Be Happier in 2018! 5 Ways ThermoWorks Can Help

The old year is behind us now, and the new one has just begun. It’s time to put the holiday decorations away and hang a new calendar on the wall. Many people take this time of symbolic renewal as an opportunity to take stock of their lives. What are you resolved to do in the New Year? How will you improve your life and the lives of those close to you?

You might not yet think of ThermoWorks as the greatest engine of change in your life, but food and the act of eating are actually central to your quality of life. So, we would like to humbly suggest five ways better control of temperature in the kitchen can impact your life for good! To wit: have more fun in the kitchen, eat healthier, save money, improve your skills, and deepen the relationships in your life through good food at home.

ThermoWorks Life Improvement #1: Have More Fun in the Kitchen

We have long said that knowledge is the key to success in the kitchen and that our products can give you the knowledge you need to succeed. There is nothing like the feeling of biting into your first-ever smoked ribs, or your first brioche or Cubano sandwich and having it taste delicious because you were careful about temperature. After all, cooking is just the application of heat to food. And a good recipe that tells you exactly how much heat to apply combined with a thermometer fast and accurate enough to tell you when your food is ready is the one-two punch that makes any kitchen project possible. You really can nail it on the first try if you carefully track your internal temperatures.

So, have more fun in the kitchen in 2018 by trying bigger, more challenging things. Have you ever cooked a whole tenderloin? Prime rib? Confit of brisket? Baked any fresh sourdough bread? Tempered your own chocolate? Deep fried a turkey? Whatever the big kitchen project is that you have always wanted to try, you can do it! And ThermoWorks can help. Good thermometers = more thermal control; more thermal control = more confidence and fun in the kitchen.

ThermoWorks Life Improvement #2: Eat Healthier

Fitness and exercise are important, but nothing has more of an impact on your health than what you eat. So, eat healthier food in 2018 by eating out less.

Some restaurants make good food from scratch that is as healthful as anything you’re likely to make at home, but that is the minority of restaurants—lots of restaurant food is awful for you. If you want a way to be healthy and feel great this year, cook food at home from actual ingredients, not from boxes. A fast and accurate food thermometer can give you the confidence you need to cook at home and make the food tasty enough to forego the restaurants. Eat real food cooked at home for a month and see how much better you feel!

Cooking with temperature control at home helps assure safe food. If nothing else, using your Thermapen^® will make you much less likely to get sick from Norovirus, Rotavirus and the baddies Salmonella and E. coli, which land more than 128,000 people a year in the hospital (and that’s not counting those that don’t make it to the hospital). Make 2018 the year without any food poisoning by cooking your own food and paying attention to food-safe temperatures.

ThermoWorks Life Improvement #3: Save Money

Save money? “How,” you ask with justifiable credulity, “is buying a $99 Thermometer going to save me money?” Let’s just look at the math. Take two people out for a reasonably priced steak dinner (we’re not talking black tie here), you’re probably going to drop at least $50. Make a steak dinner for two at home, you could get that dinner easily below $30, and if you shop around or find a good price on steaks at your friendly neighborhood butcher, you could probably get it under $20. Do that four times, and you’ve basically bought yourself a Thermapen or a Smoke^® 2-Channel Cooking Alarm. Or skip going out for a really nice splurge dinner even once and make it at home and you’ve saved enough to pay for your “expensive” thermometer.

After you’ve saved that money, keep cooking real food and just watch the money pile up in your bank account. Cooking at home from scratch is cheaper than eating out—especially if you do the shopping yourself instead of using one of those meal-service companies—and we’re here to help you do it right.

ThermoWorks Life Improvement #4: Improve Your Skills

Get satisfaction from building your kitchen skillset in 2018 and get reproducible results. Remember that one time you made the roast chicken and everyone went mad for it? And you were thrilled because even the kids liked it and you were proud and happy and then the next time it just didn’t work. We’ve all been there. Chances are you hit a temperature nail right on the thermal head, but you didn’t know it or record it.

With ThermoWorks products, successes become repeatable. Take the chicken out of the oven, write down the pull temp. Then watch the max-temp reading on your ChefAlarm^® to know how much carryover cooking there was. Next time you cook a chicken, adjust your pull temp based on data, not just intuition. Eventually, you’ll be getting everything perfect, all the time.

Professional grill cooks in steakhouses may have a good gut feeling for when a steak is done right, but they’ve cooked thousands of steaks. You need a thermometer for reproducible results, and the better the accuracy, the better the results. You’ll have a sense of accomplishment that no one can take away from you.

ThermoWorks Life Improvement #5: Deepen Your Relationships

The bond of eating together is expressed in many cultures. Thai people greet each other by asking “have you eaten rice yet?” And Russians who are old friends say of each other that they’ve “eaten a pound of salt together.” Eating together is the very root and foundation of human society, going back to people eating shared meat together around a shared fire.

So, don’t just go to movies with your friends in 2018 and spend the time looking at a screen. Have them over for dinner and conversation! Few are the pleasures of modern society that outshine having a group of close companions (from Latin com- “together with” + panis “bread”) at your own home to eat delicious food you have prepared for them, and few are the friendships that cannot be strengthened by the same. If you want to get closer to your friends, cook them a meal they’ll remember for the whole year, and get it right with a ThermoWorks thermometer.

So, there you have it. Just a few of the ways we think using quality thermometers could make life better for you and the people close to you. Here at ThermoWorks, we are committed to providing you the products and the expertise you need to be successful in the kitchen and out on patio. Because good home-cooked food really can make you happier all year long.

What are your food resolutions for 2018? Let us know in the comments below. Also drop a note if there’s a big kitchen project you wish we would cover in this blog throughout the year.