Member
Central Maine
(This post was last modified: 03-04-2021, 06:01 PM by ShadowsDad.)
This will be an ongoing review as things come to mind as I learn more.
The old T/B (toaster/broiler) had a pressure sensitive pad and the buttons were getting harder to actuate, so it was time for a new one. OK, I also need the old one out in the shop. After much looking and weighing pluses and minuses I dropped the hammer on the Cuisinart TOA-60. The price was acceptable, I did find T/B/AFs for up to $400, but I wasn't going to pay that for a countertop appliance. The next one I considered was Breville and they were just under $300. The Cuisinart is quite uniformly priced at pennies south of $200. I ordered from Home Depot and they had "free" shipping. We received the T/B four days later shipped by FedEx. Oh, buttons were a "feature" that I didn't want on all the units I looked at. The only button on this unit is the one for the light and it was pressed once not to be used ever again. Now when the unit is powered up the light comes on and stays on. When it's powered down the light is off. I has a small red light that tells us that it's on, this is a bigger light that also informs us.
Where our old T/B had the controls on the side making the unit longer, this has a "stacked" appearance and layout making the footprint smaller, there is plenty of room to go higher on our countertop, so that was one point in it's favor. From the specs it's LWH: 15.50" x 16.00" x 14.00" so it's close to being a cube. It comes with a grease drip tray, fryer basket, and oven rack.
https://www.cuisinart.com/shopping/appli...ens/toa-60
Reviews I read were mostly good but there were a few negative reviews most of those had faulty units that showed up close to immediately. But there were a few reviews that claimed, "This thing burns everything it cooks! It's going back!". But I've learned long ago that not everyone actually knows how to cook. More on the issue with burning everything in a bit. I did read some reviews done by professional test folks and they claimed that because it's such a powerful unit heating such a small space that what's cooked in it needs to be watched. That ties in with those folks who claimed that it burned everything. But that's precisely what one wants in an air fryer. An AF that gets lukewarm isn't worth much. This T/B/AF is a very powerful unit, lots of wattage in a small space, and if the buyer wants one where recipes are followed and trusted with no input from the cook, then this is probably not the unit to buy. Under that situation it can burn everything put into it. But for those folks who know how to cook, it will really cut your cooking time, but there might be a learning curve. I'll come back to that in a bit.
The first thing I did on plugging it in was to check the infinitely adjustable temp' dial with my eye and the actual temperature measured in the oven. They were close. More accurate when the internal fan was selected. Note on "convection" cooking. That term is used to name forced air cooking. Forced air cooking has nothing to do with convection. The name "convection" is misused and does not describe forced air cooking. Now a standard oven without a fan IS a true convection oven. So from now on if I refer to that again I'm going to correctly use the words forced air or fan. But anyway, when using the fan the temps were actually closer to what my eye saw when it lined up the dial with the desired temperature. But it's infinitely adjustable so it's a simple matter to just dial it down a bit for the best accuracy. The housing is magnetic and it would be easy to get a thermometer that clings to it and keep the probe in the oven. At this time I'm not going to bother. No off the shelf oven that I know of keeps a steady temperature and this is no different. The temp swung approx' 50°F above and below the set temp'. But again that's normal unless one has special controls.
After testing the oven I was antsy to actually air fry something but I had nothing thawed. I did some online research and found out that hot dogs are supposed to be quite good air fried. Hot dogs I had and they thawed quickly in the microwave. Following the directions to slice "X"s into the dogs I air fried them at 390° for 6 minutes. They were unlike any hot dogs I'd ever fried in a pan. The edges that were produced by the X cuts got crispy. The first test was a success. OK, I could see getting accustomed to this.
