buying a meat thermometer - need advice :-)

[curious aardvark]

right as I'm in the uk I can't just walk into wally world and buy something cheap that works.
So here's a webpage with lots of different ones.
http://www.richmondcookshop.co.uk/in...FROI1Qodgyz_QA

here's the one I'm looking at getting as it seems to be the only one I can leave in the meat and check the temp without opening the smoker and poking the meat.
http://www.richmondcookshop.co.uk/pr...828098c18d34ef
Plus it's not totally expensive.

And before you tell me - yes I know these things are at least half the price in the states. lol
If it wasn't for the air fare and the 8 hour flight I'd do all my shopping at walmart ;-)

Anyway I'm open to your experience and advice on this people. As I've never used any kind of meat thermometer.

 

[flash]

I like the ones you can put the probe in meat and close the door like the second link you provided. Accurite makes one for around $15.00
How about looking on eBay UK ?

 

[richoso1]

I have two Taylor's and a Polder like the type Flash mentioned, simple and accurate as long as you check calibration before using them on meat.

 

[walking dude]

Mavericks ET-73 Redi-Chek is what i use................great thermo and its remote...............

 

[fishawn]

Polder here, so far no problems for this one.

 

[queen p]

Asda in UK is owned by Walmart. Should have a lot of the same stuff.
Pay for my fare (and my SO's) on the QM2 crossing -hmm, no make it the QE2 back home, Oct 10 from So'ton to NYC- and I'll bring you a dozen different meat thermometers!

I just Googled "meat thermometers, UK" and got a lot of good hits back! Check it out!

(BTW, I NEVER shop WalMart. I object to some of their practices. We fought them in my town and won!) YMMV

I bought two thermos (besides the dubious one that came with the smoker) I really like the one that sends the temp wirelessly to a base unit so you can sit inside in your jammies and throw on a pair of shorts when it's ready or needs spritzing.

Let us know what you find.
I bought mine at Cabelas.

Find a good hunting store- They might carry cooking hunting camping accessories- For what you do with the meat you bagged. I suppose we could ask you to post QView of smoked Fox? <LOL>

Or do they actually eat them (Yeah, I know fox hunts with dogs have been outlawed in the UK- They still happen though!) And I stayed near a Lowes/Home Depot type place in April in So'ton. Will ask the SO if he saw grilling smoking accessories there when he walked over to buy some stuff we needed.

Karie,
might make it back to England some time this year!

 

[curious aardvark]

lol yes walmart own asda - but you'd never know from going in an asda.
Nope none of the same sort of stuff asda is a very down market shop that caters primarily to those who live on prepackaged crap. If it doesn't have at least 20% fat, loads of salt and chemicals coming out of it's proverbial rear end - asda probably don't sell it.
I've never been in a supermarket in the states or canada that's quite as low rent as asda. And I love wandering around other countries supermarkets.
I did check the asda website (thinking along the same walmart lines) and meat thermometer - the best result I got was a wine cooler lol.
Asda shoppers don't cook their own meat :-)

Hunting stores. Well we sort of have those. They sell fishing kit, airguns, and shotgun kit. Cooking ? Don't be silly. :-)
Even my dads shooting magazines don't carry adverts for cooking paraphernalia.

b&q or similiar type store (the lowes equivalent) they sell the odd grill - actually there is an outside chance they might do meat thermometers. Though when I was looking at gas bbqs recently I never saw any.

At the end of the day shops in the uk and shops in the us are VERY different. Give me a wallmart over a tesco, sainsburys, morrisons or asda any day of the week.
There are no shops in the uk that sell both food and guns under the same roof.
I suppose my beloved costco comes closest to being a us style shop. But then it is :-)
They've made the fewest concessions to the standard british shopping peccadillos.

And yep I know about tho whole corporate taking over the world thing. Alas I've never been wealthy enough to confine my shopping to the less well stocked and more expensive smaller non-chain shops.
I used to have a really great local butcher, but he sold up and built a bunch of houses on the site.

