Miraculously got some panko veal schnizel on discount yesterday. Came out of my pan blackened on the outside but tasted perfect.
My digital thermometer seems to top out at 100 so should get a cooking thermometer some day.
Super late, but I bought a "coffee thermometer" from Officeworks for 50 cents. Apparently office people weren't crazy about the coffee thermometer idea. I repurposed it for cooking, and although it also caps out at 100, I've never cooked food to 100 inside without the outside being complete charcoal.
I do have a digital one that still has a little prong which is for BBQs and goes up to 150, but it takes about 30 seconds to accurately read the temperature, usually updating a few degrees every 2 seconds or so
I was using mine for measuring oil temperature when trying to shallow fry (so bread crumbs fry on impact), so unfortunately in this case it wouldn't help me, but a 50 cent one would be useful for most cooking. Thanks for the tip!
Ah righto. I only really fry chicken schnitzels and chips. In the chase of schnitzels, I usually just grab a couple of crumbs from the bottom of the bag (I buy mine predone from a butcher) and chuck them in. Most of the time I do just eyeball though. If it's smoking, the oils too hot, if it's sizzling and crackling I evidently didn't dry the pan right, and it's probably a bad idea to put it in right now (I'd rather chuck it in when it's a little too cold than have it spray me in the face)