The electric grill brand Current Backyard was launched at CES this year, where it received recognition as a CES 2024 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Smart Home category. The Model G Dual Zone electric grill and the Model G electric griddle are easily leaders in the category both in terms of capability and features. They both are now for sale on the Current Backyard website.
While Current Backyard is a leader in innovation, it isn’t a start-up without serious grilling roots. It’s backed by W.C. Bradley Co., who also has some of the biggest names in grilling like Charbroil, Pit Boss, etc.
As grilling season approaches, we’re excited to bring consumers a new electric option. The innovation in our grill and griddle seamlessly integrates the rising demand for smart home connected devices in backyard spaces, while providing consumers with unparalleled results and the ease of effortless entertaining.
Tom Penner, Current Backyard CEO
First Look
I’ll have a full review in the near future, but in celebration of the grills being officially released, I wanted to provide my initial thoughts. I was sent a Model G Dual Zone grill to test out, and I’ve spent a few weeks with it.
Impressed with the Heat
The Model G grill advertises a max temperature of 700°F, while the griddle has a max of 600°F. That’s at the head of the pack for a grill of any fuel type, let alone electric. It’s hot easily hot enough to get a good sear.
Alas, it’s February in Michigan, so I was worried if the grill would struggle to get hot. I haven’t tried to max out the temperature, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised with it’s ability to heat-up in excess of 600°F despite it being under 30°F. I don’t think it will have an issue hitting the stated 700°F.
You can see the nice grill marks in the preliminary pictures. You’ll just have to ignore how dark it is because again, it’s February in Michigan. I’ll have better pictures in the full review.
Good Looking App
One of the unique features of these grills is they are the first electric grills on the market that interface with your phone. The Current Backyard app has a great look to it, with all the information you’d want. It has recipes, guidance, as well as meat probe readings and the grill temp. It’s also nice that the app notifies you when the grill reaches its set temperature.
More than Dual Zone
Unlike other electric grills, the Current Model G has a warming rack over the main cooking grates. While there two cooking zones that are controlled on the display, the warming rack essentially gives you more.
The cooking grates cook through conduction, which makes them ideal for grilling. The warming rack on the other hand is radiant heat. I’ve been playing with reverse searing steaks by getting them slowly to temperature on the warming rack, then putting them on the cooking grates for the final sear.
I haven’t dialed in the temperature exactly how I want it, but it works well. I used an infrared thermometer and an ambient temperature sensor on my last cook and saw the warming rack at around 75°F les than the cooking grate.
Let the Grill Temp Settle
If you read pretty much any cooking instructions from a grill company, they instruct you to get the grill to temp, then wait up to 15 minutes before putting your food on. I’m usually rushing to get food going though, so I’m stubborn, and go “yeah, yeah, I’ll just put my food on right away”.
Especially with the Model G grill, let the temperature normalize for a little bit after it reaches temp. I was playing with warm-up and an infrared thermometer, and noticed how important this is.
The heat is concentrated more towards the middle because of the orientation of the heating element, and thermodynamics. The temperature reading for the display on the grill must be taken at one of the corners, which is a minimum if you look at the heat gradient across the cooking grates.
They designed the grill to quickly get to temperature, so the heating element is getting as hot as possible to get there. That means the moment the display shows that it’s at temp, the middle section of the grill is much hotter. If you give it a little time though, the heating element is modulated down, and the surface evens out at the right temperature.
Great Flavor
Much like I noticed when I was reviewing the Charbroil EDGE, you really can’t tell the difference in flavor between a gas grill and the Current Backyard Model G. The flavor is there from the drippings creating smoke back up on the food. Plus, the Model G is a steak cooking machine. With it’s max temperature, it really does a great job.