Do you use a meat thermometer?

I find that the metal ones work better and are easier to keep clean. The meat one I had just didn't last long enough to be useful before it started to smell bad.

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

I don't eat meat, and don't seem to need them for other foods. I do use an IR thermometer though to check the temperature of the pan before putting food on it.

Yes, I have several of various types and use them extensively.

They are not necessary to cook, they are necessary to cook consistently.

I am an experienced cook and use one to produce consistent, on-target results. It more often prevents over-cooking, not under-cooking.

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.

Absolutely, and not just for meats. Anything that has a temperature requirement for best cooking method.

An instant-read thermometer is a game changer to make sure fish, meat, and anything else that needs it is properly cooked, and just as importantly, not over-cooked.

Yes. It will tell you what's happening where your eyes cannot see.

Yes, on the rare occasion I cook meat. Too unpracticed otherwise. I originally got one because I'm colorblind and was scared of undercooking red meat and tired of eating leather. As a bonus, I used it to get the temperature right when I got into fancier teas and inadvertently trained myself to judge the temperature of water pouring into my mug by the sound it makes within a couple °C, which is kinda neat. Now, if I could figure out how to do something similar so I stop overcooking food, that'd be grand...

Every time.

Im vegan

Perpetually, when cooking meat.

If I'm grilling I do.

I also use one for the bathtub for my toddlers bath. Haha

Yes! There wasn't a lot of meat prepared in my house as I was growing up, so I didn't get any experience with it. Having a meat thermometer means I don't need to guess. It's good.

I've started cooking meat a lil cooler than recommended, in theory that it's more tender. With a meat thermometer I know it's still good.

Every time. Worth doing every time as well.

Don't you?

Only for chicken, for salmonella reasons, and steak, because I'm terrible at judging doneness without it.

Yep, I am absolutely crap when it comes to judging the doneness of meat. I'll often over or under cook without one.

It also It makes things a lot less stressful when I cook. Rather than constantly going to the kitchen and checking if the roast (or whatever) is ready I just have a wireless thermometer I can look at while I play video games, read or something.

Didn't in the past, then got a digital one with a magnet so it sticks to the fridge and has safe temps for different meats on the back. Now I use it all the time

No

Yes, but never for meat. I use it when I make toffee, bake bread and some other things.

Yes, I frequently cook for my family and I use it on steaks, roasts, whole birds, pretty much anything big or where temperature is super important. I don't use it for chicken breast though as I tend to like that cooked beyond the recommended temperature anyway.

Yup, all the time, whether I'm cooking meat in the oven, on the grill, or on the stove top. They're so handy!

Yes. I like meat cooked medium well and husband prefers medium rare. He's as grossed out by overcooked as I am by undercooked. Without the thermometer he brings mine in too early.

Yes.

I only really need to for chicken.

100% but I like in the bird stuffing.

I always use one and the feeling when the meat just kisses the done temperature while it’s resting is almost as good as sex.

Yes.

Depends on what I'm cooking, but always for chicken breasts. Roasting at a high temperature works great (it's not the only way), but can mean the overcooking time is pretty small. It's an easy way to respect the bird and get the best results possible.

Thighs on the other hand, I just go by eye, you really have to try hard to overcook those.

Might be worth noting that using a thermometer well does require some amount of skill and experience, you need to insert it into the right location for the data to be repeatable. Easier to learn than cooking by eye, though.

I use for chicken and fish. As others have stated, it's as much to prevent overcooking as to ensure doneness. Especially with uneven sized filets it helps to know which ones to remove to rest and which to leave in a little longer.

I have one of those ones with an external probe, so I just set the temp I want on the thermometer and it beeps when the food is done.

Sometimes. Probably should more often, but when you cook something enough times to know when it's done, it makes it a bit redundant.

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

I was so confused for a moment

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.

Yes, when I have a flu.

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.

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.

Only for whole birds, everything else I pretty much low and slow cook so I know its done, and steaks I eat bloody.

Depends on the meat, if it's beef, I don't. If it's poultry or pork, yes, because I don't trust myself enough to not get food poisoning.

For roasts, yes. For steaks, no.

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.