Customer Reviews

George Foreman GR59A Baby George Rotisserie

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This is a nice compact rotisserie, carrying that Foreman name and cachet, meaning good low-fat grilling or roasting. A rotisserie has an advantage over ovens and contact grills in that it uses radiant heat to evenly roast your food. The results are juicy and tender, with that wonderful crust that only air and radiant heat can produce. But is the Baby George all it's advertised to be?

Yes and no is the ambivalent answer. The Baby George is advertised to hold a five-pound roast or bird, and this is really NOT true, in my experience. Unless your five pound roast is very compact and not terribly WIDE, it will strike the front of the oven cover as it turns on the spit. That prevents the motor from turning the roast, and since the heating element (a simple exposed coil in back) is only on the back side, your roast can't cook properly.

For under five pound roasts, the rotisserie works well. To roast a pork roast or chicken, you use the spit. The spit is in two parts: a spike and plate on which you place the meat, and a top plate with a wing nut to hold the plate onto the spike. This unit is then placed into the roaster and it meshes with the cogs of the motor on the side. The lid is closed and you turn on the timer. There is no choice of temperature: the glowing element heats to about 325 degrees F and the meat rolls past it, roasting a 4 pound boneless pork roast in about 75 minutes.

There is a basket for roasting flat or odd shaped foods, and this unit is surprisingly useful. You can do fish like salmon, but I use it for chicken parts (leg and thigh) or for small boneless roasts that are too small for the spit. You open the metal basket, place the food inside, and close the basket top through the basket wires--rather like closing the door on a bird cage(!), pressing it down to hold the food in firmly (it will SHRINK on cooking, remember.) If you have trouble spitting a roast, remember the basket is a good option to get the same result. The basket fits into the roaster the same way as the spit--it meshes onto the cogs of the motor and flips around and around. Since it is a defined size, as long as the food can be held inside the basket, it will fit into the roaster and cook evenly.

I have not tried the shish-kabob brochettes. They are wire skewers that fit onto the outside of the spit unit, into slots that hold the skewers across the end plates. It looks flimsy to me, and I am not a fan of shish-kabob--if I were making skewered food, I'd do it on the outside grill.

The spit unit is dangerous to unload when the food is cooked. It is hot as can be, and you have to manipulate that wing nut off with a hot pad while holding the spit on a heat-proof and slip-proof surface. A clean damp dishtowel over a cutting board is what I use. The spit unit is lifted out of the rotisserie with a metal lifting holder, and you should have the rotisserie near where the meat will end up, because you are going to be carrying that metal holder with the spit unit and meat on it, dripping hot juices, over to where it ends up for carving.

The spit is also SHARP and if you press down the meat to load it, have your hand well away from the top of the spike so as not to jab yourself. There are two side spikes that line up at 90 degrees from each other on each plate, holding the meat on the center spike and then with the four surrounding smaller spikes. These can jab you, too. Putting the meat on takes some care.

The cleanup is not too bad: drip tray beneath is metal, cleans out easily with a bit of soaking. Behind the element inside the rotisserie you can pull out a metal reflecting plate. This plate gets spattered with meat juice or food juices and needs cleaning and soaking. Eventually it spots up, like a broiler pan, with tiny burnt-on bits that won't come off. If you like everything completely spotless, this may annoy you. The lid lifts off the unit by lining up some arrows. That allows you to take the lid to the sink and clean the clear window inside and out. The re-assembly is easy enough; push the metal reflecting sheet behind the element and seat it properly. Wipe out the rest of the inside, put the lid back on, replace the drip tray.

We got our unit on sale, and I do like it for roast chicken and roast pork. I liked it less for roast beef. Small pieces of fish and meat cooked well in the basket. If you need big roasts, the bigger unit is advisable. I don't mind the cleanup. My biggest problem is with the spit--not all the foods want to stay on it, and removing it from the roaster is a bit difficult.

I have been watching the infomercial on the Showtime Rotisserie for months and almost bought one.

