This Smart Frying Pan Tells You When Your Food is Done

For some people, the only thing standing in the way of a hearty home-cooked meal is the anxiety that often accompanies the task itself. What if I ruin this expensive cut of swordfish? What if my over-easy eggs come out over-done? And then there's beef. When you pay a pretty penny for a top-shelf tenderloin, the stakes are high.

Enter Pantelligent—a nonstick, die-cast aluminum pan that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and walks you step-by-step through a recipe, all while monitoring the heat of the pan and the overall doneness of the meal.

Sensors in Pantelligent keep track of surface temperature. The handle of the pan houses a battery-powered Bluetooth chip that sends information back to the app, and the app calculates the amount of cook time remaining.

Let’s say you buy a delectable ribeye steak that you intend to cook for your best friend (hopefully me). The only information Pantelligent needs is the thickness of the steak, which you can even measure in-app using a nifty ruler tool.

From that point on, the steak practically cooks itself—or so the marketing goes. Pantelligent tells you when the pan is hot enough to add oil, how long to sear each side, and of course, when the meat reaches a perfect medium-rare (or whichever doneness you prefer). If at any point the meat starts to reach dangerous temperatures, the app will alert you of impending kitchen catastrophe.

{{amazon name="All-Clad 51125 All Clad Stainless-Steel 12-Inch Fry Pan with Lid", asin="B001QJEWB2", align="right"}} The app comes with a number of recipes, from salmon to grilled cheese. Seasoned home cooks can also use "freestyle" mode, which monitors your food without adhering to any specific recipe.

But here’s the rub: Pantelligent costs you between $175 and $200 (and it's backordered until February). For cookware, that ain’t cheap. For half the price, you could find yourself a large, top-of-the-line, All-Clad skillet that'll go the distance for years to come—no software updates necessary.

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