I love perfectly cooked panini and hate “single-use kitchen gadgets,” said Amy Scattergood in the Los Angeles Times. So as I prepared to test five manual and five electric panini presses, creating a basic croque monsieur on each, I expected to fall in love with one of the former—in particular, a gorgeous version by Mario Batali. Alas, it and other prettily colored, manual cast-iron models from Calphalon, Le Creuset, and the Italian company Bialetti were disappointments. A major problem was getting pan and press to heat up to the right temperature simultaneously, which seemed like “a complicated science experiment.”
Electric presses, by comparison, were a joy. “You just plug them in, they light up when they’re ready to grill, and they cook panini to a terrific crispness.” The clear winner was the Breville ($100). It not only allows heat to be regulated, depending on what ingredients are in the sandwich, but can also be used to grill vegetables or cook hamburgers and bacon. The lipless pan is especially easy to clean.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