I have recently read many complaints and problems with the Showtime Rotisserie on the Internet such as some fires in the unit , improper cooking of the food and many mechanical breakdowns and cleaning difficulties, and decided against it. Then I found the George Foreman Model and since I already own a George Foreman Grilling Maching that I constantly use and that has been trouble free after years of constant use, I decided to buy the George Foreman Rotisserie. Since I am single and have a small kitchen, this Baby model is the perfect size. I was worried about the heat, on my small counter due to many comments about the Showtime Rotisserie requiring a big area due to the excessive heat it develops. I cooked a 4 pound chicken in the Baby Rotisserie and had no problem with excessive heat. It is very well designed and vents out the top. The chicken was fantastic and the unit was very easy to clean. I put some water in the bottom pan on the recommendation of a friend that owns one, and it made it very easy to clean. The top cover comes right off for wiping the class front from the inside and the back shield slips right out also. The only problem I had was finding some "cooking" twine to tie the chicken up. I used unwaxed dental floss, but will go twine shopping today.

Very well designed product, well made, and for [X] , it is half the price of the Showtime with the shipping ..

Way to go, George and Salton.

I definitely have not used the oven since I got the rotisserie, food with a lot of fat or skin comes out amazingly delicious. Dont bother with fat free foods, you'll just dry them out and waste money. Dont do pork chops either. The unit comes apart easily for cleaning, but its a pain to scrub the wire basket - take out stock in Brillo pads! Also, the metal back wall that slides out gets stains like watermarks even when it is clean, it never will look shiny new again no matter how clean. The white on the unit is yellowing from the heat, and my turn knob broke off from the heat as well - I had the unit about 2 inches from my toaster oven on the right side and it contained too much heat outside the unit. It is also difficult to clean the upper insides of the unit, since you cannot remove it. Did I mention it makes a mean chicken wings dinner (just dont put them on top of eachother in the basket). Also, dont cook meat as long as the time recommended in the booklet, the small size of the unit cooks it much faster and everything comes out well done if you dont keep checking.

I think that all owners of this rotisserie agree that the back plate is probably the major con about this machine. However, the pros justify purchasing this incredible product. When we first used our rotisserie, we were absolutely amazed at how wonderful it made our food taste. We cooked a fryer that was exactly 5 lbs and although we had some trouble situating it on the prongs, we were finally able to get all of it on with a perfect fit (after all that trouble, we now hold the chicken together with cooking strings). In addition to chicken, I have cooked salmon using a recipe that was provided in the cooking manual that comes with this product. The cooking manual is very helpful because it give you the approximate times that you should cook suggested foods. We chose this product over the Ronco because of its unbelievable value. The similar sized Ronco costs ...more than the George Forman Rotisserie.... Although the Ronco does enable you to stand your food in an upright position and steam vegetables (in small quantities) ontop of your unit, the George Forman unit provides you with the same deliciously tasting food, is equally durable, and economically priced.

This is a most excellent appliance. It will be cooking mostly for two people. I read the other reviews before I purchased it and was a bit leary about its size. Let me tell you something, this baby may be small but he can still cook your bird. We cooked a three and one-half pound yard bird in this bad baby. It fit in with no problems. On a larger bird, I would advise tying the wings and legs before putting it in. There was pleanty of room for the chicken. I imagine a much larger one could have easily fit.

It cleans very easily. The cover comes off and there is a drip tray and a tray that slides over the top that gets the grease sizzles.

It is easy to use. The spit just slides into the rotisserie and is easy to get off when it is hot.

The cooking chart seems to be pretty close to what the actual cooking times are (I would advise using a meat thermomoter just to be safe).

A great product. Designed well, functions excellently.

The only thing I would tell someone is that you probably don't want this one if you are feeding a large family. This is probably good for 3 people.

It vents the heat throught the top well and does not raidiate it.

If you are looking for a great gift for a wonderful person, this
is a terrific candidate.

I purchased this 6 months ago for a senior relative. She loves it because: it cooks thoroughly and shuts itself off with a "ding" 15 minutes before roasting is done, the removable parts come out and go in without upsetting the arthritis she sometimes suffers in wrists and fingers; and the parts clean up very easily, and since the rotisserie is small enough for a 5lb chicken--it is also light enough to lift and put here and there without "cluttering up counter space" or "breaking an old lady's back", and it has offered many successful meals without being underdone/overdone. She's happy, I'm happy. Well done, George!

I have a George Foreman Baby Rotisserie, and like it very much, but I would only purchase it if there are just 2 people in your family. It is very small.
You have to be careful when you cook a chicken; stay under 5 lbs.
because you cannot adjust the space between the chicken and the heat source, and some parts of the chicken are over-cooked.
It is easy to clean, and takes up little counter space.

