Gaggenau - convection or combi steam oven?
Tomasz
2 years ago
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Monique Barrow
2 years agoPatricia Colwell Consulting
2 years agoRelated Discussions
How many ovens does one need?
Comments (9)Reheating is better in the combi-steam than in the microwave. I don't have enough cook-space in just the Gaggenau single and combi-steam for when I have the whole family (by the dozens), so I got an Advantium to be a third oven since I don't use the microwave while cooking. I also thought I would use the speed cook a lot, but my needs have changed and that feature doesn't get much use. I'm not understanding entirely what you're asking--that is, exactly how you'll be using it in combination with your other ovens. You can make toast in a real oven, but it's not so great in a convection only oven. Miele's speed oven has a broiler, I think, and people do say that it toasts. The reviews on convection cooking in a regular microwave vary. For some people it's just fine, but most people I know who've tried them have been very disappointed with the results. I'm not sure what your oven purposes are for this additional appliance. If you just want a small convection oven, you have the combi-steam. It's a wonderful little oven with the steam off. It'll do most of what your toaster oven will, though a toaster makes the best toast....See MoreGaggenau combi steam oven, how much steam?
Comments (14)Well, sous vide cooking just refers to cooking the food completely enclosed (usually vacuum packed, hence the name) in a constant temperature water bath. So, no liquid can evaporate. After that, it's all about time and temperature. A good sous vide setup can maintain +/- 0.1 degrees for days across the entire food, much better than any oven. The temperature of the bath can be anything up to just below boiling. A Gagg combi set below 212, with 100% steam does exactly the same thing, just with a little more temperature variability. Actually, there is another difference: cooking at thick slab of meat at lower temps can take hours (sometimes more than a day, which is also why one might want to double check pasteurization charts), a sous vide setup is much more energy efficient than an oven and won't time out on you like the Gagg might. For meats, the temperature chosen can be as low as the desired internal temp when finished. This way it is impossible to overcook the food (it's OK if it sits in the bath after it meets the required internal temp, it'll just hold at that temp) and 100% of the meat is rare (on a grill, going for rare, only the center is rare, the parts of the meat nearer the surface are typically more medium to well. This is why rare-meat lovers go so gaa-gaa over the process - they get more of what they like. If the sous vide meat you see prepared is rare or rare-ish, that's because the cook chose to finish at that temperature. There's nothing to prohibit setting the water bath to the temp needed to cook the meat well done (since well done temp is also below 212). But because rare is in and because this techniques shines for that level of doneness, that's usually what you see. I think there's also a dismissive idea among some foodies and chefs that well-done meat lovers don't care about quality, so why bother using the sous vide technique for them, we'll just throw that rare piece on the grill and dry it out and till it is cooked through and through. Heck, why bother even starting with a better piece of meat for them in the first place -- just grab that uglier slice and use that. Our family members are mostly rare meat lovers (yes, even lamb and duck), but I don't think snobbishness about it is warranted and I do see the problem you face. Now, it's also true that using only sous vide you can't get any sort of crust or maillard reaction. Why? This requires the surface to be dried out. The real cooking geeks have an uber cool technique for this problem as well. The problem being: how to make a crust as thin as possible so the meat just under the surface is not dried out and doesn't cook any further? Well, take your perfectly cooked but crustless and ugly looking meat slab, dip it in liquid nitrogen and then drop it in the fryer. Time it right and only the very surface will get crisped up....See Moregaggenau combi steam oven - how great is it?
Comments (11)Hi! In my experience, it's more important to have it near the prep area than the cooktop, but if you're making things on the stove, I can see how it would be inconvenient if you have a barrier island between you and the steam oven. Have you been to the Kitchens Forum and shared your layout? The folks there might be able to help you find an arrangement that works better. I'd be more concerned about the ease of browning something on the stove and then putting it in the oven, than feeding the steam oven. It's really better if it's only a few steps to the ovens with nothing between. It can't always be done, but it's better. 1. I don't think you can install it below counter, and if you can you'll probably need a straight down drain (like into a basement). Also, because of the steam, I'm not sure that's a good height for it. I wouldn't want to bend to look in and open the door and all. 2. I needed a third oven for entertaining. I did get a speed oven. If you're entertaining by the score, and don't want or need the third oven and don't want to give it the wall space, and if you have storage space, and if you find yourself with inadequate oven space, you can get a roaster oven or a catering oven and just bring it out for when you need the extra capacity. On top of the dryer is often a good place for a spare oven, for instance, because who's doing laundry while entertaining mobs? Different ovens in different places for different functions should be fine. This frees you to put them at optimum height, and to have them not match with impunity. That's harder when they're stacked. The microwave is the most important one to have at point of use. 3. Yes. There is really no difference. Because the units are designed to be able to stack with the regular oven, to the point where the controls line up and make a visual statement, they make the 30" steam oven to go with the 30" oven and look good. Inside, it's the same thing as the 24". If they weren't so heavily designed to stack, I would have put them side by side and gotten the 24" combi-. It would look really silly though, with the controls on top of one and on bottom of the other....See MoreCapital Maestro, DCS, Gaggenau or other oven?
