Internet of.... Brisket?

 

Here is an adaptation of the ESP32 BBQ probe, integrated with the more recent experimentation with air quality sensors for an easier to access brisket smoking logger. The main motivations are for more convenient (remote) monitoring and logging. Monitoring is important to make any needed adjustments, especially during initial setup when the temperature is not stable. Logging is important to observe the overall burn times, especially for overnight periods to see how much overall heat actually went into the meat. We're not hardcore enough to care about having a continuous 20 hour cook, and usually end up starting the fire again the next morning after the charcoal "snake" has burnt out.

Overall, the pipeline is relatively straightforward:

Starting with the thermocouple hardware, the sensor data is polled by the ESP32 and served via a HTTP server. A python script running on a computer pulls data from the server, parses the temperature value, and emits it along with a timestamp into a Google Sheet document via the Drive API. From there, the online chart can be set to the appropriate input columns, and will update automatically as more points are added.

The main drawback of this current system is that it still needs a laptop (or computer) to run on the local network to do the bridging between the ESP32 and the cloud server. From a cursory search, it should be possible to implement the Drive API's directly, so that would be a good next step.

What are we cooking with this? One of the two USDA prime briskets we picked up at Costco in Burlington last week, when the border was still open (and return trips did not require PCR testing, as it will within a matter of days):

Pictures of results to come!