Freezer Deep Dive

How does your freezer work, what makes one better than another, and do you need a new one? 

 Standalone Freezer Types

• Portable Freezer

• Chest Freezer 

• Upright Freezer

• Drawer Freezer

Imagine having to walk down into your root cellar in order to find that your food has gone rotten because you left it down there too long. Or that a mouse got to it. Prior to the invention of freezers, root cellars were one of the key ways we used to store and preserve our food. This week we're diving deep on freezers and which models serve best for your purposes. 

Before we dive in, we do have one note. Don't forget that alongside most, although not all, refrigerators there are also freezers. These will be either as a separate compartment at the top or bottom. Or you might get them as a 'side by side' where one side of the unit is a refrigerator and the other is a freezer. These are also fantastic options and if you're only freezing a small amount of food can be perfect for a household of 4 or fewer. If you're wanting to do meal prep, or you have a larger family you need to feed, an additional freezer can make your life much easier. 

Unlike our Deep Dives in the past we're sad to see that there aren't many features for freezers in standalone models. You might get digital temperature controls, or the ability to adjust the controls via Wi-Fi, but there's not much. The biggest things you need to keep an eye out for are insulation, power source, and the compressor. These three things are really going to affect how good your freezer is and whether it's worth the money you're going to spend on it. 

Portable Freezer

A portable freezer is ideal if you're going to a party or the lake. After all you don't want to bother with coolers full of ice that are going to melt eventually. Portable freezers are very spartan in terms of what features they offer but they are also cheap because of that. They can be AC or DC-powered. Some models are even able to plug into your car. These are, in short, great for people who travel frequently, but we wouldn't advise them for home use.  These also aren't going to be very large. You should expect to be able to store a couple of liters of soda and some additional food. The largest that we found was 85L  (think 120 cans of 12oz) while the smallest we found was 10.5L or about 4 bottles of soda. 

Chest Freezer 

Picture a box. It might be as 'small' as 2.1 cubic feet or absolutely massive at 40 cubic feet. Give your box a hinged lid, and inside the box picture, it with subdividers you can move around This is (essentially) the description of a chest freezer. If you need to store large types of food like whole birds or sides of beef or pork, this is a good choice. Oddly shaped pieces of food, or large quantities of food, these are what chest freezers are great at handling. A chest freezer is usually very affordable when compared to other types of freezers. 

Two important things to note. 

-A chest freezer typically won't have an internal fan. This means that the coldest air is going to settle at the bottom and warmer air will rise to the top. Make sure that if you are storing other types of food in it that only what you plan to use soon is near the top. 

A chest freezer complete with subdivided drawers, photo belongs to Practically Functional

-The chest's lid isn't meant to have things stacked on top of it. They can't handle heavy objects. Doing so anyway can cause the lid to bow, breaking the seal on the freezer. This would mean that the air from inside the freezer would escape more easily and things at the top can defrost. Note that in our tiny house appliance article, we noted that they could be used for a table in-between times when you need to access them. This is still a viable possibility. The reason that works is that you set a flat surface on top of the chest and then items on the whole of that, it spreads the weight more evenly. Doing it this way prevents the weight from bowing any one spot of the freezer lid. If on the other hand you just sit on the lid, all of the weight is focused in one spot, and that spot will dent and malform, thus breaking the seal. 

Upright Freezer

Upright freezer complete with shelves, drawers and door pockets.

Upright freezers are great for those of us who are... on the shorter side. With a chest freezer, you can tip yourself over the side trying to reach the bottom. (Yes your blogger has done it.) An upright freezer though has internal shelves for separating things out and it opens like a fridge! Upright freezers come in a wide variety of sizes. You might need one that fits under your counters and is the size of a mini fridge just for keeping meal prep kits in. Alternatively, you might be storing an entire year's harvest in yours and you're going to need one the size of a standard refrigerator. Both options are available, although naturally, prices will vary between them. They're usually going to offer fans and auto defrost features but they're also going to cost more than a chest freezer. 

