What’s the best way to clean my George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Grilling Machine? It’s more than a little dirty. I would say it probably hasn’t been cleaned in around 2-3 months and I would say on average we cook about 1-3 hamburgers/chicken breast/porkchops on our George Foreman. Needless, to say there is a bit of a grease build up and we can’t scrape the excess off. What should we do in order to clean our George Foreman? Is it safe to soak it or use a pressure washer on it? Honestly people, it’s that bad. Thanks
No, it’s not safe to soak it.
Bring it near the sink so the goop will fall into it. Heat it up for a minute or two, which makes the goop a lot easier to get off, unplug in, and then take soaking wet paper towels to wipe the grime off into the sink. Given the amount of time since you cleaned it, you may need a whole roll. I’d suggest doing this after every use.
Bolding mine
:eek: , I clean it up after every use. I would try to use hot water and soap or maybe some orange clean. If that doesn’t work, maybe you should just get a new one.
Let me just say, 2-3 months, YIKES! :eek:
OK submerging electric heating coils in water-----> Bad. Very bad.
I second that if you clean while it is still warm it will be much easier.
I’d suggest a little vinegar spritzed on, heat up a little, unplug, then wipe off with the paper towels as suggested. I have a plastic scrubber that I use whille draping the unit over the sink being very careful not to let the heating coils get even one drop of water on. If you have a sink sprayer, you can very carefully use it to spray off the grunge. Repeat: be really really careful. I don’t hold the sprayer ten feet away and hit the thing full blast. More like, hold the sprayer about 1/2 inch above the surface and depress the spray trigger a teeny bit until just a little water comes out. Wipe off everything immediately and don’t use it until it’s all completely dry and you’re entirely sure of that. Do not immerse, soak or throw massive amounts of water in it’s direction.
Can someone please explain to this vegetarian how a family can NOT clean their Foreman grill for a couple months and NOBODY got ptomaine, salmonella, e coli or any other number of frisky food poisoning incidents? I suppose if you keep heating up the grime past 160 degrees each time you use it, you’re killing off the germs, but, um… eeeeyew. Doesn’t that affect the flavor of your cow or chicken?
I clean mine off after every use… and I don’t even cook land animals. (If it swims or lives in salt water it’s fair game. You could say I’m a fish-etarian.)
Heh, I’ve had mine since Christmas, use it frequently, and I’ve NEVER cleaned it.
Well, bacteria tend not to colonize carbon deposits.
The GFLMFGM actually operates rather hot. Hot enough to carbonize most anything left on it. Just like a regular barbecue grill. It’s possible to just run the thing until the gunk totally carbonizes, leaving little for bugs to eat.
I never use any soap or water on my cast iron gas barbecue grates… I just let any gunk carbonize, and then brush it off. The key is to season it well before first use, and touch up season occasionally before cooking.
But the GFLMFGM is a teflon cooksurface… I clean mine every time I use it. For two reasons: 1) I don’t like burned food, and 2) it’s teflon.
To clean: Do Not Scour! Find the little scraper that came with your GFLGFGM and scrape off as much gunk as possible. If you can’t find yours, go to target or somewhere and see if you can’t swipe one from a display unit that hasn’t alreay had its scraper swiped. Scrape off as much loose gunk as you can. Spray or sponge on some water and let soak while you perform the following step.
Get some automatic dishwasher detergent and make a paste with the powder and a little water. Use about a quarter cup of detergent. Be careful, because this will be caustic and at the very least dry the heck out of your skin. Smear this on any stubborn deposits and let sit for an hour or so… it should dissolve the food without damaging the teflon. Rinse off your GFLMFGM with your sink sprayer.
It’s not a tragedy if you get the sides or bottom of your GFLMFGM wet… you just don’t want to immerse it. Make sure it drys completely before plugging it in again.
Formula 409 or something is suitable for cleaning the outside. Don’t forget the underside, either. The GFLMFGM likes to drip grease around the bottom edge and onto the underside.
BTW, the GFLMFGM makes perfect grilled cheese sandwiches… I love 'em. But it’s too hot for breakfast sausage patties… they burn before the insides are cooked.
It’s threads like these that make me feel much better about my own slipshod hygiene practices. Even I wash the George Forman every time I use it. Almost.
I’d like to second what bughunter just said … I mean, it’s teflon, it ain’t hard to clean! Myself, I spray regular dishwashing detergent on the thing and scrub everything off with a sponge; I have never used the scraper that came with the thing. Once scrubbed clean, just rinse, set aside and let it completely dry.
Oh, and bughunter … this may or may not be heretical, but I like to give my sausages a quick nuke to warm’em up, let them sit a minute to kind of “heat through”, then put them on the GFLMFGM. Mmmmmmm, works for me!
Mine gets a bit greasy around the outside (the plastic part) after a month or so, but I clean the grill part after every use. Keep it hot, get lots of paper towels soaked in water and wipe away.
I just use 409 or something like it to wash the outside when it gets grimy.
Why is this so hard? 
Please don’t steal. Working retail sucks enough without having to deal with this shit.
I used to also find the George a little hard to clean (particularly after cooking something that had been marinated, the burnt sauce drippings got like fossilized carbon) until I discovered The Method.
-Allow your George to cool after cooking. Take a paper towel, run under water and wring out so that it is nice and wet but not dripping.
-Open up George, uncrumple paper towel, lay across George’s cooking surface, close top.
-By the time you are done with other post-dinner tasks (dishes, leftovers, or whatever, roughtly 1/2 hour), the goo on the George will be softened enough to wipe away easily with the damp paper towel.
This is the closest you will get to soaking the whole appliance (not recommended).
I cleaned a really disgusto one like this: get some regular kitchen sponges and figure out an arrangement where they fill the grill. Sprinkle a good coating of baking soda on the bottom grill surface. Get the sponges basically sodden, just shy of dripping, and lay them out to fill the surface. Sprinkle another good layer of baking soda on the top of the sponges. Close and cook for a while – I think I did ten minutes. After it’s cooled enough to handle the sponges, use them to swab out the softened gunk.
I had to repeat the process with just two sponges because of a couple of areas that didn’t get perfectly clean the first time, but actual scrubbing time was minimal.
BTW, that trick works great for any pan you’ve incinerated something in and you’re left with one of those black hard crusts that make you think the pan is destroyed and you might as well toss it. Just put in enough water to submerge the detritus, dump in some baking soda, and boil for a while. The crap justs boils free, and a quick rinse and you’re done, no scrubbing at all.
(Washing soda works, too, though not too many people have that in their houses as a rule.)
I’ve never had a problem cleaning the thing. The key seems to be wiping it while its still hot…not warm, hot.like right after I take the bratwurst off.
Just last night, I had my worse ever GFG mess. Both of my Johnsonville Cheddar Brats leaked ‘cheese’ on the grill and carbonized. I think it took another napkin (3 total) but once again, I hit it immediatly after pulling the sausages off and no problem.
A second to Hello Again’s, But what I do is after using it I take a wet rag and place it right on it and close it. Lots of steam come out. I go and eat. Later I will rewet the damp rag and place it back in the cool G.F. usually I will clean it the next morning.
Also on mine most of the teflon has worn off, but this works just fine.
Huh.
Maybe I’ll quit cleaning mine…
Spray Pam (or something like it) on the grill prior to cooking and the cleaning becomes a whole lot easier.
I’ve only had real problems cleaning mine when I use marinades. However, when I do I just use some form of oven cleaner and that usually takes care of it with some wiping and scraping with the little plastic spatula that came with the grill. I also use non-stick spray before putting anything on.