Barbecue is all about temperature, about making sure that whatever is on the grill reaches the right temperature. At least, that is the part that makes sure you don’t poison people, because your food should get hot enough to kill any bacteria. [Chris Aquino] decided to take this a step further than simply sticking a thermometer into a hunk of meat by creating Pitmaster. This combination of hardware and software monitors the temperature of multiple chunks of food and alerts you when each is ready, all through a web interface.

Pitmaster is a project that demonstrates React, a new library for creating UIs that mashes together Javascript, HTML and various other technologies. [Chris] teaches React at DigitalCrafts.com and made Pitmaster as a demonstration of how to use it to quickly build a UI. It’s a neat build that runs on an Arduino and Raspberry Pi, with the first one monitoring the temperature of the multiple probes and the Pi keeping track of what food is on what sensor, then pushing this to a web interface. Each individual cooking job has a name and a temperature target attached to it, so you can keep track of as many cooking jobs as you have room or temperature sensors for.

Are there simpler ways to do this? Sure: anybody who is half decent with a barbecue can judge most foods by look and feel, but this system allows you to step away from the grill and still keep an eye on it. That could be important for longer jobs like smoking that require you to leave the food unattended. Plus, it’s a cool hack that shows how to use a new (and rather confusing) programming tool.

And didn’t we cover this just yesterday? Nope, that was yet another BBQ hack. (Are we becoming Grilladay?) Enjoy the last few weeks of warm weather while you can, hackers!