Drawer Freezer

Drawer freezer pulled out.

A drawer freezer is kind of like a drawer dishwasher in that it is capable of fitting under your cabinets and containing multiple drawers for easier access. These are ideal for a home with a very busy kitchen. Drawer freezers are meant to fit right alongside your existing cabinets. You can even use the top as additional counter space if you wanted. They will usually have fans to circulate air evenly and an auto-defrost function. They also include slots for putting in separators to subdivide the space however you want. They are priced higher than most other options, but well worth it in our opinion if you're looking to get additional freezer space.  One great thing to note is that many drawer freezers are available as 'panel ready' meaning that you can purchase panels to fit over the front. Then they can blend seamlessly into your kitchen, allowing you to keep the look of your kitchen uninterrupted. 

Throughout this post, we've mentioned that some models will have auto defrost options and some don't. Why though is it important? Good question. Over time a freezer can build up ice on different layers of the freezer. Not just on your food, but on the walls of the unit as well. If moist air is able to get into the freezer at all it will coat the edges and freeze into lovely ice crystals. Over time this can build up until it coats the freezer. It can even get to the point that you won't be able to use sections of the freezer without having to hack out the ice that's there. (Ask the blogger how she knows.....) Now, you can defrost your freezer without having an auto-defrost function. To do that you'd remove everything from the freezer, unplug it and take it outside. You can then let it sit in the sun all day, you can use a hairdryer or you can take a chisel and mallet to the ice and carefully start working out the ice.  If you want to avoid having to go through all of this, a defroster can be very useful. They also help with preventing freezer burn, but that's as much about how the food is sealed as how well the freezer seals. Defrosters will add cost and complexity to the freezer though, which means that you're not only going to be paying more but if something breaks it's another part that has to be explored. (Although we will say that regular maintenance checks can prevent from you having to deal with that.) 

With all of that in mind, what type of freezer do you find works best? Do you have ways that you use at home that we didn't think of? Let us know over on our Facebook page, we'd love to hear from you!

On the other hand, if you wound up here because your freezer is giving you issues, we've got several posts to help you take a look at all of that. If you can't figure out the issue, or you're busy getting prepped for the holidays (we understand) you can always give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or reach out on our contact page. Our technicians are always available to help and we at ARS want to be there for you. 

Additional Reading

Why You Should Schedule Regular Appliance Checks 

What an Appliance Visit Is Like In 2021

5 Freezer Myths Busted

Hauntingly Good Meals To Run After

Spooky Biscuits for All Day Long

Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is make things easier on future you. This is especially true for a weekend holiday.

Here's a fast breakfast, lunch or dinner idea to get some food in the bellies of your trick or treaters before they wander off, or as they come back down from the sugar high... Or maybe into your stomach before the heathen horde comes knocking.

Let's make some quick and easy monster biscuits.

Ingredients:

1 can biscuits or 8 frozen biscuits

4 oz brick mozzarella cheese

Lunch meat of choice, or pepperoni 

1 can whole pitted black olives

1 jar strawberry or raspberry jam or jelly

White chocolate chips, sliced almonds, candy eyes, etc.

We know you're looking at this ingredient list and questioning our sanity. Don't worry. It's not all going together on one biscuit.

Tools:

Baking sheet, foil, oven mitt, cutting board, vegetable peeler, knife, fork, spoon, plate, spatula

Line your baking sheet with a layer of foil, because anything that makes your life easier today is worth it.

Preheat the oven according to the directions on your package of biscuits.

We used the Pillsbury brand southern homestyle biscuits in a can (because we already had them on hand and didn't want to make an extra trip to the store) and we found them to work well. We've also previously used the Great Value brand frozen buttermilk biscuits, but in our experience, they are prone to scorching on the bottom. If you use them, keep a close eye on them while they bake up so you avoid that problem.

