ThermoWorks Super-Fast Thermapen User manual

1PB Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

FRONT

PAGE

Your

ThermapenTM

A guide to better food

by using and caring for your

SuperFast ThermapenTM

32 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

4Your Thermapen doesn't test doneness -it tests temperature

very accurately (see page 7).

4The Thermapen doesn't lock in on a reading. It is accurate

enough to show the ever-changing temperature of your food

while it cooks (see page 7).

4Your Thermapen measures temperature at the tip of its

probe (see page 9). Penetrate your food with the probe tip

where you want to measure - usually the centre of the thickest

part of your food (see page 12).

4Never leave your Thermapen in an oven while cooking

(see page 20).

4In general, be sure to thaw meats thoroughly before cooking

(see page 10).

4Remember that the temperature of meat normally continues

to rise a little after you remove it from the oven or grill

(see page 13).

4Don't test the accuracy of a thermometer in food. Use a

properly made ice bath (see page 17).

4Be sure to clean your Thermapen probe after contact with

uncooked or undercooked meat (see page 19).

4Wipe your Thermapen regularly, but don't place it under the

tap, submerge it, or put it in the dishwasher (see page 19).

4The battery compartment cover is tight for water-resistance.

Be careful not to force it open (see page 22).

Guarantee

The Thermapen carries a two-year warranty against defects in

either components or workmanship. During this period, products

that prove to be defective will, at the discretion of ETI, be either

repaired or replaced without charge. This warranty does not

apply to probes, where a six-month period is offered. The product

warranty does not cover damage caused by fair wear and tear,

abnormal storage conditions, incorrect use, accidental misuse,

abuse, neglect, misapplication or modification. Full details of

liability are available within ETI's Terms & Conditions of Sale

at www.thermapen.co.uk/terms. In line with our policy of

continuous development, we reserve the right to amend our

product specification without prior notice.

Thermapen Handy Tips!

32 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

A guide to better food

by using and caring for your

Thermapen digital thermometer

SuperFast

Thermapen™

54 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

Contents

Fifteen Minutes Well Spent ................................ 5

A Few Things Your Thermapen Does NOT Do

It doesn’t start at zero..................................... 6

It doesn’t stop the cooking for you................... 6

It tests temperature not doneness .................... 7

It doesn’t lock in on a reading ........................ 7

Here’s What Your Thermapen DOES Do............ 7

Measuring Temperatures ................................ 9

Special Considerations for

Cooking Meat, Poultry & Fish

1. Thawing ................................................. 10

2. Removing from Fridge.............................. 11

3. Low and Slow Versus Hot and Fast ............ 11

4. Choosing a Target Temperature ................ 11

5. Getting a Proper Reading with

Your Thermapen...................................... 12

6. Resting ................................................... 13

Outdoor Grilling ......................................... 14

Using Oven Alarms with the Thermapen........ 14

Food Safety & Temperature.............................. 15

The Accuracy of Your Thermapen

Ready, Set, Go ............................................ 16

Performing an Ice Bath Test........................... 17

Performing a Boiling Water Test..................... 18

Re-calibration ............................................. 19

Cleaning & Caring for Your Thermapen

Cleaning the Probe...................................... 19

Cleaning the Thermapen Body...................... 19

Storing Your Thermapen............................... 20

Avoid Overheating the Thermapen Body ....... 20

Customizing Your Thermapen.......................... 21

Changing the Batteries................................. 22

Frequently Asked Questions ............................ 23

Recommended Temperatures...............Back Cover

54 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

Fifteen Minutes Well Spent…

Thank you for purchasing our SuperFast Thermapen

which is probably the fastest, most sensitive, and accurate

thermometer you will have ever owned. It will assist you to learn

things about the cooking process that you could not see using

other thermometers. It is, however, a tool and like all tools, it

requires proper use and care to be effective.

This booklet should only take fifteen minutes to read and will

help you get the most out of your Thermapen experience.