Just got my Baby George from Amazon this week and this is a great cooking appliance. Cooking tips: Use a dry rub like Lawry's Perfect Blends for Chicken, a liquid marinade with sugars causes the chicken skin to burn. With a dry rub, the spices cook with the chicken juices. You will need to buy some cotton twine to tie the bird together. I found it easier to tie the chicken after it is on the rotisserie spit. I found a smaller bird, about 3lbs will cook faster, in about 75 minutes. Chicken is real juicy and tastes much better than any supermarket rotisserie chicken (they soak their chickens in brine first and are real salty). Also tried cooking chicken breasts in the grill basket and it also came out real tender and juicy, not overdone! Bon Appetit

I work in a company that played a role in a rotisserie pork project. Even though we never got to sample the product, just thinking about rotisserie pork made me break down, do the research, and track down the Baby George at my local Sears.

What a nightmare! The first unit I bought burnt a 4 pound piece of brisket to an internal temperature of 190ºF in half the time it should have taken to get it blood rare. Although the manual recommends using a thermometer, it's impossible to stop the rotation to check the internal temperature without shutting it down. But next time, I decided to try anyway. In went another 4 pound piece of brisket. Sure enough, when the exterior was pretty burnt, the interior was still bloody and barely warm. Perfect for beef, perhaps, but not something that would work for chicken or pork. This time I noticed that the timer didn't seem to be working at all, not an issue for me as I had set my own timer. So I cleaned it up, stuffed it back in the box and drove back to the mall to get another one.

I bought a frying chicken to cook in it. I carefully trussed the chicken to keep it from touching the elements. Again, I set a timer to help me keep tabs on the chicken's progress, as well as to make sure the timer was working.

I'm fairly certain that both the timer and the heating element were working properly on this unit, as the chicken was about three-quarters done at 45 minutes when the DOOR EXPLODED!!!, sending a shower of hot glass shards throughout my kitchen. Luckily there was no one there at the time. I had to wait for the glass to cool before I could pry up the little pieces of glass that had melted into the linoleum. I couldn't get the door to open, because of the glass fragments in the hinges, so I pulled out the chicken, dumped the unit in a trash bag, and took it back to Sears.

I sent an email to Salton. They did not acknowledge the first defective oven, and implied that I had abused the door on the second one, causing it to explode. They also said that there was no harm in being present in case of just such an explosion, as the door was made of tempered glass. So the hot glass shrapnel that filled my kitchen and melted into the floor was perfectly harmless. Yeah, right. I'm still picking pieces out of the soles of my feet.

I am so glad I didn't buy this product online. I'd never have managed two returns.

I'm a big fan of the Foreman grill and use that a lot so it was a no-brainer to order this rotisserie. I am single and have limited space, so a smaller version of the monster machines I've seen before seemed perfect. And in that respect, this does fit the bill. Fits on my counter (although I slide it out during use since you don't want all that heat under your cabinets! But didn't expect how much trouble I would have trying to keep the meat small enough to fit....even if it fits fine when you first put it in, once the grease starts dripping, things move all over! I use a ton of string on the chickens (smallest I can find in the store!) and they still tend to start banging into the bottom. Part of the problem is that it seems that the spit is closer to the bottom than the top, and of course gravity tends to pull things down anyway. Cleaning is also a bit of pain, lots of parts to clean afterwards and some don't EVER come clean no matter what you do (and I've only used it a few times!) Cleaning the inside of the glass door is near impossible without removing it (good luck getting it back on, I don't recommend it!) I assume these are common problems for rotisseries though, it's mainly the size I have a problem with. An inch or two more would have been ideal!

Update: one solution I have found to the size is to just roast a full chicken breast, rather than the whole chicken. If you love the white meat like me, this is a great solution, no problems with even the largest breasts coming off. Haven't tried a turkey breast yet, but I imagine these would fit just fine as well! Only issue is that breasts are often a little pricier than cheap roasting chickens, and they can be a bit hard to find but for one or two people, this is a great alternative.

Second Update - Well, I recently bought the Foreman contact roaster and I now use that much more often than this. It does almost as good a job roasting chicken, but is far easier and quicker to use and clean. You could do pot roasts and other items as well, so unless you really have a desire for a rotisserie that takes up a ton of counter space and is a pain to clean, you might want to check that item out instead.