As Seen on TV: Big City Slider Station

This special kind of marketing still exists… direct from TV to customer. Now adays though, you can usually find “as seen on TV” products in retail and grocery stores. My dad saw the commercial for the Big City Slider Station and decided he wanted to try it… turned into a gag-Christmas present. (Side Note: Which “Big City” is know for Sliders?) Well, since Big City Slider Station was something kitchen related, I was put to the task of testing this little invention.

The box it came in was pretty big… so it was a little shocking to see how small the pan was (but when you think about it, it’s making 5 little burgers, and it needs to fit over one burner, ao it makes sense). The pan and lid are actually pretty lightweight (but maybe I’m just used to the heavy calpholon pans in my kitchen) and they seem to be coated (non-stick? dunno). Besides the pan/lid, you also get a little scoop so you can make uniform little burgers and an “instruction” book. I use the term instruction loosely because it doesnt really give you any… but I guess since the product is demonstrated like 50x per commercial spot of 60 seconds, if you can’t catch on you pry shouldnt be using it in the first place.

For you visual learners, I photo-documented my journey:

So I used the little scoop to make all the hamburger balls (sorry that sounds a bit leude, but I cant think of a better way to describe them :P) in advance. 1 pound of hamburger will make about 12 little patties. I heated up the pan and lit over medium high heat (theres no real instruction to do this, but it seems thats the only way the lid will get hot to help in the cooking process). Then it is just a matter of lifting the lid, adding 5 hamburger balls, and putting the lid back on. The first batch I did not push the lid down very hard… but by the 2nd and 3rd try they came out looking very patty like. Once the lid is on, you just wait. It is nice in that the lid keeps the grease at bay, so you can wander around the kitchen and do other things (get out condiments, split rolls, wirte the next great American Novel…). About 3 minutes later, remove the lid and BAM you got 5 mini-burgers.

Big City Slider Station PROS:

• Truth in advertising… the pan does exactly what it says it is going to do
• They turn out looking like the picture on the box
• Little things are fun to eat and all the rage right now
• The lid made me feel ok to walk away (not to far) during the cooking time
• No need to flip the burgers!
• The lid fits neatly into the pan so it is not a storage hassel

Big City Slider Station CONS:

• They do not give you/suggest a way to get the Sliders out of the pan (smart people like me use a fork or scewer
• Each slider patty ends up swimming in it’s only little pool of grease. Between each batch, I had the poor the grease out (i ended up pouring it into another frying pan that was in the sink). Basically there is no elegant way to get the grease out of 5 little slider chambers
• ALSO, when you are lifting the lid to remove the patties, that grease will SPATER so watch out!
• You need to eat like 3 or 4 of them to feel full… so my family of 4 polished off the sliders as I was cooking the remaining batches. Next time I need to think more about how to keep 1 batch warm while the next cooks so we can all eat together.
• When you have access to a grill, eating burgers cooked in a pan on the stove should be a last resort

All and all the Big City Slider Station is a pretty cute toy. Not a kitchen MUST HAVE, but something that’ll be fun to pull out every once and a while. That, to me, is an infomercial success 😀