| Product: |
George Foreman Junior Health Grill |
| Date: |
16/03/04 (1375 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Healthier, Convenient, Quick and easy
Disadvantages: Drip tray can spill, Bun warmer not big enough
Back in November we decided that the time had come to ditch the deep fat fryer and go for a more healthy option. A friend of ours had just bought a George Foreman Grill and had said how good it was ~ so we popped down to Index and got one! Since then I have become a "George Bore" and have "sold" them to family, friends and complete strangers in the street. It is time (I'm afraid) for you all now to meet my mate George!
~~~A Bit of Background.
Our George is part of a range of products endorsed by former boxer George Foreman. As well as the grills and barbecues, the range has now got very silly and now even includes a Lean Green Toasting Machine (toaster) and a Lean Green Boiling Machine (kettle). Before this silliness broke out the "Lean Green" concept was a great one, providing a healthy alternative to fried food. There are a variety of different sized grills (all plug into the mains) starting with the smallest Baby George (which can take up to two burgers or equivalent), through the George Junior (4 burger size), the Classic George (5 to 6 burger size), up to the Big George (which is a monster family size). I have also seen a George that is split into two sections so you can cook things for different times and don't have to contaminate veg with meat. There are also lots of different colour ways and choices of plastic, metallic or classic silver finishes.
My George is a Junior size and also includes an integrated bun warmer in the lid ~ there was also a choice of translucent coloured lids, so we have a pretty jade green one (the official colour I believe is teal, but I would say jade is a bit more appropriate). We opted for this one because there are only two of us and we also have limited worktop space in the kitchen. It is a perfect size for us and we can fit a variety of different foods on it. We were also constrained a bit by the price ~ ours cost £34.25 and was the cheapest one we cou
ld afford that was big enough for our needs.
~~~The Good Points.
The sloping grill plates let any liquid (including water and oil) drain out of the food. This is great for the health conscious and it also makes the food look better when cooking ~ food swimming in its own fat isn't one of the most attractive sights in the world! The design is quite simple ~ the feet at the back are longer than the ones at the front, so the whole unit slopes downwards at the front. Two plastic drip trays are provided to catch anything escaping from your food.
There are also "channels" in the grill plates that run in the direction of the slopes ~ this ensures that the fat and liquid is directed into the drip trays and not anywhere else on the grill. These grill plates are also non-stick and this coating really does work; so long as you take care not to scratch them and only use non-metal utensils.
Both sides of the food are cooked at once because both sets of grill plates (those in the lid and the base) heat up. This is great because it speeds up cooking time due to both sides of whatever you are cooking come into contact with the heat.
There is a thermostat light on the top that tells you when the grill is heating up and when it has reached optimum temperature. As well as being useful for telling you the temperature it is also a pretty good safety feature ~ if the light is on you instantly know that you have accidentally left your George switched on.
The lid has a "floating" hinged lid so that you can cook food of different thicknesses. I find this to one of the best features of my George because it means I can cook thick pieces of meat as easily as I can cook thin pieces of steak.
The grill is very versatile! When I first purchased it friends at work said that they hadn't bought one because they thought you could only cook things like sausages or burgers. I am pleased to report
that you can cook a wide variety of things on your George. We have cooked various sorts of meat (chicken, steak, pork, etc), as well as the usual burgers, sausages, fishcakes and the like. It isn't just limited to meat either! We cook vegetables on ours ~ potato wedges, fried onions, tomatoes and lots more! In fact, most things that you would grill or shallow fry (with the exception of runny things like eggs) can be Georged.
The size of our particular George is perfect for the two of us ~ I would think it would suit smaller families too, but larger families would probably benefit more from one of the bigger models. Cooking times are quick, food is more healthily prepared and it is easy to use. I am also impressed with how easy it is to clean ~ minor dirt can be wiped off with kitchen roll or a soft sponge and the plastic spatulas provided are very useful for "scraping" any stubborn cooking residue from the channels (they are shaped to fit the channel ridges). A quick wipe is ok to clean the bun warmer in the lid too.
George is also great for toasted sandwiches ~ we have since ditched our old Breville Sandwich maker when it needed replacing and now make our toasties on our Grilling Machine. It cooks toasted sandwiches very quickly, evenly and without sticking...how good is that?
~~~The Bad Points.
There are a couple of things that I would consider to be bad points on the George. The first is that sometimes the liquid that runs out of the food "misses" the tray and drips down onto the work surface and collects around the front feet. This is sometimes messy and you can't really clean the underside until the grill has completely cooled down. We have found that putting a couple of sheets of kitchen roll under the feet and tray is sufficient to mop up any drips and keep the surfaces clean.
The spatulas provided are very good for scraping anything that has attached itself to the grill, bu
t they aren't ideal for removing food. They are pretty bendy and aren't strong enough for lifting anything with a bit of weight. They can cope with potato wedges, but chicken pieces and sausages cause them to bend a lot. The sausages are also a bit difficult to get off because the spatulas are flat and things roll off. We use plastic tongs and a stronger palate knife and this works fine for us.
The only other minus point for me is the size of the bun warming unit housed under the lid. You can fit four burgers on the grill, but you can only fit two rolls in the lid ~ and that is with a bit of a squeeze). If you want to do enough rolls for the quantity of burgers, you have to put some under the grill. It is also quite to easy to leave the lid slightly undone without realising it and, when you lift the lid to look at what is cooking, the rolls fall out behind the grill.
~~~Final Thoughts.
I am a big fan of my George and would recommend it as a quick and easy way of cooking food. The health aspect is a big bonus, as is the convenience. The grill is compact and fits easily onto a work surface ~ the lid when raised is still below the height of wall units too, so there?s no chance of it falling over...just be careful not to touch any of the metal sides of the appliance when opening or closing because it does get a bit hot.
We use it more or less everyday and are often still surprised at how many different foods we are able to cook on it. It was a shock at first when we saw exactly how much drains out of some foods when you cook them ~ for example, sausages that we previously ate without a thought filled the drip tray with grease and we had to change it (thankfully the George cam with two!).
It is pretty frightening when you realise what you have been eating up until now! The health grill isn?t going to change your life but it is an extremely convenient way to cook a variety of foods that you would probably h
ave had to fry. When we cook things like chicken pieces or potato wedges Georging is also a more economical way to cook ~ they cook in a fraction of the time and without having to turn on the oven, wait for it to warm up and cook things for ages.
I don't think that the George will make you healthy, but it certainly isn?t going to harm you ~ and even if it just cuts down your fat intake, that's got to be a good thing, hasn't it?
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