Technology may have advanced far enough to clone animals and send us into space, but sadly, it still can't give us a fool-proof oven. We turn that little dial or push that button to get the right temperature (so we think), but the oven just does what it wants anyways. 500 is 460, 375 is 360, and soon our carefully prepared meal is a mess. Luckily, you can regain control over the fire-breathing beast with a simple oven thermometer.
They cost less than $10 and will ensure you are working with the right temperature every time.
Want to take it a step further? Creating the perfect bread or meat is simple when you invest in a probe or instant-read thermometer. (It can even help with tea!) Sure, there are ways to check doneness -- how your food reacts to a tap or a squeeze -- but this can be confusing for new cooks and lead to improperly cooked food, so why risk it? If you still want to learn those subtle techniques (like the finger-press test), practice while taking the temperature to find out just how right you were. And that's always pretty satisfying, no?
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