The 9 Best Comals

For a plain tortilla pan that does the everyday job, look at the Lodge Round Griddle. It's a cast-iron disc with a low rim, so you can flip a tortilla with your fingers or a spatula. It comes seasoned with vegetable oil, not a synthetic coating, handles heat up to 650 degrees and carries a limited lifetime warranty. Lodge casts most of its cookware in Tennessee. The short handle gets hot, and the surface fits only a tortilla or two.

With its long, curved handle, the Victoria GDL-186 keeps your hand farther from the heat than a stubby grip does. Victoria, founded in Colombia in 1939, casts its pans in its own factories and seasons this one with flaxseed oil, not a synthetic coating. It works on gas, coil, glass and induction tops, plus the oven, grill and campfire, and has a limited lifetime warranty. That handle still warms up during long sessions and needs extra drawer or wall space.

Families get more room on the Victoria GDL-187, the 12-inch version of Victoria's long-handle comal. It has about 30 percent more cooking area, enough for an extra tortilla or a big quesadilla, and a small loop handle opposite the main one lets you lift it with two hands. It's seasoned with flaxseed oil and works on induction. It wants a large burner, since the edge stays cooler on a small one, and its length crowds a narrow stovetop.

Cooks who start from masa get the whole kit in the Uno Casa Tortilla Press Bundle. One pull of the lever flattens a dough ball between the hinged cast-iron plates. The matching comal works on induction and comes with a removable silicone handle sleeve. Parchment sheets and a recipe book come with it. The set is heavy, and if you already own a press, you're paying for a second one.

Taco-stand cooking at home is the idea behind the Concord Convexed Comal, a stainless steel disc about 21 inches across. Tortillas warm on the raised dome in the middle while meat and onions cook in the lower ring around it. It's light for its size. It needs a big gas or outdoor propane burner, sold separately. On a home stove it overhangs and heats unevenly, and bare steel sticks unless you keep it oiled.

A red silicone handle sleeve comes with the Cuisinel C10-RG, a cast-iron round with a shallow rim. The sleeve gets hot too, Cuisinel warns, so an oven mitt is still the safe grip. It's seasoned with natural oil instead of a synthetic coating, and it works on induction, in the oven, on the grill and over a campfire. The maker claims a lifetime warranty but shares little about where and how its pans are made.

Big batches call for the Victoria GDL-188, a 15-inch cast-iron comal with two loop handles instead of one long one. A fine texture holds the flaxseed-oil seasoning, and in the oven or on the grill it doubles as a pizza pan. It suits a griddle burner, a grill or two burners on a large range. On a single burner the outer ring runs cooler, and its heft makes it awkward to lift over glass.

For warming tortillas and cooking a quesadilla or two, the IMUSA IMU-186AMZ is a small, preseasoned cast-iron pan that's light enough to hang on a hook. It goes on the stove, in the oven and over a campfire, and the seller says it suits smooth induction tops. IMUSA has long been a fixture in Latin American grocery aisles. It has no published heat rating or warranty, and the face fits one tortilla at a time.

Light and quick to heat, the IMUSA CAR-52023 swaps cast iron for thin carbon steel with a nonstick coating. Its wide surface holds several small tortillas at once. The coating changes the rules, though: keep the heat at 350 degrees or below, use nylon or wooden tools and wash it by hand. It's sold for gas burners, and IMUSA doesn't list induction. Nonstick wears out, so it won't last like iron, which improves as its seasoning builds.