England might have invented Parliamentary democracy, football and the www but its real contribution to the world is the full-cooked breakfast. It’s universally acknowledged to be delicious (except for the why-hasn’t-it-been-banned black pudding), but it does have rather too many calories to be classed as a health food.
Imagine if you could get the full bacon and eggs experience with half the calories? Reader, you can, with the Miele steam oven. The Flaneur went along to a London greaseless spoon to investigate.
Steam ovens suggest something invented by George Stephenson which need a constant supply of coal shoveled in whilst you are cooking the dinner. Miele steam ovens are not so inconvenient, and no coal is necessary. They work by generating steam externally and injecting it into the oven when needed, giving precise and constant temperatures.
The result is a greaseless cooking method that gave a delicious* result, (although TBH the cheffing was being done by Masterchef Professionals finalist Sven-Hanson Britt). With home-cured bacon and home grown oyster mushrooms from Espresso Mushrooms the ingredients were a little classier than usual but the steaming method is a healthy success. The bacon lacks crunch, the sausage has to be blitzed under a high powdered grill to finish it off but the tomatoes, beans and mushrooms retained a good bite. My would a steam oven fit in my kitchen moment really came when Sven handed me a boiled egg and announced ‘two mins in the oven and no need to clean the pan’. Now there’s an argument for steam ovens.
*except of course for the black pudding
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