Toaster ovens and other small appliances

[Jenise]

Basically, I looked at the Cuisinart we've been using for the last 15 years and asked myself if I wouldn't rather buy a new one than clean it again.

We use it for toast (we don't have/like standard toasters) regularly and occasionally I bake potatoes in it or use the broil feature in the manner of a salamander.

Admittedly, I've been seduced by the sleeker styling and hopefully technologically more advanced Brevilles so I went to Sur La Tables site to look at the range they offer. They make models that can cook 14 lb turkeys now. Would be a boon for someone with an apartment sized kitchen and only one real oven! That's not me, but one feature of one of them I liked a lot was a slow-cooking feature with a ten hour timer. Who needs a crockpot if you can do that? But too big/deep for my appliance bar and I remain steadfast in refusing to have any appliances on my kitchen counter. The next size down doesn't offer that feature, but it's lowest setting is 120F, which is essentially a proof setting. I can't set my Viking range any lower than 200 so in fact the ability to set a small 4 qt pot of pork belly or something else in there for the day (no timer needed, I'd be home) is attractive. There are at least two sizes smaller than the one I chose.

The SLT price on mine was $184.

Then I went to Amazon where the price was identical. However, there I clicked on the 'used from $132' button and found one from the Amazon warehouse with a description that went something like "New and unused, but the packaging is damaged". $132!!!

Just a reminder to y'all to check out the 'used' category when you're shopping. Sometimes it's not used at all. I used the same feature to buy a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer in a punctured box for about half price a few years ago.

Nice find, Jenise!

We have a toaster oven for exactly the same purposes as you. But we followed the line of thinking that says: buy a cheap one and you won't feel badly when you need to buy another.

So, we have a box that gets hot, made by Black & Decker. The timer is broken, which is a minor nuisance but I'm pretty attentive (and have plenty of other timers).

[Jenise]

Long ago we had a very basic B&D we loved--I think Bob owned it when I married him. Then it crapped out so we bought another, same brand. But the new one didn't toast well; it just dried out the bread. We returned it and ended up with the Cuisinart.

Friends in California had an old B&D very similar to our first one that had a problem. Wasn't completely fatal, but when they complained to Customer Service, they were sent a free replacement. These are people who NEVER throw anything away so now they have the new one stacked on top of the old one. I hate their new one, and so do they. It's bigger on the outside with less room inside. And it has all manner of annoying quirks. For instance, it works on a timer system with like 20 minute limits. So whatever you do, you can only do it for 20 minutes max. (This may explain why it was free.) Wouldn't have it, but since these friends never throw anything away it will be there forever. If it develops issues, they'll just add a third deck. (Hey, maybe that's why they're called Black & DECKer!)

Fun story! Clearly, your friends live in a house -- if they lived in an apartment, they'd learn how to throw things away.

My B+D timer only went to 30 minutes but it also has a "stay on" setting. And it definitely toasts. I've cooked potatoes and even small pork loins in there.

[Jenise]

Fun story! Clearly, your friends live in a house -- if they lived in an apartment, they'd learn how to throw things away.

My B+D timer only went to 30 minutes but it also has a "stay on" setting. And it definitely toasts. I've cooked potatoes and even small pork loins in there.

Yes, it's a house. And I love them dearly but they truly have a problem. Not hoarders, but both suffer from 'disposaphobia'. Nothing ever gets fixed or goes away.

[Robin Garr]

I looked at the Cuisinart we've been using for the last 15 years.

Whadda koinkydink! We had a basic-level Cuisiniart for at least 15 years, maybe 20, and it served us well for the limited uses we make of the toaster oven: Morning English muffins, occasional melted cheese sandwiches and such. It finally burned out about five years ago, whereupon we learned that they don't make that model any more. We didn't want a fancy one - our needs were simple - but I noticed that the bottom-line Breville model is so much like it that it's almost a clone. It's still going strong.

We don't have a toaster oven - in fact we don't currently have anything that can grill, apart from putting the big oven on. Toasted cheese? Sorry, thing of the past. (Which is a shame. I like toasted cheese.)

We've got one of those toasted sandwich maker things. It makes the outside of the sandwiches too hard but it's ok, it does what we expect it to do. When expectations are fairly low, satisfaction comes easily.

The Francophile's daughter, who previously worked in a kitchen goods store, gave us a slow-cooker/crock pot about five years ago, but it was so big we hardly ever used it. You had to cook enough for a small army, and that just didn't seem practical. Mere months ago I got a small slow cooker, which will do a meal for four comfortably. It's already done more work than the other one.