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

Tester - Mondays are always busy here so I was looking forward to seeing if I could swop the usual freezer dinner to something nicer so I tried my own twist on the bolagnaise recipe.

The C4M is a lot lighter than it looks, it's quite big so not something I want to keep out on the side so I'm storing in a kitchen cupboard and lifting it in and out to use.

It's very easy to work with although it does require patience. I suppose I have been comparing it to the slow cooker which is a bung it in first thing in a rush and leave on all day machine where as the C4M requires time to heat at two stages. I would normally hob cook bolognaise for a good few hours but I was pleased that after the 10 minutes the carrots were cooked - the bacon disintegrated so next time I will add that after the browning stage.

The C4M is 6 ltr which means I can batch cook every time I use it which is ideal. Today's bolognaise left at least 2 servings as only 2 of us ate it out of 5 - I pre set the C4M to cook for 4 and used my own recipe.

Next time I will prep and add straight to the C4M whilst it heats to the browning stage instead of standing and waiting for it to reach full heat to save a little bit of extra time.

The food comes out of the C4M really, really HOT!

Only cons I have found is as others have said, I'm not a fan of jars. Opening a jar and pouring it in is no quicker than opening a couple of tins of tomatoes, squeeze of purée, garlic, herbs etc as long as you have it all to hand. It would be nice to have less Jar recipes and a meal plan option on the app would be great.

When working through the recipes it would be better to have the ingredients quantities added to each stage. My risotto (see above posts) was a bit of a nightmare because I tried to go backwards to check the amounts and this put the C4M back in to heating mode etc.

I've purchased some extra pressure cooker tins from Amazon and I'm going to attempt crustless quiche next.

The removable pot is very easy to wash and clean so my DH tells me

I like the batch cooking idea. Brilliant!

Non tester. I confess I've never made a curry from absolute scratch and properly and would love to

Non tester: I would like to cook all sort of dishes and sauces from different countries.

Daily do you have a link to the tins? I love crustless quiche but cooking it in the oven is a real art, its either undercooked or brown and chewy aroung the edges and on top!

What sort of timings will you use?

Batch cooking.....I made the bol and another green curry today in 45 mins, one was for us the other for my dad who tasted the curry on Friday and demanded I make him some! It would be very easy to make a weeks worth of main meals on a weekend afternoon to have during the week. Also the size of the pot means that it is easy to double up. THere are 6 of us here full time, up to 8 when adult DS and Uni DD are home and I was very sceptical that it would hold enough for all of us, but it could easily do enough for 12 with the chilli, bol and curry I have made so far, obviously would need to use the manual settings but still.....

I'm loving the idea of using this for speedy batch cooking for the week. I might try that on Sunday.

I'd love to try a risotto, DS loves risotto but I haven't made it in ages as the faff has been too much for my recently.

I just got mine yesterday so only tried one thing last night. It was really easy to put together and follow the instructions. It looks kind of space age!

We made lentil and bacon soup from the recipes on the machine. Looks and smells good and was really easy to make once I had figured out what was what.

THe beeping was very loud but we have now figured out how to turn this off for non essential beeping. Off to try pork meatballs next.. Watch this space.

nontester

I'd love to try the molten chocolate pudding - love cooking desserts in an easy way as is possible! It sounds delicious!

Non tester

I would like to make a large batch of something in the Cook4Me as a base for other foods. I struggle with my health and on days I can't cook we live on junk. So something like a tomato base that could be used for pasta, stews, casseroles, soups and pizza topping etc. Stored in the freezer. Then transformed again in the Cook4Me as a complete meal.

I love tagine... wonder if that would be good in this?

Tester here. I love the look of it - its massive but looks good in my kitchen.

Currently cooking chilli con carne but think I may have done it wrong. It started by telling me to add the onion, garlic and mince. I did that, plus oil which wasn't mentioned. Then pressed ok and it started 'preheating' and said I had to wait. It got so hot I could hardly get my arm near it to stir without splashing.

In the end I added all the ingredients as it was so boiling I think it was probably cooked already. Then I pressed the back button and it asked me if I had finished browning. So I clicked 'yes' then shut the lid and have got out of the way.....

What have I done wrong? I suspect it's me rather than the cook4me.

Non-tester:

Wow this has been in my wishlist and so glad to see the feedbacks.
The one thing I would really love to cook is chilly chicken/paneer as it goes down well as a starter or mains and so far my family members and friends have always loved it whenever I recommend it on night outs.

That sounds a similar issue that I had also making the chilli yesterday. The preheating took so long that everything was cooked by the time it had even supposedly warmed up. And then every time you try to remove the pot it shouts at you!

shelagh do you think we were meant to not put anything in until the preheating had finished? I'm sure it told me to add the first 3 ingredients though before it then moved on to preheating. I can't imagine it was right it was spitting liquid at me it got so hot! But at no point did it mention browning until I pressed the back button.

It does sound like it although that's not the way it says to do it. Certainly I'll wait next time till it's finished preheating. Yes I was spat at too!

Went off piste today and fried manual cooking with my own recipe - chicken tagine (happy to post a rough recipe if anyone wants it). Could probably only use 12 minutes pressure cooking instead of the 15 I gave it but otherwise absolutely delicious!

I would love to cook risotto, it's a dish we enjoy when out in restaurants but I've never made it at home

Ok taste results are in for the chilli - DH loves it and it literally got a thumbs up from the DCs. No one ever gives my cooking a thumbs up. Am a bit excited 😀

I used 200mls of water instead of red wine, mild chilli powder (DCs wouldn't like anything too strong) and an extra tin of tomatoes. It's worked perfectly and despite the preheating going on forever and getting VERY hot, I can't wait to make it again already.

NON TESTER here
Well I was going to say an authentic Indian curry until I read in the comments that a tester was going to do Greek lamb which immediately made me realise that Kleftiko ( slow cooked Greek lamb with potatoes, tomatoes, lemon and garlic and herbs) would be divine. I have never made this before but I absolutely love eating it.

Non tester
Sounds like a great gadget, I'd love to make a creme caramel. I've never tried because the thought of sweet scrambled eggs doesn't appeal and faffing about with bain maries ain't my thing!

Sweet and sour pork tonight. I'm still a bit miffed I have to use packets for the sauce.

Anyone got a way of making pulled pork? Haven't found a recipe yet.

There was a Facebook video recipe for pulled pork...