Cinder Precision Smart Grill Review – The Ultimate Steak?

What if you have a stove-top grill that allows you to cook the perfect steaks and cook meat like it was prepared and served by a top chef?

Well, now, you can have that for $499.

The Cinder Precision Smart Grill allows you to cook your food using the right temperature.  You set a target temperature and the grill will keep your food within one degree of it.  That means it is impossible to overcook the food, and that “perfect” grilled meat dishes are now within reach.

Additionally, the Cinder Precision Grill takes the guesswork out of your cooking by telling you just how much time is left before you can serve and eat it.

 

 

 

What can you do with the Cinder?

Aside from being able to cook the perfect steak with the Cinder Precision Grill, you can also cook vegetables, seafood, pancakes, omelets, and other dishes perfectly.

The Cinder Precision Smart Grill can also function as a searer.  Without having to add oil to the grill, you can sear your food up to 450 degrees and not worry about the mess and about scrubbing off scorched food.  Speaking of avoiding the mess, the Cinder Precision Smart Grill can be used without having to do a lot of preparation.  You do not have to vacuum seal the grill, nor do you need to go through extensive and exhausting clean-ups.  All you need to do is get a paper towel and wipe the Cinder Precision Smart Grill down.

Cinder works like those sous vide devices that you see out there.  You set an exact cooking temperature and the water bath will cook your food that way you want it.

With the Cinder Precision Grill, you get two metal plates that provide the heat.  The non-stick plates can cook your food as well as the Joule and other sous vide devices.

How does the Cinder Precision Grill deliver the perfect dishes?

The Cinder Precision Grill has several small heating nodes that you could find in the grill plates.  These heating nodes work with the company’s proprietary algorithms to make sure that it delivers the precise heat to cook your food.  Because it does not have wound coils, your food is cooked evenly.

Plus, unlike sous vide cookers, you do not have to go through vacuum sealing or water baths to achieve the same results.

You would need to pair your Cinder Precision Grill with your mobile phone.  Download the free mobile app and then connect your grill to the app.  The mobile app will help calculate how long you need to cook your food automatically, as well as tell you what temperature to target. Then you just put the food you want to cook on the grill and then close the lid.  Tap the button you see on your mobile app.

The mobile app will sound an alert once the target temperature is reached.  At this point, the food is already cooked, but you can opt to keep the food warm by letting it stay on the grill.  This can give you ample time to do something else while making sure that your food stays at the right temperature.  You can use the time to prepare side dishes, whip up dessert, or set the table.

You can also remove the food and then set the grill to searing mode.  In this mode, the grill plates will heat up to 450 degrees and you can sear the meat for about 45 seconds.  This will help you attain that restaurant-like quality, giving the food a caramelized flavor.

Cleanup is very easy.  Just wipe down your grill with a paper towel and clean the drip tray.

Pros of the Cinder Precision Grill

• Food, Perfected: The Cinder Precision Grill allows you to serve perfectly cooked food.  Feel like a Michelin star chef, even if you do not know how to blanche vegetables or cook a respectable eggs Benedict.  The mobile app will take away all the guesswork and the grill will give you perfectly food cook anytime!
• Smart Integration: The grill uses Bluetooth, which makes sense.  Bluetooth connectivity makes it easier for you to pair the device to your phone.  The mobile app allows you to indicate if you are cooking frozen food, which would take longer to cook.
• Smart Sensors: Further, it does not matter if you are cooking a thin slice of meat or a slab of steak.  The grill has several sensors to detect how thick the meat is and adjust the cooking time automatically.

Cons – Things to Improve About the Cinder Precision Grill

• Price Point: The Cinder Precision Grill can prove to be very expensive considering that you are basically buying a device that cooks.  If you want perfectly cooked meats and other food, you can probably save when you buy a sous vide cooker such as the Anova Precision Cooker, which is a fraction of the price at this listing on Amazon.  Or you can get Joule, which works with Amazon Alexa and is Wi-Fi enabled, for more than half the price here.
• Takes Up Space: Price issues aside, the Cinder Precision Grill is also quite big and takes up a whole lot of space.  The grill measures 13 inches by 17 inches and is 7 inches high.  You can probably move it out of the way by putting it inside a kitchen cabinet, but it can be quite heavy.
• Heavy (Like it’s Name): The heavy lid also means that you might have problems making sandwiches with the grill, because it would effectively flatten the bread.  Apart from the heavy lid, the Cinder Precision Grill also suffers from design issues.  With a flat base, the oil and grease that oozes out from your food stays on the grill instead of dripping down the drip tray.
• Mobile App Seems Light: Further, the mobile app does not have too many features aside from coming up with the target temperature and the estimated time of cooking. Even then, the estimates can be very broad.
• Still Not Available in Retail: But even when you can forgive the Cinder Precision Grill and you have $500 lying around, you would still need to wait until it becomes available.  The company has sold old the first 1,000 Cinder Grills and the Indiegogo campaign for the next batch of precision grills is still yet to start.
• Not exactly a replace for earlier sous vide devices: There are some things that a sous vide device can do that Cinder Precision Grill cannot.  Earlier devices can tenderize meats while also locking in juiciness.  Cinder has an open surface, which lets the juice evaporate from the meat.  That means that Cinder might not be the best option if you are cooking lamb or beef.  And this is just one example of the cooking methods that you can do with Cinder.  There are others, such as cooking salmon in olive oil or adding aromatic herbs to your vacuum seal bag.  In short, it might be easier to cook the perfect steak on Cinder, but it will be drier than a steak cooked using earlier sous vide devices.

Final say on the Cinder Precision Grill

Learning how to grill your meat perfectly without the risk of overcooking it might have just become obsolete with the Cinder Precision Grill.  If you are willing to pay $500 for the grill, that could save you a lot the hassles.

However, you have other cooking devices that deliver the same quality of cooking perfection for less than half the Cinder’s price tag.  But using these can mean a lot of work on your part.

Bottom Line: So, the Cinder Precision Grill is really for those who want to have a quick way of getting perfectly grilled meats, vegetables and seafood without having to worry too much about it.  The higher price is perfectly justifiable by the amount of convenience it gives you.

Also, if you think about it, perfectly grilled meats that you order from restaurants can easily go for hundreds of dollars.  And that is just for one meal.  Whereas with Cinder, you spend $500 and you can have the best steaks every night of your life.

Still, the Cinder Precision Grill is not without its share of faults.  But if you are the type that is a heavy consumer of meat and want to eat perfectly cooked food, then you might find it best not to sweat the small stuff.