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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Meater

Traeger Grills Acquires Connected Thermometer Company MEATER

Traeger Grills, best known for its wood-pellet grills, announced today that it has acquired wireless meat thermometer company MEATER. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and according to the press announcement, MEATER will continue to operate as a standalone company within Traeger Grills and Joseph Cruz will continue as MEATER’s Chief Executive Officer.

MEATER, which came out of Apption Labs, makes wireless Bluetooth and WiFi connected thermometers ($69 – $269, depending on the model) and an accompanying mobile app to give users continuous monitoring and guided cooking instructions. Stick the MEATER into your protein, select the type of protein that you’re cooking and the thermometer gives you real-time tracking of internal and ambient temperatures. Once the food hits the target internal temperature, the MEATER app sends you an alert to pull your protein out of the heat and tells you how long to let it rest.

Traeger has its WiFIRE connected wood pellet grills also provides users with similar monitoring and target temperature functionality through a mobile app (and Apple Watch!). But unlike with MEATER, you can control the heat of the grill remotely to make adjustments to your cooking wherever you are in your home.

Despite similar features, it’s easy to see why the MEATER acquisition makes sense for Traeger. The MEATER software and user experience is more robust and visually appealing than Traeger’s homegrown app. And with MEATER, Traeger will now be able to expand its market beyond just those who own Traeger grills and beyond grilling season. Traeger can integrate its brand into the MEATER software and play a part in people cooking proteins on any type of grill, as well as their stoves and ovens when the weather turns cold.

Traeger acquiring MEATER can also been seen as a response to Weber buying smart oven maker June at the beginning of this year, as the two companies look to modernize in this connected era. The first line of June-integrated Weber grills announced in February of this year featured real-time temperature monitoring and guidance both on a grill display and on a mobile app. It’s not hard to imagine that future versions of Weber/June grills will feature the ability to automatically or remotely control cooking temperatures as well.

In other words, with both of these acquisitions, next summer will be definitely be hot for new, smart grills.

The Three Stages of Thanksgiving Connected Cooking Grief

In retrospect, I was too cocky this Thanksgiving. Backed by cooking technology and cloud connected apps, I thought making my first turkey would be a breeze. I’d turn a dial, tap a button on my phone and voila! A perfectly cooked turkey would emerge.

Like some folktale about technology versus tradition, I was wrong. While the turkey did come out beautifully, it had almost nothing to do with any connections built into my appliances. In fact, the technology I used almost created more stress than relief.

Thanksgiving is already a stressful holiday. You want your guests to eat on time and enjoy delicious food and, especially with a turkey, you want to make sure no one gets sick. That is partly why I armed myself with so much technology when smoking my first turkey. I had the Traeger Pro 575 WiFire wood pellet grill and a Meater block of WiFi enabled meat thermometers.

Stage 1: Excitement

My initial plan was to use the Traeger app to monitor and control the cooking and the Meater thermometer to ensure that the bird was cooked thoroughly. Easy peasy.

In my previous tests with the Traeger, I noticed that while the accompanying app was useful for remote monitoring and control of the grill, the guided cooking features were a little too automated and on the rails. There wasn’t a place to pause the cook program, so it would just barrel through to the next step (like raising the temperature) even if you weren’t ready. I needed a little more flexibility with a 14-pound bird on a cold day.

For extra accuracy, my plan was to use the Meater thermometers not only to monitor the internal temperature of the bird, but to also help ensure accuracy of the ambient temperature inside the cooking cavity. This backup would just help make sure the grill was cooking at the right temperature.

I’ve used Meater before and found it to be a great experience. The app is intuitive, and while the probe itself is a little thick, it’s easy to set up and use. Or at least it was before. Almost immediately I had issues connecting my Meater app to a thermometer, and even when I managed to do so, that connection was lost as soon as I placed it in the grill and shut the door. After a half hour of re-starting and re-connecting, I just abandoned the Meaters altogether.

Stage 2: Mild Panic

Suddenly, I was left to my own devices and not the ones I thought were going to save me.

Again, this is the first time I’m making a turkey. I wanted it to be done and I didn’t want to get anyone sick. With its slick interface, tons of data and directions on when to pull out the turkey to let it rest, I was counting on the Meater to help me through. But now that was out of the picture.

