Take the guesswork out of cooking.
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Cooking continues to embrace the world of science and technology in the quest to achieve better results. Early methods of testing the doneness of meat included poking, prodding, or inserting a skewer and holding it against your skin to see how warm it got. Testing cooking surface temperatures was equally vague and involved dripping water on them to see how quickly the water evaporated or the “sizzle test” of dropping a small amount of food on them to evaluate the sound of cooking. These methods are all entirely subjective; judging firmness, temperature, or acoustic properties varies between testers. A thermometer might be a good idea, right? But old-school meat thermometers were large-faced, dial-type, analog beasts designed to leave in while the meat roasted. The subsequent abuse they suffered gave them a short run of accuracy, and it was back to subjectively rating how many degrees to add or subtract from reading the poorly-calibrated thermometer.
The answer came in tools once reserved for industrial environments. Consumer kitchen- and wallet-friendly versions of these tools eliminated guesswork. New meat thermometers, instant-read thermometers, and leave-in wireless grill thermometers allowed for reading ambient cooking temperatures and food temperatures over time, instantly, or somewhere in between. But none of these addressed surface temperature in a way that wasn’t clumsy. Looking at industrial tools for more inspiration, we brought the infrared thermometer to the kitchen. These thermometers can read fryer oil temperatures from a safe distance, pan or grill temperatures, or the exterior temperature of cooking food. But which one is right for you? We consulted chefs Bin Lu and Jeff Carter for their insight to help you decide.
The IR-Gun-S is easy to use, versatile in its temperature range, and has good accuracy.
We’d like to see a lanyard to avoid drop accidents, as it doesn’t have a drop tolerance rating.
The IR-Gun-S is an approachable, easy-to-use point-and-shoot thermometer that is well-suited for most kitchen and grilling tasks with a one-second response time and adjustable emissivity. It’s got a large, back-lit display that’s easy for most people to read. It measures a 1-inch sample from 12 inches away or a 1-foot sample at 12 feet away, and these 12:1 optics let you get an accurate reading while maintaining distance from the heat. It has some additional features, like a temperature display with the highest and lowest readings for an area on a single trigger pull. There’s also a high and low alarm reading that warns you if temperatures are out of your desired range. Its versatility, accuracy, ease of use, and approachable price make it our top pick.
The 774 gives quick, reasonably accurate readings, with the same distance-to-spot ratio seen in costlier brands.
It lacks the accuracy and features of more expensive thermometers. Also, this isn’t the model for reading reflective or polished materials.
The Lasergrip 774 is a good, fairly versatile entry-level infrared thermometer. Does it have the features and accuracy of more expensive models? No. But you get an easy-to-use thermometer for general cooking use with a reasonable degree of correctness. It has the same 12:1 distance-to-spot ratio as many other models, a large back-lit display, and a 500 millisecond response time. It has a fixed emissivity setting of 0.95, which is suitable for most organic materials and non-reflective surfaces.
The Fluke 568 has remote and contact reading capabilities, plus a wide range of features.
It’s expensive, and a large amount of the features may go unused for the average person.
The Fluke 568 is an ideal thermometer for those who need or want scientific precision and a deep pool of features in their thermometer. It’s an infrared thermometer but has a port to attach a thermocouple-type thermometer to take internal readings, as well. It has a high degree of accuracy, a 50:1 distance-to-spot ratio, and a response time of less than 500 milliseconds. There are many additional features, including min/max, high/low thresholds, and extensive data logging capabilities. It has adjustable emissivity settings based on manual adjustment or a built-in table of standard materials and is USB-compatible for charging or data transfer. This thermometer is for precise work like product development, quality control, or the gadget-oriented person, for whom the features justify the additional cost.
The CSG-200 is accurate and easy and intuitive to use.
We’d like to see a rotating display, making it easier to read.
The CSG-200 is a good thermometer for those who don’t want single-purpose tools. One end is an instant-read probe, while the other is an infrared thermometer. As it pulls double-duty and seems designed with grilling in mind, you’ll see the best results from the probe end. Expect one-second readings within one degree of accuracy from both ends of the unit within the scope of its range. The display is large and easy to read, with or without backlighting, but we’d like to see it rotate, as other digital probe models do, facilitating easier reading at odd angles. It’s waterproof, easy to hold, and affordable.