Your Thermapen was pre-calibrated by hand in our laboratory

and is guaranteed to be accurate to ±0.4 °C (-49.9 to

199.9 °C) and will display the temperature of food or liquid in

just three seconds! You are probably not used to that kind of

speed and accuracy in a thermometer.

Keep this in mind as you begin to take readings with your

Thermapen and learn to rely more and more on the information it

provides. It truly can change the way you cook and prepare food.

accurate temperature reading

in just three seconds!

76 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

A Few Things Your Thermapen

Does NOT Do

It doesn’t start at zero

The moment you swing open its probe, your Thermapen starts

displaying the current temperature at its tip. Your Thermapen

is not like a bathroom scale that starts at zero every time. As

soon as it comes on, it displays a temperature. If you touch the

tip of the probe, you can watch the temperature change (it will

probably go up, unless you are on a tropical island)*. Remove

your finger and watch the temperature fall again. Try it.

It doesn’t stop the cooking for you

It may seem like an obvious point, but the Thermapen is just

a tool that gives you highly accurate information about the

temperature of the food you are preparing. YOU have to make

the decisions about when to increase or decrease the heat and

about when things are done. It’s a learning process. You’ll learn

the most from just experimenting and keeping track of your

results. There are a lot of variables at play, such as how cold the

food was before cooking, your heat setting, the consistency of the

cooking surface, and much more. But with accurate information

from your Thermapen, you’ll learn quickly to account for such

variables to achieve just the right results.

* The Thermapen shows the temperature at its tip and works best when its

probe is inserted or immersed into something. It will read air temperature;

however, it can take a minute or two to get an accurate reading unless the air

is moving rapidly.

It doesn’t test doneness - it only

tests the current temperature!

reduced tip

76 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

It doesn't test doneness; it only tests the

current temperature

While temperature is the most effective indication of the doneness

of food while it is cooking, cooked food will eventually cool. For

example (although you might be tempted to try), it wouldn’t do

you much good to take your Thermapen to a restaurant so you

can test your steak as it arrives at your table. Your Thermapen

would only tell you the temperature of the steak at the table, not

the highest temperature the steak reached in the kitchen - which

would be the temperature that determined its doneness. While

cooking, remember to look for the highest temperature reached

in the thickest part of the food to judge doneness (see 'Outdoor

Grilling' on page 14).

It doesn’t lock in on a reading

If you find that the digits on your Thermapen readout keep

changing after three seconds, that’s because the temperature at

the tip is changing. When you first penetrate meat on the grill,

for example, the Thermapen display will change very rapidly as it

moves from ambient temperature to the temperature of the meat

being probed. Within three seconds, the rate of change will slow

dramatically giving you an accurate reading, but it will not stop

changing completely. As the meat continues to cook and the

tip of your probe moves through the meat, your Thermapen will

continue to detect variations in the temperature of the meat itself.

Now…

Here’s What Your Thermapen

DOES Do

Quite simply, it gives you the fastest, most accurate temperature

information you can find in an affordable professional-grade

thermometer. It can be used to check the internal temperature

of the following…

umeats

u poultry

u fish/shellfish

u vegetables

u casseroles

u desserts

uconfectionery

ubreads

udoughs

usauces

udrinks

uand much more...

98 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

…while you prepare foods in your…

…and anywhere else you work with food.

Some people even use their Thermapen to check the temperature

of their bath water! Get creative and think about ways that an

accurate temperature reading could improve your life.

Those who make a commitment to using their Thermapen

regularly achieve the best results over time. You have likely grown

accustomed to estimating the doneness of food through other

less scientific methods, such as…

urelying on a recommended cooking time from a recipe

uwatching the colour of a bread while baking

usticking a fork or toothpick into a cake to see if it comes

out clean

ustirring and watching the consistency of a sauce or

confectionery

upressing against the top of meat to gauge resistance

ucutting open a fillet on the grill

Many recipes call for just these types of activities, but you now

have a highly accurate temperature instrument at your disposal.