Comments (18)Panzer, I have Gaggenau single convection oven and combi-steam oven, as well as a Gaggenau induction cooktop. Plus a small Wolf gas cooktop. My fridge and freezer are Miele, Advantium speed oven, Monogram warming drawer and DW, Marvel fridge drawers. Modern Aire hood. I don't believe in going for a single brand. I like to chose what suits me best and panel everything that will stand still for it. :) (I.e., everything but the ovens, Advantium and cooktops.) I don't know anything about current pricing. You can call any of the big retailers and get pricing info that may not be published on the 'net. Universal-akb has a good internet sales department who can help you with that. And I think AJMadison also carries all of these. What I want most in an oven is control and accuracy. I also don't want gizmos to decide how the oven works, like rapid preheat, turns off when the door opens, uses preheat mode to regain temperature after you've opened the door and let out some heat, etc. Gaggenau let's you choose to have rapid preheat, but it's an option in the settings. I don't want any stinkin' computer thinking it knows how I want to cook better than I do, with all those features that I listed. That extends to the menu things on the MasterChef. I use them a little on the Advantium because it's so different than other kinds of cooking. So I LOVE my Gaggenau oven because it will do everything I want the way I want it. You can chose any combination of top or bottom heat, some with only the center on, with or without convection, broiler with or without, etc. It also has its own pizza stone with a special electric element which makes excellent crusts. It's only 12" wide, however, so if you want big pizzas/loaves you have to make them oblong. I can slow cook, dehydrate, souffle, multiple level cooking, broil small, roast big, and everything in between. It'll do anything I want, the way I want to do it. The combi-steam is a marvel. It's the perfect toy for the rich and lazy. :) Some people do up a whole kitchen for the cost of the combi- and plumbing. I just saved up. :) One of the best features is "regenerate". If you have a plate of leftovers, like some sliced meat, potatoes, and veg, you can make it up and put it on the rack in regenerate mode and have it come out perfectly heated and with none of it gone all weird or overcooked. I'm constantly learning new things I can do with it. My first tries at rice were horrible, even though it's dead easy on the stove. I'd given up when a friend was asking, so I gave it one more shot when I wasn't actually making a meal (used it later, reheated). Finally got it right. I found a formula, finally. Use 2/3 the amount of water suggested on the package. At least it worked for field picked organic brown rice. :) It's dead easy once you have that. Use the settings on the clue wheel and adjust the timing for the density of the rice. Dump the rice and water in the pan and flatten it out, put it in, set the timer and forget it. That makes it even easier than the boil and set aside method (though that can be programed into an induction cooktop with memory). My latest trick is the pseudo-braise. Choose a slow cooking temperature on 100% steam, perhaps with just a trickle of liquid in the pan if you just want the tender meat without the veg/sauce. Terrific! There are recipes available for the combi-steam, but if you're used to slow cooking, braising, steaming and similar wet techniques, you can kind of moosh what you know together with the temperatures/steam settings/durations from the clue wheel, adjust for density and mass and kind of figure out how to do anything you want. The plumbed is GREAT! I've been sick and really couldn't face cooking. I thought I could at least steam the green beans, which I had bought at a small store where they only had them in a package with the ends already cooked. That was just rinse, dump in pan, stick in combi-, dump in ice bath, dump in dish. The oven was hot and all so I did up the asparagus too. And the artichokes. Dead easy. Very little prep work. Yummy. I'm sorry I don't have better answers for your direct questions, but I can enthusiastically recommend the Gaggenau ovens....See Morewdccruise
2 years agocheri127
2 years agoDebra Glass
2 years agoM Riz
2 years ago
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