The wife likes a bagel in the AM and we buy Mikes brand. They require 6 minutes of baking to finish in the home oven. It's a job tailor made for a T/B/AF. But she failed to set the mode correctly. That's easy to do since I think whoever determined how to mark the mode dial had to be doing drugs that day. The labeling could be clearer. Even knowing that it is screwy it even caught me until my confusion lifted. It's just something to be aware of, once it's understood it's not a big deal. But it's not the way I would have labeled the mode dial. So the wife put the bagel in the oven after warming it up and walked away. She failed to set the mode to bake. Instead it was set on air fry, but at the proper temp' setting. The baking time is 6 minutes. In 3 minutes she had a burned bagel. An additional part of the problem is that she was baking the bagel as she would have in the old T/B. This is NOT that T/B! It's much more powerful. I suggested the "right" way to do it but of course she did it her way.
Last night I made a serving of Coquille St. Jacques, or my version of it. In the old T/B I would set the temp to 350 and after warmup woud put the single serving in it, set the timer for 30 minutes and go do something until the timer went off. I knew batter than to do that with this new T/B/AF. So I set the unit to bake and 350°, after letting it warm up I put the dish on the baking rack and within minutes it was clear that it was cooking much faster than the old T/B. So I lowered the temp to 325 and turned it to forced air baking. I also didn't walk away. Clearly the dish was done cooking in under 15 minutes and the cheese top was beautifully golden brown.
One thing I was able to do with the old T/B was to Take an omelet, still in the pan, and pan and all went into it under the broiler to finish the setting of the eggs. The pan handle would be outside the open door and it worked fine. This new Cuisinart has a switch similar to the light switch in a refrigerator, but in reverse. Open the door on this and the unit shuts off. So it has forced me to use the broiler in the big oven. Or I could glue the switch in the held closed position. Maybe I'll do that when the 3 year warranty is up (I think it's 3 years).
I REALLY(!) like this unit so far. But it requires one to know how to cook. I'll write it again, if the user intends to follow a recipe as written and just come back to it after the prescribed time it's probably the wrong T/B/AF to buy. But if one knows how to cook it's one heck of a time saver.
I don't know what's next for it, I'm in ketosis but eating a small amount of sweet potato is good for me. I might make SP fries and just take a few now and then. Once cooked they should warn up in minutes. The 'net is littered with recipes and I spent some time acquiring a mess of them.
As I learn more I'll come back to this thread and add to it.
The old T/B (toaster/broiler) had a pressure sensitive pad and the buttons were getting harder to actuate, so it was time for a new one. OK, I also need the old one out in the shop. After much looking and weighing pluses and minuses I dropped the hammer on the Cuisinart TOA-60. The price was acceptable, I did find T/B/AFs for up to $400, but I wasn't going to pay that for a countertop appliance. The next one I considered was Breville and they were just under $300. The Cuisinart is quite uniformly priced at pennies south of $200. I ordered from Home Depot and they had "free" shipping. We received the T/B four days later shipped by FedEx. Oh, buttons were a "feature" that I didn't want on all the units I looked at. The only button on this unit is the one for the light and it was pressed once not to be used ever again. Now when the unit is powered up the light comes on and stays on. When it's powered down the light is off. I has a small red light that tells us that it's on, this is a bigger light that also informs us.
Where our old T/B had the controls on the side making the unit longer, this has a "stacked" appearance and layout making the footprint smaller, there is plenty of room to go higher on our countertop, so that was one point in it's favor. From the specs it's LWH: 15.50" x 16.00" x 14.00" so it's close to being a cube. It comes with a grease drip tray, fryer basket, and oven rack.
https://www.cuisinart.com/shopping/appli...ens/toa-60
Reviews I read were mostly good but there were a few negative reviews most of those had faulty units that showed up close to immediately. But there were a few reviews that claimed, "This thing burns everything it cooks! It's going back!". But I've learned long ago that not everyone actually knows how to cook. More on the issue with burning everything in a bit. I did read some reviews done by professional test folks and they claimed that because it's such a powerful unit heating such a small space that what's cooked in it needs to be watched. That ties in with those folks who claimed that it burned everything. But that's precisely what one wants in an air fryer. An AF that gets lukewarm isn't worth much. This T/B/AF is a very powerful unit, lots of wattage in a small space, and if the buyer wants one where recipes are followed and trusted with no input from the cook, then this is probably not the unit to buy. Under that situation it can burn everything put into it. But for those folks who know how to cook, it will really cut your cooking time, but there might be a learning curve. I'll come back to that in a bit.
