Essential Kitchen Tool

One of the most important things you'll need for stress-free Hands-Off cooking is a good oven thermometer. Most ovens vary a bit from the temperature on the dial or read-out, especially older ovens. To make sure that yours is accurate, purchase an oven thermometer and check it before you use the oven to see how it matches up with the temperature you need. Keep in mind that convection ovens circulate the hot air more efficiently, and can be 25 to 50 degrees higher than the temperature that you set.

If your oven is consistently 25 degrees higher than what you set it at, just keep that in mind and set the dial 25 degrees lower to compensate. Then you can really walk away from the oven while your food cooks and not worry that it will burn before your timer goes off.

Start with one that's not too expensive and move up as you use your oven more or need the temperature to be extremely accurate, as for pastry work.