Cuisinart Combo Steam/Convection Oven (Part 1)

[yatyat]

Just picked this up on Friday, still sitting in the box.  Been agonizing for months as to whether to get this or the Breville XL and a sale for Cuisinart made the decision for me, and now the Breville is also on sale  so the decision process starts again as I can still take the Cuisinart back but I am leaning towards keeping it instead of getting the Breville ....  I use my little toaster oven almost every day to make dinner so the extra space with the Breville really would be useful but I also really really want the steam ...

 

Anyway, I am having some friends over for dinner tomorrow night and would like to make a cheesecake.  If I do make my decision today and keep the cuisinart, I am wondering if the steam bake would work well for cheesecakes in place of a water bath.  Has anyone tried?  I am also a little concern about it being close to the top element and having the top burnt but I supposed I could use a lower temp ...

Edited July 14, 2014 by yatyat (log)

[rotuts]

AnnaN's results w beets in the M.T.K. thread got me thinking about 'Super Steam' which I know nothing about.  Id guess its for cleaning the oven.

 

against my 'Push the button first, lets see happens' philosophy , I pulled then 'manual' out of moth balls and took a look :

 

"  Super Steam

 

    Steam plus the additional heat of the bottom element is the ideal setting for perfect rice.  .....  

 

   Super Steam also does a great job w steam-roasted vegetables.  Put vegetables in the lower or middle rack position and set

 

   up to 400 F for at least 20 minutes. "

 

so cant say what happened w those beets.   Ive had great success at Bake-Steam 425 for 30 + minutes for beets.

[rotuts]

re- water bath:   the manual states that Bake-steam can replace a water bath.  you cover them and use bake steam at a low temperature.  custards 225.  'heartier' dishes  ( bread pudding ) 325.

 

they dont have a cheese cake Rx in the book.

 

Ive only made C.C. a few times and to me its on the temperamental side of baking.

 

best of luck !

[yatyat]

re- water bath:   the manual states that Bake-steam can replace a water bath.  you cover them and use bake steam at a low temperature.  custards 225.  'heartier' dishes  ( bread pudding ) 325.

 

they dont have a cheese cake Rx in the book.

 

Ive only made C.C. a few times and to me its on the temperamental side of baking.

 

best of luck !

Thanks Rotuts!  I should've read the manual fully, I only glanced through the recipe section last night in a hurry

[FauxPas]

I just commented over on the Manitoulin thread and didn't see that you folks were discussing the same thing here! I think I said before that i find the Steam Broil the least useful function for my purposes so far. Super Steam is great for cooking rice but I'm not sure I would use it for a lot of other functions though I will still try playing with it a bit. 

 

It makes sense that it's easier to burn things by using only the upper or lower elements for cooking - for example, 400F on Steam/Bake uses both upper and lower elements, but if you are trying to maintain a 400F oven by only using the lower element, then anything in the oven is more at risk of burning from the bottom, esp if your tray/rack are in the lower position. I assume that those elements are going to have to stay hotter to maintain that temp than it would by sharing the job with the upper elements. 

 

There might be times when you want extra heat on the bottom of the food, but with most I think you want even heat from above and below. Broiling, of course, has some obvious applications. 

Edited July 14, 2014 by FauxPas (log)

[FauxPas]

More cooking in the Combo oven:

 

This one was just OK. I put some fresh baby spinach in the little casserole dishes, then cracked some eggs on top and then some red peppers. My timing was off for the eggs, as the yolks became too hard. I did a steam only at 210F, not sure how I could make this work better. Definitely needs work. 

 

 

Very basic blueberry muffins. Needed something quick and had some blueberries and not a lot else. They baked up very nicely in the oven though. 

 

 

This was a huge winner - lasagna on the Steam Bake. The lovely thing is that you can make a non-watery sauce and the noodles (not home-made!) cook through very nicely without any of the dried out hard edges you can sometimes get in a regular oven. The sauce stayed thick and the noodles were just right and the cheese still browned nicely. Also, a decent-sized casserole dish fits in this oven, made 4 very generous servings.

