Smithy

This is why mine gets little use! Of course I learned the lesson the hard way. Wine may also have played a role in the lesson.

I got impatient (it's been a long day) and tried 350F for 4 minutes, no steam. I think the chips were probably already done before the CSO reached temperature. Whether that's true or not, they were charcoal somewhere at the 2 minute mark. I think the CSO had plenty of residual steam from the earlier test. I don't think it mattered. This is not diagnostic of the CSO, I hasten to add: I have never tried to improve kettle chips - which, in my opinion, need a lot of improving - by any after-the-fact means.

We have kettle-fried potato chips (aka crisps) from last night's restaurant meal. They're still pretty crisp, but I wonder whether heating them in the CSO would improve their crispness. If it could improve them, what would y'all suggest? Steam heat or dry? How many minutes, at what temperature? (FWIW I think they're a bit tough right now, but I always think that about kettle-fried chips. This is a test for my DH.)

She (or he? I haven't decided yet) is making steam as I type. I had a bad moment last night when I filled the reservoir, thinking at least to test the steam function, and left the room (without starting anything) for about an hour. When I came back, water was dribbling onto the floor from INSIDE the cabinet below the counter. Clearly, the backsplash and the countertop aren't sealed at the joint as well as they should be. I pulled the reservoir off, emptied it, spent a lot of time mopping, left the oven puzzle until morning. This morning I learned that there's a drain and plug in the back. I checked; the plug was loose. As a precaution I ran the steam test out atop the kitchen island, in case there's a more nefarious leak. It looks like the leak was operator error only. Toast came out a bit too dark for us this morning at setting #4. That's partly a function of the bread in question, but next time I'll try a shade lighter.

...and just for the record, we have that spreadsheet in Excel format pinned here, at the very top of the Kitchen Consumer Forum topic listing.

Actually, I had my eye on some leftover tater-tot-type thingies that were soggy. I planned to try crisping them up in this oven. That is, I planned to do that until I saw my darling had microwaved them for his lunch!

Got the clock set without referring to the manual, so of course I'm all cocky now. When we were planning our kitchen remodeling we intended either an island or a peninsula in the kitchen. Since all we had was roller carts, we pulled those out to mimic the island, and during the peninsula stage set up a card table to block the opening between roller carts and the wall cabinets. It didn't take long (for me, anyway) to realize that the kitchen peninsula would be a death sentence for our marriage. Mockups are good.

Thanks. I figured, based on earlier reading, that it needed to come out from under the counters for steam operation. Do you think that will also be true for convection cooking or toasting? Also, I wonder whether it gets so hot underneath that I'll need to protect the countertop. The manual suggests that.

Holy cow, this thing's bigger than I expected. I arrived home last night to see a gargantuan shipping box by the back door Maybe there was a lot of packing material inside? This morning I had time to open the box. It revealed...another box, tightly nestled inside the first as though a hand in a glove. Eventually I got the inner box out of the outer, and opened it. The oven was well-packed and protected by a frame of cardboard and foam. Still. It's big. I had intended it to go in this corner, between the regular stove and the sink: The idea all along has been that if I like the CSO it will replace both the toaster and the air fryer. As it turns out, the CSO is much deeper than either of those appliances. Check out the new footprint: I suppose there's almost as much spare counter space as before, but it looks less. On the other hand, today's visitor noticed it right away, thought it looked great and did not think it was too big for the space. I'm getting used to it. I doubt I'll be able to do much more than set the clock today

It has been a while since countertop materials were discussed, hasn't it? Almost all of these are old, and the newest is rather material--specific, but here are some pros and cons from some years back: Laboratory Countertops discusses bombproof - or perhaps not so indestructible - materals for kitchen countertops Krion Countertops discusses Krion, and Corian as a similar material Kitchen countertops: marble vs. other stone is self-explanatory Countertops and floors discusses materials for both surfaces Corian vs. Silestone Countertops argues the merits of each material Soapstone & Concrete Countertops was the first time I ever heard of a concrete countertop! I know at least one member went that way, and the last I heard she liked it Quartz Counters and Stains discusses how to keep light-colored quartz looking pretty The youngest of those topics is 3 years old, and most are more than a decade old, so they're probably more useful for background than anything else. Still, there's good discussion about the (non)durability of marble, and the comparative advantages of various synthetic materials. My parents had a beautiful tile counter in their house, and their sole regret was that they didn't seal the grout so that stains could be cleaned up easily. After 30 years in the house, the grout around the kitchen sink had taken on a brownish cast. Aside from that, the counters stayed beautiful and in all that time never chipped or wore. I tend to be more of a mad scientist than my mother was, and was leery of tile because of the grout/staining issue. When we redid our kitchen, we chose a darkish granite pattern. We still love it. We are careful about not putting super-hot pots directly on the stone, for fear of inadvertently discovering a fault line. Our travel trailers have had Corian countertops - more expensive that what we were willing to pay for! - and they seem very durable. I'm sure others will start chiming in with their experiences, good or bad, new or old. Good luck deciding!

