While grilled food may not be ranked as highly as ice cream in our best-things-in-life lists , it’s not far behind. So it’s no surprise that we’re finding lots of technology to help us make us better backyard BBQ maestros at CES.
CES is starting today, and we’ve already stumbled across a number of cool grill and BBQ tech products at the press events we’ve attended.
Here’s what we’ve found so far:
Seer Grill
Seer Grills is not your typical-looking grill, as it holds the proteins (or veggies or whatever you’re grilling) vertically and cooks at a really high temperature using infrared heat. According to SEERGRILLS CEO Suraj Sudera, the AI works through a combination of sensor data, cook preferences inputted by the user, and intelligence built into the software around different food types.
“The device will capture the starting temperature of, say, chicken breast and adjust the cooking in line with the preferences you’ve inputted in the device,” said Sudera. “Whether it’s a three-inch or five-inch chicken breast, it doesn’t matter. It will be whatever adjustments it needs, just like your cruise control on your car will adjust to keep you at the preferred speed.”
The hardware itself is somewhat unique compared to other infrared grills on the market in that it cooks meat vertically. The user puts the meat in a holder, which will sense the temperature and thickness of the meat. Once inserted, both sides are cooked simultaneously using infrared heat, powered by propane, which SEERGRILLS says can reach 1652ºF. According to the company, the grill can cook three ribeyes in one minute and fifty seconds, six burgers in a minute and thirty seconds, and four chicken breasts in two minutes and thirty seconds.
GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
The GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker makes its debut at CES this year. For those who follow GE closely, you’ll probably know this is the grown-up, ready-for-mass-market version of the Arden smoker developed by GE Appliances’ incubation factory, FirstBuild. It’s not all that surprising this GE Appliances wanted to graduate this baby to the big time since, well, it’s a pretty great idea. I mean, an indoor smoker just kind of speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
The device has impressive specs, including its active smoke filtration technology, five adjustable smoke settings that let you control the smoke levels to dial in preferred flavors, and six preset food settings that turnkey smoking for brisket, pork ribs, pork butt, chicken wings, chicken breast and salmon.
The device has a fairly small footprint, but doesn’t sacrifice on cavity size as it can handle three racks of baby back ribs, a brisket, up to 40 chicken wings or a 14-pound pork butt.
Current Backyard Electric Grill
Startup Current Backyard debuted its first product at CES, the Current Backyard Electric Grill. The product, which they claim is the world’s largest consumer backyard grill, will be available in early February at the company’s website and this spring at retailers such as Best Buy, Ace Hardware and Williams Sonoma, with the base model going for $899.
The specs are impressive:
- Company claims 150 degrees hotter than the leading gas grill brand
- 700 max temperature for the ultimate searing experience
- Full Wi-Fi connectivity & proprietary app
- Dual-zone control
- SmartClean auto-clean feature
- 4x more energy efficient than the standard gas grill
Weber Summit Smart Grill
The newest entrant from the one of the biggest names of outdoor grilling is the Weber Smart Grill. The Smart Grill is the BBQ brand’s first with an infrared broiler for searing, and includes a big touch screen all sorts of digital controls to help make cooking easier. Not surprisingly, the grill is pricey, starting at $3,800.
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