The On-The-Go Griller

As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, I am currently a student of the medical arts. One of the first things you learn in medical school is that there is no time for anything but studying. Since there are those oh-so-vital things you still have to do like eating and sleeping, you have to figure out how to make them more time efficient. Here is where the Cuisinart GR4 indoor grill comes in. We just got this for our apartment a few weeks ago and have used it almost every nice since then. It makes a fantastic meaty dinner in just a few minutes and is clean enough that we often don't even feel the need to wipe it down until after a string of uses rather every time.

We got the Cuisinart because we were sick of always having the same food and really wanted some good meat. We are not allowed to have a grill at our apartment and since microwaving was not an acceptable alternative, we turned to indoor electric grills. We found the Cuisinart and knew it was the right one. It has multiple functions for when we finally eat something besides burgers and dogs, it cleans easily for when we get to that, and most importantly, it cooks a great piece of meat very quickly.

None of us are chefs or have any real experience cooking but we were able to make great burgers as soon as we started using this thing. The grill was very easy to set up and with the included recommendations, we were able to find the right temperature settings quickly.

The cooking time is very fast. On a normal grill, as I recall, the cook time for a burger was probably somewhere in the 5-8 minute range. I find with the Cuisinart that we can cook 6 burgers at a time in 3-5 minutes. The Cuisinart is also a big help in that unlike conventional grills, the wait time until the appropriate temperature is reached is usually less than 5 minutes as compared to 10-15 minutes on a gas grill. This really helps when we are running late or just one person is doing everything for everyone's dinner.

The burgers and hotdogs we have made always come out cooked well. We are all fans of the slightly undercooked meat and wish only to make sure that it is evenly cooked. We have all experienced meat burned to a crisp on one side and cold to the touch on the other. Even worse, I am sure we have all experienced meat cooked decently on the outside, but then literally frozen on the inside. The Cuisinart makes sure that the produced product never fits into one of those categories. The meat is always cooked evenly, thanks, I believe, to the design of the top part of the grill. The two parts of the grill come together to effectively function as a closed gas grill. This ensures nice even cooking.

The cleanup on the grill is very simple. The surface is made of non-stick material and is just as easy to clean as a George Forman grill. Simply spraying with water gets rid of most leftovers and an easy wipe of the sponge makes the grill good-as-new. For the most part cleaning of the grill doesn't even seem necessary after each use. The grease drips right off the grill into the waiting grease traps. These are just as easy to clean as the grill itself and usually some water and an easy sponging takes care of everything.

One of the problems that I used to have with the myriad counter grills I have owned before this is that the newbie user is often unaware of the hot zones. On older products, it seemed like most of the grill would cook you, as well as the food, if you tried to open it. Thankfully as material conduction technology has gotten better and less expensive this has become less of a problem. I have yet to burn myself with the Cuisinart. Most of the outer surface is cool to the touch at all times. Even my clumsiest of roommates has yet to injure himself on this grill. Although more of a joke to us, those with children will no doubt find this feature to be particularly desirable.

The Cuisinart does have 4 different uses and only one of them has really been tested by us. If ever we have time in the morning I have no doubt that we will try the flat surface of the grill to make some pancakes or other breakfast food. I have no doubt, because of the design of the grill, that this would be incredibly easy. The proper temperature was easy to find with the burgers and I am sure that the same holds true for cooking anything else.

My biggest beef with the Cuisinart is the size of the drip cups. With all our greasy meat cooking, and the amount that we sometimes cook at once, I have found that the cups can sometimes be too small. A few times we realized, too late, that the drip cups were at capacity and have had to scramble for a replacement. This is usually more comical than anything else for us, but were it to really make a mess, it wouldn't be nearly so. This is the only feature where the George Forman grill has a slight advantage. The size of that device's drip tray is vastly larger than these tiny drip cups. When using the Cuisinart, make sure to have an alternative receptacle standing by.

The grill is a bit heavy to move around. My guess would be that it weighs in around 15lbs and is certainly not something you want to carry in a backpack all day but is easy enough to pull in and out of a kitchen cabinet. Luckily, the size of the grill means that it can usually stay out on the counter. It measures approximately 18x12x10 and so is certainly not a too-large counter appliance. We do have a fairly ample counter and do not use the kitchen for much else, but I would imagine that even in a busy kitchen this device is useful enough that it deserves a permanent place on the counter.