Review on Presto 07046 Griddle Cool Touch Electric by Jordan Weakland

This is a fairly inexpensive device and the value for money is quite good. I'm happy with the purchase but there are definitely some issues you might want to know which is why I deducted a star. I've been using it for over six months now so I have a pretty good sense of what it does and doesn't do at the moment. Overall: This is a simple and mostly well-designed pan. It does what it is supposed to do, namely heat and cook. It has a nice large surface area, heats up fairly quickly, and is easy to clean (more on that below). I don't think this is a good choice for foods that are particularly greasy or prone to splattering, so make sure you know what foods you plan to cook before doing this. I mainly use it for baking pancakes and it's pretty good. work there I use a small amount of cooking spray and nothing sticks, even slightly. Cooking pancakes is all about temperature control, and this pan definitely does it. It's easy to set and maintain just the right temperature, and the surface quickly "recovers" (i.e., returns to temperature), batch after batch. You never have to stop and wait. This is a big plus in my book. On the other hand, Flatness This is an inexpensive pan and sometimes you get what you pay for. The edges get MUCH hotter than the center. So when you bake pancakes on the sides, you can often see a gradient where one side of the pancake is lighter than the other. The solution, if it bothers you, is to flip the pancakes before flipping, but I don't usually bother. A more serious issue is the cool spot in the center, which is quite large and distinctly different from the edges, where it starts to affect timing. This is definitely annoying and the main reason I deducted a star for this review. Now for the "Skew and Merge" feature. This is a feature designed to help with fatty foods that shed a lot of oil. But here's the thing: just don't do it. I've fried bacon in this pan exactly once and won't do it again because I like to keep surfaces in my kitchen grease-free. This pan has no raised edges, allowing fat to flow straight from the surface to all surrounding areas. I tried tipping and draining them, but there was actually some grease left in the pan that needed to be drained. Another downside to the tilt and drain feature is cleaning. When you bend over, the fat (or whatever) flows down the duct into a little box, and you have to pull that box out and get rid of its contents. This is a good idea, except the duct in question is narrow, goes a little below the hob and cannot be removed. This means that cleaning becomes a complete headache when unwanted stuff gets stuck or otherwise gets stuck in there - you have to find a way to poke a brush or some paper towels into various nooks and crannies, which isn't the case Problem. Fun. Another problem with cleaning the tilt and drain system is the handles. The same problem as with the canal. Splatters of grease (or even cooking spray) get caught in these crevices and there's not a good way to get them out. Assuming you don't have a grease problem - for example if you're only making pancakes and maybe eggs - cleanup is really quick and easy. I like to leave the pan on for a few minutes after I'm done cooking and start the cleaning process with a small handful of damp paper towels. When it hits a hot pan, food residue or oil evaporates from it. Then I close the pan, wipe a few times with the dry towel and that's it. I don't usually have to worry about putting it in the sink as the steam effect does everything for me. Overall, I'm happy with this tool despite its shortcomings, and if you need to make a lot of pancakes or something like that for a group, I'd definitely recommend it.