Counter top roaster vs. oven - pros, cons, benefits, etc?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

revvinkevin

revvinkevin

Well-known member
Platinum Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
5,592
Location
La-La Land
My grandmother had a Westinghouse roaster (similar the photo below) and always used it for the Thanksgiving turkey, because the oven was full of pies or other things. Honestly I don't know if she used it for anything OTHER than the big day-O-turkey.

Aside from the "cool factor" of being a vintage appliance, what are any pros / cons, or advantages / disadvantages of using an roaster versus an oven?

Are these specifically designed to be a "turkey roaster"? I imagine you can use it for things too, but want to ask all of you.

Thank you in advance!
Kevin

revvinkevin-2016071416041706891_1.jpg
 
Thanksgiving turkey in these is beyond amazing. They do real well for most things you can bake in the regular oven. I've done cakes in them. The only exception is stuff like shake and bake pork chops, that has a crust. They don't seem to come out as well.

The HUGE advantage to these that they don't heat the kitchen up.
 
Honestly, I use an electric roaster more for reheating and holding large quantities of grilled burgers, pork chops, or meat for sloppy joe/tacos when serving big groups of people. Have never actually used it to roast a turkey---but may give that a try this summer. I've heard more than one grandma say it produces a very flavorful, moist turkey.

Here's a vintage TV commercial about the Westinghouse Electric Roaster. It shows the roaster being used to cook a Thanksgiving turkey and then a complete ham meal.



I'll bet cooks in the 1950s wished they had these wonderful roaster liners available to them to make cleanup a breeze.

post was last edited: 7/14/2016-20:06]
 
The big advantage is that you can set the roaster in a cooler part of the house or on a porch so you don't heat up the kitchen.  

 

The problem can be power... These beasties suck back the watts and they can blow fuses if you try to use them on a circuit that's in use by other appliances.  
 
wonderful roaster liners

I have to admit I'm not very wild about the thought of such liners. I may hate doing dishes, but I also hate the waste of buying stuff that gets used one time and then thrown. And one wonders, too, about chemicals in the liner possibly leeching into the food, and causing long term health problems.

I have similar reservations about liners for other products, like slow cookers.
 
Countertop Roasters and "Ovenettes"

Pros:

Most models of vintage offerings are quite good for baking, roasting, and other things you normally would do in a full sized oven. This while either acting as a second (or third) oven and or not having to use the full sized one during hot weather. The latter keeps your kitchen cooler....

Cons:

These units often have nil to no insulation and also really draw power. That being said once brought up to temp and you resist the temptation to open/lift lid the thermostat shouldn't call for heat that often.

If you ever want to see how much power those vintage Westinghouse and other roasters pull, hook one up to a Kill-A-Watt device. That or go look at your electric meter when one is started up from cold and watch those dials spin.

Mind you all this was before air conditioning was not as common compared to now. Many family members simply turn up/on the AC and use their ovens even on the hottest days of summer. My mom and others when I was coming up usually served something "cold" on such days and or we either ate out, ordered take-away or grill was fired up and we had BBQ in the back yard.

Great thing about the Westinghouse and most other vintage roasters is that the liner comes out for cleaning. You can do all sorts of dishes for a crowd from lasagna to chili with very easy clean up afterwards.
 
Since finding my big 1946 GE roaster a few years back, I've used it to make two things:  Corned beef for a crowd on St. Patrick's Day, and to bake a loaf of banana bread on the back yard patio when it was 97 outside (we have no A/C).  It lives in the basement, but it's very handsome to behold when it takes its place in the kitchen.

 

For the beef it was like a giant slow cooker, but it also provided the advantage of using the temperature control to speed recovery to a steady simmer after adding the vegetables.  The more amazing result was beautifully baked banana bread.   It took a little longer than in a conventional oven, but it was perfectly done.

 

Long ago I used my mom's Westinghouse (like the one in the OP and in similar, if not worse condition) for a big batch of cioppino, and another time for chili.  I didn't want that roaster at the time it was up for grabs, so it got re-homed. 

 

The one thing to remember is, don't peek.  Most Westinghouse roasters have a handy window in the lid, but for those that don't, lifting it will have the exact opposite consequences of doing the same thing with a chest freezer, and the more you do it, the more your cooking time will need to be increased.

 

I've read both pro and con about turkeys in roasters.  Some have said they don't brown well, while others have said they turn out beautifully.  In late November, all issues with a kitchen that's too hot are pretty much history around here, but I can see the advantage of using the large conventional oven (particularly if it has a convection setting) for multiple side dishes and letting the turkey do its thing in the roaster.

