How do you use your combi microwave oven?

[JustJam4Tea]

I tried baked potatoes last night and they came out hard….wha5 am I doing wrong? What do you use yours for?

We're just bumping this thread in case anyone's around with some ideas for the OP

could be that you cooked them too long. My combi has a setting for jacket potatoes but I don't use it - just stab potato and put it in for 3 to 4 mins depending on size. The more potatoes you cook at once the longer it will take. Even if you've got a turntable you should check the potatoes at regular intervals and try to squeeze them

I find that the standard power level is quite low (600 is the basic setting on our Neff). Ours goes up to 800 and also has a boost feature. It took a little getting used to but I’m used to it now. Maybe you need to increase the power level?
It managed to set fire to my heat pad though - I think that’s because of the metal shelf that it was in contact with.

They're so variable. Ours was handy as the aga was turned off over the summer, and we had a job & the combi.

I'd do it differently these days with the much better variety of bench top things!

Ours excelled at melting the steriliser! 😩

Daily at the moment. I use it for porridge, heating frozen peas and sweetcorn and jacket potatoes.

Although for potatoes I sensor cook them in the mw and then give them 5-10 mins in the oven to crisp. I don't trust the mw grill.

I've a combi microwave. I've no idea why. I've only ever used it as a microwave. No idea how the oven/grill bit works. Wonder if it's cheaper to run than the normal oven?

I just use it as a microwave. DH got it because in our original house we had no oven. It has this crusty cook setting that we would use for frozen pizza and chicken nuggets with oven chips. It was shit :o

And it's a pain to clean because of the element.

If you need a small sized oven just get an air fryer, they work much better.

My combi is ancient now, but baked potatoes - 2 big ones - come out fine after 14 mins on full power, plus the oven on max (not fan) heat.

I use my combi as a small oven or as a microwave. So tonight I'll microwave ds's tea as it's a batch cooked frozen meal and I'll cook a pizza later using it as an oven.

i used to use mine for cooking chickens...made a decent job tbh, put chicken in roaster bag, do roast setting which I think was about 50% microwave and you could choose your oven temp, all done in well under an hour and a nice colour skin....no sweaty flabby looking meat!

Also used it on the oven only setting when the range broke down, althoguh the turntable was a pita for bigger rectangular dishes....in the end I took it out, put the grill rack in the base which fitted perfectly and the whirly centre thing could whirl away to its heart's content while my lasagne cooked normally resting on the rack.

Best to use the oven for potatoes if you have a combi oven. Preheat to 250z Stab it, rub salt and olive oil, and pop it on the bottom shelf for 30mins. Then reduce to 180 and leave for another 30mins. Works everytime

The oven setting is just a normal oven surely? So if you are using it as an oven, jacket potatoes in at 200 for about an hour. If you want to microwave them, zap them for 3-5 minutes (for one, more for many). I use the oven as a convenient, small oven that heats up quickly and uses power efficiently. Also, I like the oven because if I put something in there it will turn itself off when the time is finished which has previously been helpful.

@BearPear what does the boost function look like? Your may be a different model than mine but I'm worried I've been missing out, though I do go to 800!

I like ours for going hotter than the big oven for roasties