Temperature, what do you go by?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I use the probe to let me know when it's reached temperature and verify with the instant-read. I haven't noticed a difference between them, but I probably should check that. And I probably should calibrate more often. But from what I can tell by looking at the food after it's done, they've been accurate.

Two methods then. Thanks.

There were lots of times cooking chicken where my instant read, stuck in in several locations, said the chicken was done, but when it came off the grill and onto my plate I could plainly see (tell) it wasn't.
 
I have never had any luck with digital ones. They don't last. I have one that I bought at Walgreen's call "Cooks Good" and it has lasted for eons. It is your standard round face with the numbers printed right on it and easy to read. It says 'medium rare' for beef and when it shows that the meat is med. rare I take it off the heat. It is med. rare when I cut into it. It cost me something around the grand sum of $3.00. I love it!:angel:
 
I have never had any luck with digital ones. They don't last. I have one that I bought at Walgreen's call "Cooks Good" and it has lasted for eons. It is your standard round face with the numbers printed right on it and easy to read. It says 'medium rare' for beef and when it shows that the meat is med. rare I take it off the heat. It is med. rare when I cut into it. It cost me something around the grand sum of $3.00. I love it!:angel:

I like the analog style, needle, instant read type. Pocket type.

I've had my digital instant read for years and it hasn't even needed a battery. Digital thermometers are intrinsically accurate. If they work, they're right. Digital thermometers are also faster to register the final temp than analog.

That said, Dial types work too.
 
I've had my digital instant read for years and it hasn't even needed a battery. Digital thermometers are intrinsically accurate. If they work, they're right. Digital thermometers are also faster to register the final temp than analog.

That said, Dial types work too.

I just replaced the battery in my Thermapen after about 6-7 years. Still working great. I admit that I take particular care not to get anything but the probe wet, but otherwise it doesn't get any special treatment.
 
Digital scales used for reloading (ammunition) can get out of whack.
 
Surely we have to use our common sense here. Technology is all very well but if the probe says your chicken is cooked but blood comes out when you poke it with a knife then go with the knife, every time.

Our mothers and grandmothers and their's too, managed to feed their families without poisoning them despite not having digital food testers.
 
Surely we have to use our common sense here. Technology is all very well but if the probe says your chicken is cooked but blood comes out when you poke it with a knife then go with the knife, every time.

Our mothers and grandmothers and their's too, managed to feed their families without poisoning them despite not having digital food testers.

Actually, before refrigeration, people often suffered from food poisoning. I found this fascinating book on the history of the subject and might just order it: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/80927.php
 
Actually, before refrigeration, people often suffered from food poisoning. I found this fascinating book on the history of the subject and might just order it: New Book Focuses On Food Poisoning Throughout History - Medical News Today
Not if they were good, sensible and intelligent cooks with a reasonably good standard of housing they didn't. You shopped daily and ate what you cooked when it was cooked.

Even without refrigeration there were ways and means of storing foods in safe conditions. What do you think bottling/canning and salting were all about and the making of terrines in France - a way of preserving meat by sealing it under fat which kept it fresh for several weeks? Both my grandmothers had cold, dark larders with marble slabs, stoneware cheese storage containers which held the cheese above a reservoir of vinegar to keep the cheese in good condition (I have one of these and it works!), terracotta milk and butter "preservers" which were soaked in water and enclosed the jugs of milk or dishes of butter and which kept them cool by evaporation and a lot of other techniques and equipment that kept food edible.

Food poisoning is rife today - 460,000 cases due to Campylobacter alone a year in the UK according to the Food Standards Agency and 76 million cases of food related poisoning in the USA a year according to the W.H.O. Mostly due to poor hygiene in the home.

People seem to have forgotten the simple rules of food preparation and storage that were common knowledge in our Grandparents' day.
 
Last edited:
Not if they were good, sensible and intelligent cooks with a reasonably good standard of housing they didn't. You shopped daily and ate what you cooked when it was cooked. Even without refrigeration there were ways and means of storing foods in safe conditions. What do you think bottling/canning and salting were all about and the making of terrines in France - a way of preserving meat by sealing it under fat which kept it fresh for several weeks? Both my grandmothers had cold larders with marble slabs, stoneware cheese storage containers which held the cheese above a reservoir of vinegar to keep the cheese in good condition (I have one of these and it works!), terracotta milk and butter "preservers" which were soaked in water and enclosed the jugs of milk or dishes of butter and which kept them cool by evaporation and a lot of other techniques and equipment that kept food edible.

Food poisoning is rife today - 460,000 cases due to Campylobacter alone a year in the UK according to the Food Standards Agency and 76 million cases of food related poisoning in the USA a year according to the W.H.O. Mostly due to poor food hygiene in the home.

People seem to have forgotten the simple rules of food preparation and storage that were common knowledge in our Grandparents' day.

You know, I didn't make this up. Before the 1800s, people did not know about microorganisms; it has nothing to do with intelligence. Yes, people used some food preservation methods, but most people suffered from gastrointestinal distress frequently. That's a fact.

And your ancestors lived in a relatively cold climate, which helps, of course. Most people around the world do not.
 
You know, I didn't make this up. Before the 1800s, people did not know about microorganisms; it has nothing to do with intelligence. Yes, people used some food preservation methods, but most people suffered from gastrointestinal distress frequently. That's a fact.

And your ancestors lived in a relatively cold climate, which helps, of course. Most people around the world do not.
Isn't it surprising that the human race has survived.

I'm afraid intelligence DOES come into it. You are confusing intelligence wth education. Even in the days when even educated people wouldn't have recognised a micro-organism if it got up and bit them they still knew a great deal about what foods could make you ill and how to stop them doing so even if they didn't know the science behind why it made you ill. It wouldn't have taken a great deal of reasoning if your neighbour ate a piece of green meat and died that there might be a connection. Not everyone acted on this knowledge but that's the very reason that people still get food poisoning today.

As for hot countries, the use, for example, of spices used in Indian cooking were known as preservatives and anti-microbials substances (even though people didn't know about microbes) for many centuries.

By your theory the world's population should have died out several millennia ago. In fact (and I do mean fact) more people prior to the late 19th/20th centuries died from drinking contaminated water than from contaminated food. They didn't know why they it killed them but they knew it did so prior to the widespread availability of cheap tea which required the water to be BOILED, most people drank beer ,including children. They didn't work out that the water was killing them by microbial counts but by observation. It was observed, for example that Cistercian monks who lived in monasteries in sparsely populated areas often lived much longer lives than the inhabitants of towns. You only have to visit the remains of their monasteries in Yorkshire to realise that they had worked out the connection between sewage and illness, siting the reredorter (in modern parlance the lavatories/toilets/bathroom) down-stream of the rest of the building in particular, the kitchens. The connection between cleanliness and food was known and there are a number of documents giving advice to professional cooks of the need for being clean in their person when preparing food, going back to the Romans and beyond.

.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom