Great Grill (In Spite of the Buffoon It's Named After!)

If you are like me, you have seen commercials for the George Foremen grill until you are ready to scream. First there were the infomercials with Foreman and his plastic smile telling us how great this product was. Then they hit the stores, and could be found every week in the sale papers from Wal-Mart, Sears, Target, and almost every other department store in America. Then they came out with various designer colors for the thing, which caused that much more advertising. It became a running joke at my house that we needed to get a George Foreman grill because they were obviously so popular.

Then a funny thing happened. Someone gave me one for Christmas. And I liked it!

The grill is a very simple concept. You have two heating elements, one on the top and one on the bottom. Each side has a rack complete with ridges that heat the item in the grill. While the item cooks, the fat and juices from the meat will run out of these ridges, separating the fat from the meat. It is such a simple idea that it’s laughable. But when you use the grill, it works great! It is amazing to sit back and actually see the amount of drippings that run off of your food. You will find yourself wondering how much of that stuff you actually eat on a daily basis.

To use the grill, it is painfully simple. You plug it in, and watch the indicator light. When this light goes off, the element has reached the desired temperature. This tells you that the grill is ready to cook. Take your food (usually meat) and place it on the bottom half of the grill, then pull the top half closed over it. You will be able to hear the food sizzling as it cooks, and see the fat run off. The indicator light will cut on and off as the grill works to sustain a temperature level. Within a few minutes, your food is completely cooked and ready to go on your plate.

I have found that the George Foreman grill does a great job of cooking food. We have used ours for several different items: hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, chicken breasts, and even thick slices of potato. With each of these, we found that it was cooked completely through within five minutes or less. Some people like to open the grill and turn the meat over, but it is not necessary. The design of the grill brings heat from both sides at the same time, which allows the meat to fully cook without turning. This is the main reason that the grill cooks meats so much faster than the normal cooking methods.

When you see the juices running off into the collection dish, it may give you the impression that the meat comes out dry. This is hardly the case! We have found that everything we have cooked on this grill came out very juicy and tender. The best part is that the meat does not have to sit and cook in its’ own grease; you are able to enjoy delicious meat without the harmful fats that you would usually be exposed to.

You know what the only real negative about this grill is? George Foreman. The man comes across as a buffoon in much of the advertising, whether it is an infomercial or a written ad. Any reasonable human being can figure out that George had nothing to do with the development of this product; they simply wanted a jolly fat guy to help them promote it, and Santa Claus wasn’t available. So they went with plastic-smile George. But you can’t blame him, as he has made a lot of money on these things without getting punched in the face one time.

In spite of Mr. Foreman, this grill is really nifty and worth your consideration. It is easy to use, and also easy to clean. Simply let it cool and wipe it clean (using a cleaning tool that comes with the grill). It makes cooking so easy, you will be tempted to use it all the time. This would be perfect for a single person or someone who finds that they are often too busy to cook. There are many different sizes and many different prices, so there is truly a George Foreman grill for everyone. Go out and give it a try – you will be as shocked as I was.