omg, I am completely in love with this roaster oven!!!!

Here's the roasted cauliflower:

and here's my single-serve experimental baked zitis... I used single portions of UNCOOKED ziti, mixed with sauce plus 2 tbs water, then topped with a cheese filling like you'd put in lasagna (sans mozzarella cheese). I made one regular and one gluten-free pasta -- they both came out perfect and the house is nice and cool. :)

Thank you, plllog! Yes, I was worried the romertopf would be too close to the heating element, so an extra rack or something like you suggested is exactly what I'd need!

I could kick myself for waiting so long to try a roaster oven!

Wow! I' really impressed with your experiments. Especially the cauliflower. It looks exactly like it had been roasted in a conventional oven. I own a small 6 quart Nesco and use it with a Pyrex meatloaf type pan that just about fits inside. But your larger roaster would accommodate larger casserole dishes. Now I've got some thinking to do about perhaps getting a similar one. I don't worry so much about having an extra oven, but having something that doesn't heat up the house -- now that's a temptation. I wonder how it would do with yeast bread. Hmm.

You've been won over to the wonder of electric roasters. Now you see why I threw away my slow cookers! I've made yeast breads, sweet breads, biscuits, rolls, meatloaves, burgers, pot roasts, baked potatoes, soups, stews, chilis, casseroles and much much more in my 4 qt and 6 qt Nescos. I use it to cook up ground meat (sometimes adding onion) to freeze. This saves mess when I need ground meat for a casserole, soup, chili, etc. I recently did about 18 pounds (in 3 batches) using my 6 quart unit. It's so nice, you don't have to constantly attend it like a frypan or stock pot. A few stirs and it's cooked up, drain it, bag it, freeze it and one ease pot to clean.

I don't know of anything you can't bake in an electric roaster that you can bake in a conventional oven. And you can do a number of things in an electric roaster that you cannot do in a conventional oven. Because mine are smaller ones I've never tried a pie in there before although it would probably work fine. In the big one you have, pies would work well too, as would cakes, even cookies and bars. BTW, that cauliflower looks GREAT!

I believe the Oster is similar to the Nesco in that the heating element is not in the bottom like a slow cooker, rather in the sides. You still will want to use the rack for a lot of things, not for fear of burning the bottom but for better air circulation.

As for your romertopf , don't take this as gospel, but I'm guessing that as long as you don't have it ice cold you should be fine. If you're concerned, you could bring up the temperature of the roaster more slowly to condition and heat it. But I'm not sure you really need it. The electric roaster will probably do pretty much the same thing. I don't know what size you have so that could make a difference and you might want to have the romertopf in there while cooking something else along side of it, I don't know what you want to do so I can only speculate.

Enjoy that roaster oven. I know you will love it more every time you use it. There's slight differences in using a roaster oven and you'll learn as you go. For one thing there's more moisture in a roaster oven than a conventional oven. This can impact things like browning birds and the like, but that's easy to work around, at least for me.

One tip, you can do multi-level cooking if you have the rack like the one that comes with the Nescos. If you don't have one like it (the 2 tiered rack) you can still make your own or rig something. Using my mothers roaster I used Corningware covered dishes and the big glass raised knob worked fine to set another one on and it cooked fine. You need space between them for air circulation.

So many times when I see these large roasters for $15-$25 I've thought about getting one, but just can't justify it. I don't cook for large groups anymore but it's such a bargain. Then I can't help but laugh seeing people buying slow cookers for $100 or more! They just don't know what they're missing! Happy cooking.

shambo, unless it's a cold morning, I've always avoided using the oven in the summer. This roaster changes all my options. :)

cynic, thanks for all the info, ideas and tips! I'll probably have to buy myself a small roaster now too. lol!

Like Cynic, I've made everything from brownies and banana bread to roast turkey and large batches of stock for canning, I love my roasters. I have the 6 quart and the big one, and use both regularly.

The big one gets hauled out for family potlucks and large batches of things for canning, like the above stock, or soup or apple butter. The small one is great for baking a couple of potatoes or roasting a chicken.

Have fun playing with your new "oven". I don't have any information about the romertopf, I just picked up a schlemmertopf at the online auction for $2, but haven't used it yet. Now you have me thinking of baking bread in there!

Annie

I've done that---hauled the Nesco out on the porch to keep the extra heat out of the house. That was when I lived in the Sunbelt and before I discovered how useful toaster ovens are. For most baking (cakes, breads, pies, etc.) a toaster oven is more user friendly because it's easier to get things in & out of with less risk of burning yourself. And nowhere near as heavy as my very old 18 qt roaster oven is (though new RO's weigh a fraction of what the vintage ones do.)

I have a couple of vintage TO's that will fit a 9 x 13 size pan. This larger size TO is a lot more useful than the smaller (tinker toy) versions. I've found them at rummage sales and in near mint condition and really inexpensive. I was so happy to find the first one that I remember what I paid for it--$6. Liked it so much that, when I found its twin at another sale, I bought if to have for a back-up.

One nice feature is the mechanical count-down timer that will automatically turns the oven off at the end of baking time--very nice for 'remote cooking' and for people like me who are easily distracted and have a tendency to wander off & forget that they have something in the oven.

Anyway, something else to consider if you're thinking about outfitting a summer kitchen.

ci_lantro, I have very limited kitchen counter space... I tried a small TO/toaster combo and it's barely large enough to heat a couple small pieces of pizza. :p

You all have convinced me and I just ordered a 6 qt roaster oven to try. Ordered one for my sister too. lol!

Party-music, I like having a TO in the kitchen but, primarily, I was suggesting it for the porch, i.e., the summer kitchen because it's easier to use--getting stuff in and out of. Another plus is that TO's have a window that you can peek thru to see how the cooking is progressing w/o having to lift a lid and letting the heat escape.

I wouldn't fork over the cash for a new TO for just summer baking. A vintage one had cheap is a 'nother story.