nesco roaster
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22 years ago
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Nesco Roaster
Comments (13)A Nesco (as any electric roaster) makes heat so naturally it will give off heat. It will also add humidity to the air, as will a slow cooker. People who say they use a slow cooker because it "doesn't heat up the room" don't have it turned on or are fooling themselves. A light bulb gives off heat. A hair dryer gives off heat. So do all cooking appliances, even a microwave to a point. So yes, if you leave a hair dryer going for hours will it heat up a room? Sure. Will a Nesco? (Or a toaster, or an electric frypan or a space heater?) Of course it will. However, since it's probably smaller than your ovens, it likely would heat up less then a conventional oven. A 10-14# turkey should work fine in a 12 quart but if you want to put some potatoes around it or something you might want to get the 18 qt, or if you have occasional use for something larger, you might want to go with the 18 qt. Size-wise they're not much different. A guideline is 1#+ per quart size so a 12 qt would handle a 12# but they will take a little more. I've put 7.5# turkey breast in my 6 quart and it's fine. I believe the max recommended is 14# on a 12 qt. and 22# on a 18 qt. Many people put the roaster outside on a patio, porch or whatever for various reasons. Some don't like cooking odors, some don't want the heat and/or humidity, some want the extra room. For browned items, you need dry heat and electric roasters generally retain moisture, which is why things are so tender, juicy and tasty. If you must have browned skin on a turkey, the best way is to use the Roast-Air fan. Alternatives: Use a browning agent. (I never have) Cock the lid and let moisture out, but you'll lose heat. Frequently drain the juices out of the cookwell. Or, when you're pretty much done, pull all juices, pat the turkey dry and crank up the heat. What I do when I really want something browned, is to cook it normally without the fan and then the last 15 min or so, pull the juices and turn on the fan. I don't eat the skin anymore so it's not an issue with me anymore. The difference between a slow cooker and a roaster is an electric roaster is a portable oven with the cooking container. You can do everything you can do in a slow cooker and more and essentially you can do *most* everything you can do in a conventional oven but more. I have the nonstick and the conventional cookwells for both of my Nescos and the porcelain only gets used when I need the second one. Cleaning? I don't use abrasives. I soak it and the stuff comes off quite easily. Occasionally I need to use one of the plastic scrubbers. I would never use steel wool, SOS, and *definitely* not Scratchbrite pads. I'd be hesitant to use oven cleaner on a cooking surface. I wouldn't use cleanser although baking soda would probably be fine an Barkeeper's Friend is supposedly not abrasive. I'd still hesitate to use it *in* the cookwell though. Dawn Power Dissolver probably would work and the (relatively) new Dawn Power Clean dish detergent has been highly recommended by friends. If you have seasoned your cookwell and soak it a bit, you probably won't have trouble. I don't. Also, clean as you go instead of letting it crust up will help too. Frankly there's so much moisture in there you shouldn't have much trouble cleaning it right away or soak it right away. If you're getting a black crust you're probably letting the heat dry it out and bake it on there. That's a big mistake. Keep in mind that if you season your cookwells properly you won't have many cleanup issues. In that respect it's similar to cast iron. My porcelain cookwell for my 6 quart is damaged from using it for a humidifier on dry winter day. The minerals and stuff from the water clung to that thing and I made the mistake of using cleaning pads I shouldn't have used. So when I use that one now I line it with foil most of the time. As for uses, I've gone into detail in other threads, but suffice to say anything I'd put in a slow cooker or the oven I'll put in the electric roaster, including breads, baking potatoes, casseroles, soups, chili, stew, etc. As I said before, you won't get a good crusty meatloaf in it unless you use the fan. Occasionally I want that thick crust on meatloaf so it goes in the oven and of course it'll be dried out. (And no, I *still* won't bury it in 2 inches of ketchup! HA!)...See MoreGot a Nesco roaster
Comments (18)Had completed a brilliant post and was just going to hit preview and CLUNK! The computer overheated and shut down. Couldn't handle so much wisdom in one page presumably. OK, chill baby, I'll use another one. Ever more pearls of wisdom were being typed and part way through that up pops the BSOD. Now I'm beginning to suspect a conspiracy... OK, give it one more try. Now I know I won't remember all those great things. (heavy sigh) We're talking about a cooking appliance here and it'll do different things depending on what you instruct it to do. It'll only follow orders. We're not at the stage of the Jetsons and Star Trek with their Food-o-Matics! :) The skin CAN get crispy, but it's not going to happen by default. My point was, well, one of them, was that the basic concept in cooking something brown and crisp, short of deep frying, is to apply dry heat to it. Moist heat won't do it, rather, it'll have the opposite effect. Remember one of the basic tips for a crisp skin on the T-day bird is to pat that chickadee dry before placing it in the oven. A watched pot may still boil, but a wet bird won't brown and crisp. At least not for a long, long, long time. The laws of thermodynamics always trump Maillard in a cooking process. You don't make peanut brittle by pouring the ingredients into boiling water. Dry heat vs moist heat. So what do you do? Well, either adapt and/or accept, or change cooking methods to work with the tool provided. There's a couple ways you can accomplish this. First you can go the easy route and get the Roast-Air lid. Very handy and I highly recommend it. It's a high domed lid with a fan unit on it to convert the unit to a convection oven. I don't know for sure but rumor has it that it's not available from Nesco anymore for the 6 qt unit so you'll need to seek other sources. I bought the kit from QVC and it had the high domed lid (with a nice big handle rather than a wimpy knob), the fan unit and also a "2-way" rack. I use the rack often and also use the lid without the fan at times. I don't remember whether the extra cookwell was separate (probably was) but it's been handy. I like the non-stick one. If I want to crisp something up a bit, I'll cook it most of the way and then put the fan on for a while. That baby will dry it out quickly and crank the heat with it will brown it up without significant damage to the moistness of the bird. Another much less desireable option is to put it in a convection oven or even the regular oven for a while to crisp it. You can also just keep removing the juices and occasionally pat the bird dry. I would occasionally cock the lid a bit to let a little more steam escape when I had one of those fuel-injected birds they pawn off these days. Keep in mind if you have too much moisture in there, it's not dry roasting, it's going to steam and/or braise the item. That's not the fault of the appliance, it's simply not using it right. The lid has vent holes it it purposely to vent out some of the excess moisture but they can't know the amount of fluid in everything. Some will have more, some will have less so that's where the cook's talents have to come into play. There's been a time or two I wanted NO moisture to leave the cookwell so I just put a layer of heavy duty foil over the top of the cookwell and then the lid on top of it. I always thought an adjustable vent would have been better but they argue that it's the right amount for most things. Oh well, can always plug a hole or two. And no, it's not an air tight seal but it's surprisingly tight when you look at the design. Pull that top off and a LOT of steam comes out! I imagine something can boil dry if you leave the heat too high and for too long. I've never had a problem with it that I can recall. Actually, I have more concerns about excess moisture than drying out with the cooking I do. I should have mentioned you could have just covered it with foil, or for that matter even left it open while it burned off. The purpose is to burn off the coating on the electronics and to season the cookwell which would happen without a lid on it. Sorry about that, didn't even cross my mind. Was concentrating on mentioning the burn-in. My lid has discolored over the years, but I attributed it more to improper washing than a heat effect!...See MorePoll: Do I NEED a Nesco Roaster?
Comments (7)I'm the polar opposite of Grainlady. I don't particularly care for kitchen gadgets (although Elery does) and seldom use them, opting for basic knives, pots, etc. I LOVE my Nesco, though. I have the 6 quart and the 18 quart and I use both of them regularly. I don't have a toaster oven, a counter top convection oven, etc., although Elery does have a countertop rotisserie oven. Of course he does. (grin) The 6 quart does a wonderful roast chicken, and I use it in place of a crockpot. I can cook outside in it when it's hot and the kitchen is steamy, which was an issue in my old house, although for the first time ever I'm living in a house with air conditioning, so it might not be an issue this year. I've cooked in the garage, I did lamb on the back porch so I could avoid the smell, and I've dragged it to my daughters' houses when they were short on space. I use it for additional cooking/oven space on holidays, although now I have double ovens, so I might not have to do that either. The big one I use to simmer large batches of stock for canning or freezing, to make the baked beans or au gratin potatoes for family parties (we have a lot of those, we like to get together, what can I say), I've used it to bake brownies when my oven was on the fritz and I can take it with me and just plug it in and not take up kitchen space when we're at one of the girls' houses. We took it with us when we did Christmas with Elery's family too, so we didn't mess up the oven/stove assignments at his son's house. So I'd say yes you need one, although I would encourage you to borrow one for this particular gathering and see how you like it. You very well might decide that you need one after all. Annie...See MoreCan I bake a meatloaf in a dish in a 6 qt Nesco roaster oven?
Comments (8)Thanks linda and plllog! LOL pilllog! Learned that! Was even thinking in the future of getting those special gloves....they might work better than 2 big potholders. The meatloaf tastes good........but I think I ground the meat too fine for this. I've gotten in the habit of grinding chuck roasts myself, so we're eating from 1 cow at a time, and not 100. Anyhow........I ground this last batch fine and it was a little too fine for meatloaf. And when I would bake it in the big stove/oven, I would use a rectangular casserole dish. As soon as it was done baking, I would elevate one side of the dish and scoop out all that fat, before it would get reabsorbed. But I totally filled this 1 and 1/2 quart - tall sided, square dish and couldn't do that. I'm sure I'll learn the tricks of cooking with this thing. I'm really glad I got the small one and the large one....See Morelindatn37932
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