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I have seen so much buzz about these things on the Internet and there are just hundreds of YouTube videos on how to cook with them. I was curious about the concept because we have an infrared toaster and just love it. With the recent purchase of a new travel trailer I was interested in finding an alternative to the standard fare propane oven that comes with the unit. Last week we stopped at a brand new store that had one on sale $50 off. I sprung for it and started using it immediately.
Now I know what the buzz is all about. It cooks fast, quiet, doesn't heat up the joint like a regular oven and has to be much cheaper to run than a big electric oven. Using infrared and convection along with a small amount of conductive heat it is a remarkably simple device with a high degree of user friendliness. My first attempt was cooking a 4 # 4 oz whole chicken in about 70 minutes. All of the runoff from the chicken drained into a foil lined pan at the bottom so cleanup was just a breeze. Now I know why these things are the darling of the RV crowd.
I searched for biscuit recipes in YouTube but all I found was how to cook those phony biscuits in a can. Since the Nuwave is redlined at 350 degrees I didn't see how it could cook the buttermilk biscuits I usually bake at 450. But I tried a batch anyway and to my astonishment they came out better than biscuits baked in our regular oven. Due to the design of the cooking elements food has to be turned over midway but that is just not much of an issue. Three things make turning the food easier than it would ever be in a stove oven. The first is that the dome is transparent so you can cook the food to the exact browness that you want without stooping over or squinting into a poorly lighted oven. The second is that since the Nuwave is on the countertop that stooping over with a hot blast of air in the face is a thing of the past. And the 3rd thing that makes it easy is that it can be set to turn off half way through the cook with a chime to remind you that it is time to flip.
I have done biscuits several times already and settled on 6 min for the first side and 4 minutes for the second. They all come out alike well browned on each side and light and fluffy in the middle. Just say no to canned biscuits.
They say you can cook a 12'' frozen pizza but it requires a special flipper because you have to start the pizza bottom side up to brown the crust. I doubt that I will go down that road. Two things are wrong with that-the frozen pizza and the uni-tasker flipper. A better solution would be to make the standard pizza dough and bake the bottom first then flip it over and add toppings and bake the top to the required doneness. I do a variation of this on my charcoal grill for pizzas and it works quite well.
Next I'll try some pork chops on the top rack and corn on the cob below. I'm really having fun with this thing and see it as a huge improvement over heating up a big oven to do a simple job. I would like to hear from you regarding your experiences with Nuwave-positive or negative. This is the 5th oven in our kitchen now and I can see where it will replace one of the others and render one other almost useless. At an RV park with power it will certainly be a star.
Now I know what the buzz is all about. It cooks fast, quiet, doesn't heat up the joint like a regular oven and has to be much cheaper to run than a big electric oven. Using infrared and convection along with a small amount of conductive heat it is a remarkably simple device with a high degree of user friendliness. My first attempt was cooking a 4 # 4 oz whole chicken in about 70 minutes. All of the runoff from the chicken drained into a foil lined pan at the bottom so cleanup was just a breeze. Now I know why these things are the darling of the RV crowd.
I searched for biscuit recipes in YouTube but all I found was how to cook those phony biscuits in a can. Since the Nuwave is redlined at 350 degrees I didn't see how it could cook the buttermilk biscuits I usually bake at 450. But I tried a batch anyway and to my astonishment they came out better than biscuits baked in our regular oven. Due to the design of the cooking elements food has to be turned over midway but that is just not much of an issue. Three things make turning the food easier than it would ever be in a stove oven. The first is that the dome is transparent so you can cook the food to the exact browness that you want without stooping over or squinting into a poorly lighted oven. The second is that since the Nuwave is on the countertop that stooping over with a hot blast of air in the face is a thing of the past. And the 3rd thing that makes it easy is that it can be set to turn off half way through the cook with a chime to remind you that it is time to flip.
I have done biscuits several times already and settled on 6 min for the first side and 4 minutes for the second. They all come out alike well browned on each side and light and fluffy in the middle. Just say no to canned biscuits.
They say you can cook a 12'' frozen pizza but it requires a special flipper because you have to start the pizza bottom side up to brown the crust. I doubt that I will go down that road. Two things are wrong with that-the frozen pizza and the uni-tasker flipper. A better solution would be to make the standard pizza dough and bake the bottom first then flip it over and add toppings and bake the top to the required doneness. I do a variation of this on my charcoal grill for pizzas and it works quite well.
Next I'll try some pork chops on the top rack and corn on the cob below. I'm really having fun with this thing and see it as a huge improvement over heating up a big oven to do a simple job. I would like to hear from you regarding your experiences with Nuwave-positive or negative. This is the 5th oven in our kitchen now and I can see where it will replace one of the others and render one other almost useless. At an RV park with power it will certainly be a star.
