Bought a $200 immersion circulator for the kitchen and thought it was a total waste
I was convinced it was just for fancy home cooks, but after using it for a month to hold sauces and confit a duck leg, it's become my most reliable piece of equipment for consistency. Anyone else find a tool they initially hated that's now essential?
Ha. I felt the exact same way about my instant read thermometer. Total gimmick, right? Spent thirty bucks and just left it in the drawer for months. Now I use it for everything. Burgers, bread, even checking my kid's milk temperature. Thing is a lifesaver. Never making dry chicken again.
You're right about it feeling like a gimmick at first, @skyler_anderson65. I held off for years thinking I could just guess. The real change for me was testing my oven's actual temperature. Found out it runs almost 25 degrees hot, which explained a lot of my baking fails. Now I check everything, especially pork chops, to get them just right.
Wait, 25 degrees hot? That's wild. My oven runs 15 degrees cold, took me like three ruined cakes to figure it out. @skyler_anderson65 seriously, it made me wonder why ovens are allowed to be so off. Now I keep a cheap oven thermometer in there at all times.