Thank you, Do you also have a regular oven and just wish you had 2 (therefore wishing you had the combo?) Thank you. I hear fish is very good and heating up leftover food..thank you for your opinion..

I do have a regular oven, but I wish I had the combo. Chicken and fish steam very well. I did steam chicken legs before they went on the barbecue. This way I was sure they were done. I am now plant based for two years, I’m hardly using the steam oven now. Before that once or twice a week. Saw a lot of recipes that required the combo, which I didn’t have.

Heating up left over food: I never got the hang of it. Uncovered it ended up in a pool of water. Covered it took ages in comparison to a micro wave.

Thank you, Karin. I would have thought that becoming plant based (and congrats good for you!!) would have caused you to want to use the steam feature more for all those vegetables...but maybe you prefer to roast or sautee? Or do you just make in oven or microwave. Would you get one again or no? Thanks.

I roast, sauté, stir fry my vegetables. I would not buy a steam oven again, I would buy a combo oven though, because most recipes I find use the heat of an oven, combined with steam.

While I have a built in combi, you might want to consider the new Anova Precision countertop oven. I haven't seen it but it appears to offer some of the features of a combi at a very attractive price. I use my combi for dry heat much more than combi or steam heat, and very rarely use it solely as a steamer ( usually just for shrimp ) but having a 240 volt and a small chamber lets it heat up very quickly. Not sure how quick the Anova will be since it is only 120 volts.

A good combi oven should be able to replace your regular oven but allow you to have the optimum humidity for what you are cooking. This may or may not include steam. Dry heat is also provided.

If I were just steaming vegetables, I would do it on my burners. I’m not that fond of steamed veggies though. I like roasting for most to let them brown or stirfrying.

To really get an idea of how these ovens work read the manual for a Gaggenau combi.

Some things may use 30% humidity which is the moisture from the food plus a certain vent setting. No added steam at all. Other things like bread baking will have steaming for the first part and venting so low humidity which promotes browning during the second part.

I don’t have one because I have needed two big ovens and don‘t have room for it which would be a third oven. I may replace my wall oven with one at some point.

I don’t know that I would ever use it to steam reheat leftovers, because a microwave is faster and it steams. I reheat things that need to be crispy in a skillet or regular oven.

I add humidity to cheese cakes but some need to sit in the water bath to keep the temperature around the sides and bottom @ 212°F. You can set the oven to 350°F but the water stays @ 212°F. Usually combi ovens come with recipe books which would be recipes that work.

The best use is probably bread baking where you might want a lot of steam at the beginning. You can do this in a regular oven but some don’t tolerate it all that well. A gas oven is very hard to keep added steam in because of the larger vents.

Many say they use their combi oven the most which makes sense. It is smaller so heats more quickly. Some do anything that a regular oven does. When you bake/roast in a regular oven the food puts out a lot of moisture. You can easily supplement this with a pan of hot water for some things but the combi oven does this and provides the convenience of a structured sequence of more and less moisture. Some have sensors to monitor humidity.

Would not want to be without my Miele CSO. Love it and am willing to make sacrifices in order to get one again in my new kitchen, Best appliance ever. Fish, veggies, bread, leftovers, you name it, it comes out perfectly. We eat far more fish since getting this gem of an oven.

One suggestion is to get a decent countertop steam oven and try it for yourself before you commit to buying a built-in higher-end steam oven. I got the Cuisinart CSO for that exact purpose, and I love it so much that I ended up keeping it after my reno while opting against a built-in steam/combi oven.

What do I use the little steam toaster for? It makes rice perfectly as long as you get the timing and temperature right (I got rid of my rice cooker). I have celiac and keep my gluten-free bread products in the freezer, and the steam oven is perfect for bringing frozen items back to life. I've also used it for lightly steaming/slow-cooking roasts (e.g., venison) at 140 degrees, which then allows me to do a quick sear on the cooktop without overcooking.