Hi to everyone, been reading the many great forums. I fell in love with the Wolf steam oven...looking for less expensive options. Kitchen Aid makes a single or double wall oven with piped in steam and dual fan for great convection/air circulation. But there are some really bad reviews on other sites for it (self-cleaning is actually self-destruct, class-action, product recall). Does anyone have one? Recently bought one? Any other options? Thanks.

I've only done parts in my Gaggenau combi-steam. They came out fantastic, but I can't remember doing anything special. I think I just used the same temperature as for chicken (360° F., 20 min. per pound, 60% steam). Whether I'm doing a butterflied whole chicken or a quarter of a turkey, my theory is suntan lotion, seasoning, steam. That is, some kind of sauce, dressing or oil with a little sugar in it for the crisp skin, S&P and/or herbs and spices, and if not the steam oven, then some wine or broth in the pan to steam with. With the combi-steam, just put it in the solid pan and put it in. It's helps if it comes to room temperature first, however, so there isn't as much condensation. While I was offhand about the flavors, above, I do match them together!

The combi steam is particularly great for breads that you bake and want to add steam to the early stages such as lean doughs like sour dough. It also aids in the rise process for yeast breads. For example I do my second rise to top of pan then put in my combi steam using the below program - I converted to Fahrenheit for my oven: 40˚C 100% humidity 8min 50˚C 100% humidity 4min 180˚C 50% humidity 10min 180˚C 0% humidity 15min at the180˚C 50% humidity stage. Dough has risen way beyond the tin. My rolls get far more rise than not using steam. I made a batch of rolls once and got almost no rise as my yeast was pretty much dead. So I made out the rolls and let them rise for 30 min - which was not much and then baked with the above program and they turned out almost as good as with good yeast. I was pretty impressed. Both the wolf and miele have auto programs for bread which can be useful. Miele details in their user manual what the stages are for their programs so you can start with theirs and tweak if desired.

I went through the same question some years back. Miele has more features for the $$, so I originally wanted that, but at the time they didn't have a combi/convection steam oven that could take 208V (what I had), so I settled with the Wolf instead. And I must say, I've been really happy with it. It works, it's not fussy. Yes, it doesn't have the color swipey screen the Miele has, but I'm not convinced I miss that all that much. Would I like a broiler? I think so, as it is something I use, but I do have another big oven with the broiler (that unit almost always takes a backseat to the convection steam unit) and I can use that when I'm broiling something, so it's not too bad. I've kept tabs on the Miele, and I've discovered that considering that if you don't get a plumbed unit, the Wolf is more forgiving than the Miele on how much water is in the tank (I'm pretty lazy and never fill it up all the way, and the Wolf lets me still use it as long as I have enough water). If you really want to go into the details about adjusting settings, moisture level, turning on upper element broiler, you'll want the Miele, but if you just want to use it, I think you'd like the Wolf. I certainly don't regret having to "settle" for it at all.