Competition: win a digital thermometer from ETI

[msmarmitelover]

If there's one piece of kitchen equipment that will transform your cooking, it's a digital thermometer. I'm not kidding!

You can finally temper chocolate, or make sure your fish and meat are done properly when you take them out of the oven.

In terms of food hygiene, it's a must for every serious cook.

ETI have given two SuperFast Thermapen Thermometers (in the colour of your choice)

to members of Find a Supper Club to be won in a competition. 

All you have to do is comment below on your kitchen disasters, preferably ones that would have been avoided if only you'd had a digital thermometer....

A New Superhero for Your Kitchen

A favourite kitchen gadget of many celebrity chefs and professional cooks, the SuperFast Thermapen is now available to home chefs and BBQ fans.

The food thermometer has an easy to read digital display that gives an accurate temperature reading in under three seconds.

Available in a range of 13 stunning colours it is a must-have for all home kitchens; whether you are a serious technical baker or just want to enjoy meat that is both succulent and cooked safely.

Perfect for recipes that involve sugar, such as jam, or chocolate it’s easy to read display gives a quick and accurate food temperature in less than three seconds. So no more time spent watching your food spoil as you wait for a temperature reading.

Its water resistant casing contains ‘Biomaster’ to reduce bacterial growth and is practical and washable.

Winner of the BBC’s Great British Bake-Off and Celebrity Chef Edd Kimber is a big fan, “The SuperFast Thermapen is a really handy gadget for all chefs whether they use it for everyday baking, to make sure that cakes and sponges are done without being dried out, or for something a little more technically demanding.

“I totally rely on my Thermapen because it’s absolutely crucial that I get an accurate and speedy temperature reading for many of the recipes that I work with.  

“My speciality is Macarons, which are beautiful but notoriously tricky treats to make; relying on cooked sugar syrup where the temperature must be exact. The Thermapen is perfect for baking these deliciously delicate delights.”

Convenient with a foldaway probe, stylish and easy to use – you’ll wonder how you ever cooked without it.

The SuperFast Thermapen costs £57.60 and is available from www.thermapen.co.uk

[Suzie Doyle]

Oh my goodness kitchen disasters....humm......well, long before I got seriously into baking, I wanted to make a cake to celebrate my Aunt visiting London from Belfast by getting on a plane for the first time in 20+yrs! So i set about to make a lemon style victoria sponge! Even bought two tins, but didnt buy a electric hand mixer! Mixing butter&sugar by hand was extremely difficult especially using my left hand with weak wrists! Put continued on and put my two tins in oven! Think I over baked them, as they looked awful and tasted gross. But i battled on! Didnt think bout leveling off the cakes, so after making a horrid buttercream, I put the two cakes together! Extremely lopsided! I tossed it with a lemon icing&lemon zest! Now to prove id made it, i kept it! When my cousin and her mum arrived at my flat-the 3 of us nearly died laughing! However I refused to let them eat it! But hey I bought a electric hand mixer after that disaster!

[msmarmitelover]

I'm going to Wales for three days tomorrow, I'll keep checking your kitchen disasters.... x

[msmarmitelover]

Julie: really useful when making jam and marmalade

Samantha: a total necessity with sugar isn't it? 

[msmarmitelover]

Starvin' Marvin: I always make sure the centre of fish is 70c when I take it out the oven...would you agree?

[msmarmitelover]

Oh my god, it's so useful...brilliant kitchen disasters! Keep 'em coming! The winners will be picked next Wednesday.

[Samantha Whyte]

I was trying to top some cup cakes with caramel sauce for my friends birthday. Accidentally took it to hard ball stage (boo for no thermapen!) and trying to chew through the, now hardened, caramel, she lost a filling. I don't want to be responsible for any more dental emergencies!

[Philippa Boston]

The first time I cooked for my now husband, I made roast chicken. I thought it would be easy, I put it in my very old, very temperamental cooker and left it for the correct amount of time. I then prepared the potatoes and vegetables - brought it all to the table together but when I sliced in to the chicken it was completely raw in the middle, despite being quite well done on the outside! We ate vegetables for dinner and then had the finally, extremely well cooked chicken for supper on it's own later on that evening! I would have made a much better impression if I'd been able to check the temperature without simply relying on things working properly when they were obviously enjoying their antique status and would have been better sitting in a museum somewhere being admired without also being expected to work!

[Carine Valarche]

My kitchen disaster: making a meat dish for the first time and it was roast lamb leg. It came out to my family pretty rare (the blood was spilling onto the plate) but at least they ate more vegetables for once and less meat! I am trying to cut down my family's intake of meat and so this was quite a kitchen disaster but maybe it's karma, obviously not my cooking, just that you should cut down on meat! :P

[Starvin' Marvin]

Tempering chocolate for sachertorte or other treats is easy with a thermometer and a microwave :)

[Cadrega - Italian Supper Club]

Sacher Torte top chocolate cover is just a sticky (or too hard) icing without a thermometer... according the authentic recipe (well, the authentic recipe is actually top secret, and object of legal a battle in the past...;) you should melt the chocolate at the right temperature, then spread it onto a marble surface and work it with a spatula until it reaches a specific temperature, then heat it again to another temperature... and I really wished I had one last month when I prepared my first Sacher!