Smart home devices are hot right now. It seems like every top chef or food blog has a new gadget or device to recommend every other day. But which gadgets are actually worth the buy? A refrigerator with a touchscreen that lets you see inside seems frivolous, right? That’s because it is. Here are the smart kitchen devices tech-savvy home cooks should consider.
Range Thermometer
This app-enabled kitchen thermometer takes the guesswork out of cooking. With precise temperature measurements you can rest assured that your food is cooked to perfection and safe to eat, whether you are grilling, roasting, baking or making candy. Range connects with your smartphone and gives you precise temp readings and alerts you when your food is done. In fact, the Range app provides USDA and gourmet recommended presets to measure doneness.
There are two models of Range available today: the Ember Range that is designed for meats and the Aqua range that is great for anything ranging from cheese to beer. They are both kitchen staples you should have in your kitchen drawer.
Drop
Available online and from retailers like Amazon, Target and Apple, Drop is a small, round and Wi-Fi equipped kitchen scale that can weigh almost anything. Drop connects with an iPad and shows you just how much your ingredients weigh.
Drop does all of that complicated math for you, too. Say you only have a finite amount of sugar left. Drop can scale the entire recipe based on what you have available in your kitchen pantry. Additionally, when Drop is connected to your iPad, you have access to recipes, images and kitchen tips via the free interactive Drop cookbook.
Breville Avance Steamer
Unlike boiling, which washes away nutrients and vitamins, steaming keeps the good stuff intact. With the ability to steam three different dishes at once, the Breville Avance Steamer is a techy kitchen accessory that all health-conscious cooks should consider. In addition to vegetables, the steamer can make rice that is ready to go to work in 30 seconds.
Once the food is cooked, the Breville Avance Steamer keeps it fresh with the “keep warm” setting, ensuring that the food remains at the right temperature until it’s time to eat. Breville also offers a comprehensive tutorial on how to operate the smart steamer on YouTube.
ReFuel
If you're a grill master, you've definitely had a time when you think the meat is ready and your guests are hungry and you find that the propane tank to your grill is running on empty. ReFuel, a smart gadget that is compatible with your smartphone and all grills, monitors and displays your propane levels, ensuring that nightmares like an empty tank don’t happen.
How does it work? ReFuel provides a sensor and a ring base that is made of plastic and rubber that is placed underneath your propane tank. The ring acts like a scale and connects to the Wink app to let you know if your tank is in need of refilling. The app also monitors how often you grill and predicts how many grill sessions you can get out of your propane tank.