The Good
- 250 illustrated recipes
- Lots of grilling tips and techniques
- Integrated grilling timer
The Bad
- Expensive
Nothing says summer like firing up the grill in your backyard, so it’s impossible to review the best summertime apps without including one or two for grilling. Weber’s On the Grill iPhone app ($4.99) has a bunch of nifty features, but is it worth the price?
Read More: Top 14 iPhone Recipe Apps
Recipes from your iPhone
Weber’s On the Grill app includes 250 grilling recipes and nearly 50 more for marinades, sauces, and other goodies to put on your grilled food. The recipes come from published cookbooks, including Weber’s Big Book of Grilling and Weber’s Art of the Grill. Recipes are divided by food type, including red meat, pork, poultry, seafood, and vegetables. There’s also a category for appetizers and desserts.
The recipes are nicely illustrated with quality photos that really make us want to grill. Each recipe in Weber’s On the Grill app includes information on prep time and grilling time, in addition to a full list of ingredients and instructions. If a recipe really strikes your fancy, you can add it to a favorites list or add all the ingredients to a grocery list.
In addition to recipes, Weber’s On the Grill iPhone app includes a host of grilling tips and techniques. Under the Grill Guide tab, you can select a type of meat and the app will calculate a cooking time and temperature for the appropriate weight. There are also a variety of illustrated how-to articles on topics such as trimming a brisket or de-veining shrimp. For more grilling tips, About's bbq guide has some great articles for beginners.
Integrated grilling timer
One of the coolest features of the On the Grill app is the integrated grill timer. Once you throw your food on the grill, tap the Grill Timer tab and select the appropriate time period. The timer beeps when time is up and it even works if the iPhone has gone to sleep -- just don’t accidentally close the app, as that will reset the timer. The interface itself is very nice and it is obvious that a lot of thought went into creating it. Everything flows smoothly and it's easy to navigate among the recipes and grilling tips.
Vegetarians probably aren’t the target audience for On the Grill, and those users should keep in mind that the recipes under the vegetable category aren’t necessarily vegetarian. The BLT Salad -- made with crispy bacon -- is just one example.
The Bottom Line
If you like to grill, Weber’s On the Grill app is a worthwhile companion. It is a little too pricey for our tastes -- $1.99 seems more reasonable -- but food and recipe apps seem to be more expensive in general. The grill timer is a really cool feature, and the app includes plenty of how-to content for grilling novices. Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
What You’ll Need
To use Weber’s On the Grill app, you’ll need an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. The app requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.