 Simple, effective, and should last forever |
| Review Date: January 2, 2005 |
| Reviewer: toughcrowd, |
I originally wrote this review for the press alone. At the time I bought the press, Amazon wasn't offering the press/pan as a set. Now it does and since anyone interested in this product is probably going to be looking at reviews of the set rather than the individual components, I'll repeat my review, with enhancements:
While shopping a retail cooking store, I fell in love with the Krups FDE312 panini press. A bit of Amazon research, however, turned up a disturbing pattern of sudden failures in this product. Research into other presses from Cuisinart, DeLonghi, Breville, Villaware, and others failed to produce a clear front runner. It seemed that each product had one or more issues - non-removable grill plates, difficult cleaning, lack of grill ribs, flimsy handles, tendency to dry food, non-adjustable temperature, etc. Enter the Le Creuset 10 ΒΌ" grill pan and panini press. You can submerge them to clean. They're coated with enamel, not Teflon, which means with proper care they should last two lifetimes (although they're only guaranteed for the lifetime of the original owner)(and note, this is a satin enamel coating, not the Le Creuset smooth coating, the longevity of which I can confirm from personal experience). There's no electrical element to burn out, no cord to store, no moving parts to break. Use is simple. Heat the grill on one burner (we have gas, but they're supposed to work with other technologies) and the press on the other. Wait until a spatter of water vaporizes almost instantly. Brush grill pan with some oil. Place sandwiches on grill pan. Pick up the press, brush on some oil, place on sandwiches and press for a few moments. Sizzle, sizzle. Wait until the cheese melts. Serve. The panini were just like what I'd eaten in Italy. I haven't owned an electric press, but I can't imagine they'd be better. Cleanup of the enamel surface requires a bit of care but, unlike every Teflon-coated product I've ever owned, that surface will probably still be there 20 years from now. And since the grill pan actually has sides (unlike every electric panini press I looked at), there was no side-spattering and thus no cleanup to do around the cooking area. The only disadvantages - the grill/press combination costs $140, almost twice the cost of the average electric panini grill. But since many of the grill reviews I read spoke of this being their second (or third) electric grill, I suspect you'd make the money back over the next 20 years. Also, running multiple batches is a bit more of a problem than with a self-heating grill, since you need to place the now oily press back on the flame to reheat it, which can potentially lead to flaring of the residual oil, and will also get the burner oily. I intend to see, however, if you can reheat the press in the pan rather than putting it directly on a burner. |
Great object: fun, useful, pretty
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| Review Date: January 7, 2007 |
| Reviewer: amelia, midwest |
I bought this for my boyfriend for Christmas. In all honesty, I also bought it for myself, because I'm a vegetarian, and I needed some sort of method for introducing variety into my dinner routine. I was getting really tired of rice and beans and greens. This little set, while extremely expensive (in my opinion), really is a lot of fun, and the panini is excellent, as long as you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. We didn't read the manual carefully the first time we used it, so I was disappointed, but when you do exactly what the thing says, and get a decent feel for how long to let the sandwich cook for, it turns out great sandwiches.
In short: heat both components up, like it says, and then take them OFF the heat, brush them with whatever (we use a spray cooking oil; olive oil did NOT work), put the top onto the bottom for a bit, and then put the sandwich in, press down, and wait. If you forget to put the top back onto the bottom, it won't work right, I have found. And you're not supposed to put it back onto the heat. Maybe all that is obvious to cooking people, but I'm a novice. |
does its job and does it well!
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| Review Date: December 28, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Hugh Dunnit, Connecticut |
| I received this for set for Christmas and have already used it a few times. I cooked yellow fin tuna the first use and it came out spectacular. Love the grill marks, and even cooking. This is definitely a piece of cookware that loves low/slow heat, I had it on my main burner on a low heat and got the oil to just about smoking and then threw on my tuna. Cooked it 5 mins a side and it came out with a terrific natural taste! The main event was the panini, I cut my ciabatta bread up, sprayed it with olive oil and layerd on the prosciutto and provolone. I heated the top press on one burner and the skillet on another, once the pan was sufficiently hot (water sizzle/pop) i turned off the heat on both and threw on the first panini and put the press on top. I let it cook for about 5 minutes and found it to be beautifully browned with nice even grill marks. The second one cooked the same without having to apply any more heat. Great set, I'm looking forward to cooking more with it! |
Could not be happier
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| Review Date: July 16, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jason Yankus, Annapolis, MD USA |
| This is a great product. The grill pan itself is very heavy, and retains heat very well. The press is similarly robust but has not proved to be as useful on electric ranges -- the range can't get the press hot enough to really do much more than weight the food down. Originally we purchased this item to facilitate preparation of panini, but we've since grown accustomed to using it for all indoor grilling applications. |
Awesome Panini Press
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| Review Date: January 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: PK, |
| This panini press is great, grills meats to perfection. Food does not stick and cleaning it is a breeze. |
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