Customer Reviews

Proctor-Silex 25400 Meal Maker Sandwich Toaster

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recieved this item as a gift from my neighbors. It was a true gift because I would not have purchased something like this for myself. I eventually found many uses for this little electric grill. As mentioned in the editorial review above, this grill is useful for batter based foods as well as for making sandwiches. Because we prefer hot cake, I have found it very useful for making small snack cakes. Using a standard cake mix with ordinary preparation, the bottom half of the griddle can be filled with batter. The batter will expand to fill the top as it cooks. The additional batter can be refrigerated for use the next day. The same is true of corn bread, pancake mix, browny mix, etc. The best part is the fact that the cakes will cook in just a few minutes. Pre-heating takes only 3-5 mins, and cooking about 4-8 depending on what you are working with, considerable less than the time to bake in a full size oven. This unit is also a welcome addition to the arsenal when battling toddler pickyness. Small portions of various items can be quickly prepared with out heating a full size oven. The way that it seals the bread at the seems when making sandwiches makes it useful for making healthy homemade "hot pockets" for lunches, as you control the ingredients and leave the preservatives at the store. Cresent roll dough can be stretched, doubled-over and filled. Although they are somewhat atypically shaped you get perfect omlets every time, without flipping. Simply chop/shread cheese or vegies add to scrambled eggs and fill the bottom. Although this grill has an easy to clean non-stick surface, I found it useful to wipe with an oiled cloth prior to cooking, PAM or a similar product would also work well. The effort I save putting together quick healthy lunches and snacks using this device, I have transfered to planning and preparing more elaborate meals in the evening, or entertaining.

I love grilled cheese and mini taco's of leftovers inside corn tortillas. But now, I use my George Foreman grill instead because:

1. Steam gets trapped and makes some sandwiches soggy.

2. I like the grill marks better on the GF grill.

3. Cleanup is a disaster if the filling spills over.

4. The non stick coating is fragile.

If you are looking for a nice warm soft somewhat suggy sandwich this product definitely deserve five stars.
However if you like myself are looking for a sandwich with nice toasted and crunchy bread slices (even slightly burned would do) then this is not what you are looking for.

I bought this a week ago, and I've used it every single day since.

I wasn't too impressed with some of the recipes I tried that came with the instruction manual. However, as with all cooking, experimenting is important so you can figure out what you like.

Currently my husband's deployed, so I've found myself busier than ever raising our kids, going to school for my degree and doing the usual household type of things. By dinner time, all I want to do is crawl over to the couch and take a nice long nap. So spending a lot of time putting together dinner is not on the agenda.

With this, I've been able to in just minutes whip up things like omlettes with bacon, pigs in a blanket, various sandwhiches, and pancakes. And my kids have LOVED pretty much everything I've made in it. (And yes, they're the typical run of the mill, ultra finicky, can't stand anything Mom's cooked, type of kids.)

I've got so many great ideas to try out, and I love that it won't take more than 5 minutes for it to cook. This is truely one of the best purchases I've ever made.

The only reason why I docked a star off, is because while the non stick cooking surface wipes clean quite nicely, the rest of it is a real pain to clean.

it is an amazing toaster with which i can try a varity of sandwiches.. It takes very less time..and even though u dont use oil or butter, the bread doesnt get stick to it ..worth buying for its price

Works perfect. Makes great sandwiches. I have nothing bad to say about it. It's cheap, works fine...it serves great for what it is.

My favorite meal is a plain, simple, grilled cheese sandwich, and I'm tired of cooking them in a frying pan - including the flip. I'm now a Type II diabetic and am not supposed to eat them, but once every two to three months I just gotta have one (generally three) and have been totally disappointed by all the little pre-sized, so called, "sandwich" grills - including the Cuisinart model. They do not fit a normal size piece of bread and especially don't fit my favorite round loaf sour-dough French bread. Even though I like several grills that I've owned for meats, they just don't work for my sandwiches. So when I had an opportunity to purchase a Meal Maker at a reasonable price, I bought one for just that purpose and figured if I didn't like it, I wasn't out a very large amount of money.

Much to my surprise, the Meal Maker not only makes a great grilled cheese sandwich, it also holds the largest center slices from the large sourdough rounds with no problem at all. No cutting to fit required. I like my sandwich with a browned, toasty, surface, and the Meal Maker delivered. I butter the exterior of the bread before cooking and the Meal Maker delivers a beautiful brown at the same time that all of the internal cheese is completely melted. Yes, sometimes a little cheese leaks out (I cut the cheese to the max of the bread size) but don't have any problem with sticking as someone else has mentioned. That lifted right out with a spatula with nothing left behind.

For what I got it for, it is a very reasonable solution.

It works exactly as it was promoted. Omlettes, homemade hot pockets, pancakes, pastries and single serving cake snakes all work like a charm. Just be careful when making the sandwich style hot pockets...if you put to much oozing filling (like velveeda) in it, it just might ooze out the side a bit. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I got this product from amazon because it looked similar to my old black & decker sandwich maker. To my surprise proctor and silex 25400 model the body is made of brittle plastic. The bottom part of handle broke from both front corners when I closed the lid while trying to use it for the first time.

Let me tell u I used black and decker for years but its parts were made of metal i believe and it never broke regardless of how stuffy is sandwich.

this is piece of junk!!. Returned it back to amazon.

On the first try, I made a grilled cheese sandwich (which is why I bought it), and it worked great. Didn't burn, browned evenly, easy to get out, and easy cleanup.

It performs as promised.