Umm, where are Gary's results? :-)

Nice job on taters and the video too!
I will get to work today alto I don't have those
"fancy scales and timers, I will use clock on
regular oven if that's ok and use scale at Super Market
when I buy the potatoes today.

Great! Looking forward to watching how your E-Lux does spuds. Weigh 'em and time 'em however you want. I could have used one of the speed oven's timers but I didn't want to accidentally press the wrong button and goon it up. It was easier just to use the timer on my meat thermometer.

I am going to keep experimenting to see if I can make the oven do them faster, but I wanted to try one of the built-in oven combination modes first.

OK Tater race is up. It took 7 minutes preheat, and 7mins 40 seconds to speed cook. The Speed oven has a setting for baked potatoes , so we used that. Regular oven takes about 10 mins preheat and 45 minutes to bake.
Taters came out great!

Gary

oopssss Not nuff coffee forgot to send link for UTube---so Here Tis.

Gary

Here is a link that might be useful: Tater Race Electrolux Speed Oven Gary

Excellent work, Gary. Well, it appears to me that the winner of the great potato race is Dodge1959!

Total cooking time for the Miele was 15:49 vs Gary's 14:40.

So Gary wins the contest. Sadly, no prizes will be awarded, but Gary can hold his head high amongst any and all speed oven owners both foreign and domestic! Congrats, Gary! BTW, your kitchen looks splendid. I particularly like the radiused door for the corner cabinet. It really looks sharp.

Yes, but whose potatoes tasted best? LOL!!

Mojavean's, mine ended up as potato, eggs and bacon for dinner---wife wanted an easny night.
Thanks for the comments mojavean.
Folks will sure know what Speed Ovens are all about after our contest?
One poster didnt think the Elux had a built in "Menu" but you got to see it step by step.

Gary

Well, I can testify that the ones I baked tasted pretty good. Good enough for me to polish them both off as finger food while I worked on assembling the video. No butter, no chives, no sour cream, no fork. Just the salt and olive oil that they cooked in for flavor. Yum!

bump

Why the bump? Wasn't my humiliation complete enough!? ;@)

Phil123, a new user, wanted to see it so I made it easy for them. I don't think a couple seconds would humiliate and "Iron Chef", such as yourself---besides I admitted yours tasted better---alto I should have eaten mine like you did, but I saved them for the wife (sniff sniff).
I'm hoping an Advantium owner will join the race that way the folks here get to see all 3 ovens in actual "Combat Situations"¿
Was watchin Radar, Are ya out playing in the snow???---Well are ya?
Best Wishes!!

Gary

I just want to say - and I know how sacrilegious this is - that the Bosch MW I bought last fall gives me delicious "baked" potatoes in under 10 minutes. I know, I know, but really, start with a good spud, russet or sweet potato, and they come out great and fast enough that I can have one at a whim. I've been having them for breakfast lately. OK, back to what matters.

Is that a speed oven or a MW, dan? If MW, I wouldn't think the skins would be as tasty as monavean's and mine were?
but to be honest, I haven't just tried nukin taters, well cept maybe to warm them up.

Gary

Well wasn't this interesting :) mojavean, I'm curious why you chose convection *broiling* instead of convection *baking*...as in *baked* potato? Also, unless I'm just clueless (likely!) it looked like after 15 minutes your oven was still preheating yet the potato cooked in almost 16 minutes?
Monica

Wouldn't a potato take longer if you just convectioned baked it Monica?---there would be no microwaving going on, just "pure convection". I know my large oven is around 45 minutes to bake a potato + preheating (about another 10 minutes to get to about 400F). I rarely do potatoes in the large oven, and I can't recall if I used convection or not.
Maybe somebody else can tell us how long it takes to bake a tater with just "Pure Convection"?

Gary

Hi Monicakm,
I used "combination broil" which is convection broiling (both the convection element and the top element heat up, AND microwave.

When I picked that, I was flying blind. The Masterchef modes do not include anything specifically for baked potato so I just winged it, picking the mode that I thought would get the exterior of the potato the hottest the fastest while still baking the interior with the microwave.

Had I done the potatoes strictly with microwave they would have taken probably 6-7 minutes to do. I actually have done this for years when I wanted a baked potato done quickly. But I wanted to put the speed oven combination modes to the test sort of mimicking Gary's built-in potato functionality. And I wanted the potatoes browned somewhat, like a real oven would do.

Whenever the speed oven temp is below the setpoint, 400º in this case, it says pre-heating. When it gets above the target temp, like when you either lower the temperature target or change modes, then it gives you the message "cooling down."

I was looking for simplicity, so I put the potatoes in when the oven was cold, set it for 12 minutes on the selected mode, and hit start, as you can see in the video. A lot of it after that was winging it. I had no idea when the microwave would energize (it finally came on when the temp hit 383º and only about a minute left of the original 12--that's why I had to increase the duration)

As I mentioned, I will experiment with other modes to see if I can shorten the cooking time while avoiding microwave only mode. But I do know now that if I put two spuds in there, put it in combination broil mode and dial in 15 minutes, they'll be done when the beeper goes off.

Gary, gee, can't you read minds? (g)
Yes, I understand the contest consisted of mw and convection. I was just saving a few keystrokes (that's my excuse) and actually wondering why he chose MW/convection BROIL instead of MW/convection BAKE :)
mojavean, was the potato skin *crispy* all around or just the top? Course I just have a regular ol' convection oven but I find the crispiest skins are achieved by oil or butter and salt on the outside and placed directly on the racks. Cooked at 400 or 425. Granted, I can't do it in 15 minutes :)
Monica

I wouldn't call it "crispy", only that they were not as soggy/saggy skinned as potatoes that are only nuked.

