Steam ovens - useful or not?

[opinionatedfreak]

This thread has been started various times with limited response so I'm trying again.

Planning a new kitchen. Was fairly sure I didn't want a steam oven but have just been to an appliance demo and it looked really useful.

I use my microwave a lot - primarily for reheating food and melting chocolate.... apparently the steam oven can do both of these tasks - anyone care to comment?

Have never used one. However I did once ask the head chef at my mother's (dementia) care home how on earth he managed such a meltingly tender Sunday pork roast. (It needed to be tender for so many who were lacking teeth or refused to wear their dentures!)

His reply was simply, 'A steam oven.'

I think it depends on the size of the kitchen and how much you would use it. I have a combi built in microwave and two built in ovens, one with a grill function. I am happy with that because effectively the microwave effectively steams veg etc. I wouldn't get rid of the microwave or the second oven for a steam oven but if you really think you would get a lot of use out of it, go for it.

Mate is kitchen planner. She says people who have them LOVE them.

I use mine for all my veg and eggs. Sometimes fish. I've not mastered much else. I no longer have a microwave. The only time I miss it is to heat up a neck pillow. I heat up my tea with a kettle tap or make a new one.

I really like it but we do eat a lot of veg 😄 And eggs.

We have a steam feature in our NEFF oven. I think people who have separate steam ovens say they love them to justify their existence. It's very easy to melt chocolate on a hob in a bowl over a pan of boiling water & how often do you melt chocolate? Once or twice a week?

Oh my god I LOVE my steam oven!!

name but why do you love it? Please tell us.

I have a normal oven but a combi microwave that has a steam function and I use it to steam veg. I can't think what else I would steam. I cook salmon in the oven in a foil parcel, tastes amazing.

I have an Instant Pot pressure cooker that makes chicken so tender and takes a mere 18 minutes to cook a whole chicken (plus the time to come to pressure.)

Have had steam ovens at my last house and in this house too. Love it. I also have regular oven.

Definitely go for the actual steam oven rather than an oven that has a steam function.

You can cook practically anything in it. You can boil eggs (soft or hard boiled). I cook rice in the serving dish. Ready to go straight to table if you use correct proportion of water to rice.

Roasts still crisp on outside but moist inside in half the time.

Can cook different things without transference of smell taste eg. ckae and fish at same time!

Reheats food without drying out (even takeaway pizzas - next day reheat as if it was just cooked rather than a cardboard mess!)

I have the Neff www.neff-home.com/uk/productlist/ovens-compact-ovens/ovens/single-steam-ovens/C18FT58N0B?breadcrumb=steamappliancessteamoven

When we moved house and started planning the new kitchen - it was the first item on the list.

Reasons to love it:

Super easy to clean because if you wipe it whilst inside is still moist and wet any food residue just wipes off.

Healthy way to cook.

Fast way to cook.

Can do everything a microwave does and much much more.

Cons: still quite expensive unfortunately.

My sister has one and it's always beeping as her and warning her it needs cleaning. It is hardly ever used. She has two ovens at low level, one with a steam oven above and one with a combi micriwave above. I'd never encountered a steam oven before so asked her what it was for her answer "symmetry". She does use it occasionally for cooking fish but gets annoyed with it "shouting" at get all the time it is hardly ever used now.

Oh my no, it's so easy to clean. Yes it beeps but...Mine has a cycle, maybe she doesn't know. It does it itself!

The other thing is I don't ever overlook my veg with it and I don't have multiple pans everywhere or appliances like steamers or pressure cookers. I prefer not to use front hob rings with my young kids about so that's useful too. I just rise the trays after. I don't know how to do rice or cakes. I must figure this out!

I believe it's the healthiest for retaining vitamins in the veg.

Rinse the trays

Also I got my Neff one for 100 on eBay barely used.

Thanks.

Still deliberating. Not sure if I would use it enough to justify it or if the fictional version of me that eats steamed veg and fish might prefer it more than the real life version that eats M&S dine in for two on a Friday night....

I'm now considering one after this thread! Does it use a lot of energy compared to steaming on the hob? Can it do bog-standard microwave functions like defrosting and heating up leftovers etc? I'm looking at Which reviews and they mention a few with 'a steam function' but is that th same as a proper steam oven??

It will defrost but not as quickly as a microwave.

Apparently better results from leftovers (but takes a bit longer - estimate is about 6-8mins for a plate of food)

You get pure steam ovens, steam-conventional combi's and steam-microwave combi's.

It all gets a bit confusing as lots of the manufacturers now do a shot of steam thing (moisture plus on Miele, variosteam on neff, I think) designed to aid baking/other conventional oven cooking tasks.

That kind of appliance isn't steamy enough to steam veg etc.

I don't know if they are ridiculously expensive but the steam with a combi browning setting sounds great. I'm sure joint meat in my steamer would be quite ghastly but I've not tried. That said I still love my steamer but we eat meat/fish and veg daily and not much prepared food or grains baked goods pasta etc. I almost never fry food. It probably depends how you eat. Our plain eating is due to health issues. I love that stuff.