As a practical nerd, I have... a skepticism for high end equipment. Despite my love of geare, I tend to buy the minimum necessary to meet my needs. For a long time, that's meant spending $20-$25 on a few probe thermometers and stick thermometers that I've never been quite happy with, especially when trying to judge the doneness of tricky meats.
Recently, I decided to bite the bullet and see if the high end was all it was cracked up to be. And now I have a Thermapen. A proper, chefly Thermapen in fire engine red. Like this.
First thing I noticed? It turns on when you swing the probe out, and off when you fold it back. This is clever amd makes perfect sense.
Second thing I noticed is that when I snapped it open, it seemed to immediately read the correct room temperature. This was fucking astonishing, and something no kitchen thermometer I'd ever had before did. It either wouldn't read low enough for room temp, or wouldn't really read properly in the air, or whatever.
I've used it once in the past couple of weeks, because honestly, a few years of untrustworthy thermometers have given me a pretty good eye and feel for doneness. But some stuff, like, say, the side roast from a beef tenderloin that I want to come out nice and rare? Those things require an accurate, fast temp.
The fucker delivered. I know you probably don't need me to tell you this. Thermapen has a reputation. They're Alton-approved. What I can tell you, that a lot of other people can't, is that if you're balking at the $90 price tag, wondering whether it's ninety bucks worth of thermometer, or if such a thing as ninety dollars worth of thermometer is even a thing?
Yeah. It's a thing. If you have a mid-range electronic thermometer, and get irritated poking it into a piece of meat and watching it slowly zero in on what it thinks the temperature is? Maybe it's only 5-6 seconds, but you can get those seconds back. And more importantly, you're not standing there in front of a hot oven or pan, trying to get an accurate read.
You can get away without one, yes. I did for years. But truth be told, I also avoided things where precise doneness was an issue, because I knew it was going to be too much hassle. Now that I'm planning to delve into outdoor rotisserie, monitoring doneness is going to be key, and this is gonna do the job. And how.