Small Kitchen Appliances

Review by S. Harrison for Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler
Rating:
I bought a G4 Griddler from Amazon in 2005, and used it a couple of times a week (at least) until it had to be put out to pasture in 2010 due to failure of the non-stick coating on the plates. (The coating started to bubble and peel, and no one wants that in their food…) I loved it. (See my review of the Cuisinart GR-4 Griddler Stainless-Steel 4-in-1 Grill/Griddle and Panini Press) It was still working great, but replacement plates were not available.

I was elated when offered the opportunity to review its smarter younger brother, the GR-4NAM Griddler. I could hardly wait for it to get here and run it through its paces.

At first glance, the GR-4NAM looks virtually identical to the G4. However, closer inspection reveals that it has been totally redesigned, and for the better.

Improvement: The grease catcher used to be a little cup that had to be set under a spout on the side of the bottom plate. If it was positioned incorrectly, (or forgotten about), greased dripped out on the counter. The grease catcher is now integrated into the Griddler as a drawer-like device that can be pulled out to clean, and then put back in place for the next use.

Improvement: The original G4 had two sets of plates – one flat set, one ridged set (for paninis). There is now one reversible set of plates (ridged on one side, flat on the other), and therefore no need to find a storage place for the plates not in use. The new plates have a good substantial weight. I don’t have the old ones here for comparison, but the quality of the plates certainly was not cheapened.

Improvement: It used to be a little tricky to put the plates in place and to remove them. There was also a difference between the top plate and the bottom, so you had to be careful not to try to put them in the wrong way. The plates now have an identical shape, so they are interchangeable, and the release buttons activate a spring-loaded mechanism that pops the plate loose for easy removal.

Now, to see how it cooks: The Griddler takes about as long to warm up as a good-quality waffle iron. Just when you start to get impatient with it, it’s ready.

The first thing that I cooked was a no-no in the eyes of Cuisinart – a bone-in, skin-on leg and thigh chicken quarter. Too thick, they say. HA! says I, because I am a bit of an anarchist. I marinated the chicken in olive oil and rosemary, heated the Griddler to Medium. I cooked it on the panini plates because I love those little fake barbeque stripes across my food. It worked just fine. (I should have taken a picture, it came out looking beautiful. But I was hungry.)

Word of warning: Do not cook thick or fatty meat on High – you will get grease spatters all over the place. Medium works just fine in such instances.

I discovered from my old Griddler that when cooking meat it’s best to turn off the heat before it’s done, and let it finish cooking with the residual heat in the plates. That way the meat does not get overdone.

For clean-up, I let the plates cool down, and then put a wet paper towel across the bottom plate and close the lid and let it sit for a while. The dampness softens anything that is stuck to the plates, and then it can be easily washed off with a sudsy sponge or dish wand.

Today for lunch, I made myself a sandwich with sliced sourdough bread, cooked sliced chicken breast, fresh grated parmesan cheese and dried basil. I followed the panini directions in the small cookbook that comes with the Griddler. Well, I sort of followed the directions… Cuisinart recommends brushing the outside of the sandwich with olive oil. I prefer to use melted butter on panini because it makes the sandwich crisper.

I preheated the Griddler on High, placed the sandwich inside, and applied light pressure for about 30 seconds, and then let it cook. The directions say to cook panini for about 4 -5 minutes, but my sandwich was ready to eat in 2 minutes. Maybe the butter makes the bread brown faster than olive oil.

In any case, it was beautiful – evenly browned, crunchy and delicious, and I did take a picture (see product images).

How durable will the GR-4NAM be? Good question. From everything that I can see so far, Cuisinart has only made the Griddler better. But time is the real test of quality. I will report back from time to time regarding durability.

Right now, I’d say this looks like an excellent buy.

Review by Karen for Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler
Rating:
The grill works great, BUT, the non-stick finish was peeling off one of the grill plates after just one week of use!!! I sent several emails to them regarding this, and despite their pat “we will respond shortly”, I never got ANY response!!! I went on-line to register this product as soon as I got it, and was expecting a response AND a new grill plate, but got neither!! I will never purchase a Cuisinart product again because of their piss-poor customer service.

Review by Book Fan for Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler
Rating:
There are lots of details about this grill that are not given in the description, including a few puzzles. Overall, this is a fine and useful grill. I like the reversible plates and found them easy to flip and clean. It seems well balanced and easy to manipulate, and doesn’t seem to take too long to heat up.

However, from what I can tell, both side knobs do the very same thing!!! When on the Griddle setting, the left knob is labeled from 200-425 degrees. When on the Panini setting, the right knob is labeled from Warm to Sear. But why not just have a single knob, that ranges from “200/Warm” to “425/Sear”? I think by having lot of knobs, it is giving the impression that it is some sort of advanced subtle piece of gourmet foodie equipment that does more than it actually does (more costly to manufacture, more to break, and an insult to the consumer). This grill is nothing more than a hot surface with a temperature dial !! (Actually, before I tried it out, I thought the different settings were for single grill / double grill. I mean, why heat up both sides if I am just using one side with the lid up?)

The product description was vague on some aspects of how to use the grill, so here is what I figured out:

- when turned on, the center knob shows a red light, and both sides are heated (no single side setting – I suppose if I only want a single side, a frying pan on the stove is easier);

- the side knobs have a green light when the surfaces are near the desired temperature setting (within 20 degrees of top temp when first heating, and once heated, the green light is on when the temp is about 10 degrees from target);

- once target temperature is reached, the temperature can drop over 20 degrees (green light off) before the heat clicks back on and target temperature is reached again (green light back on);

- the lid pivots on an axle across the center of the lid (where the handle attaches), so that the lid can be level no matter how high the food is (within reason), or sloped if short food is on one side and tall food on the other;

- the actual cooking area is a bit smaller than there overall stated dimensions, the griddle is 8-7/8 by 11-1/4 inches; the grill area is less because the ridges don’t extend as far (1/2 to 1 inch away from the edge).

- the closest the griddle plates get to one another is about 5/8 inch, so that is the thinnest something could be pressed;

- the ridges of the grill plates get to about 1/8 inch from each other;

- there are grease outlets on the hinge side of each plate for grease to drip into a little grease drawer, and the plates have a very slight slope towards these outlets (1-3 degrees), but this slope is so slight that grease doesn’t flow that easily, and you might need to slightly prop the non-hinge sides if you are interested in getting grease to flow (as in the Forman grill);

- the handle is some sort of non-metal that doesn’t get hot when the stainless does;

- only the lid is stainless steel on the top, while the bottom and a few other components appear to be some sort of hard material that could be a high temperature plastic;

- the cord is only 35″ long.

Finally, when I measured the temperature of the griddle with my surface grill thermometer, I got rather cooler temperatures than what was said on the temperature setting. My grill surface thermometer may not be calibrated correctly, but this was farther off than I expected, though it certainly felt hot enough to cook effectively. But also, the Panini setting has a cooler low and a hotter high than the Griddle knob, which demonstrates that each dial does have its own thermostat (and which are not calibrated the same, unless there is a design purpose I haven’t figured out to have one knob heat the appliance hotter & cooler than the other knob).

I haven’t used any folding grill/griddles like this since I was a kid, so I cannot compare to others, but overall, this is a fine grill/griddle which I look forward to cooking lots of different things with.