Cuisinart CSO-300N Convection Steam Oven, Stainless Steel

I've been using this little oven for several months now, and I love it. It takes a bit of creativity, trial and error to learn how to cook with a steam oven. To my surprise, it's hard to find recipe books that are written just for steam ovens! The main sources for recipes seem to be either the user guide for high end steam ovens such as Meile, Viking and Bosch (which tend to be written in terms of fancy programming), or personal blog posts. As a result, I've been learning largely by trial and error, but after some learning curve, it's working out great! First of all, it will function as a normal toaster oven. You put your bread in, select the done-ness you want, and it toasts it. Or, you can use it as a convection oven. The oven is large enough to hold several pieces of toast or a 2 Qt. casserole, so it's a nice size for one dish, single family baking. Then, there's the steam feature, which is the "wowie" for me. The oven lets you set up steam so that you can "proof" bread at a low temperature. It holds the equivalent of two loaf pans. My favorite feature, however, is the steam / broil and steam / bake settings. Steam, by itself, will only go to 212 degrees F, but you can set the broil to go up to 450 or 500 degrees F. This allows you to brown food at the same time the steam is keeping it moist. As an example of a recipe where this works great, I used to boil potatoes to soften them a bit, then toss them in olive oil and some spices and broil them in order to brown them. The "boiling" step can be skipped with this oven: just cut the potatoes in bite size pieces, toss in olive oil and whatever spices you like (I use a flavored vinegar, garlic and and some rosemary), and then steam broil them on 350 degrees for 30 minutes. A video on the Williams Sonoma web site demonstrates this oven being used basically to poach salmon and then to steam broil some bok choi to go with it. The oven also has a steam / bake setting, which doesn't apply the broiling heat but rather heats from the bottom. I haven't tried roasting chicken yet, but others say that this is superb for roasting chicken. There are a few recipes in the users manual, but to be honest I've read some but then done mostly my own using trial and error. There are two last things I'd like to mention in this review. One is that the size of the oven is great for a small family. I have a very nice convection oven that I paid a lot of $$ for, but I find myself using this little workhorse instead, because it's small and convenient. (The only drawback is that due to its size, it can only cook one dish at a time!). The very last thing I'd like to mention is the cleanup. I believe it's important to follow instructions and unplug it before putting your hands near where there are heating elements and water and etc., but the steam means that residue and dripped food never crusts on and sticks in this oven! I wipe the oven out after each use, and it looks as clean today as the day I purchased it! Obviously, I'm pleased with my purchase and would purchase it again. This, most especially, when considering that a full size steam oven from one of the high end manufacturers costs a couple thousand dollars more than this! I am somewhat of a "foodie" and cooking is my hobby, and so I'm thrilled to have been able to add this to the tools I use in my kitchen.

The best purchase I have ever made on amazon...seriously. This thing is freaking awesome. My main oven now gets used twice a year at most (holidays for a big turkey etc). This little device cooks everything so much better than a normal oven. It does take a little time and practice to master as the instructions aren''t the best. Look up steam convection recipes online for a good place to start. The price has gone up which is a shame as I am seriously considering buying a second. This is the ONLY decent counter top steam oven on the market, and if it gets discontinued (cuisinart has a bad history of this), it will suck as I use it many times a day and is my main cooker. Things I cook in this that turn out way better than on a normal over, stove: Fish (not even close), chicken (not even close...MAYBE rotisserie...but this is just as good), roasts of any kind (not even close), vegetables (just as good as steaming any other way, but so much easier), bread (impossible to get artisan bread like this any other way in the house...), rice (much better than even my now-never used rice cooker) and lets not forget...left overs...there is simply no other way to achieve without a steam convection over. As for quality, I have been using for over 6 months with no issues. I use it daily, at least 2-3 times a day...sometimes all day long. Its not perfect...I would like both lower and high temps (lowest in 100...would like lower for better bread proofing, better defrosting...etc), and higher for better hi temp dished (it goes up to 500 only on broil, 450 for every other mode). It could be bigger, but it works well for a family of 4 so far. Can't do the holidays meats in it of course. I hope the thing lasts, but Its already more than paid for itself. If they ever stop making this, I will have to shell out a couple grand for a normal kitchen steam over...but until then...this is (almost) just as good for 1/10th the cost.

This oven does a great job of cooking things. I like that there are no coatings on the inside, and I like that the door is gasketed. The steam functions really do work as advertised (I won't waste time explaining how or why, since others have done so already). This would have been a 5 star review except that the control system on this oven is TERRIBLE. Every single function has to be set to a timer, so it doesn't behave like an oven at all. You can't turn it on and have it preheat, then put the food in and set timer when you are ready. You have to preheat it on a timer, then when you're ready to put the food in, all you can do is shut it off and start a new timed oven cycle to actually cook your food. You can't change the temperature OR the timer, or the cook function without "Cancelling" the current operation and starting over. Cuisinart apparently let software engineers decide how you should use their kitchen appliance. AWFUL user interface.

Received my CuisinArt CSO-300C two days ago. Immediately noticed a weak link in its design. The water container is made of thin plastic with a flimsy handle. No filling hole at the top of the container! Water has to be filled from the bottom of the container! Every time you need to fill with water (which is often), you have to remove the container out of its seat, unscrew the plastic valve cap at the bottom, fill it with water at the sink, carefully replace the container making sure the plastic valve at the bottom of the container is properly seated, or a leak may develop. I predict my CuisinArt CSO-300C will leak water soon. Message to the CuisinArt Designer/Manufacturer: Why is there no filling hole at the top of the plastic water container? If I were to open a hole at the top of the container, do you see a problem with that? (My Keurig Coffee Maker has a removable lid at the top of the water container. No need to remove the container from the machine for the once-a-week water top-up. My CuisinArt needs a water top-up every other day.)

This is the best kitchen gadget ever. I replaced my good-old toaster oven with it. The internal of the oven is big. It fits the Corningware 12.5in oval platter. [...] I first tested the standard steaming function with ginger-chicken, cut into bite-size pieces and marinated. I estimated it would take about 18 mins steaming on stove top, so I set the same amount of time. I can see it was not producing the heavy steam I expected and at the end of the 18 mins, the meat was cooked well outside but not in the deepest part of the dish. I then switched to "super-steam" at 300F for an extra 10 mins. The result was perfect. After that I mainly used super-steam for Chinese dishes (tofu with scallops, prawns, meat pies, whole fish, while chicken). I tried other super-steam settings with 225F/250F/275F/300F all with great results.The super-steam function produces a lot more steam then the standard steam function, and the added heat more closely simulate the stove-top steaming environment. I found 250F a good starting point to experiment.

Good value. Still working well after so many years

Love, love, love my Cuisinart steam oven. Don't really need to use the 'steam' features as use of the regular settings benefit, in any case, from the increased moisture content. Wanted to try it for at least 9 months before writing a review and can honestly say that this was well worth the money. Have only used the oven in my stove 6 or 7 times since purchasing my Cuisinart mid-2016 and that was only to cook large roasts of meat in my cast iron roaster. One thing which I did notice about 6 months ago was that the unit suddenly became much louder (as had been mentioned in several reviews when I was first considering the purchase). Has not affected the performance of the unit so I'm not too bothered. No leaks or other problems; seems to be very well made. I would not hesitate to recommend this unit.