For the distracted cook: the Extra Big and Loud Timer from ThermoWorks

For that cook who struggles to stay on top of what’s happening in the kitchen, this big, easy-to-use, loud timer is a boon.

My husband loves it because even if he’s in another room, he can still hear the timer. It has four volume settings, all the way up to 110 decibels. And rubber buttons mean it will survive your wet fingers.

Ours handily sticks onto a magnetic board on the side of the oven. There’s also a flip-out stand for countertops. And I confess I end up using this one over the oven timer nine times out of 10. It’s just easier and simpler.

Unlike our oven timer, this one works by simply punching in the number of minutes on the numeric keypad, much easier and faster than the oven’s counterintuitive method of holding down a button and scrolling to the desired minutes.

Need to time a stock? Or remind yourself to turn over the roasts or chops? Use this one. Pie not quite done? Quickly add 5 minutes to the timer and when that still doesn’t look right, another two minutes.

Of course, cooking never strictly adheres to a recipe’s given time, but it helps to have a timer for a reminder. I’m very distracted in the kitchen and if I didn’t set a timer, I’d walk off with the kettle boiling or the sauce reducing and probably forget all about them until too late.

Buy the Extra Big and Loud Timer online at ThermoWorks.com for $29 (right now buy two or more and pay only $25 each). They also sell the nifty Super-Fast Thermapen thermometer ($96; two or more are $85 each for a limited time) Chad Colby uses for the grilled meats at Chi Spacca. Those babies give an accurate instant reading and come in more than a dozen colors.

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Twitter: @sirenevirbila