Look! Pan With Built-In Thermometer

Lookie here - it's a pan with a thermometer built right into its handle! What do we think of this?

This nonstick pan has a thermometer inside the pan, with a readout in the handle that tells exactly when the heat is right for your pancakes, eggs, or bacon.

The readout is removable for washing (this is dishwasher safe, when the embedded readout is removed).

Frankly, we find this a little hard to get excited about; we've seen pans with embedded thermometers before. They're called electric fryers! (Available at thrift stores anywhere, and very good for caramelizing onions, as we learned from Alton Brown.)

So this seems slightly gimmicky to us; we'd prefer to get a good feel, too, for our own pans and our stove and how hot everything should be to cook well. And yet this might appeal to a very scientific-minded type of cook, or a cook who is just getting started and wants to learn how hot to cook various things.

What do you think - is this brilliant or just a little over-designed?

• Digital Thermometer Pan, available from ThinkGeek for $49.99.

Comments (5)

the thermometer is for pancakes,bacon and eggs???????????? who needs a temp guide for that? Those are all more vision related then anything. This seems a bit odd of a product with no real need.

Seriously. Though if they had a pan that said "Don't Panic!", I'd probably buy one.

yeah, why not get a big electric skillet, which even comes with its own heating element? Same price, much more usable space, and you don't have to fiddle with your stove to get the right temperature. Just "set it and forget it".

oh, not to mention the fact that it's non-stick, so you can't (shouldn't) use it for high temps. So no searing or stir-frying in this unless you want to risk cancer.

If you can smell it burning, flip it. That's how I do it.