Our Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven....WOW!

[ROGER4314]

Got a big package of Chicken legs for 77 cents/pound at the Jo-Vees market. I'll do "Shake & Bake" as a coating and Puck 'em.

Bonnie called today and told me that she's been Pucking loaves of Banana bread for the holidays. She said the results are superb!

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[F350-6]

Bonnie called today and told me that she's been Pucking loaves of Banana bread for the holidays. She said the results are superb!

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I don't believe her. I think you're both lying. Send me a loaf to prove me wrong.

 

[BIGPAPIGREG]

I don't believe her. I think you're both lying. Send me a loaf to prove me wrong.

I'll have to 2nd that, gonna need a coupla three loaves just to be sure...

 

[ROGER4314]

Bonnie is a Hell of a cook but she's retired and on a small income. She baked loaves of the Banana Nut bread in the Puck Oven as gifts for her friends.

She also got lucky with her pecans. My neighbor Wade, has been selling fresh shelled pecans at $10/pound. Bonnie wanted a bag so he brought one over to my house.

A while back, I bought a doggie scale to keep our Toy Fox Terriers in shape. I weighed the bag of pecans that Wade brought over. She got 3.7 pounds for $10!

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[ROGER4314]

Bonnie's Pucked Christmas beef roast went pretty well. We differ on how we cook beef. I like it cooked less with some juice left in it. Bonnie....well..... she disagrees.

The beef was dry but that woman makes the best mashed taters and gravy! I cut a piece of beef, dipped it in the taters and gravy and all was perfect!

Tonight, I Pucked 4.6 pounds of chicken legs purchased at Jo-Vees for 70 cents per pound. I used "Shake & Bake" chicken flavor, stacked the legs on the Puck grill grid placed in the deep Puck pan lined with foil. 450 degrees under pressure for 30 minutes gave me internal temperatures of 180. The legs were well done but very moist and tender! I ate 5 legs!

That meal is so easy to make! I shake the legs in the bag of coating crumbs, lay them on the Puck grid, preheat the Puck and shut the door on the chicken. That's it! 30 minutes later, I had a pile of great chicken and there's plenty of leftovers!

I have several meat thermometers and they seem to agree that 170 degrees internal temperature is "well done" for pork & chicken. I find there are red, undercooked areas at 170 degrees. I use 180 degrees and have no problems.

Puck cleanup was a few spatters inside of the oven. It was an easy wipe down with Windex.

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[subseashooter]

So we are Pucking some moist meat?!?! How have I not seen this thread!?!?

Roger, they really should hire you do do some Pucking advertising....I'm sold on the darn thing. Going to be at the top of my list when I'm home full time again......

OK, I got Pucked, today! Thanks to Bonnie being adventurous enough to buy her Puck oven, I would have remained a "scoffer" about this product. So far, we cooked 3 huge meals in the oven and I am awash in wonderful food! This darned oven works so well that I had to have one of my own!

I set out today to snag one of these ovens. But I didn't want to risk shipping one in the Christmas smash & bash rush. I was willing to pay more for it if I could get my hands on one locally.

I tried Macy's....no luck. Penny's....no luck.

I tried Sears because they had been advertising them at $249 online. I found stock at two malls that were in places that I will not go.

Finally, I went back to Kohls knowing that $279 was their "sale" price and I'd need to eat about a $30 loss. I saw the manager who helped us buy the first oven and asked if he would "price match" the Sears price. He said "Sure!"

So they were rolling my oven out when they asked me if I had a Kohl's CC and offered me a 20% additional reduction for applying for the card. That took less than one minute. Strangely, the price rang up at $249 anyway so apparently there was a markdown in the past few days.

I do NOT use CC's and had exactly ZERO CC balance this morning. I've been looking at Calphalon cookware for some time and retiring my 40 year old Revere set was on my mind for over a year. I said "What the heck" and got the card with the 20% discount!

The sales guy said "Do not shop here without our coupons. The regular prices are not good. With the coupons, you will kick butt!" OK....I get it! I walked out of Kohls with the Puck Oven for $216!

They also gave me a coupon good from 12-9 to 12-17 for $40 off of any purchase. Holy crap, this is getting better by the minute! (That may help get my Calphalon.)

Then I asked about Bonnie's oven that sold at $279. The boss said "OK....Have her bring in her receipt and we'll refund the difference!" I called her and she's on the road, right now.

The day wasn't over yet!

Kroger advertised Spare Ribs, Pork shoulder roasts (8 pounds) Cut shoulder roasts all for $1.49/pound with my Kroger card! I snagged $40 worth of meat and got almost 50% off with my Kroger card!

I got home, cleaned out all the old crap from my freezer and placed the new meat in the freezer.

I do NOT need to be cooking any more food right now so I froze it all. But soon, we'll get going!

What a day!

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I picked up a deal at Kohls awhile back on some lawn chairs....I still refuse to do the CC thing with them though.....but then the coupons came....I posted about my 'score' on my FB page, and several of my lady friends said that they had to ban themselves from shopping there, as the coupons and 'Kohls Cash' kept them coming back for more, LOL!

