Combination microwave ovens

Rosa_Damascena

ka7e said:

I have a Panasonic combi and I'm using many more of the functions now that electricity is getting so expensive. I find it's very versatile and held off buying an air fryer when I realised I could use the microwave for chips, roasts, baked spuds and pizzas. I have a microwave steamer for veggies, mw plate warmers and use enamel or glass bakeware for combi dishes. I only use my oven for baking sponges now as I'm not keen on the texture of mw cakes!

@ka7e - why aren't you using the oven function for this?

I'm thinking of investing in a combi, and the thought of creating flatbreads and the odd small batch of fresh cheese scones is a big incentive. 

ka7e

Because I can bake 2 x 8" Victoria sponges on one shelf in my small top oven, or 4 on 2 shelves if I batch bake. I find the all-in-one method and microwave-specific recipes result in a rather rubbery sponge.Proper cakey cakes like lemon drizzle or a fruit cake would burn on top as the element is too close in my microwave. Scones and flatbreads would probably be OK though.

Albermarle

 Air-fryers have been shown to use less than half the power of a fan oven, since (a) it pre-heats right away, (b) cooks faster, and (c) - it's smaller! So, if you can find one large enough to do the job, then it will undoubtedly be cheaper to run. If it's so small you have to use it in a couple of batches, then it'll still be marginally cheaper, but not by much (Radio 4 'More or Less', or BestTSSBread, can't remember.)

What you say is correct, but in terms of hard cash the savings from using an air fryer, ( or a combi microwave) are not going to be as exciting as is often made out ( especially by companies selling air fryers !)

A typical fan oven will be around 3 KW. If you have it on for one hour, it will run at 3KW for 10/15 mins until the set temperature is reached and then maybe use 1Kw . So about 1.5 KWH in total = 40/45 p

An airfryer is typically 1.7KWH and will cook the food in half the time ( sometimes) and not be using 1.7KW all the time  so will use say 0.7KWH = about 20P

So a saving of 20p . If you use it 5 times a week - One Pound a week

Cost of middle range airfryer = £100

Probably fair to say airfryers will not last as long as a conventional fan oven, and will need replacing more often.

So yes they are convenient and a useful addition to most kitchens, but cost saving only really if you buy a small cheap low powered one, and even then not really that significant.

TELLIT01

The one and only time I tried to do a pizza in the combi microwave it came out a soggy mess and I haven't bothered again since.

ka7e

TELLIT01 said:

The one and only time I tried to do a pizza in the combi microwave it came out a soggy mess and I haven't bothered again since.

My Panasonic has a raised metal rack that stands on an enamel plate to cook pizza. It definitely wouldn't work if cooked on the glass turntable.

TELLIT01

ka7e said:

TELLIT01 said:

The one and only time I tried to do a pizza in the combi microwave it came out a soggy mess and I haven't bothered again since.

My Panasonic has a raised metal rack that stands on an enamel plate to cook pizza. It definitely wouldn't work if cooked on the glass turntable.

Sorry, I should have made it clear that I did use the metal rack.

ThisIsWeird

BendyH asked me to update.

I extolled the virtues of the Sharp R959 on here, and a beaut it indeed is. Once ours went kaput, I bought a 956 as the specs suggested it was similar in most respects, and better in others. It wasn't, and it was smaller than spec'd to boot.

Last year I found a near-new 959 on t'local Fb, and peace and civility has been restored to Bendy, er, my household.

There is nothing oveny or microwavy it cannot do. Pizza? Of course! Two at a time. Baked pots? Perfection. Cakes? Adorable.

It's a beast. A great big beautiful beast. I love it.

Our main oven has been used tonight for the first time in many months as daughter is home, and the Sharp cannot handle three pizzas. And it'll be used for Christmas, obviously. After that, the oven will be put to rest for another year.

Combi-microwave ovens are superb. I'd check it has a separate oven element around the fan for the 'convection' setting, as some may use just the grill and a fan, so obviously these will overdo the 'top'.

molerat

With a combi microwave, air fryer, slow cooker and bread maker the oven hardly ever gets switched on.  Used it a couple of weeks ago to batch cook some potato bakes, pasta bakes and assorted fruit crumbles for freezing and will get used again for some Christmas cooking but apart from that ....

jennifernil

We had a combi microwave for 33 years, a Siemens, no fan but grill plus conventional top and /or bottom heat, I loved it, especially as our main oven was only a single.    Microwave only and microwave + grill was what we mainly used on the combi.

A couple of years before the  combi died, we had to replace our main oven so decided to go for a 1 1/2 oven set up, an AEG with fan cooking, plus other options, in both ovens.   As there are only the 2 of us now, we rarely use the full size oven.

When the combi died, we looked at new ones, but the cost and the different set up from our old one put us off, so now we have a very good second hand Panasonic M/W that DS had lurking in his attic, they got a built in one with the house they had bought a few years back.

Last year we also invested in a dual drawer air fryer, which we find very useful and quicker than the oven, so now the 1/2 oven is only used for things which are too big to fit in the air fryer.

We retired from hosting family gatherings at Christmas about 5 years back, DS and DD now take turns, so the full size oven is now mainly a storage space for oven trays and dishes.  Might get used once or twice a year.

We do  bake all our own bread, now on our second Panasonic breadmaker in 15 years, and did try a slow cooker, but have given that to DD.  They use it a lot, and every so often we get an invitation to a meal from it as a "thank you".

Rosa_Damascena

ThisIsWeird said:

BendyH asked me to update.

I extolled the virtues of the Sharp R959 on here, and a beaut it indeed is. Once ours went kaput, I bought a 956 as the specs suggested it was similar in most respects, and better in others. It wasn't, and it was smaller than spec'd to boot.

Last year I found a near-new 959 on t'local Fb, and peace and civility has been restored to Bendy, er, my household.

There is nothing oveny or microwavy it cannot do. Pizza? Of course! Two at a time. Baked pots? Perfection. Cakes? Adorable.

It's a beast. A great big beautiful beast. I love it.

Our main oven has been used tonight for the first time in many months as daughter is home, and the Sharp cannot handle three pizzas. And it'll be used for Christmas, obviously. After that, the oven will be put to rest for another year.

Combi-microwave ovens are superb. I'd check it has a separate oven element around the fan for the 'convection' setting, as some may use just the grill and a fan, so obviously these will overdo the 'top'.

This is a really helpful post, thank you! I have had a Sharp digital (non-combi) for 22 years and it is still going strong. A couple of times - admittedly when the power has failed - it hasn't switched on immediately, but other than that and the slightly faded door handle it's still good. I do want to start cooking more though and as tempting as a 40L job is I really don't need anything that big! 25L will do, but I really wanted to do a Bundt cake in one. 

Best regards to @BendyHouse too!

The one I was thinking of is this: https://mda.russellhobbs.com/default/rhm2574.html . Its fan assisted so I didn't think the problem of an undercooked cake tin with a crusty top would be a problem. Comments?

I have lots of ovenware, is there any reason a standard trivet wouldn't work in a combi?