Alpha Grillers Meat Thermometer Digital – Instant Read Food Thermometer for Cooking & Grilling – Professional Kitchen Fathers Day Gift for Dad Men Him Husband

Also, just in case u/meliora2316 is honestly looking for a food-temp thermometer rather than a temp-control system, Thermoworks' products are great - I have a couple - but this one reads within a couple tenths of a degree compared with my Thermoworks products, and is a ton less expensive. I keep it on hand for an emergency backup, or if any of my neighbors need to borrow one.

My first meat thermometer was a cheap one from Amazon that I actually bought to do science experiments with for my son. It worked just fine. My sister bought me one like this ( https://www.amazon.com/Thermometer-Cooking-BACKLIGHT-WATERPROOF-Temperature/dp/B00S93EQUK ), it costs less than $15, and it is entirely sufficient (and it's rated 5 stars by thousands of people). Unless you are barbecuing or something that requires constant monitoring, you don't need anything expensive or fancy.

Non-contact is for the surface of things, like your pan. Stabby ones - food thermometers - are for checking the internal temperature of your food. Best to have both. If you're using stainless steel, keep in mind that a non-contact thermometer won't read accurately on a clean, reflective pan. You can get thermometers that have an emissivity setting, so you can compensate for the reflection. Either type can be Instant Read - the more expensive ones are more "instant." A meat temperature guide like this is used along with a stabby thermometer.

This is pretty much it. Before instant probe thermometers (that weren't unreliable pieces of crap) became commonplace about 15-20 years ago, you just kept cooking until you knew it had to be done. Until it has the consistency of a shoe. I mean, if the cut has plenty of marbling/fat, then it's mostly better, anyway. If it's lean, you need to braise it in some way so it doesn't matter. If it's something like pork loin or, God forbid, pork tenderloin, then when you cut into it, if you see any pink at all or anything close to pink, you're going to cook it for 10-15 minutes longer. I speak as someone who cooked all this stuff for 36 years. More than half that time, we had excuses for dry pork and turkey/chicken. We don't have any excuses any more. Bottom line, get an instant probe thermometer. If $12.72 is a life altering expense, then get this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S93EQUK I've owned two of those for over 10 years and they were near perfect. And only $12.72 right now.