 

 

 

 

And finally, we have a bit of a weakness for Papa Murphy's pizza, so had to try a 12" one in the oven on a day when we had little time for making a meal. The oven was great, I rotated the pizza after this pic which evened out the baking. I do think the back is a bit hotter than the front so turning food is a good idea when you want even browning, etc. 

 

This is a Papa Murphy's with creamy garlic sauce, artichokes, mushrooms, black olives, feta cheese and pineapple. It looks a bit bent because it got squished in the car on the way home! 

 

 

All in all, still loving this little oven. 

 

[FauxPas]

Another meal that turned out very well in the oven was braised beef short ribs. Usually, I would not be keen on making this on a warm day but short ribs were on sale and it's a fave dish. 

 

The oven did a fabulous job but this became messy. No need for a lid on the baking dish because the oven can generate the necessary steam, but I would either use a lid or a lower temp next time because this did splatter around the inside of the oven quite a bit. I used Bake Steam at 325F and maybe even Steam only at 210F would have been sufficient without causing the splatter? 

 

It's pretty easy to clean out the oven after doing an extra Steam run but I didn't really like having to do extra clean up. 

 

The meat was fabulous though and you don't need nearly as much braising liquid as you would in a dry oven. Maybe I used too much? But at the same time, even with the steam, you do get some evaporation after cooking that long. (I did almost 2 hours, but not sure I needed that much time) 

 

All the usual braising methods, pretty much - brown the meat, sauté onion, carrots, shallots, garlic - add red wine and beef stock. Put in casserole dish with some thyme and rosemary and bake-steam! 

 

 

After the meat was done, I removed it and strained the liquid and defatted it. Threw some lovely local nugget potatoes and carrots in the oven and steam-baked them while I reheated the braised ribs in a saucepan on the induction burner. 

 

 

Not a beautiful pic, but a very tasty meal! 

 

[rotuts]

nice work, FP.   thanks

[Smithy]

If a lid is put over a dish, does that diminish the value of the steam in the steam-bake cycle? If so, then would a small spatter screen over a dish (like your tasty-sounding short ribs, FauxPas) reduce the mess from spattering, without interfering with the steam?

[rotuts]

"""   spatter screen  """

 

excellent thinking

[FauxPas]

If a lid is put over a dish, does that diminish the value of the steam in the steam-bake cycle? If so, then would a small spatter screen over a dish (like your tasty-sounding short ribs, FauxPas) reduce the mess from spattering, without interfering with the steam?

 

Yes, that would certainly help! I'll have to try a similar dish again. 

[rotuts]

maybe some loose parchment paper ?

[FauxPas]

I think i have a few choices - some kind of cover/screen, less liquid, higher-sided dish, lower temp. 

 

The manual (when in doubt.... ) does say to cook things like short ribs directly on the baking tray with minimal or no liquid. Start at a medium temp (approx 350) and then reduce after 1 hour (to approx 225) with a total cooking time of around 2 hours. "Minimal to no liquid is used in steam-baked, braised dishes because natural juices are drawn out from the meat, providing the perfect braising liquid."  (p 9) 

 

I do like making the sauce along with the braised meat, though I could have braised the meat separately.

 

Maybe next time I will try - brown the meat then remove from skillet and into the steam oven. Add aromatics to skillet and sauté and deglaze as usual with wine and stock. Set liquid aside. When meat is done, defat as necessary, then add to liquid and heat through. I think that would work quite well. And use a lower temp for the last hour of cooking, which I did not do this time. 

 

And I might still use a small casserole dish for the meat rather than just the baking tray. 

 

Thanks for helping me work this through!!! 

Edited July 20, 2014 by FauxPas (log)

[Kerry Beal]

 

Made this flan today.  Used the steam setting.  Was experimenting a bit - started with 60 minutes at 180 but it didn't set - so increased to 200 for thirty minutes.  Suspect that 40 minutes at 200F would be perfect.  Set up so the rack was at the lowest, flan dish was on the tray and put the 9.5 inch silicone cover on the dish.   Emptied the water trap once during the cooking.  

[gfweb]

Between this thread and Manitoulin 1&2, I'm thinking that  the combi oven topic has matured to the point where it deserves a rigorous approach akin to the SV threads of years past.

