Make that lard work for you... (George Foreman Grills)

Member Name: SlyClone2k

Product:	George Foreman Grills
Date:	09/07/02 (972 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fat reducing, Cook the most wonderful food, Time and space saving

Disadvantages: A little small for a large cook off, A little more than it costs to by a grill-pan

George Foreman. Foreman, in case you have never heard of him, is the heavy weight boxer who stole the title from Joe Frazier in 1973 and then lost it a year later to the legendary Muhammad Ali in the “Rumble in the Jungle”. During the 90’s he beat the odds and made a small come back to regain his title for a very short time. Soon after he gained more notoriety in the US for appearing in comical adverts about food and burgers.

This year we have seen his hulking frame endorsing the product we are now talking about. What George’s actual connection to the Lean Mean Fat (Reducing) Grilling Machine actually is, I’m not sure. But I do know something and I’m sharing it with you now.

A week ago I had a birthday, I wish they came more than once a year, but lets face it who’d want to have been born twice? All that trauma, all that smacking? No thanks mama. Anyway, as usual, I digress. I was saying I had a birthday, and one of the things that’s been on my mind to purchase, for the last few months, has been a griddle pan. They are excellent for steak, chops, chicken you name it. My wonderful wife remembered that I had been hinting at one, but a decent cast iron griddle pan will set you back around £40, a lot of money for a glorified frying pan, so I held off. My mother, wanting to know what I wanted, asked my wife and so I awoke to find a large heavy box to unwrap.

I was somewhat bemused to find George staring back at me, punching the air just below a picture of an over sized toasted sandwich maker. However even in my ‘I’ve just woken up’ state I could make a guess at what the conversation had been between the two ladies in my life! My wife quickly confirmed my suspicions, and for a while I debated whether I would keep the grill, or ask for the receipt and exchange it for what I wanted.

Well I kept it, and used it a few days later. One of the major deciding factors for keepi
ng the grill wasn’t how well I was expecting the food to cook, but the consideration that we have limited space on the cooker, and this leaves open a hob. Did you think of that? Would you? Okay its another appliance in the kitchen, and they do get troublesome. Toasters, Blenders, Mixers, Hairdryers… actual no not hairdryers, anyway you get my drift. So I was a little sceptical, but after actually using it I decided.

I went to Tesco with the idea of picking up some beefsteak to make my wife a nice dinner for Friday evening. I do a mean pepper steak and this was my plan. But I looked around and the beef didn’t look so great and I picked up some pork loin steaks. If you’ve never had them they look a lot like sirloin steak but pinker and actually a little like chicken (that’s raw!). They are much better than chops.

I unwrapped Georges grill, had a quick run down of the usage destructions, which let me tell you are clear, concise and easy to understand. Checked the cooking times required for my particular food substance (a rapid 8 minutes tops) and slapped the steaks on. Closed the lid using the handy adjustable hinge (the steaks were thick, a little under an inch) and cooked the other things that I was doing with it. Sauté potatoes with onion and garlic (which use the wok, which in turn uses most of the top of the hob), mushrooms and a small pan of pepper sauce. I was grateful for the space and hands free-ness of it all then I’ll tell you.

The steaks came out beautifully; a drip tray caught the off-flow from the steaks and captured a fair dollop of potential heart stopping pork fat. They were moist, succulent and almost entirely fat free. They had a nice barbeque grilled taste and looked fantastic on top, with a rich brown criss-cross across the top from the grill. In short delicious.

There are a few bonus points for this appliance here, and I’m hoping you got them. But just in case here th
ey are more succinctly.

1. The space saved
2. The machine needed no attention while I cooked the other things.
3. The food was fantastically cooked, really bloody fantastic. (Excuse French but there is no other way to put it
4. Reduced fat.

On a more technical note then, the grill is sold in a handful of kitchen matching colours. I got blue. It comes with extendable feet, these allow you to scoop food directly into your bread product, be it buns, pita or tortilla. There are two drip trays; the grill has a slight tilt that allows fat to run off the grill. Also there are two plastic forks whose teeth match the grill top so you can pick up food easily. It also comes with a self-contained plug, very important for the people that forget the old green, brown, blue routine!

Not only is it a grill but also it has a handy bun warmer a-top of it. So that’s going to save getting out the toaster for burgers in the future.

It has an instruction manual that quickly outlines the dangers associated with the product, i.e. it’s hot. Don’t touch it. Don’t use metal implements on it. It has a recipe section that includes Georges favourites, burgers, sausages and chops.. This is the ideal gift for the Homer Simpson in your life. Finally the manual outlines the cooking times for any meat, fruit or vegetable you are ever likely to cook, gives advice regarding the thickness of the food to ensure you don’t poison yourself.

The grill itself stands about 7 inches high with the feet on. It weighs 3 kilos, so it’s not going to give you a hernia as you shift it about the kitchen. The grilling plates are around 10 inches square, not a huge surface area but this is around the same size as a griddle pan. 10”sq is enough room for about 4 chicken breasts, two large steaks, or in my case 3 pork steaks. It may not be big enough to cook enough food for four, but it’s certainly big enough for two.


Cleaning wasn’t too difficult, a few wipes with a soft damp sponge soon cleaner off the worst of the fat, and this was after I’d left it sitting for a couple of days (of course it was experimentally I never let things sit and gather more grime!)

On the whole I’m very pleased, the food tasted great, it cooked quickly, and cleaned just as easily afterward!

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