Saitek PS27 for PlayStation 2

(Note: This review is on the updated, stainless steel model)

I saw the Cobb Grill demonstrated on a TV show called RV Today. I was hooked and unfortunately ignored my Never-Buy-Anything-On-TV rule. Getting this was a mistake.

The Cobb is an ingenious cooking system. It cooks everything from vegetables to meat to scrambled eggs - probably just about anything you can think of - in a self-contained, one pot system that comes in its own carry-case. And if I were restricted to only one cooking utensil, the Cobb would be a top contender because of its versatility and low fuel consumption. It uses only a handful of charcoal briquettes to cook an entire meal.

That said, the Cobb really seems to be a case of Jack of All Trades, Master of None. For all its versatility, everything about it and everything it does rises to the level of just barely OK. If you have access to convection ovens, microwave ovens and traditional grills, don't bother with the Cobb. However, if you're out in the wilderness with only one pot and a bag of charcoal, the Cobb could be your best friend.

First, it takes a REALLY long time to cook anything. (hours not minutes!) I anticipated the time it would take to get the charcoal at peak heat, but I wasn't at all prepared for just how LONG it would take for anything to cook (Pushing 2 hours for 4 chicken thighs) And because we needed to keep the lid on to maintain any degree of heat, nothing got very crispy and it was difficult to determine when things were done. A meat thermometer is a required accessory when cooking on the Cobb! We tried a wide variety of charcoal types to try and maximize heat, but the end result was pretty much the same; if you have hours to kill and don't want anything crispy, you'll get an OK meal done on the Cobb.

There is a moat below the grill plate that at first glance looks like a nifty idea for cooking up potatoes and vegetables. And because the water content of veggies and potatoes adds moisture to the moat, clean up is easier than without them. But because all the fat from the meat gets trapped by the moat, I'm not sure it's the most healthful way to cook vegetables. And removing any food from the moat without the center briquette ashes falling onto it is a trick I was never able to master. Since I don't really care for ashes in my food, I found this pretty annoying.

I also have safety concerns regarding the Cobb. All the parts fit together fairly well. But it's pretty easy to have them slip apart from each other. Particularly the large dome lid. The base is so cool, you can pick the Cobb up and carry it around while it's cooking. But that doesn't mean all the internal parts and large dome lid don't get blazingly hot. They do! So I'd like to see the Cobb designed so these parts cannot slip off from one another.

The base has been redesigned with stainless steel. I suspect this corrected a safety issue with the original base which could melt.

The interior coals stay hot enough to ignite things (just not your food) for a long, long, long, long time. Be VERY careful if you upend the unit and dump the ash out. Once, I thought the coals were cool and began cleaning them out with a paper towel. It caught on fire and I quickly put the lid over the unit to extinguish the flame. Unfortunately, there is no way to close the air holes in the dome lid, so it didn't work. I grabbed a bottle of water and doused the coals. That did the trick, but I was left with a watery ash soup that went into an airflow chamber below the charcoal container. And because the unit isn't designed for water to drain out of it, it was a pain to try and shake it all out. This is just one of the many unfriendly clean-up traits of the Cobb. Getting the unit clean after anything has baked on is also a real problem. It's too large to be left to soak and I dislike using chemical oven cleaners.

And finally, to get really picky, the zippered carry-case is not easy to put on. It's tight fitting, zips around the middle and has to be pulled on over the large dome lid - which keeps slipping off the base. It's too bad they didn't make the unit fit inside an upended dome lid for more compact packing. It would cut the storage requirement in half. But this is getting like that Woody Allen line - The food is terrible and the portion sizes are too small...

So I'll end by saying the Cobb is just more trouble than the resulting meals are worth. Mine will probably end up on Craig's List soon. Look for an ad that says, "Lightly used but filthy, top-of-the-line Cobb. All possible accessories included...except meat thermometer (I think I'll keep that). Cost an absolute fortune new..."