Nesco 4816-14-30 6-Quart Roaster Oven with Nonstick Cookwell, White Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a convenient,inexpensive, high quality, easy to clean up cooking unit with a great instruction and recipe book included. More recipes are on the NESCO website as well.
I do not know how to cook. If it weren't for my wife, I would have starved by now. When my son was small, and my wife was sick, he would beg her to get better so he wouldn't have to eat my cooking, which he likened to rubber chicken.
But a few years ago, my wife's aunt gave us a 6 Quart NESCO COOKWELL roaster and voila! I can cook meals that even my son would enjoy.
This is probably the gift for anyone living on their own for the first time, like a college student, since it is extremely easy to prepare and cook healthful, delicious meals EVERY TIME.
If you follow instructions in the enclosed recipe booklet, you can't make a bad meal! My favorite is the lemon pepper chicken with linguine.
The best part is that the COOKWELL roaster pan insert is removable, is used to serve the food and cleans up really easily. The electrical heating part never sees soap and water, since it only serves to surround the cookwell roasting pan insert with a "circle of heat".
This is not a crock pot, although you can set it up as such. Cooking times are usually 45 minutes to an hour and around 350 degrees.
EVERY student going away to college should have one of these. They are easily stored, cleaned and provide inexpensive and healthy meals. And even a lousy cook like myself becomes a gormet chef. You can use the recipes and instructions provided in the booklet that comes with the cookwell or if you are more experienced, like my wife, anything is possible. THIS IS A WINNER!

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'Circle of Heat' heating element wraps around for moist, even cooking. 14.75"L x 8.5"W x 14.75"H. 750 Watts, 120 Volts, 60 Hz. 6-quart capacity is large enough to prepare meals for up to six people. Roasts, bakes, cooks, steams, slow-cooks, and serves...like having a second oven! Make delicious meals wherever you go. Easy to remove cookwell with non-stick finish for easy cleaning. Convenient automatic temperature control helps maintain even cooking temperatures from 125-425 degrees. Conveniently positioned temperature guide displays recommended temperatures for roasting, baking, cooking, steaming, slow-cooking and serving. For domestic use.

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Presto 06006 Kitchen Kettle Electric Multi-Cooker and Fryer Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This unit is similar to the one I have (old style 06000), so I have included my review here as well.
I bought one at Walmart last year. I use it pretty often, but mostly for making popcorn. Turn temp to 350, put a couple-three tablespoons of peanut oil in the bottom, and then when the oil heats up throw in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of popcorn. Put the cover on and keep the pot moving while the corn pops. When the corn has just about stopped popping, turn the heat off and pour the popcorn into a bowl. Butter, salt and eat. YUM!
I've deep-fried scallops in it, steamed vegetables, cooked rice, made soup and even baked potatoes. The thing works great! I wasn't going to write a review until I saw Alton Brown talk some trash about it on Good Eats. I got pretty defensive about my humble Presto cooker! He was doing a silly episode about "man food" like corn dogs and thin, square hamburgers. Well, when Mr. Brown was explaining how to fry the corn dogs he said (while holding a Presto mutlti-cooker) that a pot with an heating element on the outside of the bottom wasn't a good idea because first the element had to heat the pot and then it had to heat up the oil. Too slow. After that he displayed three home-use rectangular fryers with immersion type heating elements. He said they were also better because they each had cooking baskets and break-away magnetic cords. He picked the one with the digital controls, while implying that this was somehow better than the manual rotary temp control.
I don't know if A. B. gets paid for product placement on his show, but I really thought he was being disingenuous regarding the Presto "pot." First of all, about the heating element on the bottom of the Presto cooker: During the frying demonstration, Mr. Brown had some text placed over the screen that said that if you didn't have a special electric fryer, that a pot on the stove-top would work fine. Isn't that interesting? What the heck is a pot on the stove, but just a heating element on the outside of a pot that heats up the pot and then the oil inside? That's exactly what he was criticizing the Presto kettle about. What gives? Secondly, the Presto cooker DOES TOO have a magnetic break-away electric cord to keep the unit from tipping when the cord is yanked by accident. Also, the Presto cooker DOES TOO come with a frying-steaming basket, which Brown implied it didn't have. Nya, nya, nya! See, I can be just as immature as Alton Brown!
I don't know if the rectangular fryers are really better, but I'm sure they cost a lot more. My Presto cooker was $26.85 at Walmart. I keep it in a lower cabinet - it doesn't take up much space there. I pull it out when I need it. It's inexpensive, easy to use, and simple. When we go to Maine in August, I'm allowed to take only one of my counter-top appliances. So, I just take the Presto cooker with me. Normally, I cook steel cut oats in a small bowl, sitting in water, in a slow cooker (a bain marie - sort of - found the idea here [link deleted]) I can do the same thing with the Presto cooker. And I have a pot with me on vacation that I can do so much more with.
One last thing. With my slow cooker I use a plug-in timer called a Rival Smart-Part. But it's not rated to control the wattage of the Presto multi-cooker. I found a heavy-duty programmable digital timer that I use to turn the Presto cooker off and on automatically. This device really allows me to use the Presto cooker like a slow cooker, without over-cooking stews and such when I am out of the house all day. The Presto multi-cooker is a terrific appliance! Buy one now, and don't believe everything you see on TV!
Flash Update! Here is another reason to buy a Presto multi-cooker: I'm making a beef stew with red wine tonight. What a mess browning the stew beef! I have a 3 quart Wagner cast-iron chicken fryer, and this is what I used to brown the beef chuck cubes. These days the meat hasn't been aged much, and so it is very difficult to brown properly. I managed to do it in batches, but the stove-top got pretty messy by the time I was done. I put the browned meat, vegetables, and garlic into the Presto cooker ( I made sure to deglaze the chicken fryer with wine and include all the tasty bits) and continued to cook the stew. And then I could proceed to clean up the stove-top while the beef stew simmered away in a different part of the kitchen. I am very pleased not to have to clean up all that oil splatter after dinner!

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Premium nonstick finish, inside and out for stick-free cooking and easy cleaning, fully immiscible and dishwasher safe with heat control removed.

Get 17% OFF

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