Smart Ovens

We highly recommended the previous version of the June oven, and this newest model, the 3rd Generation, follows suit with hardware and software tweaks. We loved that we could either operate it entirely as a traditional countertop oven or let its food-recognition wizardry, attached probe thermometer, and preprogrammed settings take over and simplify cooking, all while keeping us informed of progress with its internal camera and notifications from its rock-solid, user-friendly app. We tested the Premium package, which includes the oven and the extra accessories noted above. Everything it produced, from juicy, crispy-skinned whole roast chicken and vegetables to air-fried cod and potatoes; gorgeous, crusty pizza; toasted bagels; crispy bacon; baked tofu; broiled asparagus; grilled chicken breast; and tender barbecued ribs—and even an egg simply placed on the oven rack to hard-cook in the shell—came out beautifully cooked. The functions weren’t all fancy: We threw in a slice of leftover pizza, and it recognized it and reheated it to perfection. Our favorite feature: All this happened with very little effort on our part. Cleanup was easy, too. We didn’t want to put this oven away when testing was done.

Available for purchase at: www.juneoven.com

This compact oven, well designed and easy to operate, combines steam and conventional cooking. It uses just 1 cup of tap water to generate steam, which can help baked goods rise and foods remain moist as they reheat or cook. Overall, the oven and app performed well. Toast came out nicely browned. Our quibble was that the oven was a bit cramped: The surface of its baking sheet measures just 10 by 8.5 inches, so a whole butterflied chicken barely fit, and we could cook only a half rack of barbecued ribs. The company bills itself as a meal kit service with an oven, but kits are optional (starting at $11.99; each serves one). The kits we tried were surprisingly fresh and flavorful and easy to prep. Menus varied weekly, and kits arrived promptly; you can customize their frequency. This oven is a solid choice for small households—and for people who don’t like to cook.

Breville has always called its countertop toaster ovens “Smart Ovens” because they use “Element IQ,” where PID temperature control adjusts the quartz heating elements to cook more precisely and evenly. This is Breville’s first actual Wi-Fi-connected smart oven, which includes an app to control the oven remotely plus guided recipes and a few preset cooking programs that Breville dubs “Autopilot.” This model is not as high-tech as our winning smart oven from June, which can identify food you put in it and uses its built-in food-temperature probe to automatically adjust cooking in real time to reach each food’s precise doneness. Since the Breville lacks a probe, you get none of that hands-off convenience. Its built-in recipes simply run a programmed temperature for a set amount of time. To get good results, you have to match the weight and thickness of food in the recipes and check doneness with your own thermometer. Because the temperature and cooking time in the app’s recipe program can’t be adjusted, they may not be enough to finish your food, or they might be too much. Breville compensates with the “A Bit More” button, which lets you add a small amount of cooking time, but in our test, the app first undercooked salmon, and then when we used the button, it slightly overcooked it. That said, this is a very good countertop oven overall: It produced roast chicken with beautifully caramelized root vegetables; tender, juicy barbecued ribs; and tall buttermilk biscuits. Due to its relatively tall interior chamber, it toasted a bit unevenly; we had to keep tweaking settings to get somewhat better results. We tested the oven’s air-fryer functions, making crisp kale chips and nicely roasted broccoli, and used a guided recipe to mix bread dough, proof it in the oven, and then—using Autopilot—watched it switch functions automatically to bake an excellent loaf.

Oversize (though we appreciated its roomy interior), this “4-in-1” model combines a 1,000-watt microwave, broiler, air fryer, and countertop oven and speeds up cooking or defrosting by automatically using these technologies alone and in combination. It functioned fairly well, defrosting frozen meat without cooking the edges and air-frying brussels sprouts and eggplant, but a preset program overcooked our whole roast chicken, despite having us enter its exact weight in ounces. (Meat on the outside of the legs and wings was as hard and golden as shellac.) It took nearly 11 minutes to preheat to 400 degrees, just 1 minute faster than our full-size oven. Baking biscuits was interesting; the pan spun on the revolving tray. While we enjoyed watching them bake, they emerged slightly unevenly cooked.

Brava has lots of rules about using this small, high-tech oven that cooks with light: Many foods must be cut into small pieces and placed in specific, narrow zones on proprietary metal or glass trays. The food can’t be piled up or too skimpy; it must be spread into a full, even, single layer. On the awesome side, you can use it to cook one food or cook two or three very different foods divided into different zones simultaneously; for instance, we roasted a butterflied chicken and vegetables to perfection at the same time. This oven’s door has no window; instead, a small video screen on the oven (and app) are the only ways to monitor cooking. You’d better not peek in the door: Looking at the powerful lights during cooking can damage your eyes. Toast sometimes came out well and other times was overcooked, and it was hard to figure out why.

Available for purchase at: www.brava.com

This oven adds steam to traditional radiant and convection heating. You can also dial in a precise percentage of steam. Typical Anova recipes use a long, slow steam followed by a quick broil to brown the surface, similar to sous vide cooking where the food cooks in a water bath and finishes with a sear in a skillet. A large water tank on one side of the oven is designed to hold distilled water to provide steam. The bad news? We just didn’t love this oven: Everything took longer to cook, often with subpar results. Ribs were still too chewy after 8-plus hours; a small 4-pound chicken took more than 3 hours and still needed extra broiling to bring it up to temperature. Even simple toast was a flop: After an 8-minute preset program, slices emerged still white. Rustic bread baked in this oven was tall but strangely puffy, with a fluffy Wonder Bread–like crumb. We ultimately cooked more than a dozen recipes, both from the app and our own. Nothing was inedible, but we saw stellar results only with chocolate cake, which rose tall and had a tender, moist interior, and pizza (which likely had as much to do with the baking stone we used as it had with the oven). We tested a second copy of the oven, with similar results. Aside from its mediocre performance, it’s not easy to use: The oven itself is very large and heavy and spews steam. Controls, both on the oven and app, are oversimplified, esoteric, and hard to read. We often couldn’t adjust the timer without shutting down the oven and starting over. It was confusing to cook in. Even programmed recipes were overcomplicated. It often lost its Wi-Fi connection from one day to the next, so we would have to reboot and reconnect if we wanted to use the app to monitor progress from afar. Its single beep to indicate food was ready was inadequate (and the oven kept cooking). The oven leaked steam despite its drip tray, and condensation bleached our wood counter.