Probably the most common piece of advice I’ve given through all of my articles is to take advantage of the incredible power of a kitchen thermometer.

But yesterday I felt a disturbance in my kitchen’s serenity, and it made me realize: not everyone in the Cook’n family loves thermometers yet. It’s time to fix this! Here’s a list of all the amazing reasons you need a thermometer.

It is a million times more accurate than a kitchen timer

That’s right, this is a true fact. I know it because I’ve cooked with my thermometer a million times, and every time it turns out better than that slow cooker pot roast that your neighbor Becky brags about.

Cooking your food isn’t just about killing bacteria; it’s about altering the texture and augmenting the flavor. And perfectly cooked meat requires perfectly measured temperature.

Most home cooks are used to throwing food in the oven or on the stove and setting a timer (either with a kitchen clock or just by using their intuition). The problem is this only is a rough estimate of when your food is done. The kitchen timer doesn’t account for the thickness of your meat, its fat content or marbling, how recently it was salted, how cold it was when you started cooking, etc.

But guess what… the thermometer accounts for all of that. Just buy a digital thermometer for about fifteen dollars, and program it to set off an alarm once your food hits the right temperature. It’s insanely easy and perfectly affordable.

This tip can’t be overstated. I’ve known many people who think that overcooked chicken and undercooked potatoes are actually properly cooked chicken and potatoes. When they try the real thing, it blows their minds!

You’ll start getting the same dish every time you cook it

This ties in pretty neatly to my last reason to use a thermometer.

Since you’re measuring your meat’s temperature instead of just following an arbitrary time limit, you are now in control of your variables. You’ll no longer wonder why your pot roast was so good the first time you made it, but last time it was dry, and this time it’s tough. Instead, you’ll make the same meal every time, and the only things that will change will be the way you make your food even better.

A thermometer is not just for cooking meat

Seriously. Here’s a whole list of ways you can use your thermometer:

• Before kneading bread dough, make sure your water is at exactly 110. This is the perfect temperature for getting yeast to bloom, resulting in a super active dough and delicious crumb.
• When you are baking that bread, insert your oven-safe probe thermometer and take the bread out once it hits 180 to 200. If the bread is too dry or wet, you can adjust future batches to a higher or lower temperature.
• Next time you bake a cake, clip your thermometer to the side of your cake pan to bring it to 200 to 210. No more endlessly wiggling the cake pan and stabbing it with toothpicks to check if it’s done. Just glance at your thermometer.
• Blast your potatoes on high heat until they’ve reached 205 to 211. That’s a perfect potato!
• Bring your stovetop oil to 310 (and don’t let it dip below 290) to make the perfect fried foods.
• And yes, get your pork butt to a perfect 203 and you’ll be bombarded by a stampede of noses that all jumped off of your neighbors’ faces and went barreling toward your grill.

So what thermometer should I get?

You can get a perfectly serviceable thermometer for about fifteen dollars. Here’s what to look out for:

• Programmable: It sets off an alarm at a temperature you designate
• Oven safe: It’ll have a long probe that goes into the oven, then snakes out the door and attaches to your thermometer outside.
• Pan clip: Finally, you’ll want some sort of clip that lets you attach the oven probe to the sides of pans. This way you can easily monitor the temperature of your oils and batters.

Please note, this isn’t the ideal thermometer for barbecue (you want to watch your heat even more closely with that cooking method), but it’s a phenomenal start to your cooking and should be your constant companion in the kitchen.

If you haven’t yet found the time or courage to upgrade to a nice kitchen thermometer, I hope this article has convinced you! Do you still refuse to get one? Write me a comment below; I’d love to hear why.