Simon Wittenberg puts one of the latest kitchen gadgets to the test to find out whether MEATER technology is hot or not.
Many people like a helping hand when cooking, and if technology can make life a little easier, then we’re all for it. MEATER is one such example – a wireless (i.e. a wire-free) smart meat thermometer developed by Apption Labs.
This US-based business is dedicated to engineering products that are connected to the Internet and controlled by mobile devices. The MEATER brand and product range was born after the company raised over $1 million courtesy of nearly 10,000 backers on Kickstarter.
There are currently three products in the MEATER line-up. They are namely the MEATER probe (the base model priced at £79), the MEATER+ probe and the MEATER Block (a set of four probes plus built-in Wi-Fi costing £279). The subject of our test was the new MEATER+, which has a slightly more expensive RRP of £99.
The whole objective of this product is that you can set and monitor the temperature of your dish from a phone or tablet so that you end up with food just how you like it, i.e. rare to falling apart.
The name ‘MEATER’ is actually deceiving because you can also use the probe with fish, as well as anything carnivorous, spanning beef, chicken and turkey to far more exotic cuts.
What is the MEATER+?
The MEATER+ is the newest product to be launched by Apption Labs and offers a Bluetooth range that is five times larger than the MEATER (we will explain more about this a bit later on).
There are three main components to MEATER+. The first is the 13cm-long stainless steel probe, the second is the AAA battery-powered wooden charger, which is essentially the Bluetooth booster and probe charger, and the third element is the free-to-download MEATER app (available for iPhone and Android devices).
How does the MEATER+ work?
The MEATER+ probe needs to be charged for four hours before using it (it can supposedly accommodate 1,000 cycles over its lifetime), so it pays to plan ahead to avoid being caught out when you’re about to put something in the oven.
It houses an internal sensor which measures the temperature of the piece of meat or fish, whilst the exposed end of the probe, i.e. the black ceramic area, tells you the internal or ‘ambient’ temperature of the oven.
There’s also a safety notch line halfway up the probe to show you how far it needs to be inserted into the flesh of your chosen produce.
The probe connects to the charger via Bluetooth and can only be three metres away from the oven or grill, but with the MEATER+ product, the charger will amplify the signal so that your phone can be up to 50 metres away from the charger (rather than 10 metres with the MEATER).
This means that you can monitor the cook from a different room or floor and are therefore not confined to staying in the kitchen.
The app also pairs the probe to your phone via Bluetooth. The app is the main interface of the MEATER product, where you can select the food that you’re baking and how cooked you like it.
Once the meat or fish is in the oven, and the cook is activated, the app will then show you three pieces of information – the internal temperature of the food in pink, the target temperature in blue and the ambient temperature in green.
Below this is a circular graphic which shows three triangles using the aforementioned colours and the estimated cooking time.
Basically, you want the pink one to marry up with the blue one by the end of the cook. This means internal equals target.
As you approach the end, the app on your phone then sounds an alarm to let you know you are five minutes away from your food reaching the desired temperature. To ensure a perfect taste, there’s a recommended 10-minute resting period before it’s time to dig in and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
What’s more, if you don’t want to forget about what you have just conjured up, you can sign up for the MEATER Cloud, which stores each of your cooking sessions and displays a simple chart graph showing how the meat achieved the target temperature over the duration of the cook.
What do we think of the MEATER+?
We tested the technology on a lamb shoulder roll and set it to medium well-done. It was extremely accurate and delivered a good result, so we are completely sold on the MEATER concept.
The only constraint that we really found was that if you cover the meat with tin foil (to stop your oven getting splashed and the juices from the meat escaping), connectivity will be lost with the charger and can take some time for it to be re-established (the flashing green light turns to red).
We also think that it would equally be advantageous if the MEATER charger could be plugged into the mains or be powered by USB (like the MEATER Block) rather than solely relying on a small AAA battery that has the chance to disrupt the connection if it was to run out whilst cooking.
In summary…
The MEATER+ smart wireless meat thermometer is a luxury, and there are, of course, cheaper and less sophisticated alternatives out there.
However, for the added health and safety element, and knowing that the meat is of the right temperature and cooked according to personal preference, it is definitely worth paying the premium for the privilege.
MEATER – Where and How?
For more information on the latest MEATER product line-up, visit www.meater.com.
See more pictures of the MEATER+ on the Luxurious Magazine Instagram page.
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