Anova precision oven
New oven from the sous vide people. I'm a little weirded out by it.
Like sous vide, you cook at lower temps: they contrast cooking a turkey at 425F in a regular oven with doing it at 149 F in the Anova, until internal temp reaches 142 (then finishing at 480 for 7 minutes, presumably to brown). I can understand how this sort of thing works in water, which carries heat efficiently, but in air, even with convection? The point to this oven is that it precisely holds its temperature, unlike a regular oven that fluctuates, but I'm not sure how that translates into the lower cooking temp. This isn't a food safety issue?
They have a section extolling this for breadmaking: "You can't make this bread at home ... yet. To get the perfect spring, crust, and crumb in a loaf or boule, home bakers resort to hacks like water trays, spritzers, and dutch ovens. Our hack? Real, controllable steam injection. With the magic of steam, you’ll watch through the glass as your sourdough springs up, without all those stressful hacks. And the easy-fill external water tank will keep you cooking with 24 hours of continuous steam, no plumbing (or spritzers) required."
Steam injection (no plumbing needed)--cool. They have a baguette recipe and it looks like the bread temps are more like we're used to (475F at 100% steam for the first 5 minutes, then 10 with no steam).
I have an ancient oven you can't get parts for anymore, and I'm anxious it's going to stop working one day--I already went to a regional appliance place, and due to the space's small size they couldn't find an in-wall replacement. So either I redo the whole kitchen or get a countertop oven. I have an Anova sous vide and it works well, but I don't know if I should consider this (if I need something).
It seems like a home version of professional convection ovens in restaurants (I work at one). They are great for basically everything which needs steady temperature. Flan, bread, proteins etc.
I only quickly glimpsed over the website, but it seems like a legit thing. But I would wait for longevity reviews and maybe a price drop if you can, since you can get great results with a traditional home oven if you cook smartly.
To answer your question, you should definitely consider this! In the end it will be worth it.
Also tempted to get one of these...
I do wish however that they added microwave functionality to it. My issue is not so much with the price but rather with space. I have nowhere to put it...
However, as it is, I want a $6,000 American, Bosch full 30" size steam oven! Space is my main issue too. This could triple as and air fryer. convection oven and (if only a microwave!)
Unfortunately unless I remodel my kitchen I would need a slide in gas range and I have yet to find a good slide-in gas range with steam oven.
I would have to move! Which hopefully will happen in the near future. I have never had an electric range or oven. I kind of like the idea of a high BTU Gas stove top. So the optimal for me would be a dual fuel range. Someday, (soon) God willing.
Has anyone taken a bet on one of these yet? I'm waiting for reviews to pop up, but more specifically for a baker to review it because that's one of my primary use cases.
There are a few posts on egullet, but the ovens have just started shipping, so not much baking going on.
Here is a short post on baking bread https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=64925.msg642529#msg642529
I have a (now discontinued) Cuisinart steam oven that just died, and while looking for repair info I ran across the new Anova Precision Oven. I bought it immediately as on paper at least it’s exactly what I want in a countertop oven and then some, and I’ve had very good experience in the past with Anova’s customer support. Firmware is easily updatable, so as long as any version 1.0 issues are confined to software that’s not really a problem. I’m keeping the box though in case it needs to be shipped anywhere for servicing the hardware. Note that it comes with a 100-day, no questions asked return policy, so as long as you don’t mind the hassle of shipping it back there’s not really any risk involved. Anova is owned by Electrolux now so it’s not really a startup any more either.
It’s currently back ordered for about a month, so if you want to do any holiday baking with it you’ll want to try to order ASAP. In the short term I’m especially interested to see how it does with panettone, as it looks like it will fit two full-size loaves nicely. Not sure if the steam function will be useful there but convection certainly will.
I’ll need a few days to reorganize my kitchen and figure out where to put it, but since I have it in hand I’m happy to answer whatever questions I can before I start using it. Kenji Lopez-Alt also has an unboxing video on his YouTube channel and says a review is in the works, but I don’t know where or when he’s planning to publish it.
I think this is the most useful feature and the primary reason to purchase the oven. Not only for bread and sous vide, but you can also use it to self clean the oven.
I think you will be pleased. We've had one for a few weeks.
If you use your own email instead of gmail etc you need to create an account on the Anova site first or you can't get the app to work.
Some people have had trouble with the wifi and firmware updates.
All of the ovens have a minor flicker of the internal light that cycles when the oven draws power to maintain the temp.
It's not small and takes up more room than a microwave or a toaster oven. It also ejects steam out the front of the unit during normal operation. This can turn some people off and if you don't have a good place to put it near a vent you might be turned off. Also, I would not recommend placing this on a wood counter or under a cabinet that is heat sensitive like a spice cabinet.
Your post sounds a lot like marketing. I wonder if you work for the company or have a relationship with them. While they are owned by Electrolux their support at the moment is terrible or non existent. People cannot even get the oven replaced or cancel orders. Meaning legit issues are not being solved.
I do recommend the oven to people who have a tolerance for fiddling with things (I think bakers fit this) and feel 600 bucks isn't going to break them. I do not recommend buying one for the holidays or for a holiday gift. I would recommend waiting a month or two. I think the light and some moisture between the glass needs to be solved before you get one delivered. They don't impact the function of the oven, but why get one knowing you will have to have a service person visit or need to swap the oven later.
After support surfaces for air and the small hardware issues are solved then buy one.
Well one connection, I’m 1/4 Swedish.
My comment on the usefulness of the steam function only applies to baking panettone. I believe Modernist Bread recommends straight convection for their recipe, but I’ll research further before I bake panettone with it. Many of their recipes are written for combi ovens and those should work very well.
My prior experience with Anova support was several years ago with one of their sous vide cookers, and I experienced prompt phone support twice and free replacement parts. No idea if that’s going to carry over to the oven, we’ll see.
One potential issue with WiFi connectivity is that it will only look for and connect to 2.4 GHz networks, not 5 GHz. Not really a bug since most routers these days support both, but not well documented either.
I get periodic summary emails from the Anova discussion forums. Looks like there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked out and poor (overwhelmed?) tech support.
We have one. Works really well. Totally worth it to watch the oven spring.
Happy to field any questions.
Reviving this thread...
Any updates from folks who have one? Which temps do you use when steam baking? e.g. if dutch oven recipe calls for 20 minutes with lid on at 480F, do you use 480F with steam in your Anova?
I haven't baked bread in mine yet, but one of the interesting things you can do with this oven is program a multi-stage bake. So if you're converting a dutch oven recipe that calls for say 20 minutes with the lid on and 10 minutes with it off, you can run the oven for 20 minutes with the steam on and 10 with no steam.
I just do the max of 482F with 100% steam for the first 10-15 minutes or so and then turn off the steam.
While you can use stages I'm generally standing right there watching the loaf like TV so I can easily make the changes manually. Stages can be useful for other things. I just generally don't like using the app and you can't configure or even view the stages on the oven.
You can use the probe also. I just use a thermapen.
Works great for baking. Very good temp control and the steam really works. ... but at the moment not without issues and some folks have had to swap ovens.