An industrial or commercial oven combi oven offers restaurants, bakeries, and caterers the opportunity to prepare food with multiple cooking modes in one cooking oven instead of using several to achieve the same result. That saves time and money while offering versatility in culinary options. To help you figure out which cooking mode best suits your needs, here are some of the more common cooking modes used in industrial combi ovens and some recipes.
- Steaming
Whether you want to steam a vegetable or seafood, a combi oven can give you just what you’re looking for. These appliances have multiple safety features that make cooking even more hassle-free. To start steaming, fill up a pot of water and place it on top of your combi oven’s grill element. Close off any vents that would release steam—after all; you don’t want your food to lose its flavor! You can remove your food from the water using tongs and serve immediately.
If there are leftovers, store them in airtight containers, so they don’t dry out. You can set the chamber temperature between 30 and 100 degrees Celsius. The temperature range allows you to cook different meat, fish, and vegetables without losing their quality or taste. The best part? You won’t have to worry about overcooking your meal because a combi oven will automatically adjust its temperature based on how much time has passed.
- Vacuum Cooking
Combi oven has a vacuum cooking mode that creates a partial vacuum in which water boils at lower temperatures. Vacuum cooking is excellent for foods with high water content, like fish and vegetables. The result is moist, flaky fish without overcooking it or drying it out. Vacuum cooking is also suitable to create crispy skin on chicken or duck. It’s important to note that you should use special pans designed for vacuum cooking when using your industrial combi oven to avoid damage to your appliance.
The vacuum cooking method is ideal for various foods and is particularly useful in cooking delicate or dry ingredients. Vacuum cooking retains nutrients in food and allows you to maintain texture and color. Foods that have undergone cooking using vacuum technology have a higher moisture content, with less loss of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and flavor than traditional cooking methods.
- Gratinating
Gratinating involves frying using hot air, not oil. Perfect for grilling breaded foods like French fries, fish, and chicken. Gratinated items will keep their crispiness without getting soggy from frying in hot oil. They’re also great at crisping up toppings on sandwiches, like cheese and onions on a hamburger.
Be careful when gratinating meat to make sure it doesn’t dry out; cook with high heat to get tasty food and that nice crispy exterior while keeping your meat juicy. A Combi oven uses dry air cooking mode to gratinate food. It’s perfect for fried food because you don’t need to use any oil!
- Thawing
If you’re thawing frozen meat or poultry, you can place it on a wire rack in your combi oven, allowing heat to circulate. The technique is also helpful in keeping cut fruit and veggies from getting mushy during meal prep. It’s best to set your temperature at about 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) when using a combi oven as a defrost setting. It will help keep food from getting freezer burned while still effectively melting ice crystals away.
Thawing using a Combi oven is particularly effective if you have many items that need defrosting since you can place them directly on racks inside your combi oven. For significant cuts of meat that are too big to fit into a standard-sized roasting pan, try placing them in a smaller dish before putting them into your oven.
- Baking
Baking is a popular cooking mode that many bakers and chefs use. Baking with an industrial combi oven allows cooks to adjust their cooking temperatures without compromising flavor or texture—or safety! Using steam injectors, bakers can cook meats, bread, and other dishes more evenly than they could with traditional methods.
Conclusion
A Combi oven is an industrial kitchen appliance that combines a conventional electric or gas range with a convection oven. It allows you to perform different cooking modes from one instrument. For example, you can use your combi oven for baking and broiling at temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit (260 degrees Celsius). You can also use it for roasting, grilling, frying, and boiling. If you’re looking for an efficient way to cook multiple dishes simultaneously, then combi-ovens are ideal for your commercial kitchen.