And the Trager app wasn’t much help, either. The recipe had two main instructions: cook on low heat for a few hours and then move the bird into a foil pan and ratchet up the heat when the color of the bird looked right. Looking right may be the sort of vague direction that works for people with confidence in their cooking, but I only had sort of an idea of what a smoked turkey should look like two hours in.

As a result, I kept opening up the grill to look at the bird, which dropped the temperature of the grill each time and made the cooking process longer. Finally, after a few hours, it looked good and I covered it in butter, wrapped it in foil, set it in a pan and put it back in.

I had started the process at 8 a.m. and it was coming up on noon. Guests would arrive in an hour and we were eating at 3, and this bird was nowhere near done.

Long story short: while the recipe said it would take five hours, the cook actually took more like seven hours, and I had to make adjustments like turning up the heat beyond what was instructed to get the internal temperature to a safe 165 degrees.

Stage 3: Relief

Despite technological shortcomings and my steady worrying, the turkey came out beautifully and was delicious. Really. Not to brag, but it tasted better than the turkey we cooked in a traditional oven and was so good that I’ll probably smoke another one next year.

What I learned is that I can’t rely on gadgets to make it happen though. The connected kitchen still has lots of idiosyncrasies to work out. Devices should connect without hassle and the design of apps should not be an afterthought.

Hopefully the industry can come together to create technology that helps cook the turkey — not be the turkey next Thanksgiving.

Three Last-Minute Bits of Kitchen Tech That Could Make Your Thanksgiving Easier

If you are having stress dreams about hosting the Thanksgiving meal this year, take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay because we at The Spoon are here to help. While we can’t provide another pair of hands, we can point out some connected kitchen gear that could make your cooking easier and can still be overnighted to you in time for the T-Day.

MEATER THERMOMETER
The Meater is a connected meat thermometer that will let you keep track of your turkey’s internal cooking temperature via its mobile app. The device has a “whole turkey” setting, so you can stick the probe in and monitor your bird without having to open up the oven (losing all that heat) a bunch of times. You can buy a single Meater for $69, or the Meater Block ($269), which has four probes in case you’re cooking more than one turkey or need to coordinate the cooking of more than one meat.

The Anova Nano

ANOVA NANO SOUS VIDE
While you could certainly sous vide a whole turkey, that would take 24 hours and you’ve got enough going on. No, you can use the Anova Nano ($79) to help with other duties like keeping mashed potatoes warm. Make them the day before, and when it’s time to serve them up, load the potatoes into a bag and keep them at a precise temperature in the water bath to free up your oven for other cooking duties .

FOOD NETWORK KITCHEN
If you’re looking for inspiration or need some helpful tips with your trimmings, the Food Network Kitchen app delivers Food Network shows and live instruction from Food Network celebrity chefs. Tomorrow (Tues., Nov. 26th), for example, Martha Stewart will teach you how to make Herb Roasted Heritage Turkey, and Giada De Laurentis gives a class on making a holiday salad. You can watch on your iOS or Android device or on an Alexa Show. Even better, you can try Food Network Kitchen for free for 90 days ($6.99/month after that), so Thanksgiving and all your holidays are covered!

Do you have any bits of food tech that can alleviate the stress of Thanksgiving? Leave a comment and let us know!

The Food Tech Show Podcast: A Tech-Powered Fourth of July BBQ

Ok sure, our attention spans were a bit short this week and I was at it again with the sound effects, but we managed to record a podcast on this holiday week.

So if you’re heading to that Fourth of July day party across town or just busy preparing lots of plant-based meats to throw on the grill, just load up the latest episode of The Food Tech Show and listen to the Spoon gang talk about:

As always, you can listen to the Food Tech Show by on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, by downloading direct to your device or just by clicking play below.

Newsletter: Some Assembly Required, Is IKEA the Future of Food Tech?

This is the web version of our weekly email newsletter, you should subscribe to it here to get all the best food tech news in your inbox!

I spent a good chunk of the weekend building a cocktail robot. It was a kit I bought from MyBar.io, and to save $100 bucks, I opted for the DIY version ($299), all assembly required. And though it took a lot longer than the two hours the company said it requires to build (it’s still not done), I’ve actually had fun putting it together.

So much so, that when FarmBot announced yesterday it was launching an assemble-it-yourself vegetable garden robot, my first thought was “Hey, I could probably build that, too.” (SMASH CUT to my wife, just shaking her head).

But both MyBar and FarmBot got me wondering if we won’t see more DIY in our connected kitchens in the future a la IKEA. There are a few reasons why hardware food tech startups might want to borrow a page from the Swedish home furnishings giant.

