Thinking about it, but can't quite get past a nagging voice in my head saying "gimmick".
Anyone that actually cooks properly even used one? If so, worth it, or rubbish?
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Thinking about it, but can't quite get past a nagging voice in my head saying "gimmick".
Anyone that actually cooks properly even used one? If so, worth it, or rubbish?
We got one for Christmas. My wife cooked a full roast in it (Chook in the middle, veg round the edges) and it came out very nice. Not sure why, but it just sits on the kitchen table now, unused. I think it might be that cleaning it is quite a faff... They are quite versatile, but you have to have the space to keep it 'in view' and plugged in, otherwise it'll get forgotten, like the Sodastream and the Breville Sandwich Toaster.
Purchased one - timer went faulty - and after extra consideration, decided to just get refunded.
I wouldn't count myself as a person who actually cooks properly, but there is one recommendation I would make if you did decide to get one.
Namely that would be not to get a JML one, as in my experience they tend to break down shortly after the warranty has ended - and they don't sell parts separately. Plus there is the fact that non-JML ones allow you to replace the bulb if needed.
Thankfully a dishwasher makes that much easier to deal with, as it's obviously just a matter of placing the bowl into it. Though admittedly it does take up quite a bit of room.
@Smudger - Agreed about not putting it in a cupboard. It'll join the breadmaker, Rotofryer, Magimix XL, second food processor, Kenwood Chef, Coffee machine, pasta machine and Microwave, on the countertop. All I'll have to do is chop veg on a tray on my lap from now on. :D
The one I saw was either Cookworks or Cookshop, not sure which, 1300w, hinged lid, 11 litre capacity, 8 extras including a 5 litre extension ring. Just under £50, plus P&P. But I'm not fixated on any given make or model. I do want hinged lid, though, if I buy one at all.
@Output - Sadly, the dishwasher in this house is me.
Got a mate who's been proselyting about his since he got it for Christmas. Had quite a few meals out of it, all lovely. His advice amounts to make sure you get one that does 250c some only do 200 and they chuck out some real heat so you want a reasonable space to use it.
Ours is the Cookworks - it was a present so I don't know cost or where it came from. I really can't fault the meal we had from it, and the list of stuff you can do with them is quite long. But, my wife has a thing about tidying.
Currently, I'm looking more at an Andrew James (think that was the name, I'm not on the PC where I stored the details). It was a tad more expensive, but has an easily replaceable bulb, and a spare is supplied, and a two-year standard warranty. It's £60, and Amazon, and I think it was free delivery, so cost about a fiver more and it's worth it for the convenience of having a spare bulb, and knowing for sure that it's user-replaceable.
Still got to make up my mind whether to do it at all, though.
The name that always comes up on MSE is Remoska (which I think is basically the same thing), but they're not cheap. OTOH, they are very highly rated. The wife and I did consider the possibility when we were looking at buying a house that would need the kitchen ripping out, but in the end we didn't get the house, so we didn't get the Remoska.
I personally don't see the point unless you don't have an oven already, and as with all kitchen gadgets I think you need a lot of kitchen (we couldn't have one in our current place, just wouldn't have the room to use it regularly) to make it really worthwhile. If you're in that much of a rush for dinner, you probably shouldn't be cooking a full roast dinner tbh ;)
Well, it's horses for courses, type-of thing.
Sometimes, I have time on my hands and will 'cook' properly. My Spag Bol is a Tagliatelle (or Fettucine, even Pappardelle) dish where, if I'm in the mood, I'll make the pasta myself, and I certainly do a "proper" Bolognese recipe which takes about 3-3.5 hours to reduce to a sauce, rather than a minced-beef dish.
But .... sometimes I have neither than much time, nor the inclination. So I look for shortcuts.
The marketing spiel for halogen is partly speed, partly convenience, and partly cost. It allegedly is cheaper to run. First, it uses almost no power except when halogen bulb is lit, which is spadmodically. I understand that, because our induction hob is the same.
Also, of course, partly because it's a relatively small space compared to our big oven. So, you want to roast some peppers, for instance. Option 1 - heat the big oven, and wait 15-20 mins while it preheats. Option 2 - radiant heat from halogen doen't need preheating. Your peppers are near-roasted by the time the main oven's got to temperature, and you're ready to put the peppers in. So, you gain on speed, and cut down on running/cooking costs, too. And because no preheating, you save time, too. Hence, convenience.
As for a full roast, we don't do that very often, and that's certainly not why we'd buy, but comments elsewhere do suggest it makes a good chicken-roaster, etc.
We do have a main (twin) oven, but .... it's ancient, and will get replaced in the full kitchen remodel we're planning. But even now, we use a Panasonic combi microwave, in convection mode, more than the main oven, but that then takes the microwave out of use for the duration.
Mainly, the halogen would be about speed and convenience, but I'll take savings on running costs over the main oven, when appropriate .... if I decide to go ahead.
That's the logic, anyway.
Its a Halo of a oven.
use gas .. 1300w whats the eleccy bill going to be like ?
1300 W is not much more than a microwave. A typical fan oven is more like 2 kW for the heating element (though they normally use about half that in operation). Not to mention given Saracen is using an induction hob, he might not have a gas main...
No gas in the kitchen, and getting it there without ripping the kitchen out would be a nightmare, not to mention the cost of the oven versus the £50-£60 for the halogen, or the fact that part of the reason is to use a small device that has minimal area to heat up, and that halogens don't need pre-heating which the gas oven would, thereby taking longer to cook whatever it is we were doing, and that we're talking about a counter-top device.
Apart from that, great idea.
As for 1300w, EACH of the rings on the induction hob exceeds that, but they aren't powered up all the time you're using them, and nor is the halogen oven.
If a device uses 1300w, but it's on for 15 seconds then off for 45 seconds, then per minute, it's using a quarter of the rated power level, isn't it?
A gas oven, on the other hand, supplies gas constantly.
The halogen heater alternates on and off, only using the power necessary to keep the oven temp at the level set by the thermostat, so it's not powered constantly. You'll see it go on, off, on, off. 1300w is the rated power, but not indicative of actual power consumption in use.
And my microwave is either 1000 or 1100w, nominal.
Kind-of. Having used both, I'd pick induction over gas anyway, given the choice. It does take a bit of getting used to, at first, but I love it.
But yes, no gas, not in the kitchen anyway. We have gas main, and gas heating, and there used to be gas to the cooker, but at some point, a previous owner has disconnected the pipework somewhere under the floorboards. We'd have to take up floors, potentially through about half of the house, to find out where. Which is a large part of why I went induction for the hob. I'm glad I did, though.
Had a similar issue with gas, but found it cheaper to have the meter moved outside and have a new supply run round the outside wall then in where the hob was.