I absolutely love cooking. With lockdowns and the years I first moved out giving me ample time to cook, it’s something I’ve come to love. So colour me somewhat of a cynic when I hear about the top cooking gadget, the Meater 2 Plus smart thermometer. I’m definitely an “it’s done when it’s ready” type of person – which winds other people up to no end. Rather than setting timers or using thermometers, when cooking I tend to go by feel. And for the most part it works, whether that’s by sheer luck or because I’ve picked up a thing or two.
But when after using the Meater 2 Plus, my mind’s been changed somewhat. It’s a tool that I want to use, when it’s appropriate, to ensure that I’m cooking to the best level possible. It helped me cook the perfect steak, not for me, but for a family member that likes it a little more well done (I’m looking into disowning them, don’t worry). And it’s a tool I’ll whip out when I want to make sure something’s perfect.
Meater gets it just right, every time
Meater’s second-gen smart meat thermometer hooks up to your smartphone via Bluetooth, so you can keep an eye on how your dinner’s coming along. The idea is simple, shove the 2 Plus inside your food before setting it to cook – like any other cooking probe. Whether you’re roasting, smoking, grilling, deep fat frying, or air frying, you can use the Meater. It beams over temperature readings to your smartphone, so you can keep an eye on the temp. To take the temperature, it uses five different sensors inside the stainless steel probe.
It also packs some rather smart features up its sleeve. The Guided Cook System walks you through every step of the cooking process, while the Advanced Estimator Algorithm actively calculates how long it will be until your meat is ready to eat. In theory, this smart thermometer sounds like the perfect kitchen aid, but how did it fare when we put it to good use?
To put the Meater 2 Plus through its paces, I was tasked with cooking a nice Ribeye steak for a family member. They wanted me to ruin cook this piece of meat to a Well Done level. As someone that always cooks a steak to Medium Rare, this was a little foreign to me. While I was up to the challenge, I wanted to make sure that I got it right. Take it off the flame too soon, and it would be too pink for them to enjoy.
So, off I went to shove Meater’s smart thermometer into the steak. It’s got a handy line to let you know how far you need to poke it. While it’s a pretty thick cut here, as the probe is pretty thin (just 5mm), it would work just as well for smaller cuts of meat. I set my smartphone next to it, went through the app, and dropped it into the hob. The app asked me what meat it was and how I wanted it cooked, before telling me the right temperature. While cooking, it kept the live temperature reading updated on my phone screen. It even provides an estimate of how long is left on the cooking time. When we were just under halfway done, I flipped the steak. Moving the meat didn’t disrupt the temperature readings, which was nice to see.
Just before the steak was at temp for well done (a balmy 75-degrees), I took it out and covered it to rest. The app let me know it was at this temperature, and told me how long to let it rest for. Rather handily, the Meater kept sending the temperature even while I couldn’t see the steak and didn’t know what was going on under there. Once it reached temperature, it was time to slice and serve. And the family member? Happy with a steak cooked to well done. But I can’t take all the credit – Meater’s smart thermometer definitely helped out here.
An extra cooking leg to stand on
Here, the Meater 2 Plus smart thermometer helped me to cook something I wasn’t too familiar with. Would I use it again in such an instance? Yes. But would I also use it more often? Yes. It helps to give you an extra level of certainty that you’re doing the right thing.
And thanks to the smarts inside, I know it’s going to give me the right information. The Bluetooth convenience also makes things easier. You haven’t got to worry about reading a probe shoved into your meat that’s spitting oil. The right way to think of the Meater is as an extra cooking leg to stand on. It can give you more confidence that you’re getting it right.
