Thursday, November 15th, 2012 by iGrill Admin
By Mike Stines, Ph. B.
In the past 20-something years of cooking outdoors I’ve played with a lot of gadgets… some useful and ones I use all the time and others that are not so essential or helpful. Among one of my latest gadgets is the iGrill, the Android and Apple compatible wireless thermometer that will display two meat (or one meat and the pit) temperatures up to 200 feet from the cooker via Bluetooth technology. The iGrill app (available at no cost) also includes Facebook integration so you can let your friends know what you’re cooking! You can also opt to include your location so other iGrill users know you’re cooking.
Although the iGrill doesn’t include any hard-copy documentation, the users’ manual is available on the website. Personally, I prefer a hard copy to use as a reference so I downloaded and printed the 17-page manual. (It seems a lot of companies are opting not to include printed documentation.)
Setting up the iGrill was pretty straight-forward. Your Apple device (iPhone, iPod or iPad) needs to be paired to the iGrillby opening the Bluetooth connection and “discovering” the iGrill. (The iGrill is also compatible with Android devices but since I don’t have one, I can’t give any advice or recommendations on their use.)
While the iGrill comes with numerous preset meat temperatures, you may find it more useful to program your own temperatures (taking into allowance that most meat will continue cooking and rise 5 to 10 degrees internal temperature as it rests). If you’re using the iGrill to monitor your smoker and cooking large cuts of meat such as briskets and pork shoulders, you’ll want to set higher temperatures than those offered as preset.
The iGrill also includes count up and count down timer modes that display up to six timers. If you’re into documenting your various cooking sessions (as a lot of competition barbecuers do) iGrill offers a graphing mode that will export a cooking temperature graph as a PDF document or a CVS spreadsheet. As a cook that likes to experiment with different times and temperatures, I found this feature a nice addition. By using the ambient temperature probe, it’s also helpful in figuring out how long it takes your grill or smoker to get to the desired temperature. (This is a nice feature if you cook in colder weather so you have a baseline for how long it takes to get your grill or smoker ready.)
My first cook with the iGrill was a 4.7-pound bone-in turkey breast that had been brined overnight and air-dried in the refrigerator for eight hours. Here’s what I did:
Smoked Turkey Breast
1 (5-pound) bone-in turkey breast
1 pound apple and cherry wood chips or one cup (5 1/2 ounces) pellets
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups unsweetened apple cider
For the brine:
1 1/2 gallons cold water, divided
1 1/2 cups coarse kosher salt
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 (3-ounce) bag Maryland- or Louisiana-style crab boil
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup white wine (Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)
2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (or two teaspoons dried)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (or two teaspoons dried)
1 tablespoon whole allspice
8 sage leaves (or 3/4 teaspoon dried)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Combine one quart of water, salt, sugar, crab boil, molasses, wine and pepper in a medium stockpot and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. When the salt and sugar dissolve remove from the heat and add the remaining water, rosemary, thyme, allspice, sage and Worcestershire. Cool the brine to 40 degrees F. or lower.
Trim any extraneous skin and fat from the turkey. Remove the pop-up thermometer if there is one. Butterfly the turkey by removing the backbone and cracking the keel bone. Place the turkey in a large resealable bag and add the brining solution. Squeeze out as much air as you can from the bag. Brine, refrigerated, for one hour per pound or up to eight hours. Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse well and pat dry. Discard the brine.
Lightly coat the turkey with oil and season with your favorite poultry rub. Place the turkey on a cooling rack over a half-sheet pan and air dry, uncovered and refrigerated, for at least eight hours.
Prepare the grill for 300 degree F. indirect cooking:
• If using a kettle-style grill, place a drip pan in the middle of the charcoal grate. Start about 10 pounds of charcoal or lump charwood in a chimney starter. When the coals develop a white ash, spread them evenly on both side of the drip pan. Add liquid and aromatics (carrots, onions, celery and herbs) to the drip pan if desired. Add two cups of wood chips to the coals or pellets to a smoker tray. When the wood chips or pellets begin smoking, place the turkey, bone side down, over the drip pan. Cover the grill.
• If using a gas grill, preheat the grill with all burners on high. Turn off all but one of the burners and set that burner to medium (or medium-high depending on the ambient temperature). Place a drip pan under the cooler side of the cooking grate. Add liquid and aromatics if desired. Place two cups of wood chips in a smoker tray. When the chips develop a good smoke, place the turkey over the drip pan and close the grill cover.
To integrate the iGrill into this cook, I renamed P1 (the meat probe) to “Turkey” and set the temperature alarm to 150 degrees F. P2 (the ambient probe) was renamed “Grill Temp” and set to 300 degrees F. I inserted the meat probe in the thickest part of the breast and clipped the ambient probe to the cooking grate adjacent to the breast but away from direct heat (iGrill probes shouldn’t be exposed to temperatures above 500 degrees F. or open flames).
Using an estimation of 25 to 30 minutes per pound as a cooking time, I set the countdown timer tool to sound an alarm after two hours of cooking.
Because this was the first time I used the iGrill for actual cooking, I also used another wireless thermometer as a cross-check. (I’ll admit it… using two temperature monitoring devices is a bit anal retentive but as an airplane pilot I’ve learned from experience that redundancy is a good thing!)
With a new iPhone, the iGrill functioned perfectly and gave me an effective range of about 200 feet that included transmitting through a few walls from the grill to my office.
Smoke-cook the turkey adding more charcoal and wood chips as needed and spraying the turkey with apple cider every 30 minutes. Cook the turkey to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Remove the turkey from the grill and tent with aluminum foil. Allow the turkey to rest 20 to 30 minutes before slicing.
(Mike Stines is the author of “Mastering Barbecue” (Ten Speed Press, 2005) and a professional chef.)