Ebay. hmm, didn't think about ebay - I'm not a huge fan lol
But I can take a look.
I actually posted the link to the page with lots of meat thermometers in the (apparently forlorn lol) hope that someone would actually look at them and point me at a decent product. Telling me what you use - if I can't get one - doesn't help that much, sorry :-)

But from reading the forum I gather that pretty much any cheap digital thermometer should do the trick.
I'll let you know what I end up with :-)

 

[crusty ol salt]

I picked mine at IKEA they are digital read-outs in C and F with a timer mode too. About six dollars american if i remember right. They are in the kitchen wares department

 

[rodinbangkok]

I would recommend you take a little time to research this site:

http://www.omega.co.uk/

I've used these guys exclusively for years for industrial temp controls, probes, T/C wire, etc. With a little research you can get yourself a professional measuring system for not a lot of money.

 

[curious aardvark]

well the omega people don't list any meat thermometers and I'm not making my own from bits. But thanks for the heads up.

Weirdly I looked on ebay and the cheapest meat thermometers were ikea models for £10. So I looked on the ikea website and they sell the same bit of kit for £4.99.
See what I mean about ebay lol

Now my problem is that I'm practically phobic about going in ikea shops. They deliberately don't have staff, the shops are not logically laid out and - don't laugh it's true - I once got stuck in the one in wolverhampton. No matter where I went I simply could not find the way out. After about 2 hours (didn't find what I went in for either) I managed to escape by climbing over the entry turnstiles and practically running screaming from the store. Not been in one since.

And while ikea do some online retail - guess what you can only pick up by going to the bloody shop ? that's right, the cheapo meat thermometers.

lol there's always something isn't there ?
I must know someone who goes to ikea regularly....

 

[richtee]

Hmmm Verrry interestink! Ve haff a case off "Ikeaphobia"

 

[teeotee]

Aardvark .... if you check out amazon.com they will ship international. They have the Maverick ET73 for $40.00. With the exchange rate right now i think you could get a real bargain. Shipping shouldn't be too bad either since a therm wouldn't weigh much

Scrub that amazon.com idea. They won't ship that item internationally.

Did find some good deals on amazon.co.uk, check these out.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss...tchen&field-keywords=digital+meat+thermometer

 

[crusty ol salt]

... she was 12 years old and we were shopping at the woodbridge/potomac mills store outside washington dc. The lay-out is so confusing it is insane. As we wondered thru the maze that they have intentionally built we noticed our daughter was missing. Contacted the nearest sales person, no help, at that time they had no store lock down policy in the event of missing children. I was one of the worst 30 minutes of my life. We found her without the stores help safe and sound, so i understand confusion and fustration with the store. Since then I have found they do have great maps at the front door and those maps do show shortcuts to everything I need. Great prices keeps my wife and I going back at least once a year. Good luck on your search.

 

[curious aardvark]

Just got to post this.
The weathers great I'm having abbq tomorrow - so I desperately needed some meat thermometers.
Checked the website, nottingham ikea had them in stock. Checked the tomtom - it was 21 miles away down the m1.
Thought 'sod it - face your fears ;-).

Got there in 30 mins, got in, found the therms, shoved 4 in the sack, found a shortcut to the checkout, paid, got out. Total time in store - 10 minutes !
Now the proud owner of 4 very cheap and seemingly accurate meat thermometers (shoved one in boiling water and it registeerd 100oC. All 4 seem to register pretty much the same temp in the same place.
I'm dead chuffed :-)
They have dual scales so I can switch to celcius to make sense and use the fahrenheit numbers for final temps. Nice long steel cables and long probes. They have magnetic backs and built in stands and run off 1 aaa battery. Also have target temperature and alarm when it's hit.
Throw in £5 for fuel and I've got 4 decent meat therms for £25. $45
I'm well pleased.
Now just got to decide what to cook tomorrow :-)

 

[lord of the ring]

That Maverick looks pretty stellar! Does anyone know what the rolls royce of electric meat thermometers is?

 

[lord of the ring]

BTW ikea has the best shopping carts in the world, all four wheels are casters that swivel!

 

[mgwerks]

Perhaps looking about a bit at places that supply commercial kitchens and restaurants? They certainly use these kinds of things...