Roll up Roll up - Get your hot dogs here (Prima Hot Dog Roller Grill)

Member Name: sandra101

Product:	Prima Hot Dog Roller Grill
Date:	05/09/08 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: really pretty - looks good in kitchen, great for frankfurters

Disadvantages: No good for pork sausages

I bought this from one of those silly magazines that you find inside Sunday Newspapers etc. or get through the post if you have ever been daft enough to buy from the like of iwoot.com or bigboystoys, which I have quite often, did I mention I'm a closet male after being brought up with four big brothers.

Anyway I fell in love with this the minute I saw it, I mean look at it, how cute and gorgeous and pretty is it. Like having your own mini hot dog stand, and look at the red and white stripe canopy that houses the bun warming compartment, how could anyone resist this.

I told hubby I wanted this for Christmas and in all seriousness he asked how it would fit in the kitchen as I have just about every kitchen appliance going and never use them, but he agreed to get it as it saved him any bother with shopping, just a few clicks of the mouse and it was his.

I imagined this would be great in the lovely British weather as cooking can rarely be done outdoors but watching the sausages rolling over on the silver bars still makes you feel you are still getting something of an unusual and outdoorsy feel. We used to have this on a large scale in a Restaurant in the local shopping Mall and I could never resist when I watched the large crispy brown sausages rolling over, looking all hot and juicy.

After unwrapping it, I found there were five pieces to put together. I'm not much good at this sort of thing but managed after reading the instructions to get something very similar to the picture. I switched it on just to test and the rollers turned merrily and it began to heat. I was obviously extremely proud of myself at this moment and for a second considered myself capable of taking a degree in electrical engineering. I would say it was one of the easiest pieces of kit I've ever had to put together.


The unit comprised of a red and white metal canopy a plastic base with two control knobs, one for off\on the other for temperature, with silver rollers in the middle - all clean and shiny and ready to go after a quick rub.

Now for the real test, cooking the sausages. Obviously I wasn't particularly happy about getting my new toy\ornament dirty but it had to be done. Instructions checked (I'm not a man), machine turned on, heat turned up, rollers rolling, wait three minutes - out came the packet of pork sausages. I chose Dennys thickish 6" long pork sausages to allow me to get the full 12 on and began placing them between the rollers.

Problem No. 1 - Some of the sausages weren't round enough and refused to turn, I had to take them off and roll them around the cutting board to try and get a more rounded feel to them, easily enough done, then I put them back on and they began to turn.

Problem No. 2 - Some of the sausages got knocked towards the edge by other sausages turning and had to be replaced by me.

Each of these problems subsided after the sausages began to cook a little more.

It was so cool watching the sausages turning round and round starting to lose their pinkness, we all stood like fools watching. After the 10 minutes suggested cooking time though the sausages did not look at all appetizing they had lost their pinkness but were still a very pale beige.

I gave them an extra 10 minutes while they kept turning and spitting, they still looked pale beige. After 40 minutes of cooking I was starving and they had a tinge of brown in places so I removed them and fair enough they were cooked and tasted lovely.

Unfortunately you eat with your eyes and I like to see my sausages, darkish brown and crispy so they didn't taste as nice as normal to me.

Clean up was easy. Remove and wash the rollers and drip tray or put in dishwasher at your own discretion. The machine came up like new.

Next time I decided to add butter to the rollers to see if that would help to brown the sausages. There was a slight improvement but I still had to wait 40 minutes to get them to the desired browness.

I think this machine is aimed more at those frankfurter type hotdogs which you normally get in tins, they would certainly be ready to eat in 10 minutes and would look cool and roll more easily but unfortunately I don't like them at all, the smell, the look, the sliminess, the texture (need I go on). You can turn the heating down from cook to keep hot which means you can leave the machine rotating with new hotdogs while you slobber over your first one

I cannot and will not eat frankfurters which means my beautiful hot dog roller machine will remain an ornament until somebody brings out some sort of cooked sausages which taste like real ones and just require heating then I can use it to look good when the kids have friends over. M & S do lovely ready cooked cocktail sausages why can't they do ready cooked big ones.

Advantages

Pretty
Easy clean
Healthier than frying
No need to put the oven on
Frankfurters ready in 10 minutes
Easy assembly
Can I say pretty again

Disadvantages
Only works with frankfurters or precooked sausages in my opinion


This was around £35.00

Summary: If you like frankfurters or pretty hot dog ornaments get it.