I’ve lived in the mountains for over 15 years now. I’ve gotten used to the high altitude. Coming from Florida, though, I was incredibly sick for around a week or so. I spent most of my time in a bed, sick as a dog. All of that is behind me, and I’m so used to living in high altitude areas that I actually feel better when I move into a lower elevation; I have more energy and stamina.
But no matter how acclimated I am to the elevation here, I have always had trouble cooking. It’s a scientific fact that food cooks slower at a higher altitude, and that has caused huge headaches for me when it comes to cooking meat. Most recipes revolve around time tables, and unfortunately, the times are always incorrect (unless it’s a high altitude recipe). Because of this, I have to invest into oven-safe thermometers to measure the temperature of the meat to ensure that it’s done.
Most thermometers are flimsy, provide incorrect readings, or break after only a few uses. It’s really disheartening having to spend so much money, and I still end up with burned or undercooked food. But yesterday, I came across a new product called the iGrill. This ingenious invention promises to end the fuss of cooking, and it can pair with your iDevice to make things even easier. The iGrill is a digitalized temperature monitor, complete with a tethered oven-safe probe that will accurately measure food during the entire cooking process. The probe is hooked to a digital readout which always displays the current temperature in large easy-to-read numbers. But the iGrill does more than just display how hot the food is.
By downloading the iGrill companion app in your iDevice and syncing it via Bluetooth, you can get readouts on a variety of things. The app will tell you how quickly the temperature of the food is rising and can give you accurate doneness time on a mass amount of food types. You can even measure more than one dish at a time by adding multiple probes to the device, but that’s not the best part about the iGrill.
This handy cooking gauge will alert you via an iOS alert and alarm as soon as your food reaches the perfect internal temperature. You can even set your own temperature marks, and the system will alert you when the temp reaches the desired level. The alarm system works up to 200 feet away, so you can chill out in the living room with some TV while your steaks cook perfectly on the grill in the backyard.
I really need to get ahold of one of these amazing products, as it would solve all of my high altitude cooking woes. It may be a little expensive at USD $79.99 (additional probes can be had for USD $19.99), but when you realize that you’ll have perfect food every time, you’ll be more than happy to shell out the cash. I can’t tell you how much food I’ve thrown out trying to figure out how to grill up here, so this device will practically pay for itself when it comes to me. You can grab the iGrill at the company’s website.
Photo Credit: iGrill