De’Longhi PERFECTO Indoor Grill
The De’Longhi PERFECTO Indoor Grill is the perfect countertop grill for use indoors for meat and vegetables as well as sandwiches.
Ease of Use/Performance: 20/25
Convenience/Storage 24/25
Appearance/Design 24/25
How much I enjoy 24/25
Total: 92/100
An indoor grill needs to have some essential features in order to make it not just functional but useable in a regular kitchen and enjoyable to use as well. One feature that I think is absolutely necessary is a cover and another just as important is it needs to cook evenly throughout the grilling area.
The De’Longhi PERFECTO Indoor Grill is a fantastic product and except for one drawback would have been an almost perfect cooking appliance. With my recent introduction to the world of kitchen gadget reviewing I have also educated myself with how to cook more than I had in the past.
I have poured through episodes of America’s Test Kitchen and read a lot more about not only kitchen appliances and cooking but how they are made. A contact grill is simply a coil or heating element inside a metal grill structure that heats up to cook your food. The grill surface can be made from a variety of materials but the best way to cook your food and not have it stick to the grill and create a charcoal lining on the grill is a non stick coating.
The De’Longhi PERFECTO is a large nonstick grill surface that has a heating element running through it that is about 45 inches long on the 12 inch by 16 inch grill. The grill bars that come into contact with your food are at a 90 degree angle to the main parts of the heating element and allow for a great heat dispersion across the entire surface of the grill.
This angle the main contact portion of the grill elements are at and the nice surface area of heating element that is part of the grill means a nice even grilling for chicken, seafood, beef or pork. The raised grill bars or parts that come into contact with the meat runs across the entire width of the grill. There are five rows of slots that allow juices to drip through the grill but are also the single problem I found with the PERFECTO. The slots accumulate the drippings and fry them to the sides of the slot and make for some rough cleaning. A good gentle scrubbing with a baby’s bottle brush or even an aquarium cleaning brush works very well for cleaning the grill slots.