MEATER Plus Wireless Meat Thermometer, King of the Grill Edition

There are no wires on the MEATER Plus at all. The probe is a single slim stick that goes into the meat and stays there with the lid closed, talking to a phone over Bluetooth. That one probe holds two sensors: one reads the inside of the meat up to 212°F, and the other reads the air around it up to 527°F. This edition comes with King of the Grill engraved on its wooden charger, which settles that argument before it starts.

The MEATER app on iOS or Android does the thinking: guided cooks, temperature alerts, an estimated finish time and a recommendation for how long to rest the meat. The charger stores the probe and doubles as a Bluetooth repeater, stretching the range to as much as 165 feet, so a brisket on the smoker can be watched from the couch. One charge lasts up to 24 hours of cooking.

It suits the dad who stands at the grill poking steaks and announcing a few more minutes. It swaps the guessing for a number and a countdown, and it works for roasts in the oven too.

The catch: it needs a phone and the app to be useful, so a dad who refuses to install apps won’t get much from it. The long range comes from the charger acting as a repeater, so the charger has to sit near the cook.