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

I made the Greek Lamb tonight. It was my first time using the Cook4Me and I was a bit nervous but impressed with how easy it was to use. Everyone really liked the lamb. It took 40 minutes so quicker than a normal roast with less washing up afterwards. I only have a single oven so it was great having the lamb in the Tefal while I used the oven for roast veggies.

Some more thoughts about the app...

Could you add a meal plan section?

I've just chosen four meals to cook this week and added the ingredients to a shopping list (great, very easy to do) but I have a memory like a sieve so I'd like to store the recipes themselves somewhere iyswim?

I've temporarily made those four dishes my 'favourites' but they're not - I've not tried them yet. Ideally I'd like three places: actual favourites; this week; one day.

Tester here...

I agree a meal plan section on the app would be good.

I made my first recipe on Sat - dhal from the preset recipes. I make dhal a lot but have never used korma paste in it until this time. I found I could still somehow taste the paste in the finished dish, but yesterday when I ate a portion I had set aside as leftovers, it tasted much better (so 24 hours later). I think I will go back to my own spices etc rather than korma paste but I presume I can do 'manual' for 10 minutes to get the same effect. The lentils were perfectly cooked.

One issue I had was that once I got onto the method, I couldn't see the amounts of ingredients needed anymore. I had already measured out water, lentils etc, but not the tablespoon measures of paste and purée, so I had to use the app to check those. Also I wonder why there isn't a timer for when e.g. you need to brown onions for 2 minutes. Minor quibble though- it was incredibly easy to use and to clean!

Not sure what to try next. I am inevitably attracted to the chocolate puddings...;)

non-tester

Id love to try the pesto chicken risotto, It sounds really yummy but Iv never had risotto at home as its such a faff to do.

It's so easy in this once you do it properly really quick and yummy. I didn't add any extra seasoning as it didn't need it but we're not great ones for salt anyway.

Agree that the browning could do with being timed. Also, some sort of pause button? Yes I know that's probably impossible... For example, when I first made it I couldn't find my stock jelly things so I was browning and DH had to leg it down to the corner shop to buy more so it took a few minutes longer. I ended up taking the pot out of the machine before it burnt. Totally my own disorganisation of course but these things happen.

I'm going to try the bacon and leek risotto tonight so I'll be back later with some pictures of that. Like a poster before mentioned, I'm a bit disappointed in all the jarred sauces that are recommended in the app. I don't use jars so it makes the recipes pointless.

Tester here, but I haven't received my appliance. Emailed mumsnet yesterday but had no reply. Can't wait to get started.

Non jarred sauce recipe for a basic bolognaise

Cook beef/onion as per the instructions for the app recipe and when it says to pour in the jar of sauce chuck in 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, a good squirt of tomato puree, a stock cube (as is, not dissolved in anything) and whatever herbs you use. I use garlic puree so add it at that point too. Then cook as instructed. Comes out the right consistency and tastes lovely.

I used 750 g mince btw so adjust tomatoes accordingly for smaller amounts of mince.

I should add that this is from me experimenting today, it hasnt been through The Kid Test yet,.....will update later with that :o

Non tester: Id like to make a mousakka!

TefalTester123 I haven't had mine yet either, have emailed MNHQ tonight :)

Tester here - thank you for letting me have a go with this!
Have cooked the green curry and tikka masala so far.
Positives - so easy! Love the app and getting the ingredients according to number of people. I really wanted to try his because we have so many different timings for kids/school/hobbies/food that it's difficult to get something nutritious and hot in to everyone at the right time.
For those reasons, I can already see this being a godsend. Kids are also fascinated and so I'm thinking the older ones could pretty quickly work out how to use it themselves.
It is also getting me excited about new recipes again. We have definitely got in to a rut with a handful of go-to meals. This is going to reinvigorate our meal times which is great.

Cons - it does look like a big lump of plastic which is a bit disappointing for something this expensive.
As with a couple of other posters, I'm surprised at how many ready jars/sauces are mentioned in the recipes. It would be good to have a 'from scratch' version and an additional 'cheats' version of each recipe.
Again, felt slightly cheated on the headline times when the preheating adds a chunk of extra time to each dish. That's not a major issue but it did mean I had to skip using this tonight because the real time it would take was that 10 mins too long to squeeze in to Monday chaos.

Non tester - I've never attempted a soufflé!

Well that's the chilli made. I left out the red wine (cos I don't have any) and the kidney beans (cos the dds hate them) and it gave me some grief about not enough liquid, but it came out lovely. It's now being kept warm for DH, whenever he deigns to come home. The kids have christened it Speedy so they're going to tell him Speedy has his dinner .

It wasn't any quicker for chilli but so much easier and I do love it.

Oh and the preheating took ages. The mince etc was browned to perfection ages before Speedy was actually ready to brown!

The bolognaise passed the kid test!! So I will do it that way in future. Going to take a look at the other recipes that call for a jar of sauce to see what can be done with them, will happily share my findings if anyone is interested?

Ooh excellent. Thanks Pyong! Making a note of that...

Non Tester - I would love to cook a risotto, I love them but have never tried one.

The bacon and leek risotto was a big hit! Really easy to do and very tasty. It took quite a while because I prepped everything and then the machine had to heat up, so next time I think I'll prep while it's heating instead of before.

YES! Mine has arrived and I'm in love already. Very sleek and stylish, first impressions very positive, it seems really intuitive to use and I've already got it cooking us a bacon and leek risotto for dinner. Look at it go!

The bacons leek risotto is lovely!! Really nice texture. I tweaked the recipe to our preference (added garlic in browning stage for example) but it's really, really nice!

Cholent. A stew of chicken, beans, giblets, potato, onion, carrot, pearl barley and kishke (a sort of dumpling stuffed into chicken skin- you don't eat the skin, it gives shape and flavour to the dumpling) in minimal liquid. Goes into a very low oven - Gas 1 or even less - on Friday evening, cooks for 24h undisturbed, and on Saturday evening you have the most awesomely flavoursome dinner.

Sounds simple, and it is. But my oven is seriously unreliable at low settings. The flame goes out, but the gas keeps coming. There's no way I could risk leaving it on so low. And my slow cooker lid is slightly loose, when I cook pearly barley it often dries out. With pearl barley it's not a disaster if there's too much water - call it soup! But not with cholent. Cholent should stick to your ribs.

Just made beef teriyaki. It took 5 minutes plus about a minute to prepare the vegetables. Perfect as today is one of the days when I have to run around dropping off and picking up from different activities. It tasted really nice too.

Non Tester.

Curry from scratch! I just don't know how I could do it without something like this. Too overwhelming!

Non tester

Home made rice pudding - comfort food. As my mum makes it, slowly on the hob with lots of stirring. I'd probably burn the bottom or let it boil over