Steam oven - worth getting?

[mariniere]

I know so many people who have steam ovens they don’t use - anyone think they are useful and what for? Seem like a real faff to have to clean out the tank etc each time.
Anyone can prove me wrong?! Thank you.

Could you achieve something similar by pouring water into an oven dish at the bottom of the oven?

My step mother in law is a very good, very keen chef and had one installed in their new kitchen two years ago (along with approx 3 other ovens?!?!). She has NEVER used it....

I use mine several times a week for bread baking - where it's absolutely worth it and what I got it for. I have to empty the tank each time but that takes seconds, cleaning is more faffy but only needs doing every couple of months.

Having tried various tricks prior to getting this oven - pouring water in a dish gets no where close. What did work fairly well was a dish full of old nails, which I pre heated in the oven and then poured a mixture of ice and water on whilst trying to avoid clouds of steam. I hated doing it, several times I came close to burning myself - the steam oven is a massive improvement.

I have never bothered cooking anything else in it, mostly because I go with my recipe books which give normal oven settings. It always seem too much effort to look into whether steam would be better for a particular dish and if so what settings I should use...

Broadly they are a waste of money as you can achieve the same objective by putting a bowl of water on the oven floor or steaming your joints on a rack over some water in a roasting dish which also makes great gravy.

If you are going to use it as MrsPandaBear has suggested it's worth the money.

Don't be blindsided by the marketing, or that it's cool/new/someone else one. Look to see if it's worth it for the sort of cooking you do. It wasn't for me and I spent far more money on a different part of my kitchen as it suited my cooking.

We have, not particularly by choice. I use it for rice, vegetables, fish etc. It hasn't changed my world but it's nice.

Thank you everyone 👍🏼

My friend has one and he uses it all the time. He is cordon bleu trained though and loves tech gadgets.

We have them and it’s a nice thing to have when baking (eg bread as stated above) or for roasts. I’d previously used water in a pan but the steam oven seems to yield slightly better results - the meat’s more moist.

That said we really don’t use it enough and if there’s compromises being made I’d choose drawers or certain pullout units before a steam oven.