tells me when the food is ready.

But that's only for large pieces of meat that take a long time. For anything on the stovetop or grill, or any smaller pieces of meat in the over/airfryer I just do it by feel. I've been cooking long enough that I can tell when a piece of meat is ready just by pushing on it to feel the firmness. And I have a pretty intuitive sense for how long something takes to cook.

No. I bought one but ended up continuing my practice of looking at the meat and then taking my chances.

I use mans natural thermometer. It has never failed me. I am also to broke to afford a real one

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

Found this and wanted to share! Thanks for the tip 🤯

(via [https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast]("Chicken" https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast#%3A%7E%3Atext=Pasteurization+Time+for-%2CChicken%2C-With+5%25+Fat))

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

Yes, when I have a flu.

Yep. I use an instant-read thermometer wherever I'm cooking whole pieces of meat. If I've cut it intobite-sized pieces, I do not. I don't cook beef at home anymore, but would only use it for things like roasts.

Pretty much only for poultry.

Only until I get the hang of a cooking technique - once I figure out something always takes 20 minutes to get there, I just do 20 minutes.

Yep. ThermoWorks is the brand I have.

I am a bit late to the party. Yes, I have a meat thermometer. No, I do not use it for meat, poultry or other animal matter. I do not cook meat that often and when I do, I usually know how to properly cook it without using a thermometer from experience. It's not that difficult unless you roast entire birds or anything.

I occasionally use it for measuring temperatures when brewing beer. I have a digital thermometer with a wide range (-40C to +200C-ish) and use it to check the temperature of the wort when pitching the yeast.

Yeah, mostly for turkey times, but also to make sure the water coming from my sink isn't boiling.

It is boiling, so more to make sure my attempts to cool it worked. Which those work fine.

Yes, for meats and breads.

Yep. I also keep an infrared thermometer in my kitchen. Sometimes it's really nice to know the surface temp of a pan too.

Yes. My meat thermometer is a fire and forget type where it automatically shuts off the heat once it reaches a certain temperature or preconfigured meat setting. It makes the air fryer a wonderful appliance when working on other foods simultaneously. Plus, I don't have to worry about unsafe temps, or overcooked food.

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

I use one.

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.