As I understand it, yes you can. Temp is temp. Now... you wouldn't want to use an oven thermometer to measure soil temperature, as you'd be taking a measurement at the extreme end of the thermometer's range (and thus inaccurate), but a compost thermo that goes down to 50 or so should be dandy.

Soil and compost thermometers are one and the same thing, although some "compost" thermometers may have a longer probe. Your meat thermometer, if its temperature range went low enough, could be used for that purpose.