Healthy but hyped (George Foreman Junior Health Grill)

Name: Divvyellen

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Product:	George Foreman Junior Health Grill
Date:	02.04.03 (446 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick cooking, great on burgers

Disadvantages: pain to clean, not good for all claimed foods

This review is specifically about the Junior model. Other models include Baby, Family and Jumbo.

The George Foreman ‘Lean Mean Fat reducing Grilling Machine’ is advertised as a ‘Health Grill’. The idea is that it cooks food more healthily by removing the need to add extra fat during cooking and allowing any existing fat to be drained away.

What the manufacturer claims:
“The versatile and easy-to-use grill seals in the delicious flavours of meat, fish steaks, burgers and vegetables while they cook simultaneously and evenly on both sides - a real time-saver, as it cuts most cooking times in half. The grill's ingenious floating hinges mean that thick chops, bacon rashers, chicken breasts and chunky vegetables all grill evenly. The double-coated non-stick surface means that there is no need for oil or butter and makes cleaning-up easy and quick - the durable grill plates can simply be wiped down after cooking”

What you get for your money
The unit itself comprises of two non-stick grilling plates – a deeply grooved bottom plate and a more shallowly grooved top plate. The unit has four feet, which come with ‘extensions’ so you can raise the height of the unit to (allegedly) make filling things like tacos easier. Finally, there is a bun warmer in the top - accessed by lifting the plastic cover. The cover comes in a variety of colours – red, green, purple, blue and clear.

You also get two ‘drip trays’ to catch the fat and a couple of grooved spatulas for removing food and cleaning the unit.

So what’s it like to use?
I have mixed feelings about my ‘George’. I have cooked an assortment of different foods in it with varying results.

The things it is really great for are:
BURGERS: It cooks burgers very quickly and removes a lot of fat. You can fit four small burgers or two quarter pound burgers on the plates. Th

e only down side is you can only fit one quarter pound bun or two smaller buns in the bun warmer which means someone gets a cold bun.
MUSHROOMS: I cooked large flat mushrooms whole and as long as you trim the stems short they cook very quickly and are more healthy as they haven’t soaked up any fat.
STEAK: Cooks steak quickly and you get the lovely black lines associated with a griddle.

Thing I was less impressed with the results of.
FISH: The first time I cooked fish it stuck to the grill plates and had to be scraped off which rather spoilt it (so we had fishcakes instead of fillets). I persevered and the next time made sure I greased the plates before use. The results were better but rather defeated the point, as I had to add oil. It would have been healthier to poach or microwave the fish.
MINCE: I was sceptical about this but as the feet extensions are there specifically for raising the grill for filling thing like tacos (as stated in the manufacturers guide) I gave it a try. Doesn’t work. When you don’t stir mince, you get burgers. So although the meat cooked with most of the fat coming out, I was left with a ‘lump’ of mince that I had to break up on a plate before it could go into the taco shells. Didn’t need the extension feet after all.
TOMATOES: I think the top grill plate is too heavy for a humble English tomato as it was squashed to oblivion.
SAUSAGES: I have tried several brands of sausage in my George and have found that without exception, you have to turn them during cooking. The heat of the grill is so high that if you leave them until they are cooked through then the bits touching the grill are black. The juice from the sausages congeals too and comes off in strips when you take the sausages out – mmmm, yummy.
BACON: Bacon is not thick enough to be in contact with both plates so you have to turn itand it’s therefor no quicker than using a pan. Because bacon curl
s whe
n it cooks the fat did not come into contact with either plate and didn’t ‘crisp up’. Traditional grilling or dry frying would be healthier (and taste nicer too).
GAMMON: Works OK for one steak but you can’t fit two in.

Other observations:
This model does not have a temperature control so it’s very much all or nothing which led to the earlier mentioned sausage problem

Despite the units’ claim that it is non-stick and easy to clean it is a real pig to get clean. My husband hates me using it as he often gets stuck cleaning it. As you can’t submerge the unit, the only way to get in clean without scouring seems to be to get it whilst it’s still warm or else heat it up again. You still get in a real mess as you need a *very* damp cloth and the greasy water runs everywhere. The ‘scraper’ spatulas that come with it are of some help but are too wide to effectively clean down the sides of each ridge.

Summary
The George grill was launched for the American market who I imagine eat far more burgers than the average English person and are perhaps less aware of healthy cooking techniques.

If you are a ‘fry everything’ person then this will definitely reduce your fat intake. If you cook more healthily then this item has limited value as a ‘health grill’ but could be good for convenience and as an extra choice in cooking method.

This model is great for one person and OK for two for most foods. Any more than that and you would want to look at getting one of the larger models.

I wouldn’t miss mine but I like having it.

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