Cuisinart Griddler 5-in-1
Super-versatile kitchen appliance this is the five-in-one Cuisinart Griddler the GR-4N and one of the baseline models from Cuisinart for their five and one Cuisinart Griddler systems we bought it because it was at a good value around $50 on amazon and with it, I’m able to grill me cook some vegetables make pancakes you name it the key design element here are these removable and reversible grilling plates so one side has the grilling side the other one is the griddle so it has the flat surface that you can use for cooking vegetables and pancakes and stuff like that so using the hinge in the two halves you can use it as a panini press or as a contact grill using it is very straightforward.
If you only need to use one plate they recommend to use the bottom one because say it’s able to heat up higher and faster and then if you needed to use both plates of Cuisinart Griddler at the same time all you have to do is press this little lever on the side here and it alloid the hinge to fold out flat so both plates can be used and depending on what kind of surface you want to use whether the flat side or the grill side you can easily remove the plates by pressing this button on the side here and it will pop it out of its brackets to get started you have to plug this into your typical wall outlet thats how it receives poir the attached poir cable is on the short side sowecan imagine you will probably need to make use of an extension cord and then to turn it on you choose the center knob here and you turn it to the left if you only need to use the bottom grill and then you turn it to the right if you want to utilize both hot plates the knob on the left controls the heat for just the bottom plate.
If you only ire to use the bottom plate by itself and then the rightmost knob controls both heating plates if you ire to use them both at the same time it was a little bit confusing at first because the temperature or heating ranges on the knobs are different for the left and right so it may be a little confusing on what exactly am trying to get at is high mean a different temperature than you know 400 degrees Fahrenheit and unfortunately, the instruction manual was any clearer after a quick trial and error it was pretty obvious that the right knob was the one that was controlling the temperature.
When you ire in the grill and panini mode as in you’re using both plates of Cuisinart Griddler at the same time and then the leftmost knob ire just not light up at all so whichever mode that you’re on eventually the led on that particular knob is controlling the heating range will turn green to indicate that it has reached that temperature and is ready to put on your raw food hover just a heads up that the light may go in and out from being green to red to not on just because the temperature may fluctuate as you are cooking your food particularly.
If you are using both plates exposed to the air at the same time that light may go on and off just because it’s gonna be slight temperature fluctuations we wish we would have been a little bit easier to tell what the light actually meant but the bottom line as long as when you’re heating it up you see the green light then you just know that it has reached that temperature and there will be some fluctuations where you’re cooking it but that’s not a concern over the heat up the plates faster it is recommended that you keep the lid closed while we were heating up until you see that green led but actually when we first tried it out we found that the upper hinge wasn’t locking in place properly and as a result, it was having difficulties sitting flush when we tried to open the place fully out to have it completely horizontal and at first we thought maybe was doing something wrong but then read online that several other users had also experienced.
This issue so we returned that first one and it got a replacement and that the one I’m currently reviewing now which no longer has that hinge issue so we recommend that if you do end up buying this and you also run into that same issue that we had to go ahead and return it and order a replacement because this is a definitely unknown issue but the one I’m using now is working flawlessly I’ve been able to cook meals really fast now because of this thing and cleanup is also just as fast you just need a way for the hot place to cool down enough so you can touch it with your bare hands you can either remove them completely and then just wash you normally with some dish soap in a sponge or if you’re particular concern with maintaining the nonstick surface of these plates what you can do is while the plates are still warm to pour some water mix in with some baking soda and then just gently rub the hot place until the gunk is removed.
If there are some fairly big chunks left on the hot place you can use the included scraper that it comes with the first remove the big pieces and then you can go ahead and proceed with the baking soda mixture to remove the rest of it and then you want to clean out the catch pan here which you just slide out here from the side this drain pan or degrees pan just collects all the grease and extra overflow from the hot place you can see towards the center theres actually a little tiny openings that sloped downwards that would go into this drain pan this design prevents any grease that may overflow to not get stuck in betien the plate and the actual heating coils of this devicewehave read some reviews that people said this doesnt work very effectively butwethink they just have the place not properly situated an easy way to make sure that your plates sit properly is that when youre placing it back into the Cuisinart Griddler that the place is situated right betien those mounting brackets in the center with the plates back in and also the catch basin you can easily put down the lid and then just store it away.
And Cuisinart Griddler has a relatively small footprint so we were able to put it on a shelf, for example, we do have two small suggestions to make it a little bit easier to carry around can imagine that people may want to take Cuisinart Griddler as a portable item its the first has a retractable pair cable and second to have actual handles that you can use to carry on the side of this thing because this big handle at the top here is really just tp used to open and close this thing and to be obviously used as a grill or a panini press but besides those mentioned nuance issues we really do love this gorilla it has been a lifesaver for preparing meals in a very short period of time within a few minutes plus with their two removable hot plate design.
It means we can avoid contamination of raw meat with other items can also choose to have one side to have the grilling service and the other side to be flat which allows for countless other ways to cook food making this a great kitchen appliance whether you are a college student or living by yourself in an apartment or you have a large family and want to be able to cook different items in different places and be able to have something that portable as this.