Start taking readings on your favourite recipes and jotting them

down next to the recipes themselves. Make the food the same

way you always do and check doneness as you always have,

but start writing down the Thermapen readings for when things

turn out just the way you like them. That way you will be able to

replicate a perfect result using your Thermapen.

You may find that

you can gauge the

'hardball' stage of a

confectionery recipe

more accurately than

ever and start making

near-misses a thing

of the past, if you

just take the time to

u oven

umicrowave

u fridge

u freezer

udeep fat fryer

u BBQ, grill or smoker

uhob

uworktop

98 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

record what is happening with your Thermapen. Keep in mind

that each type of meat or combination of ingredients will respond

to heat in different ways and be 'done' at different temperatures.

The table on the back cover of this guidebook gives basic

recommendations for different types of meat using common

terms like 'medium rare' or 'well done', but these are just

guidelines. The important thing is to start learning what the

temperatures are for your favourite foods when they are just

the way you like them.

Measuring Temperatures with

your Thermapen

There are no buttons on your Thermapen. It simply turns itself on

when you extend the probe* and shuts off when you close the

probe back against the Thermapen housing. There is also an

auto-off feature that turns the Thermapen off after 10 minutes of

continuous use to preserve battery power**.

Your Thermapen has a micro-thermocouple located at the very

tip of its probe shaft. A thermocouple is a pair of two heat-

sensitive wires that produce a voltage related to temperature

difference. This technology is typically found only in professional-

grade thermometers and is what sets your Thermapen apart

from other digital 'instant read' thermometers.

Because the micro-thermocouple is so small, your Thermapen

need only be inserted at least 3 mm to

get an accurate reading. Other cooking

thermometers may need 13 mm or more

of immersion.

To take a temperature reading with your

Thermapen, penetrate the food you are

checking with the probe and place the

very tip of the probe where you want

to measure. When testing doneness in most foods, the coldest

part will be the very centre of the thickest portion. With larger

foods, you can take quick readings with your Thermapen

in several locations to verify that the entire portion is done.

If you are chilling a food, the centre of the thickest part will be the

last to cool.

* The probe’s rotating hub can be a little tight at first but will loosen with use.

The probe extends to 180°, but be careful not to force it further.

** This feature can be disabled (see 'Customising your Thermapen' on

page 21).

1110 Using Your Thermapen Your Thermapen - A Guide to Better Food

Do not 'stab' at the food being measured, and don’t immerse

the probe fully. Instead, use gentle, persistent force to insert

the probe into the food. The probe tip is sharp and should

penetrate meats or other foods with ease. Use care to avoid

bone, gristle or other hard substances. Also, don’t use the

Thermapen to turn or move your meat. The Thermapen probe

is durable and should last many years with proper care, but it is

hollow and could bend or break if mistreated.

Special Considerations for

Cooking Meat, Poultry & Fish

Getting good results when cooking or grilling meat, poultry or

fish takes a little bit of extra care. Here are some things to

consider when looking for just the right doneness.*

1. Thawing

It is generally never a good idea to put frozen meat over heat.**

Even if the outside of a piece of meat is thawed, if the centre

is still frozen, the outer parts of the meat will very likely get

overcooked while you are trying to bring the centre up to your

target temperature.

Take care to completely thaw your meat before putting it over

heat. Check the centre of your meat with your Thermapen and

compare it to a reading near the outside to be sure the meat is as

close as possible to uniform temperature before cooking.

The best way to thaw meat is the slow way - by putting it in your

fridge and waiting. If you need to speed the process up, you can

use a water bath, but be sure the water surrounding the meat

doesn’t get above 5 °C to avoid bacterial growth.

Check the temperature of the water regularly with your Thermapen

and refresh the bath as needed. Again, use your Thermapen to

check the meat for a uniform temperature to be sure it has thawed.

* Please note, that for the purposes of this discussion, we will use the word

'meat' to signify any meat, poultry, or fish.

** Some prepared poultry (like flash-frozen enhanced chicken breasts) can

cook better from frozen than thawed, depending on the cooking method, but

this is an exception to the rule.

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