Cinder Grill: No Preheat Needed (or Wanted)
Cinder Grill, the world’s first Precision Grill, is the fastest way to sous vide possible. Instead of hours and hours spent bobbing in a bulky, splashing water bath, your food comes to temp in an hour or even less. However, for this to happen smoothly, a few cooking details must be observed. Usually when we cook we preheat whatever we’re using. Instead the unique Cinder needs to not be preheated to work its precise magic.
The Sous Vide Method
In order to explain why, let’s look at the sous vide method. This technique produces food with no temp gradients. Thus it avoids raw patches or overcooked areas. This is done by bringing the entire piece of food to the desired temp, slowly enough to prevent gradients. While it takes a water bath many hours to accomplish this, the Cinder Grill’s dense, nonstick plates can perform this relatively quickly -- and the closer the starting plate temp is to the starting food temp, the better.
Don’t Preheat: It Disrupts the System
However, a preheat disrupts this system by setting up a large temp difference between the cooking plates and the food. What can happen is that the food is only heated on the surface before the Cinder mistakes the surface temp for the overall doneness. After all, the Cinder Grill expects the food to have the same temp throughout. This mistake leads the Cinder to announce that cooking is over before it actually is, resulting in an overly rare or even undercooked inside. That’s not the desired doneness at all!
The Proper Sous Vide Method
In order to get the best out of your Cinder Grill, always follow these steps when cooking to temperature.
- Season the food, and maybe brush on a little oil.
- Turn on the Cinder Grill
- Place the food in the Cinder and lower the lid.
- Set the Cinder to your desired temperature
- Wait until the Cinder announces cooking is finished
- Remove the food to a plate and lift the lid to let the Cinder cool down
- Wipe down the plates with a damp cloth, sponge, or paper towels.
- If desired, turn the Cinder to Sear
However, searing is another blog post, which you should of course check out.
Cinder Grill and Infinite Possibilities
Once you’ve mastered the Cinder Grill’s sous vide method, you can explore our page full of recipes with a better understanding of how the Cinder Grill will prepare them. You can also apply your new knowledge of how the Cinder works to use it at higher temperatures for griddling and searing. These settings will require the familiar preheat, but just remember not to preheat when cooking to temp!
Never Overcook Again
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