Lean, mean... burgers? (George Foreman Grills)

Member Name: Rocketeer007

Product:	George Foreman Grills
Date:	12/11/08 (501 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cooks fatty meats like burgers and sausages very well

Disadvantages: Hard to get a good finish on less fatty items

There are a wide variety of George Foreman grills available from stores. This review specifically covers the George Foreman 12205.

This model is large enough to grill around 6 chicken breasts at once - or any variety of meats and veg to cover a similar area. It has digital controls for temperature, and a built in timer.

The temperature cannot be set exactly - instead, you can set it in 15 degree intervals from 140 to 215 degrees (Celsius, of course).
The timer can be set in 1 minute intervals - I don't know the exact maximum, but it's more than long enough for any cooking you'd be doing on the grill.

As with all George Foreman grills, the grilling area is slopped and grooved to drain off all fat as you cook. The most useful feature of this particular model though is that the grill plates are fully removable, and dishwasher proof. With the smaller and cheaper models, cleaning is a real chore since all you can use is a damp cloth and the provided scraper; with this model, the grill plates can be held under a running tap - by far the quickest and easiest way to get it clean in a jiffy.

Cooking on all George Foreman grills is pretty much the same. This model comes with a number of recipes and recommendations for cooking times and temperatures for different items, making it slightly different, but in the end the cooking result is very similar.

Burgers and sausages - and other high fat foods - cook very well on this grill, and become a lot healthier as much of the fat is removed. I far prefer items like this cooked on the George Foreman over frying or a normal grill. Lower fat items like chicken breasts and fish also cook well, but it's very hard to get a crispy finish as you'd get under a normal grill or in the oven.

The hinges at the back are set up so you can cook quite fat items; however, the lid isn't quite heavy enough to compress anything, meaning if you put something fat at the back, items at the front won't quite cook properly.

One final feature of this model - although it beeps to inform you when it reaches the chosen temperature, for some reason when you switch it on, it defaults to a 5 minute timer. I've no idea why, and even the manual just says "Switch it on, then reset the timer to zero"...

Summary: Make sure you buy a model with removable grill plates

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