Our Wolfgang Puck Pressure Oven....WOW!

[karlac]

That points out the fun part of the Pucker. There's not much information or recipes available so it is ideal for folks who like to experiment. The oven is very forgiving and as a few of us found out, even if you make some mistakes, the results are still edible.

Did revisit Pucking a salmon steak this week.

Laid a 12oz, seasoned with lemon pepper, salmon filet on a bed of portobello mushroom and asparagus. Roasted 9 minutes/450/pressure, in the Puck.

The salmon was moist, tender, perfectly cooked, no dryness whatsoever, and absolutely delicious.

We generally have it once a week, and cooked this way, in the Puck, is the way I'm going to cook it in the future.

That was definitely a winner...

 

[Younggun]

Brisket is just a cut of meat. Lots of ways to cook it. ...or cure it.

Your ovaries need a good punching.

There's only one right way.

 

[ROGER4314]

OMG the whole chicken that Bonnie & I Pucked tonight was wonderful! We had stuffing, mashed potatoes & green beans with it. Bonnie shook a lot of different spices on the chicken and we cooked it at 450 degrees at 50 minutes under pressure.

Her spice concoction included vegetable oil, Canadian Steak Seasoning, poultry seasoning, ginger, basil, celery seed, and she put three heaping tablespoons of Margarine inside the chicken. After all of the spices were on the chicken, she hit it again with vegetable oil. She wanted to make gravy so she put one cup of water in the pan, too.

We put it in the Puck pan on the rack in the lower position.

The biggest change was that I got off of my obsessive need to cook the bird until it was 180-190 degrees. That dried the meat up and it wasn't as good.

That chicken came out when we hit 170 and it was great! The white meat was very moist and Bonnie said that the slices looked like "chicken steaks!"

Bonnie said that chicken was the best roast chicken she has ever made! The woman has a gigantic talent as a cook but I agree...that chicken was terrific!

We chopped out an ingrown toenail on my right foot so I helped a little but this one was her gig. I kept my foot propped up and relaxed.

Oven cleanup was a Windex wipe down.

Flash

 

[TheDan]

The biggest change was that I got off of my obsessive need to cook the bird until it was 180-190 degrees. That dried the meat up and it wasn't as good.

Yep, that'll do it. White meat needs to stop cooking at 160° and dark at 170°. Some birds you want to cook even less. Duck and quail you don't want to go over 145°. If you know where that bird has been you can even cook duck breast medium rare like a steak.

 

[karlac]

Yep, that'll do it. White meat needs to stop cooking at 160° and dark at 170°. Some birds you want to cook even less. Duck and quail you don't want to go over 145°. If you know where that bird has been you can even cook duck breast medium rare like a steak.

Yessir. Used to filet wild duck and goose breast, then season, tenderize lightly with a meat hammer, and pan fry the hand sized filet like you would a venison backstrap, until just done. Folks thought they were eating steak.

 

[TheDan]

Your ovaries need a good punching.

There's only one right way.

Do you even cook, bro? Listen to the fat guy...

 

[ROGER4314]

Bonnie came over and we took a trip to JoVees. I got a wild idea and after pitching the plan to Bonnie, I bought two packages of chicken gizzards and one package of Turkey wings. The wings are HUGE and they may be a lot easier to eat than the legs.

We kicked around some ideas for the gizzards and settled on the spicy Shake & Bake then Pucking them for about 15-20 minutes. Any experience to share would be appreciated!

Those gigantic Turkey wings look about the same size as a small chicken so I'll guess at the same time it takes for a chicken.....about 45 minutes under pressure. Karlac....How did your Turkey thighs turn out? You said 35/450 did the trick.

That's the plan. More later.

Flash

 

[karlac]

Karlac....How did your Turkey thighs turn out? You said 35/450 did the trick.

The two of them turned out great.
Watched the temp closely and took them out at 165.

 

[ROGER4314]

I have two big packages of chicken gizzards so there's plenty of stuff to experiment with!

Found a recipe online for oven baked gizzards. It used bacon wrapped gizzards with a toothpick stuck through them to secure the bacon. They used 350 degrees (conventional oven) for 20 minutes and turning them once.

I got out my Kabob set and will cut them down in length for the puck oven. I'll Shake & Bake the gizzards on the sticks and place them in the Puck pan using the 350 degree/20 minute cooking time for a start. I'll keep an eye on them and modify if needed.

Flash

 

[karlac]

I have two big packages of chicken gizzards so there's plenty of stuff to experiment with!

Found a recipe online for oven baked gizzards. It used bacon wrapped gizzards with a toothpick stuck through them to secure the bacon. They used 350 degrees (conventional oven) for 20 minutes and turning them once.

