In cheese making, standard kitchen thermometers for cooking do not work well as normally they do not read low enough. Digital thermometers are way better.
Attached picture is of:
1) Standard kitchen mercury inside glass tube cooking thermometer. It is fragile, consequences of breaking not fun, slow to stabilize, and hard to read.
2) Battery operated digital probe with cover (that clips onto handle), large LCD readout, C / F button, and on/off button to save batteries. It is hardy and very quick taking only few seconds to stabilize it's reading, easy to read, and battery has lasted so far 2 years.