First, DIY means something much different now than it did even a couple years ago. The MyBar kit I bought featured 3D printed parts, and the wiring required no soldering or crimping. Much like a piece of IKEA fürnitüre, there isn’t any real expertise needed going into the project, anyone with the set of instructions can do it.

Second, shifting the assembly labor to me is perfect for a tiny startup. Instead of spending their limited human resources on building each order, they can focus on design and product improvement.

And then there is the shipping. IKEA saves a ton of money in shipping because everything arrives in flat boxes. So too can cash-strapped startups save money by skipping the centralized assembly. The MyBar arrived at my door in a regular rectangular box. Inside there was no need for custom-fitting styrofoam to protect a put-together MyBar, as each separate flat piece was wrapped in plain ol’ bubble wrap. And, like IKEA, it even came with an allen wrench!

Obviously not every kitchen device will become DIY. I can’t imagine trying to put together a June oven or a Samsung smart fridge on my dining room table. But for small startups getting into the hardware game, DIY may be the best path to $$$.

Here’s a Tip: Learn How Your DoorDash Driver Gets Paid
If DIY isn’t your thing, especially when it comes to making a meal (no judgment), just about every restaurant does delivery now, and the biggest third-party delivery service of them all is DoorDash (raising $2 billion helps you build marketshare).

However, if you’re using DoorDash, you should know what is actually happening when you tip through its app. Jenn Martson broke down the controversy over DoorDash using tips to cover a “Dasher’s” base pay, and bottom line: The tips you’re leaving don’t necessarily translate into more dollars for your driver. In our consumer quest for convenience, we need to stop and see who’s paying who and how much.

We too, Have the Meats
Chances are good that if you are reading this, you’re doing so quickly, so you can get back to and finish up your work faster, so you can get out and celebrate the 4th of July holiday (and we don’t blame you).

If you’re grilling this Fourth, or at all over the summer, there are two things we wanted you to know about.

MEATER, which makes a wireless, connected meat thermometer, launched its new MEATER Block yesterday. It comes with four probes, all of which can be used to monitor four separate pieces of meat at once. Perfect for guests who prefer their steaks done differently, or for when you’re cooking different types of meat at once.

If you’re more of a plant-based meat eater, we celebrate you as well, and my colleague, Catherine came up with this handy guide for grilling Beyond Meat’s burgers and sausages (they’re both delicious), which you can wash down with a tasty cold brew.

Have a great and safe holiday!

Manage Cooking Multiple Meats to Different Temperatures with the New MEATER Block

Just in time for summer grilling season, Apption Labs, the company behind the connected MEATER thermometer, announced the launch of the new MEATER Block today. The new Block of thermometers allows users to monitor the cooking of multiple pieces of meat at once and extends the wireless range of the device.

The new MEATER system still acts much the same way as the single probe. It’s a connected thermometer roughly the size of a heavy-duty nail that you slide into your meat (beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc.). It wirelessly talks with the accompanying mobile app to let you know how the meat is doing, and even gives you tips on when to pull it out and how long to rest it.

While MEATER had sold multiple thermometers bundled together before, the new MEATER Block set of probes is different in that they work together so you can monitor different meats simultaneously. So you can be grilling different pieces of beef to different doneness at the same time, or even monitor simultaneous cooking of different types of meat.

Additonally, the new MEATER Block acts as a WiFi bridge, boosting the wireless communication range of the device so you can presumably be anywhere in your house and still check in on those chops. Other versions of the MEATER only go 33 ft. or 165 ft., depending on the model. The MEATER Block also sports a touchscreen and has a standalone mode so you don’t even need to use a phone.

I tested the single MEATER last year and thought it worked well. I’m pretty nervous when it comes to cooking proteins thoroughly, so monitoring my meat without needing to open up a hot oven (and let all the heat out) to insert a thermometer is a nice touch. The company has sent me the new block to test out, but it hasn’t arrived yet. If it works as advertised, it will be a great tool for summer cook-outs, especially with its new ability to continuously cook and keep track of different foods on the same grill.

Despite these advancements, MEATER seems to still have the same issue I had with the previous generation: its size. The MEATER itself is big, and because you keep it in the meat throughout the cooking process, a sizeable hole forms. The other thing we’ll lament here at The Spoon is that the MEATER doesn’t have a plant-based meat option for, say, grilling Beyond Burgers.

