Father of Thermapen, Grill Like a Pro
A few months ago my neighbor Mike and I decided to put my Big Green Egg through it’s first real trial with a 12-hour brisket session. Mike is a stellar cook on all counts and I wanted to learn (steal) anything I could about grilling. As we were working the brisket through the hours we probed this large hunk of meat for temperature dozens of times, in dozens of locations (see the video timeline for proof). I’ve always had temperature probes and such, but Mike was using one of these high-end instant read digital thermometers and I realized this was a must for grilling.
I decided to be patient and put a Thermapen on my wish list for Christmas. Now that I’ve used it a few times I feel like every grill owner should just get one of these with their grill. Why?
First, a large piece of meat is going to have several different temperatures throughout the cut. The Thermapen is fast enough that you can take several readings and get “x-ray vision” into the meat. Before you even slice it, you know where the cut will be more rare and more well.
Secondly, when you are grilling at really high temperatures the grill itself gets so hot that it’s really hard to hold a probe in place for 10-20+ seconds waiting for a reading. Yes, you can put a big huge glove on but that takes a lot of time and results in fewer temperature checks. The Thermapen is so fast that you just probe it, read, and remove. 2-3 seconds tops.
If you love to grill, get a Thermapen. It gives you a lot more confidence on the grill. You can stop overcooking to be cautious. And since you can take a temperature so fast you can temp every single item on the grill before it comes off. Each and every cut can be just perfect.
Jamie, interestingly enough I spent a few hours last week reviewing various wireless thermometers that I could use w/the Egg. As you’ve pointed out this is critical for achieving good results and is a gap in my toolkit.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a product that is high quality and has the right functionality. What I really would like is something wireless so that: 1) I can read the temp from the kitchen, and 2) I won’t have to lift the lid every so often to read, thereby distrubing the internal Egg temp. A probe connected to the iPhone would be really great (which i’m looking at potentially building)
Frustrated that I couldn’t find anything, I just began looking for other probes. I’m going to try the Thermapen on your recommendation.
I have one of those wireless temperature units and have used it a few times. My main complaint with them is that it seems every single time I want to use it I have to change the batteries (they are always dead) and re-pair the units. This eats up at least 5 minutes since I have to remember how to do it everytime. If you used it regularly, I guess it wouldn’t be a problem. I have the RediCheck Remote Cooking Thermometer. I’m not a huge fan, but YMMV. I see in a simple search that they have added ones with dual-probes now.
If you want to get really crazy, you could get The Stoker. See bbum’s post on Smoked Turkey with an IP Address. :-)
I’m happy with the Thermapen. I may start using my wireless probe just to keep a tab on chamber temperature for long sessions.
By the way, The Stoker would be a decent back-end to write an iPhone application for. Hmm… I see a fun project. :-)
I’ve been coveting one of these ever since I started watching America’s Test Kitchen. Strangely, I’ve never seen one in a store – even Kitchen Window doesn’t seem to carry them.
Kitchen Window does stock one — I was fondling it while I was in the store recently. It’s about $20 more because it also has an laser temperature probe on it as well (if I’m remembering right). However, I think they only had the one unit.
I also got one of the laser gadgets too, but got it as a separate unit.
Dude, yes –now we’re getting somewhere. I knew about stoker like devices that kept the Egg at specific temps. In-fact I had planned to get one. But the stoker takes it to a whole new level w/multiple probes and the net connection.
Now all we need to do is integrate wifi and write an iPhone app, etc. Also, it would be nice to have this whole system packed in a more consumer friendly form factor — seems a bit nerdy as it stands now.
Yes, this may seem kinda goofy, but as the Egg moves more into the mainstream the market for this type of thing will grow. I could see BGE Inc. eventually selling an ‘out of the box’ product with temp control already nicely integrated w/the Egg.
Just an FYI – ThermoWorks has released a new faster, more accurate, blah, blah, blah version of the Thermapen. This means the version that ATK recommended is being sold at close out prices while supplies last.
http://www.gastronomicfightclub.com/blog/food/2009/05/thermoworks-splash-proof-thermapen.cfm
Thanks for the info Derek. The direct link to the Thermapen site is
http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/splashproof_thermapen.html
The new one looks like it has a sleeker design which is nice. My only complaint (and a minor one at that) with the existing one is the clip that the probe sits in when closed. The new one looks like it’s more forgiving.
I’ve gotten my Thermapen wet a couple of times (used in rain, left in the rain) and had no problems, but I might have just been lucky.
The addition of tenths of a degree seems, plainly, useless. At least for cooking meat (what I use it for) it doesn’t matter. I guess if you were temping other things maybe, but I don’t see the utility.
I’m not sure what you mean by more forgiving. If anything, I think the new version is *less* forgiving in it’s design of the probe clip. The first Thermapen I got had a pretty large clip area, but this 2nd pen has a very narrow notch in the molding for the probe to clip into. It’s probably more secure that way, but it seems like a two handed operation, or at least require you to pay more attention when closing it with one hand.
I think the additions of the tenths of a degree is just a geek thing for me. I want as much information as possible, but you’re right, for most applications it’s not going to matter. That’s one of the options they made configurable, so if you don’t like it, you can turn it off. One reason I might argue to leave it on is because it might give you an idea of how rapidly the temperature is changing. That might allow you to decide how soon you need to check the temp again if it’s not yet in the desired range.
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