The Miele speed oven manual is wretched, as has been complained about in various threads here over the past year (maybe more).

I agree the MasterChef menus are a bid odd as well, though they do work and I suppose that's nice. Some of them overcook stuff a bit, though; beware.

For baked potatoes, select Combination Bake (meaning it convection bakes & microwaves at the same time), enter the potato's weight, and ~15 minutes later you're eating it. I was also surprised that neither potatoes nor "kartoffles" are listed in my MasterChef menus, but they aren't. [When I was looking, I found the Advantium menus were better, but the 220v Advantium is a larger oven and didn't fit in my tiny island.]

I haven't noticed / don't recall a message about "frozen and raw vegetables using the same programs", so I wonder if this was added in this year's model (mine is last years).

A while back, there were some reports here about the regular Miele oven having problems reaching or maintaining the temperature it said it had reached. Not sure if these are completely resolved or not, but this problem has not been reported in their speed oven. Mine works fine, apart from oddities like the ones you mention.

I just remembered what was missing from the MasterChef options in the convection oven - we couldn't find any options for baking bread.

The Electrolux Icon speed oven has some similar weirdness (and we think it's fugly, with those big vents top and bottom).

The Advantium is the only speed oven we have seen so far that we found really intuitive to use. We're beginning to wonder just how bad it would look if we put a Monogram Pro Advantium above an Electrolux Icon Pro oven.

I never use any of the masterchef menu item modes. Not sure why, either. I just prefer winging it, I suppose.

I take a look at what it is I am going to cook, how long I am willing to wait for it, and how much I want to fuss with it during the cooking ops.

For baked potatoes, I found out that fastest way to do them is to put them in on microwave for about 6 minutes, then broil for 5 or so and it gets them just the way I want them. Unfortunately, Miele doesn't provide a complex programming mode allowing stacked or sequential timed mode selections, so you have to do it manually.

You can get nicely done baked potatoes using combination bake mode, but it takes longer as the oven goes through a warmup and the intermittent microwave just isn't as efficient as using full power for 6 minutes, then broil.

I only use convection modes for breads, not really interested in microwaves on those, although that is simple prejudice on my part; I simply haven't tried it. The convection on the Miele is so good that it really doesn't induce me to try to hurry things along with bread.

Where the combination microwave and convection or broil convection modes really come into play are for preparing casseroles or heating frozen dishes. Also, believe it or not, the combination microwave and convection mode works spectacularly on some poultry dishes.

Example: Americas Test Kitchen had a fried chicken recipe on the other day that uses only a half pan of oil instead of a true deep fry. But the crispy coating needs a hot oil that browns the outside before the inside of the chicken is completely done. So ATK's recipe called for placing the chicken in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes to finish cooking the chicken through.

I followed the recipe, but I set my speed oven to combination bake, which is microwave and convection baking combined. The chicken was done, incredibly juicy, yet very crispy on the outside and it took maybe 10 minutes.

Microwaves really are surprising when combined with a good convection oven.

Mojavean,

Its stunning you've managed to shave 4 min. off the potato baking times you showed on video a while back. Does Dodge know about this? I tried your newfangled method, but prefer the combination approach 'cause there's less fiddling with stuff along the way (it does help to partially pre-heat the oven, though). Otherwise, they looked very similar. This is an amazing accomplishment; thanks.

Here's hoping you're working on a cookbook for Miele speed ovens; sounds like that would be a masterpiece. I look forward to any more recipes. I'm certainly not taking full advantage of the various modes in that oven, especially combining microwaves with baking.

I am not sure the speed cookery recipe market presents a sufficiently lucrative inducement to pry me out of the smutty bodice-ripper trade, chac.

But the Miele site does have some recipes up that might help.

NOTE: from the link above select recipe search and then specify speed oven as the product type and it will supply a list of recipes specifically developed for our appliance. I can't pass judgment on the quality of the recipes themselves, because I haven't tried them. As I have said I prefer winging it myself.

