Patented Sloped Design

Feature Focus: Why the George Foreman patented slope works

Since the start of the brand with George’s first infomercial back in 1994, George Foreman grills have featured our patented sloped design. Although the product introduced the concept of a contact grill to the market – an indoor grill that cooks from both sides to cut cooking time – it was really the patented slope that made it famous with calls to, “knockout out the fat”.

Today, all of our indoor electric grills still feature this same technology, but what is it that makes the George Foreman slope so special?

The whole idea behind the slope is that it provides an optimal grilling angle to allow unhealthy fat and grease to drain away from food as it cooks. So whether you’re cooking a piece of chicken or a steak, you get a healthier finished product on your plate than you would from pan searing or by cooking on a flat contact grill. The key to the angle (which is exactly 8 degrees) is that the fat and grease will drain into the drip tray, but the food won’t slide to the front because the weight of the top grill plate keeps it in place.

The slope doesn’t work alone, though. For the design to be successful the grease channels on the plates were also engineered to be a precise height at each point on the plate to allow the fat to channel – otherwise, the fat and grease wouldn’t move because it wouldn’t have anywhere to go. So although the raised channel edges are often seen as a way to get the nice steakhouse marks on the food you grill, they actually serve a technical function, too.

As mentioned above, the weight of the top plate is also engineered to work with the slope to keep food in place. If you’ve ever wondered why the top casing is heavy as you lift up on the handle of your grill, this is the reason. A lighter top plate wouldn’t press the food as well to keep it in place and let the grease drain.

Now, of course, the slope isn’t the only part of the George Foreman design that makes our electric grills unique. The nonstick coating, the embedded heating elements and even the accessories were engineered for optimal use. About once a month, we’ll be picking out one of these features to talk about, so you can know the mechanics behind how your grill works and understand how to get the most out of it by using our technology to your advantage.

Tags: George Foreman Electric Grill Feature Explanation, Patented Sloped Design