Cooking is an art that has been a part of human society for thousands of years. In the last few years, however, companies and innovative cooks have been taking advantages of technological innovations and putting tech to work in the kitchen. These five new gadgets can not only help you cook, but they can even sometimes tell you what to make!
1. SmartyPans
SmartyPans are a dream come true. This company took the simple frying pan and gave it a hell of an upgrade. The pans, which are currently available for pre-order for $169, contain sensors that monitor the weight, temperature, and ideal cooking time of whatever you’re working on. With the connected app you get to see real-time monitoring that will tell you to turn the heat up or down, and even when the food is done cooking. The cherry on top (or not) is that the pan can even measure caloric intake for you, freeing you up from tracking yourself. Also, the SmartyPan is dishwasher safe, heat-resistant (I would hope so), and comes with 350,000 recipes to try out in the app.
2. Drop
Measuring ingredients can be a tedious, exacting task. Especially when baking, making sure you get an exact measurement can be extremely important. That’s where Drop comes in. Drop is a small kitchen scale wirelessly connected to a recipe app. By measuring ingredients on the scale, the app tells you exactly when you’ve got enough. Interactive recipes are displayed on the screen and you can follow along, step-by-step, making sure you have the perfect amount of each ingredient. Essentially, this is foolproof baking!
3. Searzall
Searzall is for big-league cooks. Designed by the team at New York’s Booker & Dax, Searzall is a genius attachment to a blowtorch. You know when you want the top of your mac ‘n’ cheese to be nice and crispy but you also don’t want it to smell like gas? Searzall is for times like that. It evenly spreads out the blowtorch’s heat, creating a perfect searing temperature that you can use to finish off nearly any dish. With this pretty simple $75 tool, you can be making restaurant-quality meals in your own home.
4. Meld
Every stovetop has unique burners and sometimes it can be really tricky to keep things the right temperature. Meld, a stovetop system that will be released this fall, hooks up to your stove and is able to control the burners, ensuring that they cook your food or boil your water at the perfect temperature. The connected app is filled with thousands of recipes that Meld can follow along with. No need to remember to turn down the heat after a few minutes – Meld can do that for you. Plus, it’s pretty cool to have a robot stove.
5. MAID Oven
MAID is a great tool for calorie-conscious chefs. The smart microwave is connected to a huge recipe database on the Internet and by connecting to fitness devices, learns your calorie requirements. Then when it’s time for dinner, it recommends dishes based on your caloric needs and automatically knows how long to cook each dish.