Quick and Tasty Food (JML Halogen Oven)

Member Name: Munchkin2009

Product:	JML Halogen Oven
Date:	17/07/09 (1018 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick cooking times , tasty food, saves energy, convenient

Disadvantages: Needs a better instruction book and a recipe book, no lid holder

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

My mum bought the JML Halogen Oven after our main oven decided to give up the ghost. We'd seen infomercials about the Halogen Oven and it was something we were thinking of getting at some point. I liked the idea of having a counter top oven, and something that would cook food quickly but retained flavour. We did look at a similar product, but it was out of our price range.

HOW MY MUM BOUGHT THE PRODUCT

IMy mum bought her Halogen Oven over the phone, but you can also order it online from the JML website at www.jmldirect.com, and by Mail Order.

The Halogen Oven cost £59.99 and the delivery charge was £4.95. My mum ordered the oven on a Tuesday evening, and the oven was delivered on the Friday.

WHO IS JML?

JML (or John Mills Ltd) has been trading for around 40 years. The company operates a raft of shopping channels including JML Cookshop, Shop Now and JML. It offers a variety of household goods including the Power Blitzer and the Ped Egg to give a couple of examples. You can also buy some JML branded goods from shops such as Wilkinson and ASDA, having said that I haven't seen the Halogen Oven on sale in a retail outlet, so I think you can only buy this product directly from JML.

HALOGEN OVEN, WHAT IS IT?

It's a counter top oven which uses a 1300 watt halogen light bulb (conduction) and a fan (convection) to cook your food. JML claims that this combination means that your food will cook 40% quicker than a conventional oven.

~What you get~

The oven comes in three parts, you get a plastic base, a 12 litre glass bowl and the lid which contains the halogen bulb, the timer and the temperature dial. The lid is quite sturdy and not overly heavy to lift, the power supply is also integrated into the lid.

In addition you also get two racks to place your food on. The lower rack is for roasting and baking, and the higher rack is for grilling. You can use the racks singly or together to cook food on two levels. You'll also recieve the instruction book, a pair of tongs for lifting out your food and the racks.

UNPACKING AND SETTING IT UP

The Halogen Oven comes in a box (obviously!) and upon opening the said box the oven is well packed in polistyrine. The lid is on the top (upside down) which has the power lead attached. After lifting off the layer of polistyrine, you'll find the bowl and the holder,. There's a plastic bag inside the bowl which contains the instruction book, tongs and the cooking racks.

The oven is a doddle to set up. You just find a space on your work top to place your oven following the obvious safety instructions, such as allowing enough ventilation and keeping it out of reach of children and so on.

You also need to take into consideration that this oven doesn't come with a stand for the lid to go in when you've finished cooking, which is a bit of a nuisance sometimes especially if you have a small worktop, for example in a caravan. I feel a lid stand (or an integrated lid) would be a substantial improvement to this product.

You'll also need to wash the bowl, and the racks etc and you're ready to go. You just plug in your oven and you're ready to start cooking. You'll find two dials on top of the lid, the dial on the left hand side is your 60 minute timer, and on the right is to set the temperature. The temperature starts at 125 degrees and goes upto 250 degrees Celcius (the temperature gauge also gives the Farenheit equivelent as well), , the first option on the dial is the wash and defrost function.

COOKING WITH THE HALOGEN OVEN

~The instruction book~

The instruction book is not as good as it could be. It gives a brief list of cooking times and temperatures, but it could provide far more detail. It definitely needs a more extensive cooking chart, plus details of the best rack to use to get the best results. Sadly it also doesn't explain how to calculate cooking times or adapting conventional recipes for use in the oven, so it is a bit hit and miss. I also think another useful addition would be a recipe book. Fortunately, as it is a glass bowl I can keep an eye on the food to make sure it is not over cooking (making sure that I don't stare at the Halogen lamp). I am a competent cook, but not 'Masterchef' standards by any stretch of the imagination!

There isn't any information on how to use the defrost function, so that is trial and error. I feel a list of defrost times would be essential as it is vitally important to ensure that food is defrosted thoroughly prior to cooking it. Personally, I will continue to defrost food the old fashioned way.