I got out my Kabob set and will cut them down in length for the puck oven. I'll Shake & Bake the gizzards on the sticks and place them in the Puck pan using the 350 degree/20 minute cooking time for a start. I'll keep an eye on them and modify if needed.

Flash

Would like to know how they turn out. Love chicken gizzards but have always cooked them in my 80+ year old pressure cooker for about twenty minutes, before lightly dusting with seasoned flour and pan frying.

My gut feeling is that 20 minutes may not be long enough in the Puck, but would love to hear otherwise.

 

[Mreed911]

Okay, I'm a kitchen-gadget guy (not bad enough I have one of everything at Sur La Table, but I do buy useful tools) and I can cook. I've been reading this thread with interest, then comparing to reviews on Amazon, etc. While I get that Amazon attracts a wide range of reviews, there seem to be a lot of folks complaining about build quality, etc. Do enough folks HERE have them that I can trust that this is a solid piece of machinery and not sheet-metal, stamped, low-quality manufacture?

And, more importantly, how does it do on vegetables? Now that it's just the wife and I we obviously cook less, and cooking quality vegetables to go with whatever we're having is a challenge beyond steam, microwave or sautee unless I want to break out the big oven.

So, thoughts from those that own this? Anything you've done special with veggies that made a difference in flavor or texture? I'd be VERY interested in how it bakes/browns/broils Brussels sprouts, perhaps with a little chicken stock for moisture?

 

[karlac]

Okay, I'm a kitchen-gadget guy (not bad enough I have one of everything at Sur La Table, but I do buy useful tools) and I can cook. I've been reading this thread with interest, then comparing to reviews on Amazon, etc. While I get that Amazon attracts a wide range of reviews, there seem to be a lot of folks complaining about build quality, etc. Do enough folks HERE have them that I can trust that this is a solid piece of machinery and not sheet-metal, stamped, low-quality manufacture?

And, more importantly, how does it do on vegetables? Now that it's just the wife and I we obviously cook less, and cooking quality vegetables to go with whatever we're having is a challenge beyond steam, microwave or sautee unless I want to break out the big oven.

So, thoughts from those that own this? Anything you've done special with veggies that made a difference in flavor or texture? I'd be VERY interested in how it bakes/browns/broils Brussels sprouts, perhaps with a little chicken stock for moisture?

It is definitely not a piece of finely made machinery, AAMOF, it is an excellent example of "price point engineering" in the 21st century.

Nonetheless, that by no means detracts from the functional aspect of the oven, just makes what it does affordable.

With coupons, and a bit of judicious shopping, you can get the cost down to just North of $200 - $225; and unlike many of the commentards who are very obviously not cooks, any cook worthy of the term would appreciate the functionality, over the price point engineering aspect, at that price.

IOW, it works, and for the price I will buy it again if this one doesn't last.

Proof is in the pudding. All I can offer is photographs to address your point about cooking vegetables.

And that aspect is one of the things I like about the Puck ... I can cook both meat and vegetables at the same time (with vegetables simply layered underneath the meat in a roasting pan), and both come out cooked as if you took the time to do them separately.

Before and after of various vegetables cooked with a pork and beef roast, no mushy vegetables, even after cooking for the 45 minutes it took to cook the roast:

 

[ROGER4314]

As a Master Technician in several crafts, I feel qualified to address the construction of the Pucker. Internal and external sheet metal panels are heavy gauge and mine has resisted many bumps and bangs without denting. I've seen the negative reviews online and wonder what the Hell they were talking about! Some complained that the oven exterior gets hot. It's an oven......they get hot!

Knobs, door seal, latches, temp control racks and pans all passed my inspection. The oven works as advertised and does everything they say it will do. I have ZERO complaints about construction or materials!

The oven gets Kudos on temperature control. It has very stable temp control.

It's a handsome looking unit and I keep it in as nearly new in appearance as possible even though it has been used almost daily. The cost is NOT extreme but it works great! Bonnie has one and I have one. Between the two of us, we don't have any complaints. As Karlac said, If mine was stolen, I'd buy another one pronto!

If I had ONE beef, it would be their customer service/warranty. If you buy the oven from other than the Pucker people (like Amazon, Bed & Bath, Kohls) and have trouble with it, your only option is to return the entire oven to the place where you bought it. I checked with my Kohls manager and he affirmed that is correct. He said, "Sure, bring it back, I'll get another one for you!" That settled it for me!

If you need warranty parts, they require that you fax/Email your purchase receipt and You'll get the parts free but you still pay the shipping cost. That may be chicken...... , but that's how they do things at the Pucker place.

