You can, naturally, fit other things in it, too - say, meats and vegetables to put inside of your panini, as the company suggests - but the top won’t extend all the way around to create that bigger flat surface (so it’s probably not the best for burger night). If you really only intend to press sandwiches, this Breville model is probably the best choice. Some presses have hot spots, but the heat is generally very even over all the plates, as well.”ġ2.25 x 15 x 5 inches | Opens partially | Grooved You’ll get a consistent result, instead of the first two looking good and the next two not. “Let’s say you want to make four grilled cheeses for your family. “There are cheaper options, but this one will last a really long time,” Blachman-Gentile says. This one lets you select the specific degree you want each plate to reach, while the other has only low, medium, high, and warm settings for the panini function and comes with degrees in intervals of 50 for the open grill. The major difference between this one and the cheaper model above is how exact the temperature gets. Max Blachman-Gentile, director of culinary operations at Tartine, used a slightly higher-end version to test a lot of the menu items they sell at the café and even put it to use in the shop for a while (it eventually wore down churning out 40-plus sandwiches a day, but that shouldn’t be a concern at home). “I always felt that toasters just dried out the bread, but the panini press allows it to maintain its moisture. “I have given away all my toasters,” she says. Writer and cookbook author Patricia Wells uses the Cuisinart for indoor grilling and making toast. “It gives you more flexibility and options than just a press.” And, she says, it has many applications that can make your life easier, such as grilling meats and vegetables or crisping up quesadillas (that don’t require flipping because you get heat from the top and bottom). “That, I think, is the big benefit of this press,” says Kathy Strahs, author of the blog Panini Happy. Either way, this makes them easy to clean. It has removable nonstick cooking plates, allowing you to choose from grooved or flat depending on what you’re cooking. Then, if you want to turn it into one big grill or flat top, you simply press a button on the side that fully releases the hinge. It can, of course, act as a sandwich smasher, applying pressure from the top and emanating heat from both sides. The Cuisinart is a well-priced, reliable, do-it-all panini press. This is mostly an aesthetic choice.ġ3 x 11 x 6.5 inches | Opens fully | Grooved and flat Some even have removable plates that let you swap. Grate style: As I stated before, you can find panini presses with grooved grates that will leave marks on your food like the ones you get from a grill, while others have a smooth surface. Here, I’ve detailed the opening mechanism of each press. One (the nonelectric option) has a separate lid, and another (the grill press) acts like a heavy block with a handle so you can weigh down on a sandwich inside any skillet you already own. Opening mechanism: Some of the panini presses below open a full 180 degrees so that the top plate esentially becomes another bottom, creating a surface that is double the original size. To that end, I’ve listed the dimensions of each model. If you don’t plan to keep your press out on the counter at all times, you want to make sure it will fit in a drawer or cabinet. Size: As is almost always the case, adding another appliance to your kitchen is a consideration of how much space you have. If that’s your thing, it’d be reason enough to keep one in your kitchen.īest overall | Best less expensive | Best with floating hinge | Best nonelectric | Best grill press | Best high end | Best professional grade And then, of course, a pressed sandwich does have a particular smushed-in-a-good-way vibe, different from one griddled in a pan or broiled in the oven. If it doesn’t, it can be an electric flattop, a perfect surface for cooking more than a couple of pancakes at a time, smashing burgers for a crowd, and making Korean barbecue. If it has grooved grates, it can act as an indoor grill (you won’t get actual smoke, but the charred markings count for something). But while I was talking to enthusiastic panini-press owners for this article, it became clear that what was a unitasker for me can be, in fact, a pretty well-rounded appliance. At some point, it disappeared, and I never gave it much thought, moving on to grilled cheese in a skillet and melts in the toaster oven. When I was younger, we had a panini press in our kitchen, an appliance I often used to make myself after-school sandwiches.
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