Battle of the stovetop ovens!

[Ravella and X]

I was gifted a West Bend Ovenette stovetop a couple of days ago. Being the proud owner and user of an Omnia oven, the first thing I thougt to do was give them both the same job and compare the results. So that is what I did today.

I mixed up some sweet potato sourdough rolls and when they were ready, I baked them one oven at a time. Here are the differences:

Top color: lightly browned in the Ovenette, pale in the Omnia

Bottom color: lightly browned in the Ovenette, crispy and toasted in the Omnia. Almost burnt on the inside edge.

Oven spring: no difference between ovens.

The eating experience: the Ovenette rolls had a thin crisp crust top and bottom. The insides were moist and pillowy. The Omnia rolls had a super soft top, almost like a steamed bun. The bottoms and sides had thicker harder crusts than I'd have liked, but we're still perfectly edible. The insides were moist and pillowy, though maybe a teeny bit less so than the Ovenette rolls.

Both ovens are worth owning. If you can get an Ovenette, that's great. If not, and if you really need to bake like I need to bake, an Omnia will do the job.

 

[Cammalu]

Gotta get rid of one!!!

 

[Cammalu]

I looked up ovenette and am seeing several different ones. Got a pic of yours Rav?

 

[Ravella and X]

No pic yet, its camera shy. It has a big dome lid and is the non-electric one.

And yes, the Omnia and I will part ways, but it will tell me when. It should go in Q and not where I am now.

 

[MrsBackRoads]

Did you go to the website or Amazon I am not having any luck finding it.

 

[Cammalu]

I just did a google search on ovenette

 

[rvwandering]

Thanks for the reviews! I've been wondering about how the two ovens compare.

I have an Ovenette and love it. If you don't have electric hookups you'll want the non- electric one which are pretty rare. They appear on Ebay every so often and go fast, usually for about $50.00. Sometimes they are in the original box and have never been used. Make sure that all of the pieces are included. The pans can be replaced but you want the dome top (preferably with a thermostat), the heavy metal base and the grid that the pans sit on. 

I posted some photos in this thread - https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=42861&highlight=ovenette

Here's link to the original manual with recipes - https://www.nationalserroscotty.org/fun/ovenette.html

 

[MrsBackRoads]

Thank you! I never thought about EBay. Looking now.

 

[jacqueg]

Did you go to the website or Amazon  I am not having any luck finding it.

The original non-electric Ovenettes haven't been made in years. EBay is where you'll find them. No longer cheap, they usually cost about what a new Omnia costs.

Thanks Ravella for the review. You don't mention whether the "central chimney" of the Omnia results in faster or more even baking, I've always wondered about that. I do like the fact that the Ovenette doesn't have that big hole in the middle!

 

[LoupGarou]

No need to overthink ovens. Any deep skillet with a lid will work. You can elevate a pie tin placed inside the skillet. Then set the burner as low as possible. I’ve cooked cookies, biscuits, muffins and cornbread. Even fish sticks, chicken nuggets and small pizzas.

 

[NctryBen]

In my backcountry canoe travels I used the old reflector oven or there was one called the Outback Oven. Then there is a fry bake oven which leans more to what Loup there was referring to in concept. Your always a hit out there two weeks in when you whip up a fresh batch of brownies or biscuits or the like. Lotsa fun things to try...

 

[Ravella and X]

Jacque, the Omnia is not faster. The donut hole doesn't work near as well for evenly heating the oven as the design of the Ovenette. The Omnia tends toward over-browning the dough edge that touches the pan side of the chimney. The ovenette browns the top without overdoing the bottom or pan sides.

Loup, bayou describe holds in moisture, making for steamed stuff and no top browning. The two stovetop ovens we are discussing produce a dry oven environment that aims to reproduce results you'd get from a standard oven. for people who need to bake, neither of these stovetop ovens are overthought.