Best Gadgets for Home Cooks

"Sous vide" is a process in which you vacuum-seal something — say, a steak — in a plastic bag, then immerse it in a hot water bath for a long time. This low-and-slow cooking method results in amazingly tender and juicy meat. Anova's Precision Cooker takes the guesswork out by connecting to your smartphone via an app, and alerting you when your food is ready. Plus, the app has recipes and tips from Serious Eats, one of the better cooking sites online. The Bluetooth version of the Anova is $149, while a Wi-Fi model, which lets you monitor its progress even when you're not at home, is $199.

How do you know if the Thanksgiving turkey is done? You could keep opening the oven and sticking a thermometer in (hint: 165 degrees Fahrenheit), but what if you could simply sit back and watch the football game and get an alert on your smartphone when the bird is cooked? That's where the iGrill Mini comes in handy. The probe, which can withstand temperatures of up to 572 degrees Fahrenheit, connects to a small module that sends a signal to your phone via Bluetooth. The app also has recommended temperatures for all sorts of meats and doneness levels (rare, medium rare, etc.), which takes out all the guesswork.

If you don't use exact measurements when baking, your pie or cake could turn out to be a disaster, which is why a kitchen scale is essential. Drop's connected scale makes baking easy for newbies, guiding you through recipes on your iPhone or iPad, ingredient by ingredient. If you want to double the recipe, a clever feature in the app will automatically change the amount of ingredients proportionally.

Brewing your own beer can be a messy and inexact process. The PicoBrew looks to make doing so as easy as pressing a button. All that you need to do with this Kickstarter-backed device is insert packets of hops, yeast and grain, and the machine does the rest. A few weeks later, and you've got 5 liters of beer. PicoBrew also partnered with more than 50 breweries, so you can replicate that awesome IPA that you can't find in any store.

The key to a tender mouth-watering brisket is a low, consistent temperature. With most smokers, that means keeping a sharp eye on the thermometer during the entire process, which can take hours for some cuts of meat. The Char-Broil Simple Smoker with SmartChef Technology frees you up to do other things by delivering that info straight to your smartphone. It also gives you real-time information on the temperature of the meat as well as the smoker, estimated cook time, as well as guided recipes for newbies.

It's not the first refrigerator with a door that you can see through, nor is it the first to have a touchscreen. However, LG's newest InstaView fridge combines the two in a novel way. Knock twice on the panel, and you can peer inside; knock again, and you get both Windows 10 and LG's webOS interface, from which you can order groceries, play music, leave and send notes to family members, and more. Cameras on the inside let you check to see if you need more milk--while you're at the store. And, did we mention this fridge is Alexa-enabled? Pricing and availability have yet to be announced, but we estimate that it will cost more than $8,000 when it's released this year.

This all-in-one machine roasts, grinds, and brews a fresh pot of coffee, ensuring the freshest cup you've ever had. Available later this year for $800, the Bonaverde will also let you customize, via an app, how dark you want your roast, and let you save settings for different types of beans. Plus, the company will sell pre-measured packets of beans, contained in a filter for your convenience.

Joule's sous vide machine is smaller than Anova's, and features a magnetic base, so you don't need to clamp it to the side of the pot you're using. The Wi-Fi-connected Joule also works with Alexa, so you can speak to Amazon's voice assistant to set the temperature automatically. Joule's app is powered by ChefSteps, which offers guided videos for its recipes—helpful for newbies. The Joule is available for $149 with a white polycarbonate top, or $169 for the stainless steel finish.