Since people periodically inquire on this forum about steam ovens, I thought I'd offer my experience with our newly installed AEG model.

When planning our kitchen, I deliberated a long time before ordering a steam oven. The Gaggenau model was not an optiont due to price, and also because it isn't meant to be installed below counter. I wanted an oven that could function as a regular convection oven, so that ruled out the Miele version. I then spoke a few times with reps from Euro-line and another Canadian company that sells AEG products. All the information I gathered regarding functionality and repair record on the AEG were positive; my only hesitation was that servicing an AEG product in the U.S. would probably be a headache.

Finally, I took the plunge because, well, I was just too curious! It was installed (hard wired) a couple of months ago, though we only moved back into our house 3 weeks ago, so I can't provide a lot of cooking data. In addition, the manual is like a treatise, explaining 8 different cook modes (steam, interval steam, Ventitherm (convection baking) Rotitherm (baking + grilling), Single Economy Grill (for toast and such), Defrost/Drying, Low Temp cooking/braising, and Moist Fan cooking), and it has cook charts on hundreds of different dishes (leg of hare and rissoles, anyone?) so I was a bit intimidated at first.

Here's what I've made so far:

Steamed flounder-for the steam cook modes, one pours tap water into a cylindrical receptacle that pulls out and retracts into the front face of the oven. After preheating a minute or two, the oven then starts to fill with steam. The fish was done perfectly in about 5 minutes. (Though the manual had recommended 10, I was suspicious.) It says not to open the door until the cooking period is done, I think because it's trying to prevent someone from getting a face full of steam. I called the service # about this and was told it was just a recommendation, and to just use common sense and not stick my head close to the oven door when opening it.

Steamed broccoli-straight steam mode, done in a couple of minutes.

Salmon in puff pastry-I was a bit leery as this was a new recipe AND a new oven AND I was cooking for company, but oh well...I used the standard convection baking mode and a tray of these came out evenly browned and cooked nicely through in about 20 minutes.

Pizza (frozen)- preheated oven to equivalent of 500 degrees, and used convection baking. The oven comes with one wire rack, a lipped baking tray, and a flat baking tray with even small perforations, which I used for the pizza. Got a crispy crust and browned cheese in about 8 minutes.

Chocolate chip cookies-convection bake mode. Did a couple trays of about 14 cookies each. They came out evenly browned in about 15 minutes.

I plan to try one of the modes that claims to steam and brown to see if that works well. A roast chicken might be a good test dish.

A few general notes: Temperatures are in Celsius, so that takes a little getting used to. The oven cavity is about 17" h x 15.5" d x 8" h, which is not huge. One could fit two trays of baked goods or shallow casseroles, or one rack with two small chickens or a roast. To me, the oven face is sleek and attractive. It's got 8 touch screen buttons with a panel above that displays the various cooking and timing settings. There is a quick preheat mode that is extremely fast- to 400 degrees in 3.5 minutes (this I love.)

So far, I love this appliance and would definitely buy it again. Hopefully, I'll get around to making more adventurous dishes, too, to really see what it can do.