Place your biscuits on the lined baking sheet - have their edges touching if you want them tall and fluffy, or give them room to expand if you would prefer them a little thinner - and pop them into the oven. Set your timer for HALF of what the directions say. Trust us here.

While your biscuits bake, pop open that can of olives. Drain them and give them a quick rinse so they won't transfer their color as easily when you assemble dinner. We're going to do this in reverse order for the meals, because of the three meal ideas we're covering, the dinner takes the longest to prep.

Fish out a few olives and put them on your cutting board. Slice a thin ring out of the middle of each. Your goal here is eight little rings. Feel free to eat all your mistakes - it's the best perk of being the chef.

Once you have your olives ready, scoot them to one side of the cutting board. Consider wiping up after them if they've left you a wet spot. Place your brick of cheese long side up on the board and grab your vegetable peeler. We know you're questioning our sanity again, and it's okay. Take the peeler and shave long, thin straps off the brick of cheese until you feel you have enough to put a double layer on six of your eight biscuits. 

You may have a cheese wire in a drawer somewhere that you want to use for this. We would advise you skip that urge. The goal here is the extra-thin strips and feathery edges a peeler creates. A cheese wire, even adjusted to as thin as possible, will still make a mostly clean cut. If that's what you'd prefer, go ahead, but we definitely think it looks more like a mummy bandage with the rough sides and broken looking ends.

Feathery, jagged cheese bandages.

By now you should be reaching the end of the timer you set. Pause and flip the biscuits. The directions don't say to in most cases, but if you flip them halfway through, you'll get nice, toasty tops and bottoms without either one becoming too thick or crispy. Put them back in the oven for the remaining half of the recommended time and reset your timer.

While they finish up their baking process, separate some slices from your lunch meats. It doesn't really matter what you choose to use, as long as you enjoy it. We used hard salami for ours, but it would work just as well with ham or turkey or roast beef if you have them on hand.

Once they're out of the oven, split them all evenly with a sharp knife.

Fluffy, freshly baked and sliced biscuits.

Take two and plate them like an open-faced sandwich. Spoon a generous helping of jam or jelly onto each half and spread it a bit with the back of the spoon. Congratulations, you have a smashed monster! We had candy eyes left over from another project and used those for this, but slices of almond, white chocolate chips or mini marshmallows also can serve as a reasonable approximation of monster eyes. Just use whatever you have on hand.

Frighteningly delicious breakfast monster

Take your next two biscuits. Layer your lunch meats on them and add a few strips of cheese if you'd like.Grab two whole olives. Wrap a torn slice of lunch meat around each one, leaving the open end of the olive visible. Shut your biscuits into sandwiches and tuck your wrapped olives into the side, peeking out like a pair of creepy, unblinking eyes. There's lunch, easy to just grab and run if necessary.

Lunch timer watcher

And now for dinner... take your four remaining biscuits and plate them with their soft insides up. Place a layer of lunch meat on each half, then add those olive rings you cut earlier as eyes a little above the middle. Cover it all over with a layer of cheesy bandages, being sure to let at least one eye still peek out from beneath them.

Mummy’s out for dinner!

By the time dinner comes around, these will have gone cold - so be sure to lightly toast them and get your cheese melted before enjoying your new mummy bites.

And with just a bit of time, you’ve got three fantastic meals, sure to haunt anyone. If you test them out let us know over on our Facebook page! We’d love to hear from you. 

If on the other hand, you ended up here because your oven has decided to go to the grave, we might be able to help. We’d be willing to say that we’re better than Dr. Frankenstein, at least when it comes to bringing appliances back to life. Give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or visit our contact page to get in touch.

Dishwasher Deep Dive

How does it work, why does it work and how can you break a dishwasher?