 

 

[this post was last edited: 7/14/2016-18:40]

rp2813-2016071417522203798_1.jpg
 
The liner fits in the lower rack of KitchenAid dishwashers. After we roasted the turkey, we made gravy in the roaster and once it was simmering, we would put the load and lift rack back in the roaster to cook off all of the drippings. During that period, even the stuff cooked onto the side of the pan softened. I used to make it full of spaghetti sauce. Meat is slow to brown in it, though, so the quickest way to handle that is to form the meat into large burgers and brown  them under the broiler then crumble them and add to the sauce. Once I got all of the ingredients together, I would can 14 quarts  and keep two for immediate use. It was great for simmering ketchup, too, before canning it. With the heat coming from the sides as well as the bottom, there was less chance of it sticking. They are not super well insulated, so in hot weather, it is best to use them in an area that you are not cooling unless you have a lot of AC capacity.

 

If you do a turkey so large that the breast touches the glass, a small piece of foil placed on the glass will help to brown that part of the bird.
 
I'm glad this came up! I just bought a Westinghouse at a thrift store to use when I cater a wedding next month at a friends vacation home. The stove in the cabin is one of the original Jennair grill-ranges with the tiny oven. I mean tiny! Thanks for the tips on how much juice they use. I'll have to check out her breaker box this weekend. I'm planning on using my Farberware electronic countertop oven for the beef tenderloins. I'm not much of a grill master!
I'll have to plug this baby in and begin experimenting. I think it will also be handy this Christmas when we do our citywide Christmas dinner. I can get 4 turkey breasts in my range and 2 more in the roaster oven at a time and have all 12 done in a day!
Kevin! Are you also thinking about using them at the Wash-In? I can just see you and Hans scurrying around to different ovens around the showroom stirring and peaking. Knowing John, there's MORE than enough juice in his plugs!
Greg
 
Kevin, I had a modern-day Nesco 18-qt roaster.  I kept it in the garage when not in use.  I tripped one day and fell on the Nesco and bent the lid and destroyed one of the little legs.  It was my second oven for several years.  Turkeys were cooked perfectly in it.  I also used mine to make meat loaf; wonderful cheesecake; pound cakes; bundt cakes; baked chicken breasts.  I may have even baked small pizzas in it. When in use, it was in the laundry room on top of the chest freezer. 
 
Our ladies guild at church uses the several Westinghouse roasters they have for making large batches of chili mac, and other types of soup for our annual Lenten soup suppers.  They also use them for making WI-style goulash for funeral luncheons as well as ham & scalloped potatoes, baked beans etc.  They are great for quantity cookery.

 

P.S. I'm including the recipe for WI-style goulash.  Our family adds peas & green beans also.

http://tummytreasure.com/archive/?p=335
 
Lord Kenmore--  I can certainly understand and empathize with your skepticism concerning the safety of plastic liners for roasters and slow cookers.  However, the gravitational pull of ease and convenience vanquished all such fears, LOL.  I've also used Reynolds Roasting Bags for years.  My rationalization:  I've done so many things which could cause major health problems that the occasional use of plastic liners seems a comparatively small risk.

🍸💊🚬💉🛁
 
WOW, so versatile, who knew? Thank you EVERYONE for the info, stories, tips, etc, I appreciate your input!

Tim, the Wi goulash sounds really good, thanks for the recipe, I'm going to have to try it!

Kevin
 
Westinghouse

My grandmother had one and used it daily to ensure that her husband my grandfather had a hot meal ready as soon as he got home. Her's sat on a matching cabinet next to her stove and used it regularly until her death in 1990. I always wanted it but i'm sure its long gone somewhere.
 
I picked up a used newer Rival roaster to prepare last years Thanksgiving bird. First time we did it that way rather than in the oven.

Not only did it cook much faster in the roaster it was very moist. I've read some comments in the past concerning birds done in a roaster won't brown like in the oven but it definitely browned just fine.

I actually let it cook a little too long and the internal temperature raised higher than it needed to be because it cooked much faster than the min/lb guide printed on the bag. But it was still moist.
 
Hmmm...

Does anyone make a modern version that is better insulted than from years past?

I wouldn't mind having one, but if it is going to heat the house, then I probably wouldn't use it much. I do lean on my crock pot for a lot in the summer time.

Malcolm
 
Guys,

These DO NOT heat the house, not anywhere near what the regular oven does. As I mentioned before, they can most of what a regular oven does.

This works especially well in an inadequately air conditioned trailer.

There's not much to them either, they consist of a nichrome wire and house insulation between the tub and the outer wall.

