Sharper Image Convection Oven

[mrb627]

I ordered a few of these to give as Xmas gifts this year. Decided to keep one for myself. I like it. Anybody else have one? So far, I used it to reheat a store bought rotisserie chicken. Really made the skin crispy. Like the self cleaning cycle.

Malcolm

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[launderess]

The "Galloping Gourment"

Started the trend ages ago with those small glass "convection" ovens, now everyone and their mother makes or rather sells one.

 

[laundromat]

I have one and use it regularly especially with chicken, turkey, pork, steaks and fish.I got mine almost a year ago and the first thing I cooked was 7 seasoned/breaded pork chops. They were frozen solid but all ready in only 35 minuites!!! when I cooked them in my regular gas oven, it took an hour at 400F but,those chops were defrosted.I paid $99 + S&H and got three bonuses incuding their blender that came with five different colored containers you use to chop/grind, or liquify whatever, A complete set of "comercial grade" knives, a cookbook and extension ring for the oven.The glass inverted bowl washes great in the dishwasher. I'm surprised most folks here don't already have one!

 

[laundromat]

P.S. Mine is a deluxe model with digital controls.

 

[whirlcool]

We first got one of these around 1996 or so. It was a slightly different design.
We also bought the extension piece that elevates the motor head about four inches or so.

We used it to make biscuits (very nice and fluffy), roasted chicken, very good and finally a prime rib one Christmas (just outstanding). They are versatile, but I didn't like having to clean the power head off. Even though ours had teflon or similar on the heating part it had glass there too which stained horribly.

It also had a rack that you could use to cook an entire meal at once, but we never used it. Also, the glass bowl is very heavy and I found it unwieldy to handle when it was hot.

This was the oven that convinced us to get a convection oven in our next range. When we got one this countertop oven headed to the storage locker.

 

[petek]

The Flavor Wave oven...I'm always sorely tempted to get one for the fun gadget factor but the reality is is that I'd probably use it once and that would be it. Like many of things around here LOL
Of course if one pops up clean in a thrift store for say $10 resistance will be futile.

 

[qualin]

I've noticed these are very popular amongst the East Asian community here.

There are numerous Japanese and Chinese brands which sell these.. Such as Whale Electric.

Seeing this one from Sharper Image, it makes me curious what brand it originally was.

As much as I would be tempted to buy one, I doubt we'd use it. I personally would prefer to replace our next to BOL range with one that has a convention oven.

 

[passatdoc]

I have a countertop Breville Smart Oven. It's taken over from the range w/convection oven for smaller jobs. For larger jobs, only the range oven will do. But the Breville heats quickly, can accommodate 13" pizza pan or a 13 x 9" baking/roasting pan, and cooks evenly thanks to convection. It also makes wonderful toast, and is good at reheating. It has a special frozen food button that moderates the heat to defrost what you're cooking and then adds heat as it goes along.

 

http://www.brevilleusa.com/cooking/ovens/the-smart-oven-tm.html

 

Never cheap, most retailers charge $250 and rarely on sale. I had discovered a long-forgotten Williams-Sonoma gift certificate in a kitchen drawer ($150) and W-S had it on sale for $225, so it cost me $75 plus the sales tax on $250. But even if I had to cover the entire cost, it would be well worth it. This gets the most use of any small electric appliance at home, other than the coffee maker, and I rank it right up there with my venerable KA stand mixer.

 

[whirlcool]

Oh, I think if you had one of these you'd use it more than once or twice. The food does come out good. Chicken comes our crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Biscuits fluff up nicely and are lighter than air. They are easy to use and the bottom part goes in the dishwasher for cleaning.

The main disadvantage is that they are quite large (but when we used ours we had a house with a huge kitchen and LOTS of counter space)and take up a lot of room on a counter top.

 

[passatdoc]

The Breville has a large footprint, about the size of two four-slot toasters laid next to each other. But it's not that much larger than other countertop ovens and does so much. I can bake two full sized loaf pans (bread, banana bread) in it, without having to fire up the oven range. There is a Krups with a decent user rating that comes close, but none of the others can handle 13" pans for baking or for pizza.

 

[ptcruiser51]

Magic Chef

Is the brand we have at THD where I work, made you-know-where of course.  I just went over and measured, the box is 12" square.  It comes with two racks and a pair of tongs.  Only $30.  I'm tempted...

 

[mrb627]

Convecting...

I have had a lot playing with this thing. Last night I made three hamburgers and some sweet potato fries. 20 minutes and dinner was on the table.

I have some chicken breasts marinating in Italian dressing at the moment. I will probably fix those tomorrow night with some brussel sprouts.

Anyone come up with some surprising dishes in their oven? I want to try the biscuits soon.

Malcolm

 

[sudsmaster]

I've seen this same Sharper Image countertop convection at Costco recently. It's at a good price, relatively speaking, of $70. It appears to use a halogen heating element. I gather the halogen will aid in browning the food. I understand that halogen heating elements have a shorter lifespan than resistance ones, so that might be a concern. Some reviews on Amazon.com indicate that the halogen element needs replacement in as little as three months of use.

Last summer I bought a generic Chinese version, brand name of "Oyama", which has just a resistance element, and no extra spacer element. But it does just fine with chicken, which is what I use it for. I like the fact that it's easy clean-up, vs the splatter that occurs with most other forms of roasting chicken. There is some splatter onto the underside of the stainless steel fan shield, but it doesn't seem to interfere with cooking. It does require flipping the chicken over mid-way through the cooking, which is a slight bother but since the whole process happens so quickly (a five lb chicken cooks in less than an hour) it's not a big problem. And for $44 it was a relative bargain, and I think the resistance heating element will be longer lasting than a halogen. It seems to have no problem browning and crisping the skin of the chicken - especially if I take care to dry the chicken and coat the skin with peanut oil before cooking. I also like that that glass bowl catches all the drippings without burning them, which means they can be used as a flavoring for rice, or mixed with flour to make a gravy.

The first Oyama oven I got had a timer that didn't work out of the box. I was able to return it to the Chinese grocery where I got it for an instant replacement. That replacement has been working just fine ever since. The owner's manual is pretty skimpy, with just a couple of recipes, but I found usable recipes on-line for other similar ovens, such as the Flavor-wave. Mostly for chicken I use common sense - about 20 minutes for each side of the chicken, and a meat thermometer to check on the internal temp before stopping cooking.

I nearly always thaw the chicken before cooking, which seems to save energy and make the cooking more even. [this post was last edited: 1/8/2012-12:32]

 

[peterlondon]

Halogen Oven

Hi Guys,Halogen ovens,fantastic.I have been using for the last 18 years,first purchased from Makros south lon.The first one I had was infra red,this cooked with excellent results.I bought the halogen only because I dropped the lid on the last one,and can really recoemnd,especially as the unit is only 1200 watts (well here in the uk anyway) so much more economical than heating a full size oven,and cleaning very simple,and in the summer when it is to hot to cook i nside,you can throw it in the yard or balcony on an extention lead.

 

[tolivac]

I like my halogen GE Advantium oven-one of the most used cooking machines I have.Its now over 10yrs old and going just fine!It also works as a microwave oven-or both functions together.and it has an exhaust blower for the stove.Very happy with it-if it should die-will get another.