The $25 Kitchen Tool That Has ‘Never Failed’ a Professional Pastry Chef

A digital thermometer’s value is obvious when it comes to cooking. The balance between a chewy steak and an undercooked turkey is too delicate to leave up to guesswork. But this same precision is even more important when baking. The importance of tools like kitchen scales, rulers, and thermometers cannot be overstated, especially when attempting to make flaky croissants or properly baked cakes.

When gauging the accurate temperature of her desserts, there’s no brand professional pastry chef and food writer Zoe Denenberg trusts more than Lavatools’ Javelin digital thermometer. It looks and acts just like the ever-popular Thermapen but is less than a quarter of the price at Amazon.

Lavatools Javelin Digital Thermometer

Amazon

Denenberg has used this model since working as a pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern in New York City. It’s seen her through long shifts at the restaurant, helped her perfect recipes in test kitchens, and even earned a coveted spot in her suitcase when she moved to Alaska (yes, Alaska!) for a seasonal baking job just a few months ago.

She told me that she uses hers every day. “I almost always gauge doneness by internal temperature for bread, scones, cakes, really anything, and it’s never failed me,” said Denenberg. “It’s also pocket-sized and has a loop for my finger, which is valuable when it’s dangling over a pot of boiling sugar.”

Beyond its small size and convenient loop, the back is magnetic for easy storage, the battery lasts longer than 4,000 hours, and it takes less than 4 seconds to get a reading. For these reasons and more, the Lavatools Javelin thermometer has over 16,300 perfect ratings at Amazon. One shopper dubbed it the “best” thermometer they have ever used. Another called it “extremely” fast and “well worth” the price.

It was a choice between spending $100+ on a digital thermometer or less than $25 on one that works just as well, and Denenberg and thousands of Amazon shoppers wisely chose the latter. Follow their lead and buy the Lavatools Javelin thermometer while it’s on sale.