The Best Probe Thermometers of 2023

We should all be aware how important it is to owna quick, accurate, and easy to use digital meat thermometer. It’s the only way toreallyknow whether your meat is finished cooking. The only problem with a digital thermometer? You need to open the oven or smoker door to check the temperature, letting out precious heat or smoke in the process. It would be so much easier to stick a probe into the meat before you start cooking and let it do all the work for you. Our top pick for probe thermometers—theThermoWorks ChefAlarm(available at ThermoWorks)—does just that.

A probe thermometer is incredibly helpful when cooking large cuts of meat. It will prevent you from overcooking yourThanksgiving turkeyturkey, Sunday roast, or pulled pork on thesmoker, by alerting you when the meat reaches the right temperature. But, it can do so much more than that. If you're a cheesemaker or dabble in candy making, you can dangle the probe over the side of the pot when heating milk or sugar, keeping your hands safely far away from those dangerously hot temperatures.

We wanted to find the best overall probe thermometer—good for meat and more—so we ordered the top-rated digital probe thermometers and put them through a series of tests.

How We Tested Probe Thermometers

The Tester

Hi, I’m Lindsay Mattison, a trained professional chef andbarbecue狂热者。没有什么我爱超过扔ing a tough cut of meat like pork shoulder or brisket onto the smoker and watching the transformation. All it needs to do is hit the right temperature and it magically turns into a shreddable, melt-in-your-mouth tender meal. I gained the confidence to cook these kinds of meats because of a good probe thermometer that precisely and accurately alerts me when the meat is finished. I’d love to help you do the same!

The Tests

After selecting top-rated wired and wireless probe thermometers, we put them through a series of tests to see if they would earn our seal of approval. We were looking for thermometers that wereaccurate,fast, andeasy to use.

Accuracyis the most important aspect of any thermometer. You need to be able to trust that your food is the temperature it says, otherwise there’s no point in using a thermometer at all! We dropped the thermometers in ice water to make sure they read 32° F before testing them in boiling water (which should register 212° F at sea level, or 200.5° F at my elevation).

Next up were ourspeedtests. Speed isn’t as important for a probe thermometer as it is for an instant-read thermometer, but it still gives us a good indicator at how well-constructed the product is. We clocked the speed at which each probe measured ice and boiling water and averaged the results.

Finally, a probe thermometer is no good if it’s noteasy to use. We stuck the probes in a pork loin and threw it in the smoker. We tried to set the target temperatures without consulting the manual and listened to make sure the alarm was loud enough to hear. If the probe was a wireless model, we assessed whether the sync was intuitive and how far it would work away from the probe itself.

What You Should Know About Probe Thermometers

Unlikeinstant-read thermometers, probe thermometers are designed to monitor real-time internal temperatures. They’re inserted into the thickest part of the meat while it’s still raw, allowing you to pinpoint the exact moment your food reaches its ideal temperature. It’s a fool-proof way to ensure you don’t accidentally overcook a chicken in a moment of distraction, and it’s almost essential for low-and-slow cooking projects like smoked brisket.

The wires are usually designed to withstand hot oven and grill temperatures. Most probe thermometers have a magnet that can attach to the side of a grill, and some also come with a clip that allows you to use them when making cheese, candy, or measuring deep-fryer oil temperatures.

Many models only have one probe channel and require your presence to view the temperature data. Others are wireless, using Bluetooth or WiFi to connect to your smartphone via an app, or use a wireless remote to allow you to view the temperature remotely.

选择合适的探头温度计

有几件事要考虑当捡a probe thermometer. If you do a lot of backyard grilling or smoking, you may want a base unit that has multiple channels to monitor several different roasts at once. Some models are even compatible with ambient temperature probes, allowing you to measure the temp inside the grill.

From there, think about the functionality you need. Do you need a probe with a built-in timer? Or the ability to set a high- and low-temperature alarm? That might be helpful in recipes that call for increasing or decreasing the oven or grill temperature during certain cooking periods. Will you need to monitor the temperature from afar? This functionality is fantastic for long-cooking items like pulled pork and brisket, so you can go inside and still hear the alarm when it sounds. Are graphs, cooking tutorials, and advanced data collection important to you? A probe thermometer with a smartphone app might be right for you.

Finally, the ability to calibrate a thermometer is a serious bonus. Accuracy tends to creep as the probe ages, and being able to reset the thermometer keeps you from spending extra money. The only probes we tested that had calibration functionality were from ThermoWorks, but many companies sell replacement probes that aren’t too expensive.

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Other Probe Thermometers We Tested

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