Acquainting Yourself with a Kitchen Thermometer: How to Get Started

When it comes to cooking, you cannot undermine the importance of measuring the temperature. Kitchen thermometers are effective and inexpensive cooking tools that need to be a part of every kitchen. Whether it is cooking meat, egg products, candy, or poultry, using a kitchen thermometer ensures your food is cooked at the right temperature and helps you prevent undercooking. To avoid food borne illnesses, it is essential you verify the food has reached a safe minimum internal temperature to kill harmful bacteria and other microorganisms.

Why Should You Use A Kitchen Thermometer?

Using a kitchen thermometer is the only reliable way you can ensure and verify the doneness of meat and poultry. To be safe for consumption, these foods need to be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature to destroy bacteria and other harmful microorganisms. Most people rely on their instincts and on their senses, such as touch and sight, to check the doneness of meat, unfortunately appearances can be deceiving and by opting for such careless methods, one is always at a risk of serving undercooked or even raw foods.

As much as people claim, color is not a reliable indicator in order to determine the doneness of food. Many people believe they can simply rely on color change to determine if their meat has been cooked properly to kill pathogens and other bacteria. This, however, is not the case. Burger patties may change color and appear brown but this does not mean it has reached the optimal temperature in which bacteria and pathogens have been destroyed. Therefore, using a meat thermometer eliminates guesswork and also eliminates the risk of feeding your family raw and undercooked meat.

Types of Kitchen Thermometers

There are many different types of thermometers designed for different purposes:

• All-Purpose Digital Thermometers: All-purpose digital thermometers are the best option for you if you are not a fan of waiting for your thermometer to display results. All-purpose thermometers can be used for various purposes, for example cooking meat, baked goods and even sweets.
• Meat Thermometers: Meat thermometers are exclusively used to ensure the temperature of meat is sufficient enough to destroy harmful bacteria.
• Sugar Thermometer: Bakers and sweet makers are not ignorant of this helpful device. An experienced baker knows of the importance of bringing the sugar up to just the right temperature if they want their sweets to turn out perfectly.
• Milk Thermometer: This specialized thermometer is used to check the temperature of milk for making your favorite frothy cup of coffee, latter or cappuccino.
• Appliance Thermometers: Appliances thermometers are designed for using inside appliances, such as refrigerators and grills.

Types of Digital Thermometers

Digital thermometers are the most common types of thermometers as it guarantees instant read and accurate readings. Digital food thermometers include:

• Thermocouple: Of all kinds of thermometers, thermocouple thermometers are the fastest and can display results within 2 to 5 seconds.
• Thermistor-style Thermometers: Thermistor-style thermometers use a resistor to measure temperature. While thermistor-style thermometers can display results in 10 seconds these thermometers are not designed to be inserted in the food while cooking.
• Thermometer Fork Combination: This device combines a cooking fork with a thermometer that can display the temperature of meat while grilling.

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