The Secret to Perfectly Cooked Meat Every Time

22 Mar 2025

Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director

The theme this week is temperature, which bearing in mind the soaring temperatures we’ve experienced in the last seven days, might seem appropriate.

In fact, the temperatures I’m going to be talking about are a bit higher than our unseasonably warm March, because I want to tell you about two new lines that we’ve just started stocking, which are just remarkable.

Meater Plus & Meater Pro.

At 9 o’clock on Tuesday morning, Phil Roberts from Meater (a company that is new to us), came to see us to do training on his rather unusual Meat Thermometers. They make two models, The Meater Plus and The Meater Pro.

Both models consist of a probe that you insert into the meat you’re going to cook, and unlike most other electronic meat thermometers, these are wireless. Obviously, they need a power source and the bamboo holder that they arrive in, is also the charger. This charges an internal battery (a capacitor in fact, as a conventional battery wouldn’t stand the heat). And this holder/charger is also the means by which it communicates with, of course, your phone! I suppose in these days of smart phones controlling so much, a cooking thermometer that reports to your phone doesn’t seem that unusual anymore. Unnecessary…..? Maybe, but let’s see.

Whether you’re roasting, frying, grilling, deep frying* or barbecuing*, the routine is to push the thermometer fully into your meat. Open the app on your phone, choose the type of meat you are cooking, along with the cut and the weight.

*For the high temperatures of deep frying and barbecuing, you’ll need the Pro model.

Why would you want a thermometer reporting how your Sunday joint is cooking? Well, so you can be down the pub sinking a pint of ale, or out on the golf course, or enjoyably/dutifully watching your child playing Sunday morning football. But maybe there are other less obvious reasons as well.

When Babette was alive, being French, she would cook meat for flavour, moistness, and succulence. So, if the beef wasn’t bloody in the middle, the salmon wasn’t ultra moist (barely cooked) or the livers no longer cuttable with a fork (i.e. not gone rubbery with over cooking), she felt that she’d failed. So, as a family we are used to chicken that is borderline rare. And I mention this because, apparently, as a nation, we consume chicken twice a week on average. And a while back the chaps at Meater did an experiment.

They bought 2 chickens of exactly the same weight, from Sainsbury’s, as it happens, and cooked one according to the supermarket instructions and one according to the Meater Thermometer. The one cooked with the Meater came out of the oven, a full 20 minutes before the chicken cooked to Sainsbury’s instructions. Which just goes to show how we are still over cooking and therefore spoiling meat in this country. The Meater thermometer ensures perfect cooking times, never too short, never too long, without the need for decades of experience in a French kitchen. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Meater chicken was just as safely cooked, moister and so much tastier than the bird that came out of the oven 20 minutes later.

The other benefit, which may actually be rather minor, is the saving on gas or electricity you’d make. So, my maths tells me that at an average of twice a week 52 weeks of the year, that’s getting on for a day and half saved in cooking.

The Meater app keeps a detailed record of every meal you’ve cooked, so when you’ve done a joint just perfectly, you will be able to repeat it time and time again. There are also videos that show what to do when you’re new to Meater cooking and lots of recipes for ideas.

There is a detailed comparison on the website of the differences between the two models . Generally, if you’re thinking of using it at a very high temperature, under a grill or on the BBQ then my advice is go for the Meater Pro. If you’re a little unsure then the £99 Plus model may well do a good enough job.

Meater Plus Thermometer

Meater

Sold Out

Meater Pro Thermometer

Meater

ETI Thermapen.

Strangely in the same week that Meater arrives so does another electronic thermometer that we’ve been asked for, the Thermapen. I’m going to leave Em (General Manager) to tell you about this natty little gadget.

Every time I watch “Great British Bake Off” I wonder if I’m the kind of cook who needs a thermometer, when I see the bakers checking where their sugar syrup is at, or monitoring how far off their jam is from being ready.

It’s easy to forget that thermometers are useful all over the kitchen, not just for meat - they help with baking bread, deep frying, making beer at home, preparing yogurt, and working with chocolate.

You can even get thermometers to monitor your fridge and freezer temperatures.

Picking a thermometer that matches what you cook most often is money well spent - you'll get better results, waste less food, and most importantly, know your food is consistently good to eat.

Here are the key benefits of each Thermapen thermometer type:

Thermapen ONE Thermometer: