Like you said only you can decide what works best for you. On our pizza night I like a pan pizza in a cast iron pan. We make our own sauce and dough so the pizza's are usually small, individual ones. I use the steam oven, it heats to 445 in regular convection mode. That leaves the 36" gas oven open for the rest of the family.

Last night our daughter brought over 4 'family' sized pizza's, those won't fit in the steam oven. We have a 30" electric wall oven so used that and the 36".

For us the CSO isn't considered a luxury anymore, the extra wall oven is. It would be the one to go if we had to downsize (it's a Wolf E). I bake 2 loaves of sandwich bread a week and often use the steam oven on conv/steam mode. My DW doesn't like the bread as well when I use that one as the oven spring is quite a bit more than the regular oven and breaks the tops of the loafs. I think it's cool but she's the one who cuts it and doesn't like the funky top, she'd rather have a nice, smooth uniform one. It doesn't get hot enough to bake ciabatta bread, I like the heat ~500 for that but don't bother with steam. Wiener wraps, rolls, bread sticks, corn bread in a cast iron skillet, pies, cookies, muffins, cakes all use the CSO. It's also our rice cooker, veggie steamer, re-heater, braising oven, etc... pretty much anything a regular oven does but smaller and heats much quicker. Ours doesn't broil (Wolf), but the big oven does. It's plenty big for most things and is used far more than any other oven. If I had 2 ovens one would be a CSO.

Mistman, if your loaves are cracking, you should slash them. You don't need a lame (pronounced "laahm"), which is really a razor blade on a handle. You can use any sharp knife. Cut deep, like 1/4", just before transferring the loaf to the oven. That gives the loaf it a place to spread, and looks pretty.

Lawjedi, I think the Bosch is pretty much a previous version of the Gaggenau, so I think what I know applies. If so, I don't think you can fit plates for the whole family in it for Regenerate, and if you're heating separate pans of food, you could as easily do it in regular oven, with the proverbial ramekin of water, or even just the way our mothers did, by adding moisture to the dish. So that leaves using Regenerate for the stragger who missed dinner or something. It does an awesome job, but again, if you have an oven that goes low enough (250 F), you can do something sort of similar with the ramekin of water. Would the steam oven be better? Probably. Can you live without it? Yes.

I have baked bread in mine, but it isn't better than in the big oven with the pan of water, and I get nervous about running the raw dough into the sides and having a mess to clean up. :)

For all that the combi-steam does exceptionally well, it's never going to be a hot enough oven for great pizza, and it's never getting any larger.

I agree that the combi won't make a great pizza. If that is the sole objection, and you have deck space to use a grill, get a Blackstone Patio Oven ( it runs off a propane tank ) It will make the best pizza you have even had, and you can get it for around $400 ( much less if a Lowe's near you has one, they are selling off at very low prices - sometimes under $200. ) The Blackstone can cook a pie in a minute and a half to two and a half minutes, and it is ready for the next pie as soon as you take the last one out, so it will be much quicker than any oven you have. It can be used for other foods, but not very well. It is a one trick pony - it makes pizza, New York Style, Neapolitan, Deep Dish, but it does that trick very well.

The combi does a nice job with bread, but its best features are quick cooking when using the combi mode, and the reheat mode is great as well. If you like making cheesecake, the steam function is truly unbelievable, cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap held in place with a rubber band, and cook on the steam setting - it is like the water bath method, but much lower temp, and it always comes out perfect.

Our BS gas oven gets pretty hot, not sure exactly how hot I'm sure it's beyond the 500 on the dial. I always crank it past 500 (to what would seem about 550) for doing pizza. Usually takes about 4-5 minutes for a nice crisp crust and big brown cheesy bubbles, not a pizza oven but works well enough for us. Pan pizza in the steam oven isn't too bad, I like it. I would really like to have an outdoor pizza oven (we just built and provided gas for one) but I haven't really landed on exactly what I'd like, more choices I'm not prepared to delve into just yet.

Sorry to hi-jack......

My inlaws had an outdoor kitchen with a wood-fired oven. The pizzas that came out of it were amazing. They moved last year and dh & I pretend that one day we will do a diy project of some type of pizza oven. It's so hard to figure out exactly what I'll need. Right now my oven is a whirlpool, non-convection, wrong temperature atrocity. I have it cranked up as high as I can get it, yet 2 pizzas still take nearly 20 minutes. It's hard for me to determine if 1 really good oven will get pizza out in a timely fashion or not. When pizza night is just for the 6 of us, I normally make 3 or 4 pizzas (leftovers!), but when company joins us, the numbers jump to 6-10 pizzas. I've gone back and forth on this oven issue so many times. Right now I think I'm leaning back towards a dbl oven. Plllog made a good point about being able to pretend a steam oven with water ramekins... Next time I'm in the showroom, I'll measure the width of the interior cavity -- not sure why I can't find that info online, but I can't. I know it looks very small when I see it. I'm greatly looking forward to ordering the cabinets/appliances! I will be able to put the back and forth wavering to rest! It has gone beyond the point of ridiculousness. First world problems.

I make whole wheat pizza, only, with a thinnish, but not cracker thin crust. I have the Gaggenau pizza stone with special heating coil and a baking steel. My pizza comes out better, ceteris paribus, on the stone, which is inch thick clay and has the element right under it. Rhome410 prefers the steel. My bread comes out better on the steel (the crust from the stone is too much).

What I've found through trial and error is that no matter what, an individual pizza, with my whole wheat thin (not cracker thin) crust, comes out best at 475 degrees and about nine minutes on the stone. On the steel, either center or center-high, it also preferred 475, but took only about 7-8 minutes, and the crust wasn't as well done. I rarely make larger pizzas, even for parties.

Other crusts, with other baking environments and temperatures, will take different amounts of time, of course. I offer this as point of comparison with a good oven.

Wolf told me their steam oven would make great pizzas with a nice, chewy-crispy crust. Of course, I couldn't spend that kind of money to buy a single + steam oven with my double oven refund money, and they didn't seem to want to offer me a deal, so I can't tell you how it does! But I definitely consider Plllog a credible resource, and she has a lot of experience with the size and abilities of the Gagg combi oven. Her experience doesn't make me want to rush out and buy one! At least for breads and pizza. I, too, decided that, in the long run, a double oven would serve a big family better.

Now for pizza advice you may or may not want:

Anyway, I do have experience with pizza for a big family and for crowds. A lot of my blog's space in the last 3 years has been filled with our adventures in pizza baking (this is the link if you want it)... Not only the challenges of feeding a family of 10 and sports teams of up to 40, but using different recipes, techniques, pans, temperatures, stones, etc, etc to get 'the best' pizza.

First of all, I think you might be causing yourself some problems by trying to bake more than one pizza at a time. Those more knowledgeable in cooking science can correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2 pizzas will double the mass and humidity, which I think would affect cooking and browning, which, in turn affect time to cook and texture. You might steam your pizzas in a regular oven, which doesn't have the heat to do multiples. But maybe that makes a chewier texture and maybe that's what your family prefers. One thing I've learned is that my 'perfect pizza' might not match someone else's.

My Wolf ovens were the best at pizza baking. I think it recovered temps faster, which helped keep things moving. I also had pretty good results with the Fisher & Paykel, and the Gagg does OK.. Probably #3 for me. Monogram doesn't even get a place. I wish I could offer more about the Bosch, but since it's related to Gagg, I would expect it to do OK, too. (I would expect Elux to do as well as the F&P, from the baking performance reports I've read here, but you were asking about Bosch)

My current favorite pizza method uses the basic recipe from the book Artisan Breads in 5 minutes a Day. That means I stir up the dough in a bucket on Friday night (after forming that night's pizzas), let it sit at room temp while I bake that night, then put it in the fridge, and it's ready to use on the following Friday. When Friday evening comes, I preheat the oven, with a "Baking Steel" on the 2nd to the top rack, for an hour or so, at 500 to 550.

While the oven and Steel heat, I form and top the pizzas on parchment (trimmed
so that the excess doesn't burn at the high temps), so I can slide one
out and the next one in, using a peel, quickly and easily.

--I tried the Gagg pizza stone Plllog mentioned, but never got the results I wanted. She thinks it's because I use parchment instead of putting the pizzas in direct contact with the stone. The parchment makes things too clean and easy when I need to bake so many pizzas, so I won't give it up. Previous to the Baking Steel, which I highly recommend, I had other stones... One was a Pampered Chef stone that I used until it was in 4 pieces, and after that, a stone meant to hold ceramics baking in a kiln. (Inexpensive from school or art supply places) That worked well, but doesn't fit in the shallower Gagg cavity, and DH hasn't gotten around to trimming it for me.--

With the Gagg, I can choose which elements and fans to use or not use. When I put pizzas in, I choose the mode that offers full bottom heat and partial top heat, and uses no convection fans. In a different oven, I'd choose the standard "Bake" mode, which is similar. I find that this mode allows the bottoms to cook adequately before the tops overbrown. Your mileage may vary in different ovens and different makes of ovens, and you can adjust the mode for more top heat or fans, if necessary, to get the result you'd prefer.

