Tuesday, August 22, 2006

BBQ meets technology

Ok a quick break from my helicopter project. I for the last month or two (prior to the heli proj) have been learning the backyard art of BBQ. Yep I was given a Weber Smoky Mountain(WSM) smoker, and I love it. There is quite a group of enthusiasts on the web over at http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ anyway I have had great success smoking all sorts of meats from pork butts to turkey and chicken, I have done sausage, brisket, buffalo wings, and even pot roast. A good friend once said to me "It's all in the rub" which is mostly true, another key ingredient is temperature which brings me to the point of this post. During my research for BBQ methods I found this killer device and I think it is germane to this blog.
The Stoker is a logic controlled blower that mounts to the smoker. It monitors and regulates the temperature. There are temperature probes connected that tell the controller to turn on the blower if your temps are too low thus keeping your smoker at an even 225 deg, or whatever temperature you set it for...pretty neat right? Well that is only the half of it. The stoker has an ethernet port and a built in web server that allows you to monitor your temps remotely from any web enabled device!! How cool is that! So I can monitor my meat from my phone, or even from work. Heh heh I said "monitor my meat"...sorry sounded funny. Anyway I need one of these!

No comments: