Alerts and resting your meat

The app watches two things for you — the meat and the cooking environment — and pings you at the right moments. Here's what each alert means and how to use the early warning to nail your rest.

The two meat alerts

• Early Warning — fires a little before your target. This is your cue to pull the meat and let it rest. Meat keeps cooking from its own retained heat after it comes off (carryover), so pulling a few degrees early lands it right after the rest.

• Target — fires when the meat hits your number. If you didn't pull it at the early warning, it's ready now.

You can turn the early warning off if you'd rather only be alerted at the target.

Rule of thumb: the bigger the cut, the more carryover. A brisket or roast climbs several degrees while resting; a thin steak barely moves. Set your early warning lower for big cuts.

The two cooker alerts (ambient)

Set these and the app warns you if your cooking environment drifts:

• Too low — your fire's fading (charcoal burning down, pellets out).

• Too high — a heat spike or flare-up.

Both are optional and you set the thresholds. (These are different from the built-in overheat protection that guards the Stick itself.)

How the alerts reach you

Choose how you're notified — ringtone, vibration, both, or silent — and how long each alert lasts. See How can I change the sounds for my alert settings.

Heads up: if your phone is in silent mode, audible alerts won't sound — the app will warn you when that's the case.

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Related: Setting up a cook · Why don't I see ambient temperature before cooking?