With electronic devices, the instructions normally tell you to preheat the device to burn off certain manufacturing materials and sterilise the bowl. This isn't mentioned in the book, I placed the racks inside the bowl and set the temperature to 200 degrees and heated the oven for 15 minutes before cooking my first meal, well oven chips.

On the plus side there is a free phone number that you can contact JML customer services if you have any questions. My mum phoned up to ask about adapting recipes and as I understand it you only reduce the cooking time by 40% but I feel it should be in the book. I'm also informed that there is a cookbook available for £4.99 plus delivery , as a separate purchase now, but I do think it should be included with the oven.

~Cooking your food~

You simply chose the rack you want to use (or both of them) and place your food inside. You set the temperature and the time using the dials and then to activate the oven you you press the handle down until it clicks to activate the oven. If you want to stop cooking, say to add food later on you just lift up the lid.

You should note though that you can't move the timer backwards. If you set the timer for too long then you have to let it count down naturally. Some foods take longer than 60 minutes such as baked potatoes. Baked potatoes take around 75 minutes, so I allow the timer to count down fifteen minutes and then move the dial to get the additional time it needs. When your food is cooked it gives out a loud 'ping' like an old manual microwave does.

The timer is adequate, but I would have preferred a digital timer which would make it easier to enter longer cooking times. It is a minor complaint.

In using the oven there are a couple of things to watch when arranging food in the oven. One of the selling points of this oven is that it drains the fat out of your food so it is a healthier way of cooking. If you are cooking a meal such as sausage and chips it is best to put the sausages on the lower rack and the chips on the top to prevent the fat from the sausages dripping into your chips. I found the gaps on the rack are too wide for certain foods such as chips so they need to be placed in a dish, or small pan so they don't fall to the bottom of the oven. If using a dish on the top rack, it's a good idea to choose one that doesn't take up all the surface area of the oven's bowl, so it enables enough air to penetrate to the bottom of the oven, especially if you are using both racks, I have also found that I've needed to add extra cooking time to ensure food on the lower levels are cooked properly when I do this.

~To preheat or not to preheat~

With most foods you don't need to pre-heat it, but I find with some foods such as frozen pies and pizza that pre-heating the oven for 5-10 minutes gives a better result, and making sure the food is on the rack and not touching the glass bowl.

~Cookware and utensils~

As it isn't a microwave there are not any restrictions on the type of cookware or utensils you can use in the Halogen Oven. So you can use metal or foil containers to cook your food, and anything else that is safe to put into a conventional oven following obvious rules such as not putting pyrex or glass dishes to cook straight after taking them out of the fridge.

~When your food is ready~

To take your food out, you lift up the handle to stop cooking then switch the temperature dial to off. I also unplug the oven at this stage. Then take the lid off and using the tongs provided I lift out the food and the racks. Sometimes the tongs are too big for certain foods so I use my tongs and fish slice which I normally use on our barbecue to lift out those foods. I will invest in a long handled metal spoon as well. It's also a good idea to use oven gloves as well for obvious reasons.

As the instruction manual says it's a good idea to take food out as soon as it is ready especially if you are cooking crispy foods such as pastries or chips as leaving them in the oven too long can cause them to go soggy.

The tongs took me a little while to master, and resulted in me dropping a lasagne on the floor, but that was my fault as I gripped the foil container a bit too tight. They are easy to use once you get the hang of them. I have found that with some dishes it isn't practical to use the tongs so you must lift those out with oven gloves.

~What does the food taste like?~

Instruction book issues aside, I have successfully cooked some great tasting meals in our Halogen Oven. I've cooked a roast chicken, a lasagne, pasta bake to name a few examples. My mum and I feel that the oven does seal in flavours and the meals I've cooked seem to have more taste than over main oven when it was working. Meat comes out very tender and juicy, and oven chips taste almost like they were fried (normally they are a bit hard when done in a conventional oven).

I've also found that pastries and pizzas come out of the Halogen Oven with a lighter texture than our main oven as opposed to tough and chewy.

