Hearth Kit Oven Insert

[Basilgirl]

Thinking of giving one for a Christmas present. Any thoughts? Consumer Reports gave it a thumbs down.

[sammy]

I've had one for over a year and think it's great. We keep it in the oven and only had to remove it once or twice for capacity reasons.

The benefits are:

1. Great for browning (roast chicken, potatoes, etc)

2. Great for cooking pizza (great crust and bubbling cheese in under 10 minutes)

3. We don't bake much but it is supposed to help develop good crust on bread

Disadvantages:

1. Takes forever to heat up (although will cook for a fair amount of time after oven is turned off)

2. Cuts down on oven capacity

[ronnie_suburban]

I considered buying one (via The Baker's Catalog) when I was going through a serious, Silverton-inspired bread baking phase but they seemed a bit pricey. I've had good success with just a stone but I'd love to try one of these before investing the ~$200....

=R=

[budrichard]

I'd stick with Consumer Reports advice. When you read the hype, you think that you are going to get a high temp oven but the physics of the situation is that you cannot increase the temperature of your oven with the kit. What the kit does do is act as a reflector to increase the btu's onto the item being cooked and it should cook faster but it will simply not increase the oven temperature and give you a wood fired oven experience! -Dick

[sammy]

When they first came out, they received an excellent write-up in the New York Times. Dishes were cooked using the same oven, both with the HearthKit, and without. I believe thay roasted a chicken, baked some bread and baked either a pie or cake. In every case, the food cooked with the HearthKit won the taste test and was more appealing to the eye. I received one as a gift soon after and have been pleased ever since.

Also, it's not that the food is cooked at a higher temperature, it's how it is heated. With the HearthKit, the heat is radiating from the stone, below and up the sides of the oven. Supposedly the effect cannot be duplicated by simply using a convection oven.

I had previously made pizza using a traditional stone but the resulting pizza with the HearthKit blows it away.

What was the gist of the negative review from Consumers?

Edited November 11, 2003 by sammy (log)

[Basilgirl]

I had previously made pizza using a traditional stone but the resulting pizza with the HearthKit blows it away.

What was the gist of the negative review from Consumers?

Sammy, they basically said that it doesn't deliver a notably superior product for the price.

I'm getting one to give for Christmas anyway.

[sammy]

I've found the key is to be patient until the HearthKit gets really hot (it does come with a thermometer that fits between the "floor" and one of the sides).

You probably won't notice a difference if you cook anything before it is pre-heated.

Another great use: oven dried tomatoes cooked overnight. Preheat the Hearthkit to 300, shut off the oven and awake to the most intensely flavored tomatoes you have ever had.

When ordering, make sure to accurately measure the inside of the oven it is for according to the directions on their website. It is important to be precise as the kits come in various sizes.

[Wolfert]

I agree with Sammy. The hearthkit is fabulous for roasting chicken, and baking gratins and breads.

[jawbone]

When Cooks Illustrated tested HearthKit a while back they at first thought it made very little difference--but that was in their professional-quality test ovens. When they took it home and used it on "normal" stoves, Hearthkit made a significant difference. It apparently helped the oven maintain its temp when the door was opened and minimized the effect of hot/coolspots.

[Chad]

Cook's Illustrated tried one out a while back (Jan/Feb issue) and found no improvement in dishes made in their commercial Wolf ovens. However, when they tried the HearthKit in several home ovens they discovered that it did indeed make a significant difference. Cookies browned evenly without rotating, bread rose and browned better, etc.

I don't know that I need a HearthKit, but I do keep a big-ass pizza stone on the bottom rack of my oven at all times. It takes forever for the oven to preheat now, but that's fine, the stone levels out the temperature fluctuations that home ovens are prone to. My oven temp stays nice and steady, foods brown better (possibly from the increased radiant heat) and my bread has never been better.

Chad

[lorea]

Cook's Illustrated tried one out a while back (Jan/Feb issue) and found no improvement in dishes made in their commercial Wolf ovens. However, when they tried the HearthKit in several home ovens they discovered that it did indeed make a significant difference. Cookies browned evenly without rotating, bread rose and browned better, etc.

I don't know that I need a HearthKit, but I do keep a big-ass pizza stone on the bottom rack of my oven at all times. It takes forever for the oven to preheat now, but that's fine, the stone levels out the temperature fluctuations that home ovens are prone to. My oven temp stays nice and steady, foods brown better (possibly from the increased radiant heat) and my bread has never been better.

Chad

When you say your keep a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven, do you actually cook on it? (say, if you were baking up a pan of brownies, would you put the pan directly on the stone?) Or do you cook on the racks above it?

Thanks!

[cajungirl]

I'm considering the purchase of the HearthKit Oven insert to aid my efforts at bread baking...if you've used it, what do you think?

[Torrilin]

When you say your keep a pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven, do you actually cook on it?  (say, if you were baking up a pan of brownies, would you put the pan directly on the stone?) Or do you cook on the racks above it?

←

I'm not Chad, but I can tell you what I do . I've got a smallish pizza stone on the top rack of my oven at all times. I bake bread directly on it, and most other baked and roasted items have the pan directly on it when the oven is preheated. I'd like some quarry tiles to get more thermal mass in there. This helps a lot to moderate the effects of having an older home gas oven with a poor thermostat. The current result is not as good as a modern gas oven with a good thermostat, but it's no longer so bad that setting the oven to 500 degrees and roasting a 5 lb chicken results in an unbrowned bird after an hour.

Emily