But if those aren’t dealbreakers, you may want to check out the new MEATER Block, which is available now for $269.

My Food Tech Plans for Thanksgiving: Delivery, Caffeine, Meater and More

Before I begin this post, let me be completely honest. Thanksgiving is the domain of my wife and woe be to those that try to interfere in her preparations. Unlike previous years, however, I’m no longer completely useless in the kitchen because now I’m packed full of food tech know-how. Here are some of the gadgets, devices and gizmos we’ll be using in the Albrecht house to make Thanksgiving 2018 that much easier.

Skip the Store (for Bulk Items)
Grocery stores are madhouses this time of year. Who needs to deal with that? Not you, thanks to the billions of dollars poured into delivery startups this year. While you’ll still want to pick out your turkey and veggies in-person (probably) there are plenty of items you can order online sight unseen. Get your potatoes, rolls, paper towels, sodas and more delivered to your door in advance to save yourself (and your arms) at least one trip to the store.

Get Ready (by Getting Caffienated)
Thanksgiving is a long day, and before you can entertain a house full of people, you need to prepare. And by prepare, I mean, wake up. And by wake up, I mean, get that coffee flowing. To maximize your caffeine intake, I recommend the Ember coffee mug. Embers ain’t cheap ($80 for the mug), but they keep your cup o’ joe at the same hot temperature until the bitter (but so delicious) end.

Keeps Tabs on that Turkey with Meater
The appropriately named Meater connected meat thermometer lets you wirelessly keep tabs on your turkey’s cooking temperature without the need to open up the oven door (which makes you lose all that heat). I like Meater’s mobile app, which charts your turkey’s temperature in real time, as well as its cooking guidance tips (like telling you when to rest the meat). And the one drawback — it’s as big as a nail and leaves a pretty sizeable hole in your meat — won’t be as noticeable with a whole turkey. Meater even has instructions to help you cook a classic turkey on its blog.

Use that June
My love for the second-gen June is well documented here, but I think it will actually come in extra handy this Thanksgiving. We now essentially have three ovens in the kitchen (two traditional + the June). The big one will be for the turkey, and now we don’t need to rotate stuffing or sides through the other oven. We can cook two more things at the same time and have everything served piping hot. Plus, with the June’s presets, roasting carrots or broccoli or beans will be a one-button snap.

Alterna-Meat Stuffing
Speaking of sides, this isn’t a gadget, but I saw that Beyond Meat posted a recipe for meatless stuffing. I’m not a vegetarian, but Beyond Meat ground/crumbles have evolved to the point where they can effectively act as a tasty “meat” component in stuffing. Bonus: Now there’s one more thing your vegetarian guests can enjoy.

All of this tech should help make this year’s Thanksgiving the best. One. Ever! The only gadget still on my wish list for the holidays is the Apple iWatch Series 4. I could use a device to help me keep track of all the exercise I need to do after all that pumpkin pie.

Celebrate a FoodTech Fourth of July

It’s weird when a major holiday falls on a Wenesday, right? Do you take just the day off? The first half of the week? The last half? The whole week? Regardless of how much time you take off, we can help make your time at the grill a great one with these FoodTech finds.

FOOD
The Fourth–and most summertime grillin’–is all about the meat. Normally, we’d suggest you purchase your steaks and burgers through CrowdCow, which meticulously sources all of its meat from small ranches. But your guests will be hungry tomorrow, so here’s a twist, maybe try a meatless option this year?

I know! I know! “Heresy!” you cry! But really, we love the Beyond Meat burger patties available at many local grocers. The company says it wants their plant-based meat that “bleeds” in the supermarket butcher section, but I’ve only ever found it frozen with the other alterna-meats.

Personally, I think the Beyond Meat patty is a delicious replacement for the traditional meat burger, so much so that I stock up on extra when I’m at the store just to have it around when I crave it. Beyond Meat won’t fool any carnivores, but it’s a tasty substitute and perfect if you’re trying to cut back on your red meat intake.

BRING THE (CONTROLLED) HEAT
Everyone has an opinion about the best way to grill, we won’t waste your time with some obscure technique. We will however, recommend a pair of devices that can help make your steaks and other proteins turn out great.

Photo: Anova

Sous vide-ing your steak is a fantastic way to get juicy meat with no overcooking. There are a ton of sous vide wands out there that will turn any pot of water into a precision-heated circulating bath. We like the ChefSteps Joule and the new Anova Nano (review forthcoming). They are small, well built, and work with an accompanying mobile phone app to bring your meat to a desired internal temperature. Sure it takes a little longer, but it also helps remove the risks of over- or undercooking your precious steaks.