Typically, an infrared thermometer is most accurate in the middle of its temperature range, with the exactness skewing at extremely high or low temperatures. For this reason, manufacturers list accuracy within ranges, for example, +/- 2.7°F between 55-95° and +/- 4°F between -76-32°. Other considerations lie in the substance you’re testing. “The reading from bubbling liquids or steam can affect the accuracy,” says Lu. Consider your typical use when deciding whether a thermometer is sufficiently accurate at the temperature range in which you’ll most likely use it.
It took me a minute to wrap my head around this concept. Emissivity measures the reflectivity of a material compared to the amount of infrared light it emits on a scale of 0-1. An object with an emissivity of 1 absorbs almost all reflected infrared light and only emits its own. The more reflective the object, the less accurate the reading with an infrared thermometer without adjustments. Most organic materials have an emissivity rating of 0.95, the agreed-upon default setting for most infrared thermometers. If you regularly take readings from more reflective material, like copper, steel, or aluminum, you’ll want a wider emissivity range that you can set for your circumstances.
Lu uses an infrared thermometer to measure grill temperatures, deep fryers, and in caramel making, among other tasks. “They are also great for checking the temp of cooking surfaces like cast iron pans and saute pans on the stove,” says Carter. The ability to measure from a distance increases safety, as in the case of testing a deep fryer or a grill, but also, in cases like making caramel, the mess factor considerably decreases when you don’t have a candy thermometer sitting in the pot, getting coated and crusted with sugar during the process.
Internal workings aside, the simplest description of the difference between the two is that a probe thermometer’s purpose is to measure the internal temperature of an item. In contrast, the point-and-read infrared thermometer measures the surface temperature of an object. The two could be used in conjunction, with a probe measuring the doneness of a piece of meat and the infrared measuring the cooking surface’s temperature and the meat’s external temperature to help you assess, say, how much Maillard crust will build up on the meat by the time it reaches its final internal temperature.
Each manufacturer lists their thermometer’s accuracy in ranges, for example, +/- 2.7°F between 55-95° and +/- 4°F between -76-32°. Consulting the people who use them regularly, Lu and Carter anecdotally report that their thermometers are accurate “within a degree or two.”
Carter explains what we really need to know: “These thermometers shoot an infrared beam onto an object, which is reflected back into the device to be read by the thermometer.” A deeper explanation for the highly curious and slightly nerdy is that all objects with a temperature emit infrared light. The thermometer focuses the light of the thing it’s aimed at through a lens, which then passes across a thermopile. What’s a thermopile? It’s a collection of thermocouples, two strands of disparate metals that create a voltage when encountering heat at their junction. From the voltage generated by the thermopile, the thermometer performs a series of calculations to translate that voltage reading into a temperature reading.
Most of the thermometers reviewed here have no means of consumer calibration; the manufacturers recommend shipping the thermometers back to them for calibration. For those that do, please closely follow the manufacturer’s directions. There are, however, some ways to verify the thermometer's accuracy.
The first and cheapest method is to use an ice bath. Fill a container with ice, then fill it with water. If any of the ice floats, there’s too much water, so pour some off until the ice sits on the bottom of the container. Then, locate a spot of ice-free water in the container, aim the thermometer directly downward at that spot, and record the temperature. It should read 32°F (0°C). Any serious deviation is an indication that calibration is necessary.
The next option is more scientifically rigid, utilizing an infrared comparator cup (a cup with a black surface for the least reflectivity) and a probe thermometer hole. You heat the cup to a known temperature as verified by the probe and then take a reading with the infrared thermometer, comparing the two results. Manufacturers recommend testing differing temperatures when using the cup to ensure better accuracy.
“Absolutely. They work great for checking oil temps – and are a safer method than many other ways,” Carter says, and Lu agrees. “They are also great for checking the temps of cooking surfaces like cast iron pans and saute pans on the stove,“ Carter says.
Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Tasting Table, Food Republic, and other publications. For this piece, he consulted Bin Lu, the executive chef at Blue Rock in Washington, Va., and Jeff Carter, the executive chef of Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tenn., to gather their insights on what they look for when purchasing an infrared thermometer for themselves.
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