Mumsnet users review the Tefal Cook4Me Connect

[JustineBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the 30 Mumsnetters who have been testing the Tefal one-pot digital cooker Cook4Me Connect (RRP £319.99).

Here’s what Tefal have to say about the product: “You don’t need to be a masterchef to achieve delicious meals in no time! Tefal have innovated again, and now give you Cook4Me.

Cook4Me is a one-pot digital cooker, ideal for parents looking to make fast and fresh meals:
- It is easy to use and intuitive: Cook4Me comes with 50 built-in recipes, and features a digital screen with guided cooking steps.
- Cook4Me cooks under pressure, which means you will save a lot of time. For example, after browning and pre-heating, it cooks a Chicken Tikka Masala in 3 minutes, a Thai Green Chicken curry in 4 minutes and a Risotto in 9 minutes (and no need to stir!)…
- It is the ideal all-in-one cooker, with up to 6 cooking manual modes: not only does it pressure cook, but it also steams, browns, simmers, gentle-cooks and automatically keeps your food warm. Its dishwasher-safe bowl can feed 6 people, perfect for the whole family or for batch-cooking.

Cook4Me comes in a standard version, with 50 built-in recipes (RRP is £269.99), and in a Connected version, that works with My Cook4Me app, giving access to over 100 recipes (RRP is £319.99).”

Testers, please ensure that you’ve tested the digital cooker using both the recipes and the manual/ingredients modes and then give your feedback by answering the following questions as well as completing the survey we will email to you.

1. How easy or difficult did you find Cook4Me Connect to use?
2. Which recipes did you try? What did you think of them?
3. What were your thoughts on the cooking results of the Cook4Me Connect?
4. Would you recommend the Cook4Me Connect?

All who give their required feedback will be entered into a prize draw where one tester will win a £100 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Non-testers, please answer the below question. All non-testers who answer the below question will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

• Is there a recipe you’ve never dared to cook and would really like to be able to make in the Cook4Me?

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Non tester I'd love to make a 24 hr slow roasted leg of lamb with Lebanese or Moroccan flavouring!

I would love to bake a carrot cake. But it just seems so hard

Hi all, only just received mine, the first one went missing so they had to resend.

Had almost given up on it so although I had ingredients ready to go if it had turned up last week, am short of stuff to try tonight.
Anyway, first thoughts are that it's enormous, even though I had already seen one in a shop and cleared some space for it, it still looks a bit of a beast.

Before I got it I'd already browsed the online recipes, which I have to say are a bit underwhelming. Agree with everyone else that there's too much reliance on jars. Also, curry paste is very variable - eg Pataks is quite strong in flavour, a supermarket own brand can be very different.

Desperate to try it our I decided to cook some plain rice. Was not clear if I should use the silver basket for that, the instruction book needs to be clearer what the silver basket is for. Next, there is a set of timings in the book for 'White Rice - Basmati & Long Grain'. I have white easy cook, was not clear if the timings are for easy cook rice. Searched this thread in the hope someone else has had this problem but no luck. Eventually chanced my arm with 200g easy cook rice, 300ml water as per instruction book. Has come out absolutely perfectly. Considering batch cooking some for the freezer.

After tasting the rice I was forced to clean out the condensation collector before I could put it back into staywarm mode.

I usually think or rice in terms of cups, so would have appreciated cup measures, but never mind.

Am now planning what to try the rest of the week, hopefully getting the kids involved too.

Also, one other thing. My rice is in stay warm mode currently, and I am trying to use the app to plan for tomorrow but the app keeps crashing. Had no crashes before I started cooking.

I would love to try a risotto and stews.

Sorry for slowness in a more detailed reply but here it is.

1. How easy or difficult did you find Cook4Me Connect to use?

Really easy to use. The dial did take some getting used to in the days of touch screens etc. It's easy but does not seem intuitive. The recipies were easy to follow and identify on the Cook4Me and also in the app. I found cooking easier from the app itself though as I could see the steps ahead of actually doing them (not on the Cook4Me device).

1. Which recipes did you try? What did you think of them?

We tried butternut squash risotto, rice and also lentil soup among others. They were all good and looked good in my opinion. All were hoovered up by adults and two young children so it gets the thumbs up here. We did have to substitute a few ingredients for the risotto but this worked beautifully and did not cause any problems.

1. What were your thoughts on the cooking results of the Cook4Me Connect?

I really liked the end result personally. I am also less keen on the use of jars so would avoid those recipes personally. The food cooked well and was served at just the right temperature, Portion sizes were good for a whole family without being too large.