Stylish holder/charger.

Regardless of whether you sous vide or not, you can use the Meater thermometer to get just about any type of meat to the proper temperature. The Meater is kinda big (like a beefy nail) that sits in your protein while you cook it. Using the Meater app on your phone, you can keep track of both ambient and internal temperatures, and Meater will even tell you when to pull out and rest your meat to achieve optimal results.

If you’re going camping and want a greener experience, you could grab a GoSun portable grill that cooks food by simply harnessing the power of the sun.

BEER
The good news is, if you live in the right location, you can still run out and buy your own PicoBrew to make homebrewing much easier. The bad news is that even if you bought one today, there isn’t enough time to brew and ferment your beer before tomorrow. (Maybe just pop by Spoon founder Mike Wolf’s house for a bottle of his.)

PLAN FOR NEXT YEAR
It’s never too early to start planning for an epic Independence Day celebration next year. Here are some items to put a pin in and revisit next summer:

  • If it makes its crowdfunding goal, the Ambassador 5-in-1 grill features rotating cooktop that spins through flattop and grate surfaces.
  • The Bartesian cocktail robot (due out by the end of this year) can whip up delicious boozy concoctions on demand.
  • And for the truly adventurous, you can throw a slice of ketchup, yes, a “slice” of ketchup on next year’s burger.

No matter how much time you’re taking off, have a Happy Fourth of July, everybody! Be safe.

Review: Meet Meater, the Connected Thermometer

Proteins are generally the hardest part of the meal to make. Overcook them and they turn to inedible leather; undercook them and possibly send loved ones to the ER. For the nervous meat cookers who are skittish around the skillet, Meater is a new, connected thermometer that’s here to help.

Meater is a $69 bluetooth- and wifi-enabled meat thermometer, but it’s actually more than that. With its accompanying app, Meater is actually a guided cooking system that monitors your meats, tells you when they’ve reached a safe cooking temperature, and lets you know when to remove your meat from heat to let it rest properly.

The device itself looks like a shiny five inch nail. You stick Meater into the meat and leave it there while cooking. Truth be told, you have to jam the Meater in there pretty deep for it to work properly.

The depth needed for the probe actually caused a problem for my first test. The chicken thighs I was going to cook were too small for the Meater to work properly, even though the Meater app lists chicken thighs as something you can cook with it. Meater seems to be meant for larger cuts of thicker meat, so I opted for a pork loin in my second go-round.

Setup for the Meater itself was straightforward. I chose the Bluetooth option over the wifi because wifi required setting up a (free) account. Meater paired easily, but because the device is in an oven, or wrapped in foil, the signal dropped if I took the phone out of the kitchen.

Once Meater is inserted, you select what type of meat and what cut you are going to cook from the app. Then you choose the target internal temperature you want the meat to cook to. It gives you a few options based on the level of done-ness you prefer, as well as the USDA recommended cooking temp. With just a few taps on your phone, you’re ready to cook.

The app gives you a readout with three indicators: The current internal temp, the target temp, and the ambient temp. After a few minutes in the oven, it also provides an estimated cooking time. Once it starts cooking you can watch the various temperatures move around the dial.

What’s nice, for a nervous, OCD nelly like me, is that with the probe always in the meat, there’s no need to repeatedly open up the oven (letting heat escape) to re-insert a traditional thermometer. Since you have a constant running readout of the internal temperature, it frees you up to do other things in the kitchen.

Where Meater gets more helpful is when you’re meat is almost ready. The app delivered a nice little alarm when there was about five minutes left on my cook time, and then it instructed me to remove the meat before it reached the final temperature. It kept cooking out of the oven and hit the targeted 145 degrees as promised without overcooking. I even checked with a second meat thermometer to confirm the accuracy of the Meater.

The result was great. The pork loin came out tender and flavorful and, most important, safely cooked.

When not in use, Meater comes in a handsome wood holder/charger. The holder requires one AAA battery to charge Meater, and has a magnetic backing you so you can stick it to an oven hood to keep it handy. At $69, Meater is a pretty good value considering a Thermapen costs at least $79.

For a cautious cook such as myself, Meater would be a great addition to my kitchen, and would give me more confidence to cook proteins I might not normally try.