Table of Contents

Types of Dishwashers

• Built-in

• Portable

• Drawer

• Countertop

• Integrated

Dishwasher Sizes

• Full size 

• Slimline

• Compact

Dishwasher Features

• Sound Reduction

• Sensor Wash

• Steam Prewash

• Flexible Racks

• Stainless Steel Interior

• Plastic Interior

For many of us, having the option between a dishwasher and hand washing all of our dishes is a no-brainer. We’ll take the dishwasher any day. So, what happens if your current dishwasher breaks? As in we’ve come to your home, done everything we could and told you that the price to repair it would be more than replacing  it. Well, at that point, you might as well let your inner shopper out and go trawling websites to find that new dishwasher you were considering. This week we’re looking at what varieties dishwashers come in and what features you might see. Let’s dive in. 

Types of Dishwasher

Built-in Dishwasher

 A built-in dishwasher is the most common type of dishwasher in the modern American household. These are the ones that go under your bench or counters. These are built into your wall, piping, drainage, and all. Naturally, this means that they don’t move easily, if at all. (Apologies to those of you that love to rearrange your homes on a regular basis.) Two upsides to that fixed position though: 

-The noises are muffled by the surrounding cabinets and their contents. 

- Since they’re in the kitchen, they’re central to the cooking and dining process, making for easy access and clean-up. 

Portable Dishwashers

Portable dishwashers are a great option if you’ve got a more empty or pared-down kitchen. They’re freestanding devices that you can move around anywhere you need. They can provide extra countertop space when you need it, such as if you’re doing a lot of food prep. They work anywhere, and you can connect them to water and drainage. These are ideal for a couple or if you’re living on your own, as they are better at handling small loads. 

Drawer Dishwashers

Although we mentioned them in our tiny home post, we have yet to touch on these in-depth. Drawer dishwashers are relatively new to the appliance scene compared to built-ins. Instead of opening down and out, they pull out like a sliding drawer. They are very easy to use for those with difficulty bending as they load from the top. 

An open drawer dishwasher, showing multiple levels and space for six place settings.

They’re ideal for smaller loads, although they do come in single or double drawer formats. No matter which size you choose, they are still not as spacious as your standard built-in of today. 

One major downside is that because they are such a new concept, makers are still in the process of working the kinks out. Drawer dishwashers are harder to clean, more expensive, and are more prone to breakage than traditional washers. 

Countertop Dishwashers

A compact dishwasher on the kitchen counter, along with the rack sitting off to the right.

The supremely shiny countertop dishwashers are a very new concept. They come in several different sizes, but are still smaller than a drawer dishwasher. They don’t need to be builtin and can be moved around very easily. They don’t even need dedicated water o drainage and can instead be hooked up to your sink. 

They use very little water and so are ideal for places with ongoing water shortages. Due to their size, they may not be able to handle all of your pots and pans and probably not the majority of calderas or woks. 

Integrated Washers

A fully integrated dishwasher in the kitchen, with the control panel shown off. You can’t see the cabinetry panel as well, but you can see the drawer pull and the staining of the panel which match others within the kitchen.

Our last category of washer types is not based on size or shape, but on how wel it disappears. These are designed to fit in with a very uniform kitchen look. An integrated dishwasher might come with or be ready for panels that match the cabinets in your kitchen. They are built into the cabinetry, much like the built-ins are, but they are split into two categories. Either a ‘fully integrated’ dishwasher or a ‘semi integrated’ dishwasher. A fully integrated unit won’t be any different from a normal cabinet in appearance and instead will have all of your controls on the inside of the machine. A semi-integrated dishwasher on the other hand will have the control panel on the outside but it will still have the cabinetry panel as well. 

Dishwasher Sizes

Now that we’ve looked at the different types of dishwashers let’s quickly look at some of the most common size-related terms you’re likely to encounter. 

These are going to be applied to your built-in dishwashers, although not always. For that reason, we advise carefully checking descriptions before you purchase. 

Full Size

These are the most common variety of dishwasher. They’re designed to hold between 12 and 16 place settings at once. The idea is to cut down on how often you’re running the dishwasher by doing the largest load possible at once. These will usually measure in at 24” wide, 24” deep, and 35” high. 

A slimline dishwasher with an additional third rack.

