11 Plus Exams Forum

Does anyone have a steam oven or experience of using one? Our range cooker is on its last legs and I’m tempted. Not as a stand-alone but as a second oven.

Definitely recommend. Ideally one with full steam and pulse steam option. Ours is a combi so can be used as normal oven or steam. With practice you can use both methods on one item for optimum speed/ results.

We were very tempted when we re-did our kitchen. However in the end we went for a second combi oven. I would say that despite all the features DH wanted we only ever seem to use the 'standard turn on fan'...so I would think hard about what you're paying for & what you'll actually use. We're both keen cooks & don't use anywhere near all the features the ovens have....

Friends who have one tend to not use it that much (but its very good for making Xmas pudding).

It does depend on what you cook of course.
On the basics, veg are great steamed rather than boiled, fish and chicken more moist.
You can use steam to keep things moist then brown / crisp up if you have a combi oven.
Also use ours for defrosting but that's more a side issue!

We are just doing our kitchen now so I am off to do some research on steam ovens, having seen this thread! Suspect we will probably stick with two standard combi ovens though!

We have decided against keeping the microwave as it is rarely used, and hadn't heard of steam ovens but went on what is called an 'experience' day at a high-end German manufacturer in Oxfordshire, which was not only a brilliant day out with a 5 course meal thrown in, but it alerted us to the possibilities of steam. I think if we are going to do it we won't have the combi option but go for a straight steam one and then a conventional oven alongside as the combination one added about a grand to the bill and I couldn't see the benefits over using the ordinary oven then. We came away pretty convinced it was the way to go, and I love the idea of not filling the house with steam every time we cook vegetables or a steam pudding, or with fishy smells when we cook fish, but I am having cold feet a little bit in case it turns into a waste of money. Hmm.

We too went to that high end german manufacturer experience place in Oxfordshire! The kit we purchased has been very good...(probably going to give it the curse now though!)

Octsmum wrote:We too went to that high end german manufacturer experience place in Oxfordshire! The kit we purchased has been very good...(probably going to give it the curse now though!)

It was a good day wasn't it? OH somehow managed to get it half price and we came home stuffed! We already have all our white goods from them (dishwasher is 20 years old!) and wouldn't have anything else, but steam ovens are a brave new world I have never encountered.

I still really really want an outdoor oven to roast meat over wood in though. No luck sourcing one sadly. At least not one I can afford.

I am still trying to work out why warming drawers are so expensive for what they are...having said that we bit the bullet and use it a lot...great for slow cooking, hiding food from our cats as well as warming plates.
Ive looked at doing one if those experience days in Abingdon for a while...I might give it a go...

Also looked into the Abingdon demo brand but in the end saved several £1000 over the 4 appliances by going for another high end German brand ( which also has a presence in the Oxford area) and very happy a year or so later. Didn't loose significant features, reliability yet to be tested I guess.

To both brands we found outlets on line at significantly reduced prices so definitely worth shopping around.