Okay, gang.. this is a bit premature 'cause I just got my Krups Panini grill a couple days ago and haven't really had time to fully test drive it, but here's my preliminary assessment of the panini grill I was talking about above.
First, I had mentioned earlier that because I got the grill on close-out at Kohl's and the shipping order said "white" for color, that it was not the same grill as the one on Amazon (see my url in my above post).. but it is the same chrome on showing at Amazon.
The first thing I wondered was whether it would turn on.. There were 37 customer reviews of the grill on Amazon, and while overall the rating came out 4 stars out of 5 (many gave it 5 stars), there were several 1 star ratings because the handles fell off and/or it didn't heat up, or it stopped heating after a week... I was pleased that the handles didn't fall off and that all the screws were tight.. so I put away my screwdriver. And when I plugged it in, both lights turned on and it got hot FAST... so far so good.
Secondly, this is a BIG grill, about 14" wide and 12" deep so it's gonna eat up some counter space. However, it has a slick little lever lock you push on the handle that locks the top element to the bottom one, then you can easily tip it up on it's back edge to store. That way it only takes up about 4" of depth. However, if you have the space to leave it down, it's really "foxy" looking grill and looks good on your/my counter, kinda "Ferrari" sleek looking.. So even though it was made in China, it was obviously designed by the Italians.
All I had around the house was a loaf of sourdough french bread, some deli ham, turkey, and some Swiss and Provolone cheese.. so I sliced the bread at an exaggerated angle and cut two slices about 4" long by 3" wide...
I should mention there's no "on-off" switch so you have to plug and unplug it.. a pain.. I'm thinking I can get one of those cord switches so I can leave it plugged in. A red & green light go on when it's plugged in,, and when the green light goes out, it's a "go".. This didn't surprise me because I've driven in Italy a few times and to find they consider leaving the RED light on a "go" figures... I've never had so many people trying to kill me since Vietnam... crazy drivers in Italy. Anyway, we would probably have the RED light to out when it's ready, leaving the GREEN one on.. but...
The grill heats up in about 5 minutes (reminds me of a girl I dated this spring) and seems to get quite hot. I read a review somewhere where a guy was saying he cooks steaks outside on his Weber gas grill with a grill temp of 500 degrees,, and it takes him 3 minutes.. Then he cooked the same type steak on his Krups Panini grill, and it took about 3.5 minutes.. so he figured the grill temp got as high as 500 degrees.. It's a 1,500 watt unit so I would assume it could get pretty hot. I have no way of telling because all my electronic thermometers only go to about 400 degrees before they burn out... and I haven' tried cooking any chicken filets or steaks or anything yet. And there is no temp control on it.. it's either floor-boarded or off. I'm not sure if this matters.. yet. I'm not going to fry eggs on it.. so I'm not sure why I would want the temp lower.. but the jury is still out on that one.
For toasting a "cheese type" sandwich/panino, it's GREAT... I slapped a couple slices of ham and turkey on the sourdough, topped that with two slices of Swiss, painted the inside of the bread with some yellow mustard and a swipe of Best Foods (Hellman's) mayo.. drizzled some olive oil on the outsides of the sandwiches, tossed it in, and closed the lid.
One thing I think is really neat is the lid is hinged and "floats" between the handles so it stays perfectly level/flat for "stuff" up to about 2 1/2 inches thick... probably all Panini type grills do this? but I've never had one before so don't know.
I recall the one thing I hated about the little George Foreman grill I had before I threw it out was when I'd put in a sandwich, the back part of the top lid wouldn't lift high enough up so the lid wouldn't lay flat, and it tended to "squish" the stuff out of my sandwiches... but this little "puppy" can take a 2 1/2" "dagwood" sandwich and the lid will stay level.. I like that.
It only took about 2-3 minutes for the top and bottom of the sandwich to turn a beautiful shade of "toast" color... and had those sexy little grooves on the top and bottom.. pretty sexy. And it toasted very very evenly... No "hot spots" on this grill, at least so far after toasting only two sandwiches. And, the large elements seemed to generate enough heat to easily melt the cheese before it burned the bread.. a problem I've had pan grilling cheese sandwiches, but obviously "operator error" causes that.. This is idiot proof.. I need that at my level of cooking skill
Overall, I don't see why this grill wouldn't do everything a George Foreman grill does but I'll let ya know more when I try different things. One thing is, it doesn't tilt forward or have a drain, so whatever grease/fat that comes out of your food is going to stay there... I'm not sure this concerns me... In the first place, a large part of the "flavor" in many foods comes from fat... I'll take the flavor and eat less and/or not worry about the extra what? 20 calories? the undrained fat adds? or the .0002 grams of fat it adds? If I'm on that type of diet, I shouldn't be eating 20-30% fat hamburgers in the first place and the extra-extra lean hamburgers don't have any flavor anyway..
My grill cost $29.95 on sale...would I spend $79.99 for one? I don't know yet. Are there better Panini type grills out there for about the same $$$.. maybe... but so far I'm pretty happy with my new "toy".. (I love kitchen gadgets.. I fall for them every time)... So I'm off to get some better bread and some other stuff to try... I'll report a bit more later. CIAO