Are steam ovens a fad or fabulous?

Are steam ovens a fad or fabulous?

How good are these steam ovens?  Is this a kitchen revolution or just another passing fad?  QuestionsI asked myself many times at the beginning of my journey into steam and combi steam oven cooking.

I remember being very excited when I saw the ovens in situ at the kitchen manufacturers.  That excitement grew until the fiest time I used my combi steam oven.   My first few attempts cooking with steam really were a complete disaster.  To my defence, this was a few years ago and steam ovens and combi steam ovens for  home use were really very new.  Thinking back, the worst meal was Rockling  (which is a fleshy white fish)  and salad.  After reading the manual I thought it be best to use the preset option.  The result was a rubbery mess of what had been really nice fish fillets.

We sat down to eat and before the first bite we knew that something was terribly wrong.  It was pretty obvious really as soon as I took the fish out of the oven, but deep down I ‘d hoped that it would be okay once it got onto the plate.

The next few attempts were not much better.  For a while I stopped using it altogether and instead started researching again. I had really lost my confidence with my combi steam oven.  Regret was setting in.

So, why did I buy a steam oven?

In essence, to broaden my cooking skills.  I work full time and don’t really have a lot of time to devote to learning new culinary skills.  I had thought about learning more about  a particular cuisine but I couldn’t decide which one.  Learning how to cook in a  combi steam oven seemed like an opportunity to become a better cook without restrictions.

I discovered steam ovens while spending endless hours researching for our home renovation. This was a major overhaul of our old house.  By adding  one room we were able to change the internal layout.  The result was a new kitchen, new bathroom and a new laundry/bathroom.  I had a wish list of appliances and all but one made it into the new home.  We didn’t have room in our laundry for the Airer.   But, I did get the wine fridge and the steam oven.

Three years in and now we use the steam oven 90% of the time and our standard oven is for the overflow cooking.  Steam ovens are easier to clean and can cook on really low temperatures.  If you have a combi steam oven then it can cook on either dry heat, steam only or a combination of both.  I wish I’d bought 2 combi steam ovens now.

So, I can say that steam ovens really are the next best thing.

Happy cooking!