Wahei Freiz Stovetop Sandwich Press — Small
Ingeniously simple and efficient to use, the Milk Street-exclusive Wahei Freiz Stovetop Sandwich Press is the better way to make grilled sandwiches—and so much more—at home. Typical panini presses are clunky and large, requiring a plug to work, while old-school Toas-Tite sandwich makers squish crusts and trap fillings. The Wahei instead is a simple, space-saving metal clamshell with no electrical component, simply place your assembled sandwich in one tray, close the other side over it and place the sandwich press over your stove. Your sandwich will brown evenly as both metal plates heat up—if you do want to flip, this won’t make a mess—crisping on the outside and becoming melty on the inside. And we tested it for more than sandwiches: the press makes the ultimate breakfast sandwich (we even fried an egg over easy right in the press first), sears scallops, perfectly cooks chicken thighs, makes cheeseburgers and produces moist salmon with crispy skin. This model of the sandwich press works on gas, electric and induction stovetops.
Wahei Freiz Stovetop Sandwich Press — Large
Ingeniously simple and efficient to use, the Milk Street-exclusive Wahei Freiz Stovetop Sandwich Press is the better way to make grilled sandwiches—and so much more—at home. Typical panini presses are clunky and large, requiring a plug to work, while old-school Toas-Tite sandwich makers squish crusts and trap fillings. The Wahei instead is a simple, space-saving metal clamshell with no electrical component, simply place your assembled sandwich in one tray, close the other side over it and place the sandwich press over your stove. Your sandwich will brown evenly as both metal plates heat up—if you do want to flip, this won’t make a mess—crisping on the outside and becoming melty on the inside. The wide sandwich pan has 1.5 times the capacity of a typical panini maker, so you can grill thicker sandwiches with ease. And we tested it for more than sandwiches: the press makes the ultimate breakfast sandwich (we even fried an egg over easy right in the press first), sears scallops, perfectly cooks chicken thighs, makes cheeseburgers and produces moist salmon with crispy skin.
Wahei Freiz Saisyokuan Stainless Steel Pot and Sieve Set
As attractive as they are functional, yukihira pans are traditional Japanese saucepans that date back centuries for cooking soups, broths and stews. What sets them apart from European-style sauce pans are the thin construction and textured hammered finish—and this one from Wahei Freiz comes with a custom-fit sieve. The pot’s thin stainless steel bottom heats up fast, perfect for boiling water or reducing sauces or soups, and the hammered surface has two advantages: It both strengthens the thin metal and creates more surface area to help foods cook fast and cut down on reduction time. The wooden handle will stay cool during use, and dual pour spouts—perfect for left- and right-handed cooks—minimize spills while serving.
Hitting the right balance between fine and coarse mesh, the sieve allows for efficient drainage without leaking, perfect for washing anything from rice to leafy greens and draining pasta or grains. Try the set together for simmering, boiling, frying, steaming and draining—we like it for blanching vegetables, boiling eggs, reheating pasta, preparing soups, stocks and sauces, particularly soy sauce tare, miso soup or Japanese dashi stock. And since they’re made of stainless steel, these pots are easy to clean, and work well on gas, electric and induction cooktops. Does not come with lid.
Wahei Freiz Deep Fry Pot
We love this new Japanese-made tempura pot from Wahei Freiz. To make tempura, veggies or seafood are deep-fried in a thin batter until puffed and crispy with a light texture (often referred to as “bloomed”). But more often than not, cold oil or a crowded pan delivers soggy, dense grease bombs, even if everything else is right.
Wahei Freiz’s pot is built to avoid this. Compact and shallow, like classic tempura pots, the carbon steel pot is about 10 inches in diameter and deep enough to hold over two liters of oil. The brilliance of its construction is in its details: A built-in thermometer with a highlighted frying range shows you exactly how hot your oil is, so you can heat or cool it for your recipe’s needs; we tested it against our gold standard thermometer and found complete accuracy. The removable lid sits open on an angle and with a built-in rack. So the moment a piece of tempura is ready, it can drain and cool on the pot lid while any extra oil drips back into the pot (meaning less oil waste, too). The rounded opening of the pot reduces spatter, or simply lower the lid for any bigger pops or splashes. Try the pot for any small or batchable fry jobs, like fritters; the pot works on induction, electric and gas stovetops.
Wahei Freiz Deep Frying 3-Piece Set
This Milk Street-exclusive, three-piece set from Wahei Freiz is made for the smoothest, streamlined deep frying experience. The first piece: A deep frying pot, complete with a flat, sturdy base, which allows plenty of depth for oil, sits safely on a burner and makes for more even heating than a sloped wok. The pot has a wide opening, so there’s plenty of room to move utensils freely within and fry evenly.
The second piece is a drop basket, which makes for easy loading and unloading, without risky dropping and splashing even when frying heavy chicken thighs. The stay-cool handles of the fry pot hold the basket so that it functions as a draining rack, too. And the final piece is a custom-fit splatter screen, made of black mesh that’s easy to see through. Using this well-designed set when frying makes for a more even, consistent result, reduces mess and even limits oil waste, as everything drips and drains neatly back into the pot. Bonus: While the set’s designed for frying, we also tested it for pasta and other items that require boiling and draining, and it works like a charm. All three items stack compactly for easy storage.
Wahei Freiz 6-Piece Breading and Mise Set
Exclusive to Milk Street in the U.S., this six-piece Breading and Mise Set from Wahei Freiz is the end-all tool for breading and frying. The durable set comes with four stainless steel rectangular containers, one stainless steel rack and a single snap-on lid. Most cooks grab a handful of bowls to dredge and coat food before frying, but that can make a mess and lead to uneven breading. Instead, this set is a perfect solution for breading and frying chicken cutlets or slabs of eggplant: Use one tray for flour, a second for liquid binder or beaten egg and a third for your breading mixture. Then, once your food is fried, use the fourth tray fitted with rack to allow any excess oil to drip off. The compact, stackable pans are excellent for all kinds of small tasks, like collecting prepped vegetables, herbs, cheese and nuts as you mise en place.
Our favorite feature might be the snap-on lid: Rather than clumsily dredging food in flour or bread crumbs with hands or forks, click the lid on and simply shake the tray until your food is evenly coated. And use the lid to store any leftovers or—even better—other mise en place jobs, like marinating meat or fish. Once you’re done, run the set through the dishwasher, then stack the pieces compactly together to store until your next job.
Otoshibuta Adjustable Stainless Steel Drop Lid
In Japan, cooks have a clever tool for ensuring that simmering foods stay below the liquid instead of bobbing along the surface. They use an otoshibuta, or drop lid. Though drop lids are traditionally made of wood, we like this new and adjustable stainless steel version, designed to fit a variety of pot sizes. It also doesn’t absorb flavors the way wood can. To use, simply set the otoshibuta over food in simmering liquid, which weighs those items down just enough to keep them below the surface. The drop lid also forces liquid to circulate (so food is evenly covered with no stirring required), holds ingredients in place to prevent breakage and promotes faster cooking. We like to use them when blanching kale or chard, which can puff above boiling water, or when simmering black-eyed peas, lentils and other legumes to keep them fully submerged.