I did mention to Gary once that I had refined the potato technique down to a faster speed, but since you have to manually interfere by changing modes midstream I am not sure that the spirit of the challenge is answered using it. Ideally, I should be able to put the potatoes in the oven, set the button walk away and come back in 11 or 12 minutes to find them perfectly done.

"For baked potatoes, I found out that fastest way to do them is to put them in on microwave for about 6 minutes, then broil for 5 or so and it gets them just the way I want them."

Hmm, I could do that in our current kitchen using two separate appliances (plain old MW and plain ole wall oven) - have to give it a try!

Should work great and depending upon the performance of your broiler, could be even faster that using a single speed-oven.

Here's how I do it, Wash Russett potatoes and pat dry, pierce a few times with a fork, rub with olive oil and then sprinkle kosher salt over them.

Place in microwave on high for 6 minutes. Depending on microwave and the number of potatoes you use you will have to adjust this time. But with the Miele, I can get two or three potatoes where I want them in 6 minutes. A single potato will probably take 5 minutes. You are looking for heavily steaming potatoes that yield to the touch as if done.

Remove from microwave and place them on a broiler-safe sheet and pop them under the broiler for a few minutes. The purpose of this step is to firm up the skin of the potato more like it had been baked, and to get just a little browning. Adjust the time under the broiler accordingly.

When ready, dress and serve as appropriate. I like butter, sour cream, scallions, and if I have it, homemade Roquefort dressing or even some crumbled Danish Blue (or Maytag) (or Port Reyes Blue)

Is it getting hungry in here?

Shows how much I know - I mentioned the "two appliance" way to cook potatoes to my wife, and she replied "how do you think I cooked the ones you ate on Sunday evening?" :)

I should add that my wife had figured out the two appliance trick for herself subsequent to looking at speed ovens. Smart woman, my wife, apart from that one truly dreadful decision she made about 26 years ago. ;-)

To do potatoes:

(1) I push the "basic Cook button" The display lights up.

(2) The display tells me to push the speed cook button to
select the food category (Casseroles in this case).
Why casseroles? well taters are not meat, poultry
Pizzas, snacks, pies or deserts--so I figgered that
out without using the op Manual (not bad for an old**)?

(3) The display now tells me to push the up/down arrows to
select the food, so I select "Real Baked Potatoes".

(4) The display asks me how many potatoes 1 - 4. As I like
xtra large taters, I enter 2 instead of one.

(5) Display says remove food and, then the oven preheats
for about 7 minutes in this case.

(6) At the end of the preheat time, oven beeps at me,
display tells me to put the food in the oven and press
"Start" which is lit up green.

(7) About 7 minutes later, the oven beeps at me to tell me
the taters are done, I checked them with a fork, The
display now shows "add time if needed",(it usually isnt)

There you have it as you can see everything is completely automated, and that is the way I ran the oven when Mojavean and I had the contest, so my times included about 7 minutes of preheating.

I think it's pretty simple for an old guy like me, don't you? I don't ever recall having to get the "OP manual" out.

As far as toast, I use the grill function, again it preheats for a couple of mins as I recall, beeps at me says put the food in, again about 2 mins for toast, I do stop it after 1 minute and flip the toast. Toast is perfect
(To me anyway). As seldom as I do toast, it is not worth buying a toaster ---that might be faster???, nor do I want to fire up the big broiling element in our regular Elux oven as that seems a bit of waste to me, unless I was doing a number of slices of bread.

Gary

"Why casseroles? well taters are not meat, poultry
Pizzas, snacks, pies or deserts"

That's the kind of thing I mean by a "funky user interface"... :-)

On the Advantium, you select "Vegetables" when you want to cook vegetables. Just sayin'...

fussy fussy Peter, it wasnt "Rocket Science" to figger out taters are NOT meat poulty pies etc etc,.You right, you youngsters best stay away from this "Advanced stuff" and leave it to us "Seasoned Folks"!!!!!!!!

You Know who.