2 days ago
Meater Pro Duo review: The essential smart thermometer for perfect BBQs
Al fresco cooking brings with it an extra element of stress. When the sun is shining, the playlist is blasting, and your friends and family are feeling good, there's no bigger dampener than dry chicken or overcooked steak. It's the one sure way to ruin the seasonal jovial spirit.
This is where MEATER comes in. The brand is known for its smart meat thermometer, a probe which you place inside the grilling meat and, via the accompanying phone app, reveals all you need to know about how ready your carnivorous feast is. It doesn't require a fancy barbecue, nor a Cordon Bleu diploma, to treat your guests to some serious tender food. Genius.
The end pointy part of the probe is the temperature sensor. It is to be placed in the thickest part of the meat and has a max reach of 105°C. The other, thicker end is the ambient temperature sensor, which can reach up to 550°C, which should be fine as long as you are not placing it inside an extremely hot pizza oven. Both are stored and charged inside the sleek wooden case that is just too sophisticated to keep in a drawer.
To juice up the probes, you use the accompanying USB-C charging cable provided, which has a USB-A on the other end for ease. The two lights illuminate to show whether they are fully charged. The probes, annoyingly, do not come fully charged and ready to use. But it is a fast charger, so you should be able to get two hours of cooking after just five minutes plugged in.
The app walks you through every stage. You begin by selecting the meat in question. Notifications reveal when it is ready to flip or remove from the heat, with alerts throughout the cooking process to make it foolproof even for the most amateur of chefs, like myself. There is even a timer for resting and instructions regarding reverse searing to maximise the flavour of every bite.
I started small and easy; chicken to be paired with salad for a simple mid-week dinner. I am quite the hypochondriac when it comes to cooking chicken to avoid the dreaded pink undercooking, and as such, I find I often leave it too long in the oven, and it's dry and chewy. The MEATER Pro Duo sorts this. Inserting the probe into the thickest part of the breast (you place it in as if you were butterflying the meat) and determining how well-cooked I wanted it on the app, I was then notified when it was ready to be removed from the heat, all while I caught up with the previous night's Love Island. The brand has extended the range of the thermometers for full home coverage - something that will come very welcome when the mercurial British summer turns into a rainshower.