 

[ROGER4314]

I didn't share what the final disposition was on Bonnie's Puck Oven. Initially, she paid a high price ($279) for her oven but we found one in stock at Kohls, so we snagged hers even though the price was high. Other places had lower prices ($249) but they didn't have the ovens in stock. Puck people offer a delayed payment at $249 but it needs to be shipped. I wanted my oven in my hand without Christmas rush shipping.

Later, when we got MY Puck, we got a retroactive price match on HER oven. I snagged a few more discounts on my purchase and my Pucker went home for $216.

Still later (and about a week after she bought her oven), she dragged in her big Kohl's cash certificate from a prior purchase and another coupon offer that she had. They granted all of it! Her net price on that Puckin' oven was $148 after adjustments!

You MUST work the coupons and discounts at Kohls and when you do, good things happen. They WANT you to crank the discounts and encourage that. Without the discounts, Kohl's prices are pretty grim.

On a related subject.............
My faithful, old toaster oven is out in the garage and headed for Goodwill. The Pucker has totally replaced it and I've used the Puck a LOT! It's so easy to cook with the thing and cleanup is absolutely minimal.

The image of those Walmart greasy, brown stained chicken cookers makes me cringe. I would drag the damned thing out in the yard and toss it before I'd have that in my kitchen! In contrast, my Pucker looks brand new and I've used the heck out of it! The pressure cooking keeps spatter to a minimum.

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[karlac]

Roger, they really should hire you do do some Pucking advertising....I'm sold on the darn thing. Going to be at the top of my list when I'm home full time again......

I'm just waiting to hear the magic words: "But wait, there's more!!

 

[ROGER4314]

But wait....There IS more!

I bought 3 pork roasts of about 8 pounds each when Kroger (K-Roger, get it?) ran their Pork-a-thon sale. I pulled one out of the freezer to Puck on New years day. Bonnie is coming over on NY eve and she'll bring a whole chicken to roast for NY eve dinner.

Tonight, I made chicken Burritos from some of the breast meat from the Puck roast chicken. The white meat was moist and SO FINE! I use the big Tortillas, salsa, tomato, chicken, cheese, lime and guacamole.

The weather has been cold & rainy so this has been a terrific time to experiment with the Pucker. I have a notebook to record the successes and some corrective ways to fix any problems. None of this cooking comes from a cookbook. It's all just experimentation.

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[ROGER4314]

For New Years eve, Bonnie & I Pucked a whole chicken (5.23 pounds) 60 minutes at 450 degrees under pressure. The bird had a blizzard of spices and seasoning. 60 minutes was too long as the meat was falling off the bone. It tasted wonderful and was very juicy even so. We'd recommend 50 minutes for a bird this size. We put 2 cups of water in the Puck pan which made excellent gravy. Bonnie also made her mashed taters and gravy with carrots on the side. It was a great meal!

For New Years day, we thawed a 7.7 pound Pork roast and Pucked it. The Puck book said that the Pork shoulder roast would take 50 minutes at 325 degrees under pressure. Bonnie and I both disagreed with that recipe and the roast was not cooked well, as we suspected. The Puck book missed this cooking time by a mile!

We experimented with cooking the roast for 20 minutes more then checking the internal temperature of the meat. We did three extra 20 minute extensions and still did not reach the desired internal temp. With 120 minutes on the clock, it was not well done. We finally sliced the whole roast and the meat was pink on the inside It was definitely undercooked.

We arranged the pork slices on the Puck grid and tossed them into the oven for 20 minutes under pressure at 350. Everything was fully cooked. TOTAL cooking time was 120 minutes as a whole roast + 20 more minutes sliced for a total of 140 minutes.

We hit the ditch on this meal but figured out how to salvage it. In the end, it was very good!

I have two more of those roasts in the freezer and we'll either cut them in 1/2 or perhaps 1/4 next time. The Pork shoulder roasts are VERY large pieces of meat!

Spices used were Rib Tickler, Basil, S&P. It was very good and we placed sweet potato slices in the pan with the pork. With a salad, it was a great meal!

We have a lot of pork leftover so I'll slice it and make some pork Burritos and some BBQ sandwiches, too.

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[karlac]

Sounds good.

Hope you got an exercise machine for Christmas.

 

[ROGER4314]

Hope you got an exercise machine for Christmas.

Oddly, I dropped 7 pounds and have been inching lower....very slowly.

The latest Puck recipe is one that we tried before. We took 5 pounds of chicken legs and I took the Wally World "Extra Crispy" Shake & Bake type coating and breaded each piece in the bag that comes with the coating. I used 450 degrees under pressure for 40 minutes. The chicken legs were terrific and clean up was minimal. We were well Pucked!

Coming up....another slab of spare ribs.

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[matefrio]

I found Roger's videos on youtube.

 

[ROGER4314]

That was fun!

Actually, my kitchen is very small and I clean up as I go so the clutter is pretty well squared away.

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[ROGER4314]

Pucked 4.7 pounds of chicken legs 45 minutes at 450 degrees, tonight. Used the Wally World crispy Shake & Bake. Yikes! They're great!