The first thing I did on plugging it in was to check the infinitely adjustable temp' dial with my eye and the actual temperature measured in the oven. They were close. More accurate when the internal fan was selected. Note on "convection" cooking. That term is used to name forced air cooking. Forced air cooking has nothing to do with convection. The name "convection" is misused and does not describe forced air cooking. Now a standard oven without a fan IS a true convection oven. So from now on if I refer to that again I'm going to correctly use the words forced air or fan. But anyway, when using the fan the temps were actually closer to what my eye saw when it lined up the dial with the desired temperature. But it's infinitely adjustable so it's a simple matter to just dial it down a bit for the best accuracy. The housing is magnetic and it would be easy to get a thermometer that clings to it and keep the probe in the oven. At this time I'm not going to bother. No off the shelf oven that I know of keeps a steady temperature and this is no different. The temp swung approx' 50°F above and below the set temp'. But again that's normal unless one has special controls.
After testing the oven I was antsy to actually air fry something but I had nothing thawed. I did some online research and found out that hot dogs are supposed to be quite good air fried. Hot dogs I had and they thawed quickly in the microwave. Following the directions to slice "X"s into the dogs I air fried them at 390° for 6 minutes. They were unlike any hot dogs I'd ever fried in a pan. The edges that were produced by the X cuts got crispy. The first test was a success. OK, I could see getting accustomed to this.
The wife likes a bagel in the AM and we buy Mikes brand. They require 6 minutes of baking to finish in the home oven. It's a job tailor made for a T/B/AF. But she failed to set the mode correctly. That's easy to do since I think whoever determined how to mark the mode dial had to be doing drugs that day. The labeling could be clearer. Even knowing that it is screwy it even caught me until my confusion lifted. It's just something to be aware of, once it's understood it's not a big deal. But it's not the way I would have labeled the mode dial. So the wife put the bagel in the oven after warming it up and walked away. She failed to set the mode to bake. Instead it was set on air fry, but at the proper temp' setting. The baking time is 6 minutes. In 3 minutes she had a burned bagel. An additional part of the problem is that she was baking the bagel as she would have in the old T/B. This is NOT that T/B! It's much more powerful. I suggested the "right" way to do it but of course she did it her way.
Last night I made a serving of Coquille St. Jacques, or my version of it. In the old T/B I would set the temp to 350 and after warmup woud put the single serving in it, set the timer for 30 minutes and go do something until the timer went off. I knew batter than to do that with this new T/B/AF. So I set the unit to bake and 350°, after letting it warm up I put the dish on the baking rack and within minutes it was clear that it was cooking much faster than the old T/B. So I lowered the temp to 325 and turned it to forced air baking. I also didn't walk away. Clearly the dish was done cooking in under 15 minutes and the cheese top was beautifully golden brown.
One thing I was able to do with the old T/B was to Take an omelet, still in the pan, and pan and all went into it under the broiler to finish the setting of the eggs. The pan handle would be outside the open door and it worked fine. This new Cuisinart has a switch similar to the light switch in a refrigerator, but in reverse. Open the door on this and the unit shuts off. So it has forced me to use the broiler in the big oven. Or I could glue the switch in the held closed position. Maybe I'll do that when the 3 year warranty is up (I think it's 3 years).
I REALLY(!) like this unit so far. But it requires one to know how to cook. I'll write it again, if the user intends to follow a recipe as written and just come back to it after the prescribed time it's probably the wrong T/B/AF to buy. But if one knows how to cook it's one heck of a time saver.
I don't know what's next for it, I'm in ketosis but eating a small amount of sweet potato is good for me. I might make SP fries and just take a few now and then. Once cooked they should warn up in minutes. The 'net is littered with recipes and I spent some time acquiring a mess of them.
As I learn more I'll come back to this thread and add to it.
Brian. Lover of SE razors.