I once used mine to cook a lasagna dinner in a elementary school for 4 teachers and 8 students. The oven sat in a small storage room between the two classrooms and did it's thing. It did not change the temperature of the room at all
 
Vintage roasters will not heat up a space same as a larger oven. However you can t throw a "blanket" made from oven or similar insulation over or around the thing to keep more of the heat in. Do this with the Ovenette and Maxim convection oven.

As noted previously main thing is to *NOT* keep lifting/opening the lid on these things. Once they reach temperature it remains surprisingly constant long as you keep the lid on/door closed.

Because you are cooking in close confined space you'll probably find things are done a bit faster and or you must adjust the temperature a bit lower. This makes sense as unlike a large oven you aren't heating lots of dead air space around your pan/dish, so there is probably a more efficient transfer of heat.
 
If you are comparing it to a gas oven, then yes, it does not heat up the kitchen like using a gas oven, but it can heat up a kitchen more than a well-insulated electric oven, depending on the task being done. This is not meant as a knock against the roaster oven, just a cautionary statement about using one during the summer when any additional heat source is best kept out of the living area. Oven meals were generally reduced during the summer in the years before air conditioning. People in the south often used these roaster ovens on porches during the summer when they had gas ranges in their kitchens as did our former neighbors when they lived in an apartment. At that time, their old apartment model gas range did not have an oven thermostat so the thermostatic control of the roaster oven was a real boon to precise oven cooking.

 

 

I will share one bit of hard-earned knowledge. If you are baking in a Bundt Pan in a roaster oven, you need to place a trivet like one from a 4 or 6 quart pressure cooker on the load and lift rack before placing the Bundt Pan in the oven. While the load and lift rack is adequate to keep flat bottom cake and pie pans from coming in direct contact with the bottom on the oven, the fluted outside of the Bundt Pan needs the greater surface area of the additional trivet to provide a cushion of air between the oven bottom and the pan. The Westinghouse Roaster Oven bakes beautiful pound cakes that are beautifully browned on all sides. Once, when the bake element in mom's oven went out just as she was going to bake a pan of brownies, she fired up the RO and reported excellent results.

 

 
 
Steam table

I remember some of these had a kit that consisted of a rack and three small containers so you could put water in the bottom and use it as a steam table to heat your side dishes. Did anyone ever try this, and how well did it work?
 
My aunt Jean had a Nesco roaster and had the stand on which it stood. Her's had a clock in it too and storage below. She used it for Thanksgiving dinner back in 1958 and it was wonderful as I remember. I have no clue what ever happened to it.
 
I've never come across a vintage roaster that has all of its accessories, particularly the extra cooking containers, except maybe on ebay IIRC.  I think people found these useful and kept them for use in their conventional ovens or as storage containers for leftovers.  AFAIK, they were standard equipment as demonstrated in the Studio One video clip above.

 

My GE came with its load & lift rack plus an additional adjustable height rack.  Tom, would I be able to use the additional rack for a Bundt pan instead of a PC trivet?

rp2813-2016071613452400764_1.jpg
 
@rp

Should be fine. Mine came with the lift out rack and the second shelf. The point of the trivet is to get the bundt pan off the floor of the oven
 
Our church kitchen has three, two are Westinghouse from the mid-late 50's, and the other is a Hamilton Beach that is about 5 years old - based on the old Westinghouse design, so the pans interchange. We use them when the steam table is full, or when serving out in the dining area. We don't bake in them, but have used for BBQ, soups, baked beans, etc.
 
Many of those roaster containers pop up on fleaPay, estate sales, CL, thrifts, etc... labeled as "refrigerator" use. Which I suppose is fine.

A NIB set recently sold on eBay for a good price:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Westinghous...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roaster accessories often got misplaced over the years so often you find racks, owner's manual and other things missing.

As with so many other things in the early eBay or whatever days you could get complete Westinghouse and other roasters for very little money. Now as with so many other things (such as wringer washers) sellers assume their rusted and clapped out roasters are worth several hundred dollars.
 
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Similar threads

revvinkevin
Thermostats on Countertop Electric Roasters
Replies
7
Views
90
launderess
launderess
revvinkevin
Looking for new refrigerator brand info / suggestions
Replies
13
Views
83
combo52
combo52
paulg
Westinghouse Roaster question / Thanksgiving
2
Replies
50
Views
333
brib68
brib68
revvinkevin
Does anyone have or have interest in EASY-BAKE Ovens?
Replies
9
Views
71
whirlcool
W

Latest posts

Back
Top