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369 of 376 humans found the following review helpful.
Worth a heap of hassles, but be conscious of them first!
By Christopher R. Gibson
Summary: a good grill with quirks that get in the way of it being great. It’s a big betterment for cleaning, and it has a nicely-sized 4-burger grill plate. It doesn’t get rather as hot as the “old-style” models, and if you don’t learn it is quirks you may destruct utterly good meals.
Overview
I had an “old style” Foreman grill, one of the littler ones with permanently attached plates, for years. I loved it – in particular how you could get the grill scary hot and get a heap of great crusts on grilled meats. But man, I hated cleaning it!
Eventually, it died, and I wanted something that answered my two greatest complaints: little size of the cooking service, and something that was posing no difficulty to clean! This grill looked like the answer.
Bottom line: I *want* to love it, I genuinely do! And it does answer my two biggest complaints, so I’m continuing to use it, but it has a couple of quirks that keep me from loving it. So close! But here’s my experience.
HEATING: decent performance but may OVER-heat and demolish a meal
This grill has a “variable” temperature setting. I’m not sure how exact it is, because I in general use it at the top temperatures to try to get the same performance as the “old” style grills, which got wicked hot.
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Here is one of the MAJOR cautions: this grill may OVERHEAT!
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When it gets “too hot” the brain seems to freeze, the grill shuts off, and the display blinks little dashes at you, and that’s all it will do until the grill has cooled off for a 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately, this means it is totally unlikely to grill for extended times at max temperature, and if it happens when you’re in the middle of cooking, it may ruin a meal. I have talked to one other person with this same grill, and they had a similar experience. So, beware – this MAY be a problem that they can/will fix, or it may be in the design and something you just have to live with.
I personally have found a workaround: I pre-heat to 400 degrees, one setting short of the “max” of 425. When it has pre-heated (5 minutes), just before I put on the food, I turn the grill up to 425. The result is that, within my normal cooking times, the grill comes on and stays on the whole time, but doesn’t overheat. I don’t get rather the satisfying crust I would like, but it’s adequate. And if you DO lose the “brain” due to overheating, don’t panic – there’s a lot of energy stored in those plates, so just leave the feed on and let it cook a little longer than you planned, and you’ll probably save your feed (also, see my remarks regarding the “coasting” cooking technique at the end of the review). But beware: if you pre-heat to the greatest or most complete or best possible setting, it may go brain-dead too soon for you to even finish cooking.
Some other observations: the heat isn’t rather as uniform as the old sealed plate style, but it’s not bad, and in all likelihood can’t be much better, given the “removable” plate design. Once you learn the hot spots, there’s always someone in the house that wants feed either more well done or rarer anyway, so I’ve learned to put this to my advantage!
GRILL PLATES: Big and Removable and Cleanable (and a little finicky)!
YES, finally, the plates are removable! Yes, they are finicky! But, yes, you may learn to live with them. When I primary got the grill, the top plate was in particular hard for me to get attached properly. But if you look carefully, perceive how the latches work, and learn the rectify placement, this may become a non-issue. The only thing I do now is always double-check the plates after I attach them by tugging on them, but once they’re connected properly, I’ve never once had one just “come off.”
The size is a big betterment over other grills. They’re wider than they are deep, so not similar to a great deal of other Foreman models, opening the grill is pretty easy even with cabinets over the grill. The size and proportions makes putting 4 burgers on possible, and I’ve likewise cooked three good-sized steaks at the same time. You do need to know where your hot spots are, and depending on the feed size/shape, you MAY want to open the grill halfway through and rotate the pieces, but this seems to affect browning more than the interior cooking, which has always seemed beauteous even to me.
Cleaning them is a joy equated to the old “sealed” style plates. I may drop them both in a sink with hot soapy water and let them soak, and just brush them clean with a nylon brush. If you get to them speedily after cooking, in all probability all you need is some running water, soap and a sponge. It’s a huge betterment for cleaning, and well worth the trade-off of somewhat uneven heating.
FOOD SIZE: beware the thickest steaks and the thinnest burgers
The “sliding hinge” on this grill seems to be a little limited. On thick steaks over 1″, the grill doesn’t seem to get rather “wide” sufficient to give even heat; on very thin items (somewhere around 1/4″, the plates seem to far detached to heat properly. But for foods within than range of 1/4″ to 1″ (most burgers, chicken breasts, intermediate steaks), it seems to work just as well as the old style grills.
OTHER: just a couple of things to mention
Time: it doesn’t do anything except beep; it doesn’t shut the grill off or anything. I use the default of “5 minutes” just to time my pre-heating.
Cooking Style: I have devised what I call the “coasting” style of cooking. It’s a takeoff on “resting” that seems to work well. Basically, I cook a feed at the hottest temperature I may get without the grill overheating (see above), and regarding 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through I shut off the grill (but leave the feed cooking). For instance, with a 5 or 6 oz burger patty, I pre-heat the grill to 400, then put the burgers on and set it to 425, and cook them for regarding 3-4 minutes; then I turn off the grill completely, but leave the patties on for another 3-4 minutes. The result is a nicely browned burger, still juicy in the middle, with no need for further and added “resting.” Same technique works with steaks and chicken, too! This helps me work around with one real quirk of the grill – the “overheating” – but also gives very nice results on the cooked foods, too.
Well, that’s with regards to all I may think of to mention on this grill. I am actually not happy when it comes to the overheating problem, which is to me a finelooking major design flaw, but the joy of grill plates that are removable and easy to clean keep me from going back to the “old” style. I’ve learned to live with and work around the problem, and for me that makes it worthwhile. But it also keeps me from wholeheartedly recommending this grill, which would other than as supposed or expected be a 5-star winner in my book.
453 of 466 people found the following review helpful.
Best George Foreman Grill Yet
By G. Kittinger
I had an older model and used it from time to time, but always felt it never in truth got clean. This new version with the removable grilling plates was what I was waiting for. Both grill plates come off for easy cleaning in the sink. I washed mine in the dishwasher once too – both ways works great.
Also having the temperature settings and timer makes it easy to cook your feed fast. I’ve done steaks, chicken, fish and hamburgers and all have come out great!
263 of 270 persons found the following review helpful.
The best indoor grill unit!
By Telstar
I have been through various former Foreman grills, Hamiton Beach, DeLongi, etc.
This is the best indoor grill, bar none.
The timer is wonderful.
The heat control is very accurate.
I just made a grocery store popular porterhouse (.75 inch not a huge one) at 425 degrees and it came out with caremelized marks and perfective doneness. Follow the charts and subtract regarding half a minute at this temperature.
I am one happy camper…clean up is a breeze in the dishwasher.
Bravo to Salton.
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