I've been experimenting with roasting meat at lower than normal oven temps (100degC or so) and have been loving the results, really tender meat and pink right to the edge (if that's what you want).
End point determined by a meat thermometer inserted into the meat.
Enter Lidl wireless meat thermometer, currently on sale at £12.99, bought one today, looks ideal as there's no need to take the meat out of the oven to check the temp. Has wired temp probe to wireless base, remote display/controller with alarms for temps (well, degrees of done-ness) and timers.
Ah. The other picture shows that. Pity they don't say how long the thin lead actually is, for those of us with ovens in a tall unit not terribly close to a worktop...
I see Lidl don't say it's a wireless thermometer...
I've been using a similar one I bought 4 years ago from maplin and have been looking for another for ages so I'll be going for that, provided it looks ok. Its a huuge gboon to be able to cook meat till it reaches the correct core temperature. We rarely (pardon pun) get our beef overdone since using this. You can sit on your sofa (or at computer more like) and watch the temperature rise and estimate when the joint will be ready.
I had a quick look on Amazon and found several variants, at least as regards thermometers with a probe on the end of a wire. Many people find them un-useful because, for example, you can't program your own temperatures into them (if I understand the comments correectly).
That's not to say the Lidl one might not be great, but there's not much info on the Lidl website describing exactly what the thing can and can't do.
Yes, the probe is attached to the base with a cable. The LCD bit is wireless to the base, and has a belt clip.
Yep, exactly that.
It's 1m from the probe to the unit (i've just measured the dead one I've got here :-))
Word of warning...
Between me and my dad, we've had 3 of these. All three have died, 2 in the same way. Within a few months the probes fail and all they read is HI making them completely useless. The 3rd one never worked reliably from day one and was swapped after a couple of days - couldn't reliably maintain the wireless connection.
I've also had two of a different type, and they failed in the same way (not as quickly as the lidl ones though). Used to have one that worked solidly for 10 years, until I dropped it and broke the screen so it is possible to find reliable ones...
The probes on these things appear to be a real weak point. I'm now looking for something more reliable but struggling. I've heard good things about
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but no long term experience. The silicone around the end of the probe is promising though, as is the Mastrad name. Pricy though.
If you get the lidl one, please report back on it's failure mode ;-)
Thanks for the info, this one claims a 2 year warranty so I'll keep the receipt and printout of the webpage in case of return.
The probe looks pretty robust but following your comments I'll treat it gently. It's a stainless tube about 4mm dia with a pointed end, other end has a soft 90deg bend before cable exit which at least means there's no need for sharp bends in the cable to route it out of the oven. Cable is braided stainless of about a metre long ending in a 2mm jack to the wireless sender. It appears to use a thermistor sensor, 310k at room temp and 150k shortly after being put in my pit (arm).
It has the usual set temperatures for taste or you can set it to alarm at any temperature you like meaning you can set it to alarm a bit before target to compensate for the rise when resting. I was cooking chicken last night before I found the variable setting and though the 'well' setting for poultry (the only avail setting on poultry) was a bit high at 85C I used it on beef and watched the temp rise after setting the alarm at 'med well' setting of 75C. Remote disp is backlit with timed off.
Niggles:
The use of braid for the sensor cable worries me a little as any food residue won't wipe off, I'd have preferred a ptfe outer.
Instructions say the temp alarm can be cancelled by hitting any key but it only suspends it for a few seconds, you need to raise the target temp or switch the sender off to silence it completely, the latter losing the ability to follow temp rise on resting.
Wireless range is pathetic, with the 15m quoted I expected it would be and yes, it is 15m outdoors! It fails to work here beyond about 8m through 2 half brick walls, so no monitoring from the lounge.
Overall verdict:
Flawed but usable and acceptable at the price paid.
I would think one of the problems of having a wireless sensor is that of te= mperature as the wireless ensor would need a battery and I'm not sure hwio = the average battery would perforom in oven temeratures that can exceed 240C= .
I ahd a wireless weather sensor I put it in the frezzr it lasted a couple o= f weeks and went down to -19C . Never tried putting it in the oven as it wa= s plastic :-) Most oven probes seem to be just thermocouples that produce a small voltage= and that voltages represents the temperature .
Well I did try but become frustrated by lack of a link and you can;t beleive everything that is copy and pasted.
From Tims post I got to see the actual device, which still confused me a little, as to what's the point, oh I can be in another room while monitoring the tempature of the oven, something I've done before but not wirelessly.
On going to the site I was a little confused further by :-
"Determines the ideal core temperature and cooking time"
How does it determine ?, I can see how it measures.
Maybe be if the temprature is 150C it gives a set cooking time, but defining the ideal is somewhat more difficult I'd assume.
"Portable control with belt clip connects wirelessly to base unit with 15m range"
How does it control ?, I can't see any way of adjusting the oven temerature from either the wireless unit or even the base station, so I'm still confused by how it controls.
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