I cook a lot of chicken but I use the meat in many other dishes. Last night, I had ribs and the night before, I used the meat from chicken legs to make chicken burritos. Almost all of my dinner type food has been cooked in the Pucker since I got it!

All this is working beautifully. I lost 8 pounds at a time that weather kept me from exercising outside! I figure that the fat is being cooked away from my food. I don't know why this is working so well because I eat a LOT!

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[ROGER4314]

I try to keep two entree's cooked up and use the meats in various dishes. I ate all of the spare ribs so it was time to cook something else. I bought three pork shoulder roasts at the Kroger Porkathon and had them in the freezer. First, it takes a LONG time to thaw a 7.7 pound pork roast. That being done, it was time to experiment.

The last pork roast Bonnie & I did was whole and it took a long time to cook. We finally cut it into sections and finished it off. My goal is to cook large dishes very quickly and easily. So I tried something different this time.

This was 7.7 pounds of Pork shoulder roast. I took the electric knife and cut "steaks" about 2" thick out of it. There is a bone in the shoulder roast so I had to cut that out.

I placed the meat on the Puck rack in the foil covered deep Puck pan. Some of it was stacked one on top of the other. The whole mess got sprinkled with "rib tickler". It went in at 350 degrees under pressure. My wild eyed guess on time was 1 hour 30 minutes. I set it in the preheated oven set my digital timer and walked away. I never touched the oven until the timer went off.

Some of the top pieces were pretty brown but all of the meat was moist and very tender. I used the electric knife and sliced it up to refrigerate it in a plastic container. The taste was GREAT and there's a lot of leftovers.

Internal temperatures at 1 1/2 hours were 200 degrees. That is WELL done pork. The best cooking time may be about 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 20 minutes. At 1 1/2 hour, it was NOT overcooked, dried out or crusty. Still, it probably needed a little less time. It's very hard to mess up a dish in this Pucker. The meat is still very moist and tender even if you over cook it.

I may splash some BBQ sauce on it tomorrow when Bonnie comes over to see the little doggies. She said she would bring some "Taters" and make some of her outstanding smashed taters. I dumped the juices as I didn't want to have gravy.

Oven cleanup was almost zero! I gave it a wipedown and washed the door glass. The grid that the meat sat on was a little cruddy but when I removed the foil from the Puck pan, it was spotless!

I found a spray can of "Sprayway" Stainless Steel cleaner at Wally World and it removes any fingerprints from the oven exterior. It comes in a white can for about $4.

Stating again.......I've cooked every dinner meal in this Pucker since I bought it!

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[Lucas Mccain]

When I smoke a pork shoulder for pulled pork I take the meat up to 195-200 and then sit aside to rest and pull later. So you taking it to those temps isn't over cooking it at all on a big fatty piece of meat like that as all you are doing is melting the fat away. The fat is basically basting the meat as it runs through it.

I have been keeping up with this thread and love your reviews. Last night I heated up the oven to heat some taco shells and it got hot in the kitchen and we have a big kitchen. i have been thinking of getting a puck for some time now and think I have reached a point to where I am going to go to KOHLS and get one.

 

[ROGER4314]

My policy is to reject any and all information that I hear/see on the media. Wolfgang Puck uses terms like "It tastes like Love!" in his TV ads which doesn't help my attitude one bit! Bonnie told me about this oven and then she bought hers. After I saw what it could do, I bought my own.

Thanks for the tip on temperatures! This oven just won't ruin meat that is overcooked. It still comes out juicy. I eat a lot of pork and just don't want that undercooked.

I had a teacher in High School eons ago who showed us Trichina worm "lumps" that he got while stationed in Japan. They were about the size of a quarter, raised and firm. The worms burrowed into his flesh and set up housekeeping! It creeped me out and I never forgot that lesson! Pork is well done or not at all!

I have used this oven almost every day and haven't pulled out a pot or pan since I got it. Instructions and recipes that come with the Pucker are minimal at best so be prepared to improvise.

If you take oven cooking times for a meat item, cut them in 1/2, then add about 10-20%, it will ballpark your meat cooking time. Better more than less.

Another thing that I love is the lack of spatter when cooking. My old toaster oven and the house oven don't have that benefit and I always needed to clean them. Under Puck pressure, spatter is almost eliminated.

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[ROGER4314]

I forgot to mention previously that the Puck oven is very closely controlled in temperature. You can hear/see the heating elements come on for a short time and click off very quickly. As an instrument tech, I know that eliminates temperature dips or overruns caused by sloppy control.

I have some good thermocouple thermometers that also record maximum and minimum temperatures. I've been meaning to experiment with the Puck to see how well the unit is controlled. I'll do that and report the findings.

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[TheDan]

This was 7.7 pounds of Pork shoulder roast. I took the electric knife and cut "steaks" about 2" thick out of it. There is a bone in the shoulder roast so I had to cut that out.

I do the same thing when I'm smoking pork butt for pulled pork. Cutting it into steaks gives more surface area for the flavor to get into. No sauce necessary