Have you ever baked in an electric roaster?

[grasswire]

I bought an Oster 22 qt electric roaster to facilitate holiday meals. From what the instruction book says, it's possible to bake in this appliance. Am wondering if anyone here has tried that. Pie? Bread? I'm going to try some cookies this afternoon.

[The empressof all]

1. Yes I have two Nescos

I bake in mine all the time. I have never done cookies in it. I've done breads, cobblers, and pies with good results. I wouldn't advise cooking a Turkey in it though. Even though you can, I have never been able to get a good skin on poultry as it tends to hold moisture in more so than a regular oven. It's great with Hams and other Roasts. When I do a large Roast Beef in in though I start the meat in my regular oven to get a good crust going before I transfer it to the Nesco. It's great for braising and makes excellent Briskets or for cooking whole fish.

[grasswire]

3. thanks for the input

I broke it in tonight by baking a small ham, some potatoes, and two chicken breasts. I think it will be useful. At least it appears to get up to full temp. The GE tabletop convection oven I bought six months ago does not get up to full temp, and that's a pain.

[Denninmi]

2. 6A SE Michigan

I bought a Rival 18 quart last year for $13 on clearance at Target right before Christmas, and just bought a 7 quart mini roaster for $7 at Meijer. Both of them work great. I have baked a loaf of bread, muffins, and a cake in the large one just to experiment, all with successful browning and baking. And, my sister came for Christmas last year and brought me ANOTHER 18 quart one as a gift.

I have also used the large one to roast four or five turkeys and/or turkey breasts now, and I've had browning just as good as in the regular oven, except on a couple of the larger birds, which were actually just a little too big for the roaster (but I did it anyway), there were very small patches on the very top of the breast where it hit the lid and didn't brown. Since it was just for the family, not some special meal, I didn't really care. I freely admit that I exceeded the recommended size limit, which was I believe 14/15 lbs. I bought and cooked an 18 lb-er in there about 3 weeks ago, and it was fine. Probably could have held one even a couple of pounds larger.

But yes, I find it browns fine, too. I do put a rack in mine that is a little higher than the rack provided, because I've found that the turkeys did put out a lot of pan juices. And, I always flipped them a couple of times to allow both sides to brown.

I guess the backup method of browning if it's not quite to your liking would be to keep a small propane torch in the kitchen, or even one of the mini butane ones, and use that to brown any uneven or unbrowned areas prior to serving.

I'm very happy with mine. I have a small kitchen, and it's nice to have that extra option when cooking a large holiday meal, so that I can use the main oven for other things and not tie it up for hours with a turkey.

[grasswire]

4. well that's an endorsement!

Thanks for all the specifics. :wave: