Samsung: Makes Cooking Look Easy

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Samsung Home Appliances.

BlogHer and Samsung are sponsoring a $200 gift certificate to Best Buy, just to the readers of A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade. Entering is completely easy, just scroll down for all the details.

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Why Does a Cook Switch from Gas to Electric?
My Story

Wisdom says that a real writer needs no more than a nubbin of pencil and a scrap of paper; the words will flow unbidden, no quiet space, no fancy laptop required. Wisdom says that a real runner needs no more than an open road; the miles will accumulate, no running clothes that wick, no high-tech shoes required. 'My' wisdom says that a real cook needs no more than food and a little fire; supper will appear, no enamel-coated cookware, no German knives required. Once upon a time, there was a food blog where the cooking surface was -- get this -- a hot plate! The blogger moved on but the idea still haunts me: what would I cook with just a hot plate? Could I?

Enter BlogHer and Samsung, collaborating with bloggers to try out -- get THIS, for free -- Samsung appliances. I gave my 15-year old hardware-store variety range a discerning eye. The one potential drawback? Switching from gas to electric. I thought about real writers and real runners and real cooks. I remembered that hotplate. That's how a brand-new sparkly-clean stainless steel Samsung electric range and built-in Samsung microwave came to call my kitchen home.



It's been some weeks now and I've been cooking up a storm, giving the new appliances a real work out, getting to know the in's and out's. It's easy for me to say, without prevarication: I love these Samsung appliances. Why? They seem to be designed by cooks for cooks. They seem to anticipate my workflow. They make cooking look easy.

Here's what I've learned.

What It's Like to Cook with Samsung Appliances
My Experience

Stovetop

• Ceramic Surface - The ceramic work surface just looks so good! Plus it's much easier to keep clean than either a gas range or a traditional electric stove. The only downside? My favorite cast-iron skillets can't be used on ceramic, they'll scratch the surface.


• Five Burners! - I can't tell you how often I filled up four burners on my old stove. The fifth burner on the Samsung is especially useful, since it's the 'warming center' especially designed to keep cooked food warm. This would be great for busy families, for nights when everyone's eating in shifts. There's also a warming drawer below the oven, which would be great for warming plates, unless, like me, you have a dog since that low to the floor, it's a magnet for dog fur.





• Hot Surface Indicator - When any one of the elements is hot, there's a really obvious warning light, right in the center of the stovetop. In addition, when any burner is turned on, it glows red. There's no missing that it's turned on.


• Adjustable Cooking Surfaces - The left front burner adjusts to pans of two different diameters, the right front burner to pans of three different diameters. This just makes sense, concentrating the heat beneath the entire surface of the pan. Once you figure out the controls, it's all pretty intuitive; someone new to the stove may need a little direction.


• Fast Boil - The common wisdom, gas compared to electric, is that gas is faster to come to temperature. I'm finding this to be true but am adapting, turning the stove on while I'm prepping vegetables. Once again, Samsung seems to 'get this'. So the left front burner has a 'fast boil' function and it works just great for pasta water, boiling water for tea, etc.


• Kitchen Timer - For anyone who lives and dies by kitchen clocks, it's hard to lose the clock when you turn on the timer.

Oven

• Temperature Preview - Some times little things make such a big difference, both positive and negative. This one's a positive! When I preheat the oven, I love seeing the oven come to temperature, 150F, 220F, 275F, 325F, 350F, bingo!


• Oven Size - This oven is big! Technically, it's 5.9 cubic feet but to me, what's great is that it's big enough for three oven racks, my baking stone now stays on one. There's plenty of room for a big turkey and lots of airspace for two levels of cookie sheets.


• Oven Temperature Monitor - Oh how I love this feature! Turn on the oven and the display changes as the oven preheats. I could watch the temperature move from 150F to 175F to 225F and so on all day long!





• Convection Baking - Yes, the Samsung has a convection feature, the much-applauded 'true convection' cooking that circulates air evenly throughout the oven. Bakers, especially, love the even cooking from a convection oven. Convection promises to be an energy-saver, too, because you cook at a temperature 25F lower and usually cook for about 25% less time. But if convection isn't for you, no problem, the oven works in conventional mode as well. I'm still learning my way around the convection feature but it's looking great.



• Convection Roasting - The Samsung also has a 'convection roasting' function that is designed so that meat browns and cooks evenly, as if on a rotisserie. I'm looking forward to roasting my first chicken this way!


• Bread Proofing - My heart leapt when I saw this feature! Over the years, I've devised one scheme after another to create 'warm and draft-free spaces' for letting bread rise. (Think cardboard boxes. Think space heaters facing an upside down wire wastebasket with the bread bowl perched on top.) None worked very well. For THIS feature, Samsung, I thank you. Just look! at that beautiful mound of bread dough!





• Jewish Sabbath & Holidays - For some families, this might be of real benefit, leaving the oven and the oven light on throughout the Sabbath, overriding the standard safety feature that turns the oven off after 12 hours.


• Self-Cleaning & Steam-Cleaning - The Samsung has a self-cleaning feature but better still, it has a light-cleaning function called SteamQuick that uses 10 ounces of water to clean the oven. Sweet! What an energy saver for light jobs. I do wish that the oven racks could be used during the cleaning functions.

Microwave
Caveat: My cooking style gives a range and an oven a real work-out, the microwave, not so much. I'm sure that the Samsung has many features that a microwave power user would appreciate. At present, that's just not me. My first check, to make sure that it would cook my morning oatmeal. Perfect!

• Intuitive - The best thing about the microwave is that it works in such a straight-forward mode. Honestly, I've got the user manual on my desk but haven't looked at it yet.


• Turntable & Shelf - The turntable cooks food more evenly, the shelf lets you cook two things at once, swapping between the shelf and the turntable midway.


• The 'Soften' Function - This works for ice cream and chocolate but in my world, it's for softening butter for baking when I forget to put it out an hour before. It works like a dream.

Many Thanks
Many thanks to the people at BlogHer and at Samsung for the opportunity to 'live with' the new stove and microwave! I'm grateful!

Visit Samsung's site for more information.

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Now, How Can You Win that $200 Gift Certificate to Best Buy?

UPDATE! NOVEMBER 16, 2009

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED, THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL WHO ENTERED YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESSES TO ENTER THE CONTEST, I ONLY WISH I COULD MAKE ALL YOUR APPLIANCE CREAMS COME TRUE!

I USED A RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR TO SELECT THE WINNER, THE FIRST TWO WERE DISQUALIFIED BECAUSE THEY'D ENTERED THE CONTEST BUT FAILED TO LEAVE THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESSES IN THEIR ENTRIES. THE THIRD HAS BEEN NOTIFIED AND SO LONG AS I HEAR BACK WITHIN 48 HOURS, WILL HAVE A $200 GIFT CARD HEADING HER WAY. IF NOT, I'LL SELECT ANOTHER NUMBER AND REPEAT THE PROCESS.

Chance #1
1) ENTER ONCE by leaving a COMMENT on this page
> To enter to win, leave a comment on this page. In your comment, finish this sentence, "To make my life better, the one kitchen appliance I'd most like to replace is a ... ". Is it an aging refrigerator? A loud washer and dryer? A tempermental oven? A leaky dishwasher? A sagging microwave? You decide!
> To be eligible, you MUST leave your e-mail address in the comment but if you like, disguise it so that a 'human' can read it but a machine cannot. For example, if your address is cookie-girl@yahoo.com, disguise it as cookie hyphen girl at yahoo dot com.
2) ENTER AGAIN via TWITTER (and leaving a separate comment here with the Twitter link and your e-mail address)
> For an extra entry, link to this page on Twitter. For the tweet to be eligible, you must leave the link to your tweet and your e-mail address in a separate comment here.
3) ENTER AGAIN by POSTING ON YOUR OWN BLOG (and leaving a separate comment here with the post's link and your e-mail address)
> For an extra entry, you may blog about this contest on your own blog. For the post to be eligible, you must link to this page in your blog post, then leave the link to your post and your e-mail address in a separate comment here.
4) The contest runs between October 15, 2009 (9am PST) and November 15 (5pm PST).
5) This contest is open to U.S. residents (so sorry, Canadian readers) at least 18 years old.
6) A random winner will be selected and notified on November 16, 2009. If I don't hear back from the winner in 48 hours, or if for some reason the winner is not eligible, I will select another winner.
7) For more information, please see the Official Rules.

Eight Total Chances to Win

Chances #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8! - Visit BlogHer.com for links to the seven other bloggers who are reviewing Samsung appliances. Each blogger will select a winner for a $200 gift certificate from Best Buy.