 

Perhaps a series of focused themes for group study.... eg are short ribs better SV or combi or braised?  What combi settings are optimal? A number of us are equipped to do all three techniques and could generate useful data/recipes.

 

I also suspect that there are a lot of commercial combi-oven recipes and approaches that are not available to the general public. Perhaps our pro-chef eG colleagues could suggest resources...

[FauxPas]

Also, if you keep searching you can find resources for Steam Convection ovens - like the Thermidor site here:

 

http://www.thermador.com/Culinary/Recipes/steam-and-convection-oven

 

And there are a few blogs, like the VZUG Combi-Steam Queen. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/vzugcombisteamqueen

[KennethT]

A question for those who have one of these - how much power does it consume? Since it's plugging into a standard US outlet, I'm sure it draws less than 15A (1800W) but I was just curious. Watching this thread, plus the several other scattered posts are making me very interested... but considering that the cooking gas in my apartment is free, and I have to pay for electric, I was just wondering what it costs to operate this on a regular basis.

[weinoo]

1680 Watts.

 

Whatever it draws, it's gonna be more than free gas.  

 

I haven't noticed any huge surge in my electric bill, other than from air conditioning.

[Anna N]

Also, if you keep searching you can find resources for Steam Convection ovens - like the Thermidor site here:

 

http://www.thermador.com/Culinary/Recipes/steam-and-convection-oven

 

And there are a few blogs, like the VZUG Combi-Steam Queen. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/vzugcombisteamqueen

Had a quick look at your Thermador link and saw a great idea-skinning tomatoes by steaming them at 210F for a couple of minutes. Sounds like an easy way to accomplish this task.

[rotuts]

its your initial cost on the CSB that will 'cost you'

 

if you can afford that, the electrical won't be something you notice 

 

if I remember, the next time I use it    ... a doz.  eggs are up soon ...

 

Ill put it on my Kill-a-Watt.

Edited July 29, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[rotuts]

On sale Now :

 

http://www.surlatable.com/product/PRO-1204502/Cuisinart+Steam+and+Convection+Oven

 

179.  if you are a first time buy-er at S la T

 

and give them your email  ( not gmail ! )  they send you a 10 % off one time coupon.

 

decent deal   might have free shipping.

 

+ Tax you state/provence.

[FauxPas]

Had a quick look at your Thermador link and saw a great idea-skinning tomatoes by steaming them at 210F for a couple of minutes. Sounds like an easy way to accomplish this task.

 

It does work well, but I seem to recall needing more than 2 or 3 minutes to loosen the skin. Probably at least 5. 

[FauxPas]

179.  if you are a first time buy-er at S la T

 

That's an excellent price! And the site says free shipping for orders over $59. Though you might not be able to combine that with the 1st time discount. I don't think they ship to Canada, though. 

 

I'm tempted to buy a second one at that price and keep one in both houses. 

[rotuts]

i was able to combine the sale price at the time w the extra 10 % off at the tme

 

but things change

 

one think about their sales, they dont tell you how long they are for.

Edited July 29, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[FauxPas]

It does work well, but I seem to recall needing more than 2 or 3 minutes to loosen the skin. Probably at least 5. 

 

Just tried this, as I wanted some peeled tomatoes. Five minutes with 210F Steam-only did not loosen the skins much on the tomatoes I have. So I put them on Steam-Bake at 350F. And then I got distracted with a phone call and it was 15 mins before I checked them, at which point I had to let them cool a bit but then the skins slipped right off.

 

So, you need less than what I did, but almost certainly more than the 2-3 mins that the Thermador people say! But depends on what you want to do with your peeled tomatoes, of course. The cooking time I used today extracted some of the water from the tomatoes but left tomatoes with lovely concentrated flavour. I've done the same thing before when I wanted tomatoes to peel and use for a sauce, but at a slightly higher temp. 

 

 

 

ETA Here is the link to a more formal cookbook by Thermador:

 

http://www.thermador.ca/Public/Media/pdf/26204724_9000882530.pdf

Edited July 30, 2014 by FauxPas (log)