Slimline 

Take the full-size dishwasher and shave off 6” or so. That’s a slimline. Measuring in typically at 18” wide, 24” deep and 35” high, they are great for a galley kitchen. 

Compact
A compact dishwasher is very small and will be roughly the size of your microwave in terms of counter space.  The smallest we found was the Faberware Portable dishwasher at 17'' wide,  16.5'' deep, and  17” high. 

Features

Sound Reduction

We’re starting off with this one because dishwashers can be noisy. If your bedroom is right across from the kitchen, you know what we mean.  This is built into the design of the dishwasher and dramatically cuts down on the amount of noise heard throughout the house. 

Sensor Wash 

This will run a scan over your dishes before the wash begins to assess how dirty they are and adjust the cycle accordingly. This not only saves energy and water, but it also saves on your bills. 

Steam Prewash 

A  steam prewash will heat water and fill the dishwasher with steam before the actual cycle starts so as to loosen up food debris, grease, and other detritus. 

Flexible Racks 

A flexible rack system lets you move the racks in your dishwasher around, simple, right? Sometimes you need more space on top, and sometimes you need more space on the bottom row. A great example is after doing a lot of cooking, and you don’t want to hand wash all of your large pots and pans. Now you can move your racks around to accommodate them. 

Stainless Steel Interior

A stainless steel interior is great because it’s more energy efficient and better sanitizing. They can run hotter temperatures because the steel can handle the heat. The downsides, though, are twofold. 

They’re more expensive. 

They will show hard water stains and calcium build-up.

Plastic Interior 

A plastic interior is the most common and more cost-effective interior option when purchasing a dishwasher. They’re easier to clean, and they last a long time. They have their downsides, too, though. 

They can’t run as hot as a dishwasher with a stainless steel interior because the plastic would begin to melt at those temperatures. 

They are noisier as plastic isn’t an excellent insulator of sound. 

That’s it for this month’s Deep Dive! Did you know about all of these features? Are there ones that you have questions about? Let us know over on our Facebook page; we’d love to hear from you. 

If, on the other hand, you wound up here not because you’re buying a new dishwasher but because you need your current one fixed, look no further. We service all types of dishwashers, and we can help with yours. Just give us a call at (214) 599-0055, or set up an appointment on our page. At Appliance Rescue Service, we’re here for you. 

Additional Reading

Dishwasher Dangers, What Doesn’t Belong

How To Deep Clean Your Dishwasher

7 Things You Never Knew You Could Put In Your Dishwasher

Dishwasher Making Noise?

Help! Something Melted In My Dishwasher!

Beer Cheese is the Best Fall Comfort Food

It can be a topping, a dip, a sauce, take your pick!

As the weather gets chilly, we often crave comfort food (which in our case is often made of cheese). Preferably the warm, melty kind we can put in a crock pot.

Sometimes the weather just calls for beer cheese.

To some of you, that's gonna sound... funny. People who grew up in certain parts of the U.S. are going to get it immediately, but the rest of us are going to have to think on it for a minute or so. We grew up in places where it wasn't a common thing, and moved to yet other places where it was also uncommon, so our household didn't get to try it until recently - but it is definitely a recipe worth sharing. We had to venture out of state to find it, but once we returned, the experimenting began.

There's a halfway decent chance you have most of the ingredients on hand, too.

Ingredients:

1 16 ounce brick Velveeta (or store brand equivalent)
1/2 brick (4 ounces) cream cheese (Neufchatel will work, but not as well)
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (please do not sub half & half)
3/4 cup Guinness Nitro Stout
2 Tbsp coarse stone ground mustard

Tools:
measuring cup(s), measuring spoon(s), knife, spoon, cutting board, crock pot or heavy-bottomed saucepan with lid, serving dish (if not leaving in the crock pot)

Unbox and unwrap your cream cheese, leaving it on the foil. Place the foil on the cutting board and use the knife to gently divide the cream cheese brick in half. Try not to cut the foil, as you'll want to keep it. Slide one half off the foil and nudge the other half to the center of the foil. Re-wrap the half you won't need today and put it back into the fridge for some bagels later. Cut the half that's left on the cutting board into smaller pieces (this helps it melt faster and more evenly) and dump the pieces into the crock pot or sauce pan.

