Kimber_333's Full Review: Black & Decker GR100 Indoor Grill
I received my griddle as a gift and was thrilled. The things I could do with it danced in my head. I could cook those big Sunday breakfasts my family loved so well and it wouldn't take me hours to make it all. I could cook burgers for all, steaks, hash browns. The ideas were endless. And then I took it out of the box. The first thing I noticed was the cord. It was very short. I could only reach one of my outlets with it. Okay, so I rearranged my counter to plug it into my one circuit. Being a family of four, I usually cook the whole pound of bacon at one time and use the few pieces left over to crumble into other recipes. Well, the pound of bacon just about fit on the griddle. Pretty impressive size there. However, as the bacon sizzled on the griddle, I noticed something. It wasn't cooking evenly. There were pieces cooking very quickly, and others were barely warm yet. The middle of the griddle was very hot and the outer edges were not. I looked at the temperature setting and it was set to 350 degrees, more than hot enough to heat the entire griddle. So, playing switch a roo, I got all of the bacon done. Then I noticed the drainage was not that good. I had to actually scrape and push the grease into the little bin for draining. Okay, not that bad.
Then I started my pancakes. A bit worried about the hot spots, I found that they gave me no trouble at all. My pancakes came out golden brown, fluffy and they all cooked at the same time. I was able to make 8 small pancakes on them at one time. A far cry from the two or three I could fit in my frying pan. I also liked the non-stick surface. I was able to cook all of my pancakes with no added grease what so ever. It was a real pleasure to make my pancakes on. So, one up and one down for the grill so far.
How about other things. I have made cheeseburgers on it and found it was just as easy as the pancakes. They cooked quickly, evenly and perfect. I tried french toast, also wonderful. Then I decided to make scrambled eggs. Once again, I had the uneven cooking, the eggs ran not towards the drain as I would have expected, but they ran to the back of the griddle, which proved my point to myself about the draining bacon grease. But with some effort, I managed to make some decent scrambled eggs. But I would seriously not attempt it again. As too many eggs would over flow the back lip of the griddle and tipping it forward would cause them to run into the drain.
And about that drain. There is a channel running along three sides of the griddle (not along the back)which allows the grease to run off. Or at least that is what it is suppose to do. I found that it is a bit shallow for jobs that have a bit more grease. And I found that jobs that did have more grease, the small container which held the run off was a bit too small to handle the job. And it is extremely difficult to try and empty it during the middle of the cooking job. So, another thumbs down for it.
How about clean up? Well, I can't say it was the easiest to clean up. It does say that it is dishwasher safe. One small problem I found was it was too big to fit into my dishwasher. So, okay, lets clean it in the sink. I was not real happy with the amount of cleaning it took to get the grease out of all of the nooks and crannies. I did not really have a problem with anything sticking to the surface, but the grease was extremely hard to get off. I ended up turning it on low and using paper towels to get off as much of the grease as I could. Eventually it came clean.
So you might ask, did I like this product? Yes, and then again, no. I like it for some jobs. It does do some items very well. But like everything, there is the other side to it where it does not do a very good job. For things such as pancakes and french toast, grilled cheese, it's a dream. And clean up from those are really easy. But items with lots of grease or that take up the entire griddle, this griddle does not perform as well. Clean up sometimes is a breeze, but again anything with lots of grease takes a much longer time to clean up from.
I would not get rid of my griddle, I do like it. But the bottom line is, a lot of those recipes that were dancing through my head have not happened simply because of the limitations the griddle has.
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