Well it seemed like a good idea at the time (George Foreman Junior Health Grill)

Name: sandemp

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Product:	George Foreman Junior Health Grill
Date:	16.02.05 (548 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cooks quickly, Healthier than frying

Disadvantages: Not big enough, hard to clean, I could go on

While looking for a healthier way to cook the distinctly unhealthy food that my children seem to adore I happened upon the George Foreman, Lean, Mean, Fat reducing, grilling machine, try saying that three times without stopping. Although they come in a range of sizes, I chose the Junior version, due to the fact I don't have a lot of space in my kitchen.

Now mine seems slightly different to others that have been reviewed here, for the life of me I can't find a temperature control.

~~~In the box~~~

The George Foreman Junior comes supplied with a drip tray, instruction book, and a rather pathetically flimsy spatula. The instruction book is pretty handy as it gives recommended times for cooking different types of meat, along with the general safety and cleaning guidelines.

~~~The Styling~~~

The grill looks very much like a silvery grey sandwich toaster and is about the same size too. There is a clear plastic bubble on top, which turns out to be a bun warmer, note I said bun not bum, so it's no good sitting on it too warm yourself up on cold days.

When you lift the lid, there are two (yes two) black non-stick ridged cooking surfaces, one on the base and another on the lid, which means that you can cook food on both sides at once and have those fancy lines on your food like they do in posh restaurants.

Although in all, the grill fits in very nicely in my silver themed kitchen. But, and for me it's a big but, the power cord is very short, which means I don't have much choice of where to place it.

~~~Setting Up~~~

Getting the grill ready to cook is simplicity itself, simply plug it in, position the drip tray so that it will collect the fat run-off then wait until the indicator light goes out. There's no on/off switch on the actual grill, and no thermostat, so you can't really go wrong.

~~~Cooking~~~

Once the grill has heated, lift the lid and place your food on the bottom tray. Then when you close the lid it will adjust to the thickness of the food you're cooking. Now, you won't get very much food cooked at once with this grill, I can just about manage to get four sausages or two burgers on at once. So it's not really all that suitable if you have a large family, like I do. But it does cook the food remarkably quickly, in fact as it's cooking both sides at once, it manages to cook in half the time it takes using the grill on my cooker.

The grill plates are sloped and as you cook the food all the fat will run down a channel and then fill the drip tray, and there can sometimes be quite a lot of fat, in which case you need to have something to empty the tray into before it overflows (speed is the trick here). As it cooks both sides at once, you don't need to turn the food over, and as it's its ridged you get darker lines on your food, just like if you'd used a griddle.

The bun warmer can be a useful addition if you're cooking burgers and like warm buns, but is otherwise useless.

~~~The taste test~~~

I find, that as the food has been cooked quicker than it normally would, it generally tastes slightly moister than normal. An exception to this is pork chops, that go very dry and chewy, so don't use it for them.

Now, while us adults like our food to look fancy with lines on it, children are funny things, and two of mine complain that there are burnt bits, so they don't really like food cooked on this.

~~~The Health Benefits~~~

I'm not really convinced that there are actually any health benefits of using this machine over a standard grill. Yes, a lot of fat runs off the food, but that happens when using my cookers grill too. I would say that it is really only healthier than frying food, which is something I only do very rarely anyway.

~~~Cleaning~~~

Cleaning this grill is a pain in the ar*e, first you have to unplug it and wait for it too cool down, which takes ages. Then it's really awkward to clean all the meat juices are normally stuck solid with the addition of a few blobs of congealed fat, nice. Now, if the plates could be removed it would be a simple matter of letting them soak in hot water, but they can't. So you have to wipe and wipe and wipe with a wet cloth, no scrubbing, it's a non-stick surface remember. I think it takes me longer to clean it, than it does to cook the food.

~~~Safety~~~

I have a few safety issues with this grill, firstly there is no on/off control, as soon as it's plugged in it starts heating up and it gets very hot. So you cannot allow your children in the kitchen while its in use, or for quite a long time afterwards, which is my second concern, how long it takes to cool down. Then there is the fact that there is no temperature control, which means there's that sometimes food will appear to be cooked from the outside but when you cut it open, it's not.

My final concern is how short the power cord is, it means I personally have to place it in a precarious position next to my sink, I know this won't affect most people but for me it's a serious concern as electricity and water don't mix.

~~~Price and availability~~~

I paid about £25 for my grill, but a quick search on kelkoo tells me that it's now available for £40 at trueshopping.co.uk

~~~Final Words~~~

I bought this on a whim, and to be honest wish I hadn't. It's too small to be practical, and is only really suitable if you are cooking for a maximum of two people. The lack of temperature control is also a problem, there are some food, especially chicken that I prefer to grill at a low temperature and with this you just don't get the choice. Basically, I can't recommend this to anybody who has a cooker with a grill which gives the same health benefits and the ability to choose which temperature you cook your food at.

We use ours very occasionally now and it spends most of the time in it's box with the other gadgets that seemed a good idea at the time.

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