If you're using a crock pot, turn the heat on low and cover it. If you're using a sauce pan on the stove, turn the burner on as low as it will allow, but don't put the lid on it quite yet.

Take your sixteen ounces of Velveeta (we would not advise using the jalapeno one, but you're certainly welcome to experiment if you wish), and turn it out of its protective foil onto the same cutting board. Like you did with the cream cheese, take your knife and cut it into smaller pieces, then add it to your pot. Crock pot users, please make sure you cover the crock pot again, as that's the only way it retains heat effectively. Sauce pan users, please use a spoon to give everything a nice stir before placing the lid, and then turn the burner up to medium-low.

Now comes the waiting game. If you used a crock pot, you're probably okay to walk away and do something else for a few minutes. Crock pots are designed to heat gently and avoid scorching.

If you're working with a sauce pan, please be sure to watch carefully and stir often. You'll need to be a little more involved in the process to minimize the likelihood of burnt cheese accidents.

It's going to look funny and blob-y for a while as the chunks of cheese melt down. Make sure you've stirred them enough to encourage them to combine. Once you have it mostly melted and all one color, you can add in your heavy cream.

You may need to stand there with the measuring cup inverted over the pan for a minute or so, as the cream is often not in a big hurry to get to where you need it. Once most of it has dripped into the pot/pan, set the cup aside and grab your spoon again. The cream will simply rest on top of the cheeses if you leave it alone, so give it another thorough stir to make sure it gets mixed in properly.

After you've mixed in the cream, it's time to add the beer. We used Guinness because darker beers make for richer flavor in the recipe - but it's also what we keep on hand. You can pretty much use any dark beer you have, but we prefer Guinness, and it's also likely to be the beer you'll see used if you order beer cheese in a chain restaurant.

Adding in the beer is going to be an ugly and kind of gross looking step. The beer will foam on contact and turn the top layer of cheese into a bubbly, brown, goopy mess. Ignore this and push on, stirring until it's incorporated. It's worth it, we promise. You'll know when it's incorporated fully because the cheese itself will have darkened about two shades, and there will be no dark or foamy pockets left.

Now comes the mustard. We used Plochman's brand stone ground mustard because it's super coarse and chunky, and it's a really LOUD mustard flavor, but even just the Great Value brand will add significant taste and texture. On a slight tangent, Plochman's also offers a craft beer mustard made with pale ale - so if you're looking for more beer flavor and less mustard flavor without sacrificing the bite, you can definitely look into that. (No, Plochman's is not giving us any money for this - they just make really good mustard. We promise.)

Mixing the mustard in is going to take some time. It naturally wants to keep to itself in little chunks, but you'll want to break it up so every bite of your beer cheese has enough, but none of them are overtaken by it. Just keep stirring until it looks like it's even. And then stir it a little more, just to be sure.

Once you're satisfied with the distribution and mustard to cheese ratio, grab a pretzel or a cracker and scoop a little beer cheese onto it try it. This is a vital step - very, very important. You can't serve it to your friends or family without quality control, after all. And no one knows better than you if it will need your own special touch - a little white pepper or cayenne? A dash of hot sauce? A sprinkling of Parmesan? Garnish with parsley? Run with it. It's yours now.

Serve it as a dip with pretzels, crackers, or pita chips; use it as a spread on a sandwich or burger, sauce your chicken wings with it, work it into a meatloaf... We've even eaten it as a sauce over pinto beans. Once you've tried it, you'll have a dozen other uses for it right away. Trust us.

Adding cream to the beer cheese.

Now it’s officially beer cheese, we’ve added the beer!

And now we have added the mustard and the beer cheese is complete!