1. Would you recommend the Cook4Me Connect?

Yes I would and I plan to use it often. It fits well with a busy work/child/home life in terms of booking quickly and also batch cooking. I need all the help I can get! I do think it is expensive but think the app version is way better in my opinion as you have so much more recipe choice but also the chance to see the recipe steps before completing them. I would opt for that one if recommending to others. It looks pretty neat too although is very large in terms of storage. It does mean that I will have to store on my work surface which I am less keen on. But, a very small price to pay!

A few more pics too if helpful.

Non Tester: I would like to make a Chicken Tikka Masala. 3 mins to cook. Yes please.

Cooked a chicken arabiata type sauce. I was going to try it on manual but ened up using the green curry settings as the ingredients were similar in amounts and consistencies and it came out very nice.

Will have a bash at manual mode tomorrow if I am feeling brave enough!

Still not convinced that it is enough of a time/effort saver though, as much as I enjoy using it.

I used the manual mode tonight to do a nice and quick shepherds pie from scratch.

I think I'm starting to get used to the C4M, I turned it on and started the heating up in browning mode whilst I chopped all the veg and put the potatoes on the hob to boil.

Put mince, onion, carrots in on brown mode and then removed to drain the fat.

Popped back in and added herbs, stock etc for the sauce and cooked on hp for 10 minutes whilst the potatoes finished cooking, oven heated and I mashed the potatoes.

Cooked in the oven just to brown the potatoe for 10 minutes. I would normally summer mince etc on the hob for ages plus cook in the oven so the carrots were soft so this was a very time saving way of cooking shepherds pie for me.

non tester-

id love to make thai green curry in this¬

Tester.
I made Bol sauce tonight. Used the recipe but went a bit off piste, using pancetta with the mince, and using tomato purée and tinned tomatoes rather than the suggested jar. It was v quick and v nice and not at all watery (I was worried about the liquid quantity).

I'm finding it really convenient!

I'm a non tester. I would love to make a lamb curry in one of these pots. I'm sure it would be so tender to eat and just melt in the mouth.

Non tester - I have wanted to try and make either risotto or Thai green curry which my husband keeps pestering me to do! But I darent ! I can only see disaster!

Made a cracking and very quick lean minced chicken curry in it today on manual - only needed to use a single teaspoon of oil in it and it got a massive thumbs up all round.

There's an interesting article in the New York Times (with the caveat that the Cook4Me isn't intended as a slow cooker in the way the US Instant Pot the article refers to can be) about what sort of cooking works best in an electric pressure cooker (basically anything that needs 'softness and succulence') and there's some good recipes over at Serious Eats. I think I'm getting into this

Lentil Soup

Non Tester: I would love to make lobster thermidor

Non-tester - I really want to try my hand at making a baked Alaska, but it all sounds a bit daunting; wonder if it would be possible in one of these and whether it would be any easier

I've got the app on my iPad set to British and linked to the Cook4Me, but on my phone I have been experimenting. If I reset to French or Spanish the recipes look much more adventurous with more natural ingredients and there are many many more of them. Real shame more of those haven't been translated into English.

I'd like to try and make a cassoulet

the perfect risotto

Non-tester I'd definitely want to try a risotto as never tried one before

TefalTester123, that's a great tip! Shame we have to switch languages/countries to get away from the packets and jars though. Come on Tefal, raise your expectations of us

On the plus side:
I did actually manage to cook the Chicken Tikka Masala last night (seems like everyone has tried that) Put a bit less (Patak's) paste in than it said. Husband watched me do it and declared 'I could do that', so that's an achievement. Everyone liked it, plates cleared. All good.

On the minus side:
Went through the recipes in the different languages. We have 68 recipes in English, the Dutch have 228 including chocolate cheesecake, chicken in calvados sauce, chicken with satay sauce and express tartiflette.

The French get a whacking 443 recipes. Their chicken basque has 217 comments on there, very complimentary ones. They have stuff like vietnamese pork, pannacotta, one pot salmon & pasta, green minestrone, a sort of paella (58 pretty good comments, goulash, pork filet mignon with mushrooms, sweet polenta pots, lamb forestiere etc etc.
The Spanish get 149 recipes, still twice as many as us.

On the French version there's a News section which seems to suggest there are extra sets of recipes, presumably in the app store.

Since many people seem to be pleased with the machine, but disappointed in the recipes I suggest Tefal start to convert some of the recipes they already have into English.

A glimpse of what the other countries get:

I have always wanted to make a curry, (any curry) but I've never been able to, I am nervous that I will either put to much or not enough of the correct spices, I attempted one when I was very young (17) and my boyfriend at the time said I was never to try and make a curry again as it was disgusting