[ludsan]

The Thermapen One meat thermometer. First I had to get over the arrogance that I could 'feel' when meat was the right temperature, then I had to invest in a product that, while being wildly more expensive, actually encourages me to use it all the time.

Pork, chicken, steak. I now have a sub-second answer to when the food is cooked.

[TheAngryCanuck]

Everyone who cooks meat should own at least one meat thermometer. I took a couple of introductory courses to professional cooking and first 2 classes of the semester were all spent on food safety. Proper handling of food, prep space cleaning, general kitchen cleaning. Now I have 3 meat thermometers so no matter who I'm cooking for their meat comes out at the proper temperature and there is no cross contamination.

[davesmylie]

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the parent posts answer (thermopen) - whilst I do own one and it's fantastic, I'd not that particularly brand loyal.

However.... would totally recommend getting an actual instant read one at a similar price point instead of a crappy $10 version (not that you were suggesting a cheap one here! just raising it for anyone who was thinking that might be an option)

I had a few iterations of cheap ones, and moving to an actual instant read thermometer was a game changer for cooking. You can quickly eg check 20 different chicken wings for doneness instead of spending 20 seconds or so checking one and wondering if the thermometer has actually come up to temp before moving on to the next