[joan_kode]

Love my infrared thermometer for steeping tea at exact temperatures. These things are terrible for medical purposes since they only measure surface temperature, but they're perfect for diagnosing industrial machinery and tea. Also more versatile than those expensive programmable tea-brewing contraptions!

[bob1029]

I do this but for everything in my kitchen. I bought a very expensive HVAC-grade Fluke IR thermometer which can handle temperature ranges from -40C to 550C.

Being able to instantly & remotely measure the temperature of anything (with reasonable emissivity characteristics) is like a super power. There is nothing in my kitchen or grill area that can exceed the range of the IR sensor on this unit. There are only a few things that have problems with direct sampling. I cook almost exclusively with cast iron, so IR readings are always dead accurate.

The unit runs on a single AA battery, has a backlight, and somehow still hasn't needed a new battery since I bought it 4 years ago (used almost every day).

I had to cook in someone else's kitchen not too long ago, and found myself going insane at not being able to tell exactly how hot the oil was in a pot used for frying.

[fmajid]

The problem is the emissivity calibration, as different materials have different IR characteristics. For food, the best by far is the fast contact Thermapen (get the original British version rather than the heavily marked-up US licensee's).

[evil-olive]

As a bonus, those infrared thermometers often have a little laser pointer built-in, which means it can double as a cat toy.

Laser pointers marketed as cat toys are often tiny little things that require annoying & expensive button-cell batteries.

My infrared thermometer / cat toy has a pistol grip so it's easier to hold, and runs off a 9V battery that lasts much longer.

[fomine3]

To extend, I consider buying thermography device like FLIR. There are dedicated device, smartphone camera adapter, and FLIR integrated smartphone.