[gwern]

That's fairly neat. If I'm understanding it right, it's a mechanical dial-turner which clips onto a stove burner's control, and is combined with a digital thermometer which reports the current temperature in a dish on said burner; the dial-turner targets a temperature in a negative feedback loop.

(In retrospect, I'm surprised we don't have 'smart' stoves which pair up with dishes with thermometers built in to allow seamless temperature specification. Would work very well with induction stoves, I think, since they can adjust the heating on/off much faster than a regular gas/resistance-heating stove.)

[jonjenk]

I'm one of the founders of Meld and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about our product or precision cooking and temperature control in general.

We were as surprised as you that this doesn't exist already. A traditional stove is an amazingly capable and flexible device. By adding some simple smarts to the burner control it's possible to do amazing things.

Induction stoves are good, but you might be surprised to learn that gas is even more precise. With gas you basically have infinitely fine control over the flow of energy to the pan since a gas valve is a linear analog control. Honestly, though, whether you have a gas or electric stove we can generally keep temps to within one degree (F) of a given target.