This method takes about 8 or 9 minutes per pizza. The Wolf used to get it done in 6 or 7.

Hope this helps.

Rhome410-- I've read your blog and your adventures in pizza and bread making. Very much enjoyed. I'm on a hiatus from sandwich bread making, but I still do artisan breads/rolls/muffins etc. I'm sure I'll pick the sandwich bread back up again at some point. I wax and wane with cooking styles and techniques. ;-) Your pizza nights - especially team pizza night, put mine to shame. I think the largest crowd I've done pizza for is 25.

The more I think about it, I think my love of gadgets and trying new things really swayed me to the steam oven idea. I know I'd love it & I know I'd enjoy figuring it out. But... when reality hits and I'm making pizza for 15...20...25... maybe more someday, I'm really going to miss the output of 2 ovens. (& when bread making waxes again, I'll want it then too)

Quick question for you about your pizza steel -- do you use it for other things as well, similar to a stone? My stone just cracked & I haven't replaced it yet. Perhaps I go the steel route instead.

I have and love the artisan book. But I've never tried their pizza dough. I've always just used my mil's recipe. I bet the week of "fermenting" time in the fridge gives your dough a great flavor.

Yes, the flavor of the slow-fermented dough is good. I used to use the olive oil recipe from that book for pizza, but now just stick to the 'plain' one: 3 cups water, 6 1/2 cups flour, 1/2-1 teaspoon yeast, and a tablespoon each of sugar and salt. Stir it together, and done. I leave a bit of it each week to stir up with the new batch and increase the sourdough flavor.

I haven't made much bread lately either. I have some that are trying to cut back or cut out grains, and, also, life is just busy... A dad who lives out of town and needs my time, teens who are all over the place, and everyone seems to need something, somewhere at once! Baking has become a luxury I rarely get time for these days. --So, no, I haven't really tried the steel for anything else. I'm sure it has more good uses!

I fully understand the temptation and appeal of new gadgets. But those darn steam ovens are SO expensive. Too big a risk to regret later for me.

As I mentioned above, I don't like the steel for pizza as well as the heavy stone (since Rhome and I have the same oven, steel and stone, it's a great demonstration about how different results stem more from what is being cooked), but I have been using the steel for bread recently. I LOVE it. I only did the in a pot kind once and wasn't pleased with the results, compared to my normal bread baking. The steel, however, with parchment, btw, gives excellent oven spring, and a lovely crust. Cleaning it is very similar to cleaning a stone, and it's not so fragile. It is prone to rust, so better not to leave it in a damp environment (they also sell cool recycled billboard and nylon cases), but it can be restored with steel wool if necessary.

The combi-steam oven might not be the right fit, but if you like new gadgets, the Baking Steel is certainly worth a try. ;)

Lawjedi, I had to come back and say I tried baking 2 pizzas at once, so I could see if i made some bad assumptions in my comment above. I think I did. Since I don't have 2 steels or a stone right now, I just put a very thin, dark, rimless baking sheet 2 rack positions below the steel, which was in its usual position, 2nd from the top. I preheated the oven and steel at 525, but turned the heat to 475, and the mode to bottom heat only when I put the 2 pizzas in. It takes a couple extra minutes, and sometimes when I take out the top pizza, I move the bottom pizza to the top to brown the cheese a little more. But it worked. And to get 2 pizzas done in only about 3 extra minutes is good!

Thanks for thinking of me and my pizza dilemma. I'm ordering cabinetry (& appliances) this week. Hopefully no last minute changes of mind. My brother tried to sway me back to the steam oven a few days ago. He enjoys cooking etc. just as much as I do -- I think his reasoning was if I got it, he could try it! ;-) It was and is very tempting. But since I was so much on the fence, with legitimate reasons in both directions, I think I'm going to be happier with the practical, and less $$$, choice of double ovens. Pizza night will thank me. I looked over the website for the steel. I'm definitely getting one. I just want to wait until after the remodel. I don't want it to come here and immediately have to put it in storage.