Well about time I dipped my toe into the kitchen…

So here we go, my latest addition to the deets culinary experience is the george foreman grill. This is one of the older models, no fancy bun warming or timers here. Just a two plated grill that either turns on or off. Don’t be sad though, it’s a good thing really, well to me anyway!

I don’t need a bun warmer or fancy thermostat functions to confuse and scare me. I just want a grill to cook my sausages and other delights. This does the job just fine. It’s the jumbo size one though, ideal for when I have my friends (come on, were not that stupid…) round for some food. Didn’t really need the jumbo version, but heck it was half price and the thought of doing half my cooked breakfast on the one grill was just too tempting…

So, the design of the unit is your standard clam shell. The heavy lid drops back revealing the grilling surface on the top and bottom. Yep that’s right, this puppy cooks on both sides, considerably speeding up the process. This is no gimmick, if you do what I used to do and grilled your sausages under the grll in your oven, the george will seriously speed up that process. Of course the food is still cooked through thoroughly, in fact you have to be extra careful at first not to over cook things as you just expect them to take longer. Apart from the lid, there isn’t really much else to say about the design. Has a little orange light in the middle that goes off when the thing has heated up. It’s a simply designed tool that is easy enough to use and clean, more about that later!

So why should you consider getting one? Well, if your like me and your old oven had an oven/grill combo thingy, you had to deal with the fact that you couldn’t cook your grilled sausages and oven chips at the same time! Crazy, how is a man supposed to live without sausages and chips… I tell you, it wasn’t easy and now my life is noticeably better since george came and joined my life. The other reason is health. Now this isn’t quite as important as they advertise. If you used to grill things anyway, well this isn’t going to be any healthier, the fat from my old bacon would drip into the grill tray underneath anyway. Saying that, if you fried your food or used a shallow grill pan, you will get some nice health benefits. Trust me, food not swimming in fat and oil actually tastes better! TO give you some evidence, my “fry up” now only actually contains one fried item, the bread… the rest is all grilled, so that heart attack is on hold for a while longer ;)

There is a little fat tray that you place under the front which catches all the fat that comes from your food. Sure we have all seen the demo on TV and it really is like that. High fat foods like bacon and sausages will soon fill your tray up with heart killing grease, not nice, but strangely fascinating…

Another reason is speed. Yep george cooks fast. Be it frozen or not, sausages or burgers, george will cook them in no time. This is great, you frozen tesco finest sausages will cook quicker than they used to from fresh! Im sure the idea of spending less time in the kitchen appeals to us all… To give an example, a thick sausage will take about 7 minutes to cook through well. I know its hard to believe, but that’s the way it is, deal with it. You get a little booklet with the unit saying how long things take to cook, these aren’t lies and like me, you will probably burn a few things in fear of undercooking them. I once got a bit carried away and made my own burgers, not only could it cook about 8 at one time, but they were all nicely done in about 6 minutes. Very impressed!

The only down I can think of is the price, and maybe the cleaning. If your lucky like me and see one on sale, think about it. The cleaning isn’t too bad I guess, but you cant put it in the dishwasher like I could with the old grill sheet ;) It will take a few minutes to clear off the sausage residue and then clean it down. I find some stuff gets caught in the front elevated area which is there to stop things rolling off the grill, but it takes a little longer with a dish brush to clean that out. Not a major issue, but does sometimes peeve me when I realise I haven’t cleaned it post burger session.

So, that’s the grill. Ideal for those without a separate grill, who want to get healthy after frying everything, or if you don’t have the time to cook your sausages for 16 minutes and even those who would like a combined grill and toasted sandwich maker! Yep, you hear me right, a couple of slices of bread buttered on the outside with some cheese and chopped onion, pop in the george for a few mins and you have great toasted sandwiches! Awesome as my friends on the west side say. The little booklet also has a few recipe suggestions and ive tried a couple, the burgers and some chicken thing, both very nice!

So there you go, if you have thought about getting one, maybe you should cross that line from ponderer to purchaser, your “fry ups” will taste so much better and you wont have that heart attack before your 45…