Whether you have a fancy gas grill or a humble charcoal kettle, nothing is more key to the success of your grilled meat than its temperature when you take it off the fire.
Remove your beautiful steaks, dogs or chicken too soon, and you've got an unappealing raw center that's not safe to eat; let your food go too long, and dinner is dry and tough. An accurate thermometer can be your best friend.
With that in mind, we fired up the backyard Weber and tried out three thermometers, each with different attributes. Our favorite was a talking model that helped us achieve juicy burgers and a succulent leg of lamb without having to hover over the grill.
kate.shatzkin@baltsun.com
BEST THERMOMETER OREGON SCIENTIFIC
GRILL RIGHT WIRELESS TALKING BBQ AND OVEN THERMOMETER
Price: $59.95
Available at: amazon.com; oregonscientificstore.com
Temperature range: 32 to 572 degrees
Bells and whistles -- or, in this case, an overly chirpy voice that speaks five languages -- can come in handy when you want to both grill and mingle with your guests. The probe transmits a wireless signal to a handset that you can wear on your belt (if you don't mind looking a little geeky) up to 330 feet away. The handset has temperatures for eight kinds of meat, poultry and fish programmed into its memory, and the voice alerts you when your feast is "nearly done" -- five degrees from the desired temperature -- as well as "done." (Note that some of these temperatures are higher than most chefs would use. If you don't want to wait until your chicken reaches 180 degrees to take it off the fire, you can override the program and set your own temperature.)
ALSO TESTED
TAYLOR
MEAT THERMOMETER
Price: $19.95
Available at: Crate & Barrel
Temperature range: 120 to 200 degrees
This low-tech model has a pleasing retro design -- with recommended temperatures for poultry, pork, beef and ham -- and a palatable price. It performed consistently, but ran about 5 degrees hotter than the Oregon Scientific model when we used it on both the burgers and lamb. You'll have to keep returning to the grill to check it, especially toward the end of cooking, when internal temperature usually rises rapidly.
CDN
INFRARED THERMOMETER
Price: $39.95
Available at: kitchenkaboodle.com
Temperature range: minus 67 to 428 degrees
This little gizmo, which scans for temperature so that it doesn't have to touch anything, accurately gauged the surface temperature of our grill, and would be similarly handy on a pan. It also can help guide you on whether that potato salad is safe to eat (bacteria grow most rapidly when food is left in the "danger zone" of 40 to 140 degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture). But this thermometer can't give you internal temperatures, the most important way to determine the doneness of food.
A MATTER OF DEGREES
Your thermometer is your guide to cooking meat; but what's the temperature you're looking for?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to keep you safe by recommending internal temperatures high enough to kill bacteria. But the internal temperature of cooked meat rises as the meat rests off the fire (and you are resting your meat for about 10 minutes after you grill it, aren't you?). So many chefs take their meat off the flame at a lower temperature to keep it from drying out.
In recent years, the USDA has lowered some of its temperature recommendations in recognition of this dynamic, but some thermometer settings haven't caught up. Here's the latest advice: (See hard copy)