Table-top halogen ovens

jpscloud

After five months I'm still very happy to have swapped my gas cooker for a halogen oven, with a couple of notes - first, I can't bake cakes and found it surprisingly difficult to cook a large turkey drumstick in the HO and second, stews and casseroles are better (for my taste and convenience) done in the slow cooker.

However, being a singleton, I rarely if ever do large joints of meat and the HO works for me fantastically as a powerful oven/grill.

As for cakes, I hardly ever baked cakes anyway - I started doing so this year because I discovered value sponge mix and that's replaced buying ready made cakes, but have also discovered that sponge cake is delicious made in the microwave.

My gas bill is down over £100 on this time last year, but the electric bill hasn't risen much, so the HO represents a very good saving on energy for me (the gas cooker was very old, with three large pilot lights, though!)

So my verdict - it's perfect for my needs, and best used as a very high quality grill.

pulliptears

Kyresa wrote: »

What make of oven did you get? sometimes that can have a bearing too!

we do jacket potatos... 5 mins in microwave, the 30mins in the halogen and they are the fluffiest inside and the crispest outside we've ever had :beer:

It was a TJ Hughes one. To be fair it makes lovely jacket potatoes but that is the only thing we have eaten from it that we actually like.

grannyjo

Can it do really crispy roast potatoes - hints please
thanks joanna

CrimpQueen

grannyjo wrote: »

Can it do really crispy roast potatoes - hints please
thanks joanna

I'm just using my new JML for the first time. Cooked the chicken upside down on the bottom rack for 20 mins at 220, turned it up the other way at 200 for 30mins. Put some juice aside for gravy. Par boiled the Maris Pipers then drained, shook to rough the edges and added a little oil, put in with the chicken with no rack, just on the bottom for 15 mins with the rest of the meat juices. Just took chicken out to rest and finish the potatoes at 220. The whole thing is just as good as my usual gas fan oven with far less cleaning. The potatoes are perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle and the chicken is lovely and moist. Very happy first attempt. Cant see the the big oven getting much use now. The only downside is that the light going on and off annoys my other half as we have an open plan downstairs.

Alot_does_not_exist

I've just had to junk the 'Delta' halogen oven I bought from Aldi 11 months ago. Luckily it was still within guarantee.

It just stopped working and I've been left more than somewhat disillusioned. It seems that this kind of oven is fairly prone to technical failure and repairs are often very expensive... so I might not be so lucky next time and the thing might fail outside of the guarantee period. Am seriously considering going back to my standard gas oven.

Just before I make up my mind, can anyone here hold their hand up and say theirs has been in regular use and with no faults for, say, 3+ years..??

Kyresa

Ours has been in use 5 days out of 7 for the past year now. It seems the lifespam of these is about 1.5 to 2 years because of the bulb. But, for £30 for 2 years worth of use (in fact, my JML cost me £20 and I paid £10 insurance on it, so if it blows within 2 years i'll get a replacement anyway) I think it was well worth the money - especially considering the £120 per year saving I'm making on my electricity bill!

LoveLifeAgain

Alot_does_not_exist wrote: »

I've just had to junk the 'Delta' halogen oven I bought from Aldi 11 months ago. Luckily it was still within guarantee.

It just stopped working and I've been left more than somewhat disillusioned. It seems that this kind of oven is fairly prone to technical failure and repairs are often very expensive... so I might not be so lucky next time and the thing might fail outside of the guarantee period. Am seriously considering going back to my standard gas oven.

Just before I make up my mind, can anyone here hold their hand up and say theirs has been in regular use and with no faults for, say, 3+ years..??

Not yet. I bought mine in April 2010 from Ideal World with the hinged lid which is such a blessing as I can open the lid and use the other hand to turn things, and can say hand on heart I have not had any problem or used my cooker oven since. One thing I do, is leave the lid open for a couple of hours after using to allow it to get completely dry inside the lid before closing but I do not have a clue if this is of any benefit whatsoever. Last xmas, apart from the cooker top I only used the Halogen for the xmas dinner for 6 of us. Like an ordinary oven, timing for what is in and out in which order is something you learn as you go. My bills are a lot lower, to the point that if I had to buy one each year I would still be in profit financially and it is so quick :j
I have to admit that I purchased another one from Ideal World in their sale and it is put away in case my current one goes. Experimenting and great tips from this board have made my life so much easier. As for going back to my oven :eek:

cooking-mama

charybdis1 wrote: »

Not yet. I bought mine in April 2010 from Ideal World with the hinged lid which is such a blessing as I can open the lid and use the other hand to turn things, and can say hand on heart I have not had any problem or used my cooker oven since. One thing I do, is leave the lid open for a couple of hours after using to allow it to get completely dry inside the lid before closing but I do not have a clue if this is of any benefit whatsoever. Last xmas, apart from the cooker top I only used the Halogen for the xmas dinner for 6 of us. Like an ordinary oven, timing for what is in and out in which order is something you learn as you go. My bills are a lot lower, to the point that if I had to buy one each year I would still be in profit financially and it is so quick :j
I have to admit that I purchased another one from Ideal World in their sale and it is put away in case my current one goes. Experimenting and great tips from this board have made my life so much easier. As for going back to my oven :eek:

I bought the ideal world one,loved it,but it only lasted around 18months,I emailed ideal world to ask if it could be repaired or if it was covered by the 2 year European guarantee,Ideal world arranged collection of the broken halogen oven and they refunded me the full price(minus P+P) when it couldnt be repaired,I was very impressed with ideal worlds dealing of this(would've preferred a replacement,but they had none in stock at that time,so i ended up buying a Costco one for only £29.99,its realy good too,but i do miss the hinged lid)

To_be_Free

If any one would like to try these out Poundstretcher has 7 Litre ones in store on offer for only £19.99 reduced from £39.99

caris

Only recently purchased a halogen oven so wondering if you can use roasting bags in them for your meat?

Thanks