[Sca-cooks] Candy Thermometer

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

I have about...six...different cooking thermometers, one is specifically 
reserved for deep-frying.

Looking on Amazon, I have two along the lines of the CND TCF400 Candy and 
Deep Fry Thermometer. I am kind of iffy on this one--the clip makes it 
fairly easy to attach to the pan but because of the way the clip is 
attached to the body of the thermometer, it can obscure the temperature 
scale and make it hard to read. Also this model is prone to getting 
moisture inside the body and the condensation can also make it difficult 
to read the temperature. The big advantage is that it is cheap ($3.99 on 
Amazon). With this style of thermometer it is very easy to accidentally 
touch the side or the bottom of the pot which is going to skew your 
temperature measurement a bit.


I have two lab thermometers of the red-alcohol variety that I got from a 
surplus store. They're only 0-234F, so I can't really use them for cooking 
sugar but they work fine for cheese and chocolate and other low 
temperature things. They do not have clips.

I have at least two of the metal-plate-with-thermometer-attached variety 
(also called paddle style), one of these is my deep-frying thermometer. 
These are the most accurate, although the one has the clip permanently 
attached at the top of the thermometer which makes it very hard to clip to 
a pot. This style of thermometer protects the bulb from touching the pot, 
but it is not as easy to clean (which is why the one is a dedicated oil 
thermometer).

I would recommend either the paddle style with a sliding clip or a 
digital with a sliding clip on the probe--it's going to be the most 
flexible in terms of usage.

Margaret FitzWilliam

>
> On Dec 16, 2009, at 6:32 PM, Sharon Palmer wrote:
>
>> I need a new Candy Thermometer and wondered if anyone had a model to 
>> suggest.  I don't make candy often, and don't want to spend much, but I'd 
>> like one that is easy to connect to the pan, that won't break too easily.
>> 
>> Ranvaig