Last time I looked, the thermometer they were using was the Thermapen Instant Read, available from the Baker's Catalog (King Arthur flour). It was their top-rated, but comes with a $79.00 price-tag! I got it for my DH two years ago, and it really is a wonderful tool--very accurate, thin probe so you can even use it to check chicken breasts. I also use it to check the temperature of ingredients, etc. One caveat--be very careful when washing--we got a bit sloppy, got some water inside, and the circuit board went. The company that manufactures the thermometer very cheerfully gave us a new thermometer for less than the cost of replacing the circuit board (it had been out a warranty over a year...) Now we carefully wipe it down with a slightly damp cloth. I've included a link to our source, but the link into this particular thermometer seems to be broken.... Here is a link that might be useful: Catalog with thermometers

Let's see - in my thermometer collection I currently have 1 freezer, 3 or 4 instant read, 2 wireless Oregon scientific (both dead), 2 oven, 3 candy. I've discarded about 6-10 Taylors, Polders and various others - some basic, some fancy, some wireless, some wired. None of them is worth a d*mn. They are inaccurate, take too long to come to equilibrium, fail unpredictably and fatally. The only thermometer which I have found to be reliable is the thermopen. Having typed this I am afraid that it's going to die tomorrow when I have to smoke a huge load of ribs and chicken. I had high hopes for the Oregon Scientific units which are very nice wireless thermometers. They have silly presets which can be ignored. The first one lasted the longest of all this sad lot - perhaps 3 years? Then it failed Thanksgiving eve and I was forced to use the instant (not!) thermometers to roast my turkey. The replacement Oregon Scientific lasted a year. I kept all the pieces thinking I would get a third, but I can only be suckered so many times! As I understand it, the problem is the thermocouple, the most expensive part of the thermometer. Making one that can stand up to regular abuse in home kitchens just isn't that reliable. The maddening part is that once in a while someone gets a gem and tells the world how wonderful it is. Perhaps you can tell this is a fetish with me. I am a scientist by training and nature. I like my data to be precise, accurate and repeatable. Right now I have a probe thermometer which is a feature of the Electrolux oven. It plugs into a socket inside the oven at the top so can't be kinked, twisted or otherwise mishandled. So far (8 months) it's been reliable and reasonably accurate. I check on it with the thermopen because I'm obsessive. BTW dcarch, the thermopen works perfectly well when used in a pan over induction. I used it to check how long the cooktop took to bring water to a boil. It's pretty cool (sorry to sound so geeky) to watch the rate of temperature change as the water heated (2 minutes and change to bring 1 quart of water to full rolling boil). Cheryl

"The one I recently used was a basic one that stays in the food in the oven. I was cooking pork sausages. The recipe said 30 to 35 min. Before that I looked and it was way over 200 degrees. " If you are using a mechanical (bi-metal) dial-face probe thermometer, you can be getting highly inaccurate readings. "In general do people tend to over cook meat? " That's true, or a good part of the meat is overcooked. "When the meat reaches the correct temp does it have to be there for a certain amount of time or is it completely done? " It depends on what you mean by correct temperature. There is a term called "Resting time" and "carry-over heat", which you can get a more through explanation by Googling. "Can you use a thermometer in a slow cooker? " I suppose you can use a remote read thermometer, but you should only use a thermometer to take occasional readings. Slow cooker cooks best with the cover on. "I feel this must be some secret that good cooks keep to themselves as I have never known anyone who has ever used one. " Good cooks use good thermometers regularly. "--- I will say I'm a little intimidated on this forum as half the time I don't even know what you guys are talking about :) " That mean the other half of the time you know what they are talking about, not bad at all. :-) dcarch

HmmmÂ.funny I should read this as I'm in the final hours of cooking a pork butt on the grill for pulled pork. I have a fairly decent instant read thermometer at home but I'm at my weekend lake place for Labor Day and the one I have here (just bought this year because the other one I had was a POS) leaves something to be desired. So far I haven't been able to bring myself to buy a thermapen but maybe I should just end the chronic misery of an unreliable meat thermometer once and for all. I could put it in the tote bag I carry back and forth with me - as I'm sure once I have one I will never want to use anything else and I surely do not want to buy two of them.