Flavourwave Oven?

[Mighty_J]

Hey guys,

 

Has anyone around here used one of these?

I don't have an oven here at the moment and do most of my cooking in pots/pans on stovetops.

So I thought I would get one of these.

 

I don't need it to be able to cook a medium rare steak to perfection as I wouldn't trust anyone/anything but myself to do that, but some roast type cooking wouldn't be bad - as well as the reputed ability to cook something that was frozen.

Even if it has microwave type abilities to reheat that would be cool too.

 

So just looking for some feedback if any of you have one?

What's it good at?

What's it bad at?

 

Thanks.

Edited May 3, 2011 by Mighty_J

[BudJones]

We have one. It's a horrible machine, burns the top of everything and leaves the bottom half cooked.

They say it has some 'revolutionary' spinning heat thing but that must be bullshit.

 

Aaron

[Mighty_J]

We have one. It's a horrible machine, burns the top of everything and leaves the bottom half cooked.

They say it has some 'revolutionary' spinning heat thing but that must be bullshit.

 

Aaron

 

 

That's pretty interesting...yeah I looked up a lot of reviews and it wasn't short of both fans and those that seem to despise it.

Quick question on the burning tops though? Did you turn your things over?

Just that the one I have, the black coloured 'flavourwave express' (which might be different?) says you should turn over your meats etc when you use it.

So anyways I got the thing a few days ago, and have not used it ALL that much but anyways:

*Bacon. Crispy "enough", and by God a lot of fat comes out. Though you get a rather nice concentrated flavour, a con is that for some reason you also get a higher salt taste concentration.

*Burgers - Pretty good. Quite unusual in that you're very used to fat/oil. The texture takes a bit of getting used to, it's not dry though unless you overcook. One thing I do like is that if you put garlic and onions etc inside, you taste them in an unreal way, cooked and all but they taste so pure.

*When I cook chicken, I'll cook 1/4s and yeah I've been turning them over twice through the process. It turns out juicy, with a great crispy though not sticky skin. Con, if you don't pre-season you'll get super-bland skin. I spray mine with a little oil and rub some salt, pepper, and smoky paprika in. I haven't really got a complaint about the chicken.

*Potatoes. Skinless, in pieces. Seasoned. Beautiful. Soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. Can't wait to do more, they end up like oven perfect potatoes in much less the time.

*Carrot Cake. AWESOME. I totally didn't have faith in it to make cake, but it did and rocked it. Tasted so sweet and carrotty.

 

On the down side, and I suppose this isn't all too bad really, it's a bit like going from smoking to vaping. You're getting something more pure but it's hard to get used to and you do miss how things were. Also, the machine is annoying. The light turns on and off and on and off and on and off while it's on. What else is bad? You kind of need to keep an eye on things and tun them, and I think the temperatures they give you in the instructions are a bit shit, it's more or a learning process.

 

Though I think the positives outweigh the negatives - Simply, it cooks food quite fast. Not miraculously or anything but fast.

That and, the amount of fat you see coming off food you usually eat. We made burgers for 4 people and our animals and there was about 2 inches of fat that fell off them, straight up, feral. Bacon and even chicken lose a fair old bit.

 

My next projects will be to try making jerky and ore crisp-like chips.

So yeah it's far from a perfect system - but it delivers in terns of fat removal and not letting things sit in it - it's a good investment in terms of your health though I'll say that.