I would guess that they were maybe a litte browner on top, but not by much. I really didn't examine them all that well, I just let them cool down a bit and ate them with my fingers while I worked on the video.

Next time I try it, I'll use the micro-broil mode, which only uses the top broiler element and the microwave. One other option is the combination roast mode that uses the microwave and the food probe to cook the food to a preset temp. One of those modes might be faster. But there is no doubt that I will have to use some combination that includes microwaving or I will never be able to undercut the 15 minute mark.

Mojavean and dodge1959/Gary,

Just wanted to let you both know that I loved your hot-potato race. Got a real chuckle out of it. Probably more than that, I think both you chaps are both absolutely tops.

Your kitchens are both really lovely. Loved your radiused corners too, Gary, and your ribbed glass/steel-frame doors mojava-man.

I think you ought to put other appliances to the test. How about Gary's Induction vs. Mojava's Bluestar? There are any number of good races to be had there. No? Boil. Simmer. Don't know what else you do on a stove but there must be something. what say you?

Thanks for the nice words, mindstorm, If we were just boiling water, or simmering, I think most induction would have the advantage here?(What sayest thou, Mojavean)?

If we were charring peppers, no contest, The BS wins; Also for Woking--alto possible with an induction cooktop (Not talking about an Induction Wok) the the BS wins again.
Sauteing(Saw Tay Ying), might be an interesing costest?

Still hoping to see someone with an Advantium do a tater, (Not just nuke it) One poster even said the Advantium was the best--even better than the Miele!!!!----well, put your taters where your mouth----er I mean typing fingers are (LOL)
Anyway, thanks again, the videos were a lotta work, but fun!!

Gary

Thanks Mojavean and Gary,

Not only was that entertaining, but as Gary said I learned a lot more about speed ovens. Gary, how do you think the Speed Oven compares to the E'lux Icon OTR micro/convection oven? It appears to have a micro+convection mode. It is only 120 volts (I think) so I guess the big difference is in heating speed/power? We don't have room or budget for a 'real' speed oven. The Velos I don't think has a combination mode, you get either micro or convection.

Also Gary, what kind of granite is that? Creama Bordeaux? Or Juperana Bordeaux? Yes a very nice kitchen!

I will echo Gary's sentiments, mindstorm; very kind words indeed. Glad you enjoyed the show. As you can probably tell, our contest was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but a lot of fun and educational, to boot. I am game for further contests if we can come up with something meaningful. I wouldn't mind running some tests against an induction cooktop. I have never used one of them so I really don't have any idea about them other than they are flat and can boil water quickly.

Perhaps a slow-method Hollandaise sauce prepared under direct heat to test for low temp control? Chicken Fried Steak races? Taco shell rodeos? Beats me, but I am game to try anything interesting and educational that doesn't land me in jail or wreck my marriage.

I checked my Speed oven, the max temp is 450F, check to see what the max temp of the Elux OTR is. I believe it was Antss, that said , unless it is 220-240 volts it really cant act as an oven---maybe some other folks here---have some inputs on the 120 volt units?(Like the Advantium for example).Anyway, a good first start, check the max temp of the Elux OTR. Thank you for the kind words too.

Our granite is called "Arandis Gold" It is a Brazillian Granite, and is in the "Juperana Family". You may have noticed that we are bit of rebels when it came to backsplash, but I like to look in and see the granite without having to stand over it, also as we have a lotta roses and I usually have a bouquet there, You can see the reflection of the roses in the granite---you know, without grout lines---that's just "Our Personal Preference" and not saying this is for everyone--but we took out tile to put in the granite and I just didn't want to mess around with grout, anymore--and not crazy bout "grout lines" in the reflection of the roses (LOL).

I will "clean up" the kitchen a bit and show more pictures in "Our Next Contest" (which I will issue a "Challenge" to Mojavean in my next post!!(LOL)

Good luck on your pending decisions, hopefully you have friends and/or neighbors that might have some of the "mini-ovens" you are considering!

Gary

Hello Mojavean and Gary. I have an Advantium 240. We got two potatoes that were 14 oz combined weight, from cold oven to finish on the speedcook function was 7 minutes. I would be happy to make a video (I enjoyed yours so much !) if you think it is worthwhile. However, with ours being a 220V (Advantium 240) instead of a 110V (Advantium 120) perhaps it would be comparing apples to oranges? What do you think ? Do you think a test with the Advantium 120 would be more of a true comparison ?

Hi Easteregg,
Well, that will certainly be a valid comparison as both Gary and myself are using 240V speed ovens. Please join us and post a video on youtube showing your results! We may both have to take a back seat to the Advantium.

One thing to keep in mind is that both Gary and I are using modes that heat the exteriors for browning crisping while it nukes the interiors. IOW, we aren't just microwaving the spuds. But I am eager to see what you and your GE can do, eastergegg! So jump on in!

Hey Easteregg, that would be great, That way folks here can compare all 3 speed ovens. Looking forward to the video!

Gary

This is great. Would it be accurate to say the Miele has a bigger interior? Appears that way on video. Also looks like several racking positions on the Miele since it doesn't have the turntable. True?

We are doing a 60" CC range and plan to select a speed ven (the two here shortlisted) which would be used for daily quick cooking as well as MW replacement in new home build.
And best of all, I can now kinda put a face to Gary! ;-)

Thanks for posting this.

I know this is an old thread, yet I keep referring back to it.

It's super convenient being able to make a crispy baked potato in about 16-18 minutes.

And, a potato is one of the few things you can safely store at room temp, so putting a washed potato in a speed oven and setting the Ready At feature for some time in the future is very nice.