Why Should I Purchase A Steam Oven?

Pros and Cons To A Fantastic Kitchen Appliance

How often have you been faced with choosing between a junk meal you can cook quickly and a delicious meal that takes time? Exactly. We all face that problem time and again. Many of us face it several nights a week. There are entire industries built around how to avoid this very problem. Someone got sick of the idea and figured out how to invent a steam oven. Speed ovens take advantage of cooking quickly and thoroughly, without losing all of the taste and nutritional value of your food.

"Wait blogger," we hear you say* "we've been using steam for ages, that's not any faster than any other way of cooking." And you're right. Just steaming your food isn't particularly fast. Humans have been using steam for ages, so long in fact that historians bicker over who solved it first. Was it the Chinese who wove bamboo steamers? Or was it the people who would end up becoming the French, the Auriganeans who used wet leaves and embers? We're left asking 'why does it matter who did it first if both figured out how to make tasty food?' We might be biased though. Either way, you have food that is introduced to a wet environment, where the water is heated by application either of boiling water or directly by fire and cooked. You can use steam baskets made of bamboo or metal, or you can use double boiling where you place two pots that fit well together where the bottom pan is full of water and the top pan is heated by that boiling water, but no water comes into contact with the actual food. (Fun fact: Chocolate is melted best in this fashion so that the chocolate doesn't seize and become grainy and gross.) 

A steam oven though is an oven which either cooks just by using steam or has an additional steam function on top of other more 'standard' functions that it can switch in between. 

Why Do I want a Steam Oven? 

You might want to purchase a steam oven for several different reasons. 

a) As a replacement for a standard stove.  

    If you're looking at replacing your current oven already, looking at the various functions you'll use or need makes sense. With a steam oven that has multiple modes, you can do many different things and incorporate steam into your life a little at a time. 

b) An addition to your kitchen, such as purchasing an on-the-counter steam oven. 

If however you're not sure about a steam oven, but you want to test it out, you might get a countertop one. This way you can take your time learning to use it and how to adjust recipes you already love to it. 

c) If you're doing a full dietary overhaul. 

While we won't say this can't fit into the other two categories, this is one that we think can also stand on its own as a reason to purchase a steam oven. As we mentioned already steaming your food can lead to tastier food that retains the natural vitamins and nutrients. 

Pros and Cons of Steam Ovens

Pro: You don't need to use oil with a steamer. The steam oven retains moisture both in and around the food as it cooks. This means that the food can't stick as easily to surfaces. (We will note though that this feature only works if you make sure to fill your reservoir before you cook each time.) 

Con: You're not going to get super crispy skin or browned foods. Because those reactions both rely on a 'dry' heat the steam oven can't provide that. (Unless of course, you're working with a multi-function oven like this one from Jenn-Air.)

Pro: Your foods retain more of their nutrients because they aren't leaching into cooking water or oils. Have you ever been told that baking broccoli or carrots is healthier than boiling them? The nutrients leaching into the cooking water is the reason for that. The majority of the vitamins and minerals end up in the water rather than in your stomach. 

Con: This doesn't mean that all of your food is instantly better for you because it was cooked in a steam oven. ((We know, we hoped it would make delicious breads healthier too.)) 

Pro: If you choose a full-sized oven with a steam feature, you can cook multiple foods at once without the flavors blending into each other. 

Con: There is a learning curve in adjusting or coming up with recipes.  (Fortunately, there are plenty of people over on Pinterest with recipes just for cooking with a steam oven! ) 

What do you think? Will you be looking into getting a steam oven sometime soon? Let us know what you think or some recipes you love over on our Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you. 

If you ended up on our site because your current steam oven is broken, we're sorry to hear that! We can still help. Appliance Rescue Service works on all major appliances and we'd be happy to work on yours. Just give us a call at ((214) 599-0055) or visit our website at https://appliance-rescue-service.com/contact-us to make an appointment today. 

* yes, we can hear you through the vast reaches of the internet in terms of this post.