One thing I have found the Halogen Oven comes into it's own is cooking baked potatoes. While I liked microwaved baked potatoes when I was younger, I happened to eat an oven baked one when out once and realised what I had been missing out on, crispy skin and fluffy in the middle. Baked potatoes are ready in 75 minutes or less (depending on the variety of spud I'm using) with no preheating, so it puts great tasting potatoes back in the realms of lunch in this house. It's so good infact that I also eat the skin as it is both crispy and tasty when I cook them.

~Cleaning~

The oven is straight forward to clean, another big selling point of the oven is it's self cleaning mode. I have found that it is a good idea in theory but not so good in practice. You have to leave the oven to cool down before cleaning it in order to avoid shattering the glass bowl, then you add washing up liquid and water and set it to wash and put the timer on for 15 minutes then the fan gets to work, quoting the infomercial, in scrubbing the bowl clean. I have found that it gives a good starting point in washing the bowl, but that's about it. To be fair, the instruction book says that you might need to use a washing up brush for extra stubborn messes. The glass bowl can also be put into the dishwasher if you have one. As for the racks I just wash them up with the rest of the dishes. The lid should be wiped with a soft damp cloth.

~Accessories and spares~

You can buy an extender ring to increase the oven's capacity for £12.99, my Mum hasn't got this yet so can't comment about it at this stage. I've also mentioned that there is now a cookbook to buy separately, I just wish it came with the oven as standard.

I also hope that JML will go on to produce an accessory kit similar to that for the Flavourwave such as a browning pan and a basket (which would be handy for chips and steaming veg) I think that would enhance the oven further. You can get accessories from third parties as far as I can tell.

The instruction manual doesn't say whether you can buy additional bowls or even the lid since the halogen bulb isn't user replaceable. JML may well sell these items as spares.

~Guarantee~

The JML Halogen Oven is guaranteed for one year, but you can buy an extended warranty when you purchase the oven.

MY OVERALL OPINION

Gripes aside, I do think the JML Halogen Oven is good value for money and produces pleasing results, and saves energy thanks to quicker cooking times and less pre-heating, and the fact you don't have to keep opening the oven to check food so you only need to open the oven to add other things that take a shorter cooking time. As I said that with some foods it is personal preference with regards to pre-heating the oven.

I think it is perfect for a small family or someone living on their own, but you can also use it to cook a casserole, curry or roast dinner that will feed several people, or you could use it in conjunction with your regular oven say at Christmas to cook your veggies and other bits and pieces while the turkey roasts in your main oven especially if they go in at different temperatures. For me, it has taken the stress out of cooking, and it is useful when my appetite goes up and down around that time of the month in that I can cook something quickly if I feel like eating something.

I also like the fact that it will drain the fat from meat which does make it a healthier way of cooking, and perhaps a more versatile appliance than say a grilling machine especially if you are limited on space. Another plus is that it doesn't heat the kitchen up like an oven does, so it is good to use on a hot summer's day. Obviously it is hot around the the immediate area of the oven, but take it from me, there is a huge difference.

Once you do get to grips with it is is a very useful thing to have. It is easy to clean and it is an advantage that you don't have to use noxious chemical cleaners to clean it and without the endless scrubbing. I have mild arthritis in my left knee and my ankles that is injury related, and a funny place in my lower back as the result of a nasty bout of flu I had several years ago, so the Halogen Oven is much easier on my joints and my back. The glass bowl is on the heavy side, so I only lift it unless I have to.

There is a lot to like about this product, and I have knocked a star off because the instruction book could be better, but what is there is written in a clear manner and there is a free customer helpline which my Mum and I found really helpful. I also think the product could do with a lid holder as I said earlier.

I don't think it could totally replace a microwave as it still has it's uses which for me is heating up my wheatbag, heating up milk for hot chocolate, and reheating baked beans and soups which can't be done in the Halogen Oven.

Overall I highly recommend buying a Halogen Oven.

Also on Ciao under username Munchkin2009

Summary: Quick and tasty food, but needs a better instruction book