Yeah, I haven't had much luck with battered foods, and haven't worked at it as much as gfweb has. I have found crab cakes disappointing in the air fryer. They dry out on the outside instead of developing the crisp brown exterior that they would develop in a frying pan, and that happens even if they're sprayed lightly with oil. Whether that's a shortcoming of my air fryer or of what I'm trying to do, I don't know.

I bought the refurbished CSO for $125 and a 4-year insurance / replacement plan by Asurion for another $29.99. Asurion has been good in my experience, at least with phones. I think I'm money ahead this way. That said, if I decide after I've played with this for a while and that I really, truly, MUST have a backup...well, maybe I'd go new. I dunno. Either way the warranty clock starts at purchase, and if it's sitting around as a backup the warranty time is dwindling away.

Suits my mood this whole week!

Thanks for that information, Okanagancook. My library's copy must predate that award. Doesn't change the suggestiveness of the medallion, though!

Thanks to this topic, starting here and continuing until Anna's succumbing here, I decided I simply had to see Milk Street Tuesday Nights for myself. Kudos to @MelissaH and @JoNorvelleWalker for reminding me of libraries, and kudos to our library for being willing to place holds. I picked it up last night. It's a beautiful book. Not only is the cover appealing... but so is the layout, and so are the recipes. I am a sucker for good food photography and I like the book layout with a picture on one page and the recipe on the other. As others have noted earlier, this book doesn't have the "very best" hyperbole of CK's earlier venture - well, not as much hyperbole, anyway - and the recipes look like I could spend a happy year cooking my way through this book alone. That isn't the way I go, of course, being a cookbook dilettante who flits from one book to the next like a drunken bee, but I think I'll end up buying this one...cheap, used, whatever. Unfortunately i won't be able to do more than admire it until Sunday, the first opportunity I'll have to cook. The story is the same with the Cuisinart CSO 300N Steam Convection oven I picked up from Amazon, due to arrive today. What a lot of enablers I've fallen among! Edited to add: when I looked this book up on Amazon to make a link, what did I see but Dorie Greenspan's Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook...the other book Anna mentioned dithering over in the original discussion. Sheesh. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.

Yay! That will improve things for y'all! It should make cooking a bit less of a chore too, if the kitchen isn't too darned hot.

For me, the issue seems to have been the startup sequence. I *think* the correct sequence is to start the phone app, then plug in the Joule. Unfortunately, it's been at least a month since I used it. I may have the sequence reversed. It seems not to be dependent on the router I'm using, although for a while I thought it was. I like the small size and good heating of the Joule, but I'm inclined to agree with rotuts that the Anova is more straightforward...and more private.

Thumbs up / smiley for that breakfast, Anna. Thumbs down / frowney for yesterday's pains and the anticipated pains today. I hope it goes more smoothly than yesterday!

I wish you lot wouldn't keep talking about having backups. I've only just decided to make space for one and give it a try.

I can see I'll have to reread this entire darned topic (and its predecessors) and, if the refurbished unit I bought seems to live up to its promise, but a backup as a spare. Good grief!

I just ordered a refurbished 300N.

2 for, 1 against (so far). Thanks, folks. Anyone else? @rotuts: why the new one? General principles, or a specific issue? I can get a 4-year Asurion protection plan for $30 and still come out money ahead on the refurbished.

Amazon offers "renewed" CSO 300N's for $125. I seem to recall @rotuts mentioning that upthread. If I were to pull the trigger on one of these, I'd have to get rid of the air fryer AND the toaster. That leads to the question: how good is the CSO for simple toast? Most toaster ovens don't do as well as a regular toaster. Is this an exception?

I too am surprised at what Amazon suggests for me. Some of the "hurry, don't miss this!" deals they shoot my way are about as appealing as a pile of rotten peaches. Maybe less so.

That's a very good question. I wondered the same thing, but since I'm probably going to buy a solid "something" instead of contributing I probably won't research it. Maybe someone else here knows?