Lean, Mean, Cardboard Making Machine (George Foreman Junior Health Grill)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	George Foreman Junior Health Grill
Date:	05/05/04 (1332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Less cooking smells in the kitchen

Disadvantages: Food tastes like re-constituted cardboard!

~ ~ For the past year or more I?ve been reading gushing and overwhelmingly complimentary reviews about the new ?wonder? grill for the kitchen endorsed by none other than the famous ex-boxer George Foreman. I usually left a remark in the comments box saying something along the lines of ?This sounds great. Don?t have one yet, but must get around to buying one soon.?
Of course, being a lazy wee mad cabbie, the purchase was very firmly put on the ?long finger?. (Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow)
But when I spotted the large version (it comes in various sizes and models) on offer in our local Superquinn supermarket at the special offer price of only ?54.99, it was enough to entice me to reach into my wallet for my little flexible friend. (Credit card)

~ ~ The model I purchased is called the ?Lean, Mean Fat Grilling Machine?. This is prominently written on the front of the grey plastic lid, and underneath is the facsimile signature of the famous man himself, the ex-World Champion boxer, George Foreman.
I literally couldn?t wait to get home and get it out of the box to try it out. I?m like most men in that regard! When we get some new toy, then we immediately revert to the mental age of about eight, and want to play with it constantly!
?This is going to be great?, I thought. ?No more messing about with spluttering frying pans, getting my clothes ruined with grease spots, or getting my forearms fried along with my sausages and rashers. And no more smoke or horrible cooking smells in the kitchen when I forget about something under the grill on the cooker.?

~ ~ The grill is very easy to use, being literally ?plug and play?. Plug it in, (plug supplied) heat it up a little, throw on a squish of cooking oil, add whatever it is you want to cook, and off you jolly well go.
One of my p
ersonal favourites when it comes to food is pork in all its various connotations, and nothing tickles my fancy more than a good old bacon sarny.
So it was into the fridge and out with the bacon. I set the digital timer display on the front to 10 minutes, and the sliding temperature control to about halfway between minimum and maximum, and went off for a glance at my daily newspaper. The grill beeps like a digital alarm clock when it?s finished, and turns itself off, so I knew there was little chance of me burning my rashers. (As I am prone to do on the cooker grill!)

~ ~ ?Beep, beep. Your bacon is ready sir!?
WRONG!! When I opened the lid, my rashers were only what I could describe as half-cooked. They were well enough done where the hot rounded edges of the grill had been making contact, but in between they were still practically raw!
Ah well. Maybe I didn?t have the temperature high enough, or hadn?t heated the machine up enough before I started. So down with the lid, up to maximum with the temperature control, and set the timer for another five minutes.
?Beep, beep. You can come and eat me now.?
WRONG. Even after a further five minutes at full temperature, my bacon still wasn?t cooked enough over the surface of the entire rasher, although it was practically cremated where the rounded edges of the grill had been making solid contact.
I gave up at this point, and in an attempt to salvage my bacon sarny resorted to finishing off my rashers in the frying pan.

~ ~ Later on the same day, my better half decided to cook lamb chops for the evening meal. She is more conscientious than I am when it comes to cooking, and took the trouble to consult the comprehensive instruction manual and cooking guide that came with the grill before she started.
?Come on Ken. Get off that bloody comp
uter will you. Your dinner is on the table.?
Two lamb chops, with spuds and two veggies. (I?m a traditional sort of guy really) Luvverly. Only one problem. The lamb chops had all the consistency of re-constituted cardboard! They were dry, tasteless, brown on the outside, and underdone and stringy on the inside. They were also so hard that I had to go and get myself a serrated steak knife just to cut through the damned things. Even the dog had a good old sniff at them before she decided to throw caution to the wind and eat the bloody things!

~ ~ Later on that same evening a friend of my wife?s was visiting, and extolling the praises of the ?George Foreman? grill over a wee cup of coffee. She has the ?baby? version, loves it, and was thinking about buying the larger version while it was still on offer at the local supermarket.
I immediately spotted the opportunity to recover some of my hard-earned spondoolicks, (cash) and was all for selling her our grill at a slightly reduced price. But the wife and wee lass stepped in and put the mockers on the deal, my wee lass having discovered that it is seemingly ideal for making her favourite cheese and ham toasties!
Ah well. I suppose I have to let democracy rule!

~ ~ We?ve had the George Foreman grill for about a month now, and to be honest my wife and wee lass ARE getting a fair amount of use out of it. I?ve banned it for use on any of my food, and have reverted to using the old, reliable frying pan. Mind you, we Scots are famous (infamous?) for our consumption of three things: saturated fat, sugar, and alcohol. (All in copious quantities!) I gave up the alcohol over 25 years ago, (I was just a tad TOO fond of it!) but must hold up my hands and admit to a distinct liking for the other two. I have a VERY sweet tooth, and have even been known t
o pour fat from the frying pan over my boiled potatoes on the odd occasion. (It gives them more flavour, honest!)
My wife and wee lass seem to be getting on fine with the grill, and if not exactly extolling its virtues to all and sundry, are using it for some purpose or another on a daily basis. (Spotted her grilling some salmon for herself on it the other evening.)

~ ~ Anything else you should know about the grill?
Appearance? Hmmm. It looks kind of like an oversized CD player, sitting on its four wee legs beside the microwave. It?s made out of the same grey plastic as a CD player as well, as far as I can see.
The idea is that it slopes from back to front (higher at the back) so that when you cook something on it, the grease from the food flows down the grooves on the black ceramic hotplate, and drains into a small grey plastic dish that sits at the front of the grill. You?re supplied with two insubstantial grey plastic spatulas, for removing the food. These are about as much use as a plastic teaspoon! But you are told you MUST use them, otherwise you run the risk of damaging the surface of the ceramic hotplate with metal implements. (Bah!!)
Be VERY careful when you are lifting the lid to check if your food is ready. Only ever do this by using the handle on the front of the top plate. I discovered to my cost that if you try to open it by gripping around the edges, then you run the risk of lifting all the flesh off your fingers. This is because the black ceramic hotplates are exposed at the sides of the grill. (Dangerous!!)

~ ~ Not for the mad cabbie. I am extremely disappointed with this product, although my wife and wee lass would probably disagree.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

© KenJ 2004

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summary: