Our Place Surprise Oven and Dream Cooker Evaluation

The brand new Our Place home equipment seem like toys. It needs to be stated. The Surprise Oven—its toaster oven–slash–air fryer hybrid—offers main “Simple-Bake Oven, However for Grown-Ups” vibes, and the Dream Cooker appears to be like like an Instant Pot designed for the Barbie film. Given the model’s standing as a viral cookware hit manufacturing unit, none of that is stunning. On-trend colorways and chic matte finishes are issues I’ve come to anticipate from Our Place. However high-performing home equipment? I used to be skeptical.

I’m very slowly renovating the kitchen in my home, which implies I at the moment don’t have a practical range. I figured that the mixed powers of the Dream Cooker and the Surprise Oven might maintain my two-person family fed whereas we debated the deserves of paint swatches and range manufacturers, however I wasn’t anticipating to have my thoughts blown.

I used to be mistaken.

I used to be an early-adopter of the Prompt Pot, and I liked it for making issues like last-minute pressure-cooked pork shoulders, beans and grains I forgot to soak the evening earlier than, and massive batches of do-it-yourself yogurt. However like many different dwelling cooks, my Prompt Pot obsession step by step wore off. I’m not ashamed to confess that an enormous a part of that is the truth that Prompt Pots are the alternative of aesthetically pleasing.

The Our Place Dream Cooker solves that very actual (to me) downside. This little multi-cooker is so smooth, it doesn’t have a single button. As an alternative, there’s an LED touchscreen that solely lights up when it’s in use.

Okay, so I did not need to cover this in a cupboard. However might it truly carry out? My go-to strain cooker recipe is a brief rib osso buco, so I gathered my components and obtained cooking.

I used to be immediately shocked by how effectively the sear perform on the Dream Cooker labored. Whereas I needed to work completely too exhausting to brown a bit of meat within the Prompt Pot’s stainless-steel pot, I obtained a restaurant-quality crust from the Dream Cooker’s nonstick floor, and after 40 minutes on the strain cook dinner setting, the brief ribs fell proper off the bone. I used to be capable of cut back the sauce in round 10 minutes. To say I used to be gobsmacked shouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Not like the Prompt Pot, the Dream Cooker doesn’t depend on a ton of presets. It solely has 4 modes: strain cook dinner, gradual cook dinner, saute/sear, or maintain heat. However this stripped down set of capabilities truly makes it extra versatile, as bizarre as that sounds, since you aren’t tempted to depend on presets and the preset kind of meals they make. The whole lot will come out the best way you need it as an alternative of the best way the producer of your multi-cooker thinks it needs to be. Whereas this requires a bit extra information of the fundamentals of pressure-cooking and slow-cooking than say, urgent the Poultry button on the Prompt Pot, I appreciated it a lot better.

I attempted my greatest to search out one thing the Dream Cooker couldn’t do effectively. I made applesauce with the gradual cooker perform, cooked Japgokbap that I had forgotten to soak, pressure-cooked an entire hen (then crisped the pores and skin within the Surprise Oven). It was simple to wash, too, and I by no means needed to pull it out of a cupboard or down from a excessive shelf, as a result of the Spice colorway I selected appeared actually good with my freshly painted pistachio cupboards.

After per week, my Prompt Pot Duo was out on the sidewalk with a FREE signal taped to it.

The Surprise Oven

Not like the Dream Cooker’s slick shell, the Wonder Oven appears to be like prefer it got here straight from a Toys “R” Us. However in accordance with the model, this factor might Air Fry, Bake, Roast, Toast, Broil, and Reheat. It additionally incorporates a steam infusion possibility and allegedly doesn’t require preheating.

For my first check, I made a decision to toss the Surprise Oven a softball. I’m deeply obsessive about Snow Days healthyish Pizza Bites, that are like if Totino’s pizza rolls truly tasted good and contained vitamins as an alternative of simply being fast and comforting. My outdated CRUXGG toaster oven–slash–air fryer hybrid would constantly burn the outsides whereas leaving the interiors nonetheless frozen, so I used to be curious to see how the Surprise Oven would do. I popped them within the air fryer basket, and eight minutes later I used to be consuming the platonic splendid of a pizza roll. The outsides have been delightfully crisp and positively golden, and the inside was pure tacky, saucy goo.

Fantastic, I assumed. I’ll strive one thing tougher. I quartered a recipe for “Crusty French Loaves” from The Tassajara Bread E-book. Certainly, a toaster oven this cheap couldn’t deal with do-it-yourself bread. Flawed once more. I used to be capable of match 4 personal-size loaves on the nonstick baking sheet. The steam infusion setting labored its magic, and I had bread that appeared and tasted higher than some loaves I’ve baked in my full-size oven.

I pressure-cooked an entire hen simply to see if the roast setting on the Surprise Oven might crisp up the pores and skin: Sure. Air-fried chicken wings? Excellent. I baked scones, Christmas cookies, and a complete pie. You’d by no means guess I made them in a bit of peach-colored dice.

My solely qualm with the Surprise Oven is the declare about preheating and the dearth of a dwell temperature show. You principally should belief that the temperature setting you select if you twist the dial is correct, and I’m not a trusting particular person. So I used an oven thermometer, and whereas I discovered that it did come to temp fairly shortly, it various by round 10 levels in both path, and did require 5 to 10 minutes to get to actually excessive temperatures. So the no preheating declare shouldn’t be precisely true. How a lot that mattered relied on what I used to be cooking. With one thing like bread, it issues lots. With pizza rolls? An approximate temperature was superb.

The Verdict

Once I posted images of my new Our Place home equipment on my Instagram tales, I used to be flooded with DMs from individuals asking me if they really labored. Just a few individuals begged me to not say something good about them as a result of they have been already preventing the “add to cart” temptation solely primarily based on appearances. I virtually hate to say it, however in case you’re going to purchase a multi-cooker and/or a toaster oven–slash–air fryer, purchase these. The Dream Cooker is about as near excellent because it will get, and whereas the Surprise Oven isn’t flawless, it actually can change a full-size dwelling oven in a pinch. They may seem like dollhouse equipment, however these are critical home equipment that may maintain their very own towards ones that value twice as a lot—and aren’t almost as cute.