Hey guys - I'm a new owner of this machine - had it a few weeks now, seeing daily use. I couldn't be happier with it, given its space limitations.
Most recent main dish was a whole "cornish" hen (little koshered birds now available at Costco for ~$7). Butterflied, it fit into the stock roasting pan. Separated the skin from the meat, fridge-dried it, and rubbed compound butter above & beneath. Steam baked in the Cuisinart on the lowest rack position; 450 degF for 40 minutes. It turned out very well, nicely browned & juicy. Next time I plan to shave 5min off the cooking time. I'd really recommend butterflying little birds for those roasting whole chickens; it keeps the surface at a better distance from the heating elements.
I also had good luck steaming flan and creme brulee, as advertised. Both steamed and steam-baked eggs "en cocotte", and of course plenty of toast. Steam baked pork chops and spare ribs also turn out nicely.
I find that I'm having to adjust my methods to account for how fast this thing cooks - the extra heat held in the steam & the higher conductivity really make a significant difference at a given temperature. I'm particularly interested in playing with steam-baking baked goods.
I've got a 6-muffin pan that I was able to make fit into the Cuisinart by bending up the edge handles - now very useful accessory for the steam oven. I tried making popovers in it by preheating the pan while resting the batter, then cooking on the bread function on high heat - theorizing that the initial steam injection would help the rise. This worked TOO well; the popovers rose up into the heating elements and scorched. I'll conduct further tests to see if this is worth bothering with.
Has anybody tried steam-baking biscuits? American biscuits that is, not British cookies. SOP around our house involves forming and freezing buttermilk biscuits, then baking them for breakfast - a perfect application for the little steam oven. My vision of the Cuisinart bread function yielding big puffy glorious butter-browned bastards was dashed when I tried it, but then that was the fault of the batch not the steam - they were disappointingly flat when I tried regular convection baking; underleavened, apparently. I plan to experiment further, and would be keenly interested in anyone elses' results with biscuits or similar pastries.
I'm taking the hint from rotuts and parking a notepad in the kitchen to refine my methods. Thanks to everyone for contributing to this thread - an amazing resource!
P.S. rotuts, you sound like my kind of guy. Parked right next to my Cuisinart is my other "mini-commercial" steam appliance - my Rancilio Silvia espresso maker, which I acquired from a friend for $200 when he had to give up caffeine (I have been drinking his share along with my own ever since, in lieu of pouring it on the ground for homies who ain't around). I replaced the stock thermostat with a little PID controller, and have been happy as a clam since I don't need to steam milk. This led to the purchase of a Baratza grinder and eventually a coffee roaster (which already has its own notebook - alas, no graph paper)... but that's a topic for another thread I suppose.
