Do you need a smart assistant to help you cook your favorite types of meat? We got lucky enough to try out a meat-it-plus smart meat thermometer, and based on our test runs, we prepared this product review for you.
I know that there are a lot of chefs, foodies, and other cooking aficionados reading our posts, so next to the questions about whether or not the meat-it-plus (also stylized as “meat°it +”) by Mastrad Paris is a good product to check out, we also want to check what the advantages of a smart meat thermometer or probe are over a traditional meat thermometer product that might come at a lower price.
Why go for a smart meat thermometer like the meat-it-plus?
The first question we asked ourselves is “why would a chef even need a smart and connected meat thermometer?”. Sometimes we are testing products and report about innovations that just have a “smart” function for the sake of writing it on the box without much or any value add at all. However, I found that this is not the case for the meat-it-plus smart meat thermometer.
With the meat-it-plus, you can establish a link to your smartphone via the companion app, and you’ll be able to choose a type of meat that youÄd like to cook, fry, or grill. Based on your selection as to what animal, what meat part, and how you want to cook your dish, the app will support you by not only letting you know of the current temperature of the meat it also lets you know how long it should be cooking in this heat in order to reach just the right state of meat, no matter if you prefer medium, well-done, or something else.
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So it’s a bit like a cooking book that provides you guidance on the right temperature for various types of meat, it also monitors this state, tells you when it reached a good cooking state, but not only tells you when it’s done but also gives you an alarm in case the temperature drops or gets too high. This also comes very handily if you’re hosting friends and don’t want to hang around in front of the meat the whole time while everybody else is socializing and having fun.
If you’re not a party person, you can just rely on the app not hang out in the kitchen the whole time while the meat is processing. Some people also don’t like to be overexposed to smoke and fat in the air for personal reasons, so this could come in handy to such people as well.
Of course, you still need to make sure that everything is cooking safely once in a while, but you can do so less often than you might normally do. It might not be a use-case to everyone, but to all who need it, they will also be able to pair multiple probes and assign various projects to them that you can simultaneously monitor.
What are the features of the meat-it-plus meat thermometer?
I liked this product because it comes in a little base station, which you can install on the wall or simply stick it to metal surfaces, like a fridge door, and let the magnet do all the work. You put batteries into the docking station, and whenever you are not using the meat-it-plus, it gets charged up automatically.
No matter if you’re going to cook fish, meat, or poultry, no matter if you want to do a BBQ, fry in a pan, use a plancha or oven, all these options are supported, and the probe can withstand temperatures up to 400°C (752° F) or contact with flames up to three minutes. The Bluetooth range is up to 60 m (195 feet), and the app will give you alerts just in case you forget to check the monitor. You just undock the probe from the docking station, make sure you successfully paired the app with the device, and insert it into the meat.
What did the first test run look like?
I’d say that it takes a few attempts to learn the ropes with the meat-it-plus, but the first attempt already yielded delicious results. I tested with a beef ribeye (entrecôte) steak and just had to select in the app that I was doing beef and this cut and then told the app I was going to use a frying pan, and it gave me all the instructions I needed.
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I had some trouble getting the right temperature at first, but without the app’s direct feedback, I wouldn’t have even known that I was going down a bad path, so it helped me fix my mistakes. Did everything go perfectly? No, I think it didn’t go perfectly fine on the first attempt, but I am confident that any chef using a meat-it-plus would learn to improve and use the solution better every time they cook.
Can anybody use the meat-it-pro and get good results? No, I think you will need at least a mediocre understanding of cooking before you should attempt to use such technology. Of course, anybody could learn to cook and to use the device. Still, I wouldn’t say that it magically turns any person into a chef, even though they never processed meat before – but this should be clear since the product never advertised that it could help beginners.
What’s the verdict after doing the meat-it-plus review?
I think the product has a great design, and it definitely solves the problem it aims to solve successfully. The probe technology works fine. The app works fine. The connectivity is fine. It doesn’t support smart home features such as connecting with Alexa or Google Home, but maybe we can expect such features in a future product version. In summary, I find no issues, and I’m sure that after a couple of use attempts, any buyer of the meat-it-plus will have fun getting their meat done just the way they love it.
The product currently costs $90 on Amazon, and while that isn’t cheap, I think it’s a fair price and not overpriced. I’ve seen similar products with less appeal and features that were even more expensive. If you love meat, love cooking, and have a knack for gadgets, the meat-it-pro thermostat might be something to try out. For some more demonstrations, you can also check the video out below.
YouTube: MEAT°IT + SMART COOKING PROBE
Photo credit: The feature image is owned by Mastrad Paris. The photos in the body of the article were done by the author.
Editorial notice: We received a sample unit for testing but the meat was paid for by the author.