Can't advise you on veggie cooking. I never buy fresh veggies or fruit. By the time I remember they're here, they have gone south. Canned fruit or veggies only, here.

Flash

 

[TheDan]

I'd be VERY interested in how it bakes/browns/broils Brussels sprouts, perhaps with a little chicken stock for moisture?

You just described one of my favorite dishes. Make a bed of Brussels sprouts, onions, and mushrooms. The lay well seasoned chicken legs or thighs on top. The chicken will drip and baste the veggies as it cooks. I usually put them in the oven at 450F for 20min to brown everything and then turn it down to 250 for a couple hours. Wonder how much time the Pucker would save on that? Also wonder if the browning would be the same.

 

[karlac]

You just described one of my favorite dishes. Make a bed of Brussels sprouts, onions, and mushrooms. The lay well seasoned chicken legs or thighs on top. The chicken will drip and baste the veggies as it cooks. I usually put them in the oven at 450F for 20min to brown everything and then turn it down to 250 for a couple hours. Wonder how much time the Pucker would save on that?

With the Puck, take about 45 minutes @ 450, with pressure.

Also wonder if the browning would be the same.

Dribble a little olive over the legs before cooking, so yes.

 

[karlac]

Still experimenting with times and temps using the Puck on some of the tougher cuts of meat that usually benefit from being cooked longer at lower temperatures in conventional ovens.

This small (2.2lb) Angus beef chuck roast, was roasted in the Puck on top of new potatoes, sliced onions, sliced bell pepper, quartered tomatoes, and green beans.

Originally pucked at 325/50 minutes/pressure, it took an additional ten minutes (most likely because of the mass of vegetables) to get it to 125-130 degrees, where I like to take a beef roast out for it to be medium rare after resting.


An additional five minutes might have been sufficient, although it would be hard to ask for a better combination of flavor, moistness, and tenderness for the cut.

 

[ROGER4314]

That looks terrific! Bonnie took a look at it and didn't like the medium rare meat but that's exactly how I love it!

When I can afford beef next is anyone's guess, but that's how I'll do it!

We did Turkey wings last night. Gotta run but I'll post it later.

Flash

 

[karlac]

That looks terrific! Bonnie took a look at it and didn't like the medium rare meat but that's exactly how I love it!

When I can afford beef next is anyone's guess, but that's how I'll do it!

We did Turkey wings last night. Gotta run but I'll post it later.

Flash

About the only beef we buy is just past the "sell by" date. Linda bought the above chuck roast yesterday in the cutout bin at Randalls for 50% off the lowest price.

She left the receipt in the bag ... $11.86 for the roast and all the vegetables, except the tomatoes, which were getting old in the tooth in the fridge and I threw in so they wouldn't go to waste.

We'll get two meals out of that.

(Funny, as I was typing this she texted me photos of two Angus rib eye steaks for $5 each ... said hell yeah!)

 

[ROGER4314]

Last night, Bonnie was here so we cooked the three HUGE (Gigantic) Turkey wings. The three of them weighed 6 pounds!

We used the foil lined Puck pan and placed them on the Puck rack in the pan. 450 degrees on roast setting (pressure) in the lower Puck oven position. Initially, we Pucked the wings for 35 minutes but we only had internal temperatures of 147-165 degrees. I wanted a bit more "done" so we gave it 13 minutes more. That was just right for moist, tender and done Turkey.

We brushed Sunflower oil on the wings then sprinkled on poultry seasoning, ginger and basil followed by a spray of vegetable oil. The wings were brown and great looking.

I think next time, I'll cut off the pointy end of the wings. That has a lot of fat and not much meat anyway. The biggest joints looked more like drumsticks! They had lots of meat that was very good.

Bonnie had one of the pointy ends and I ate the remaining two joints of that wing. Bonnie said hers was "chewy" so we may not cook those parts again.

It was a good first effort and well worth exploring again!

Flash

 

[ROGER4314]

GIZZARDS GALORE!

I didn't have a clue how to cook them but I hauled 3 pounds of chicken gizzards home from JoVees.
Here are the gizzards....the Puck oven.....now what?

We applied extra crispy Wally World Shake & Bake on all of the gizzards then placed them all on the Puck rack inside the foil lined pan. We hit it with 450 degrees for 25 minutes under pressure. We set the Puck pan on the low position and ended up with nicely done gizzards for $1.17/pound!

That S&B coating wasn't real crispy but it tasted great! We had already chowed down on some chicken legs with the extras so the gizzards were an experiment and I only ate a few of them. They were good enough to make a meal out of them AND they weren't fried! We WILL revisit this menu again!

Flash