Well ... here are my conclusions I apologize in advance for such an abundance of beeches
Multicooker Brand 701 very interesting in terms of its capabilities.
And a five-stage "Manual" mode with the ability to set time and temperature at each stage (I have used only two stages so far). And the "Yogurt" mode with advanced capabilities (you can cook kefir, and sour cream, and other fermented milk products that require low fermentation temperatures, you can also cook cottage cheese from milk and sourdough in a special mode).
Steam mode convenient in that the countdown begins after the water boils. In this mode, you can not only steam, but also cook spaghetti, dumplings, potatoes ... that is, everything that requires a certain cooking time from the moment the water boils.
"Porridge" mode intended for boiling milk porridge, it can also be used for boiling milk and stewing dishes in milk or cream sauce. In all my tests of this regime, not a single porridge and sauce tried to "run away" (except that the porridge with millet rose slightly by a centimeter, but the reason was the millet, not the mode).
"Groats" mode has three options: "Express", "Standard" and "Plov". The peculiarity of this mode is that there is no frying at the end of the mode. The algorithm of the mode allows, observing the proportions, to cook excellent rice (1: 1.3), buckwheat (1: 2) for a side dish, pilaf (1: 1 or more, but within 1: 1.5; but if you need frying, then zirvak is best prepared separately on the "Fry" mode). That is, the algorithm works correctly! On the "Groats-1 (express)" mode, you can cook pasta with complete evaporation of the liquid, chicken with potatoes.
Extinguishing mode at first it disappointed me, because it is set for an almost constant boil. But then I recognized his merits. In this mode, you can cook pasta with complete evaporation of the liquid, stew vegetables with excess moisture (cabbage, zucchini, etc.). This mode is also a plus of the multicooker in that there will be at least one mode in which constant boiling is present (except for the "Steam" mode, but the algorithm is different there). After all, the "Soup" and "Porridge" modes are more "calm".
Soup mode works correctly: first, the temperature reaches the boiling point of water, and then only a slight extinguishing is present. It is very convenient for cooking soups, stewing dishes in non-dairy sauces, that is, all dishes with the presence of liquid and requiring mild stewing. In all my tests of this regime, there were no attempts to "escape" (except for stewing mushrooms in broth, but this is not the fault of the regime, but the tendency of mushrooms to foam).
Dough mode allows you to proof yeast dough. The mode works correctly. The dough rises well. The bottom does not stick to the bowl.
Yoghurt mode keeps the temperature stably, which is extremely important for maintaining the viability of bacteria! This is the main advantage of such regimes. And this mode also has temperature options: for yogurt 39.3 ° C (according to my measurements), for sour cream, kefir 36.1 ° C (according to my measurements).There is another option for making curd from milk and sourdough, but I have not experienced this mode (I do not have the right sourdough now, unfortunately).
Manual mode has five stages with the ability to set the time and temperature at each stage. During the tests, I used only two stages. When preparing the curd, I measured the actual temperature of 2 liters of water in the bowl after 30 minutes of heating, and it turned out that the real temperature differed from the set one by 10 ° C downward (i.e., instead of 60 ° C it was 50 ° C, instead of 70 ° C - 60.5 ° C). For the preparation of cottage cheese, this is not important (the cottage cheese will be softer and retain its greater value and usefulness). But for the preparation of yogurt at 40 ° C or sous-vide at 60 ° C in this mode, the result may not correspond to the desired one if the deviation is 10 ° C. I repeated the measurement of the temperature of 1 liter of water after 1 hour of heating, and the temperature exactly corresponded to the set one (i.e., at 70 ° C, the actual temperature was 70.1 ° C). That is, in 30 minutes 2 liters of water did not have time to warm up to the set temperature, and 1 liter warmed up in 1 hour. According to the instructions, the more the bowl is filled, the greater the gap between the real and set temperatures, since, according to the instructions, the set temperatures are the temperatures of the heating element, and not the contents of the bowl. I also baked a cake in the same mode in two stages at 130 ° С and 115 ° С. The pastries turned out to be just wonderful!
Baking mode... I baked cake and yeast cakes in this mode. I liked the cupcake more on "Manual" in two stages (the crust turned out a little thinner), although I have no complaints about the cupcake on the "Baking" mode. The yeast cakes were perfectly browned underneath: neither pale nor burnt. Well, the top, of course, as in all multicooker, does not blush, but this is a feature of all multicooker, and not just Brand 701.
Frying mode has three temperature options (though I didn't measure them, but somehow I didn't need it): 1 - "vegetables", 2 - "fish", 3 - "meat". I've tried all three options. On "Zharka-1 (vegetables)" it is convenient to fry vegetables with the lid closed (very juicy Peking cabbage for the filling in the pie has browned perfectly), with the lid open, this mode will not be enough to brown juicy vegetables in 15 minutes (if only a very small portion ). On the "Fry-2 (fish)" mode, I fry onions, carrots, zucchini with the lid closed for 5-7 minutes, with the lid open - 15 minutes. The "Fry-3 (meat)" mode is perfectly adjusted to the temperature for sealing meat before stewing (chicken breasts browned for 5-7 minutes on both sides)
Bowl has a very smooth glossy "ceramic" coating. Nothing burned to him for the entire course of my tests. Unless, when frying, the meat slightly stuck, but did not burn, not even the meat, but rather the remnants of the marinade. After 20 minutes of soaking, everything was perfectly washed. When baking, I greased the bowl with butter (for butter cakes, for yeast dough with vegetable dough), the baking did not stick to a millimeter anywhere.
A very great feature of this model is that you do not even need to disconnect
"Heating" at the end of the modes - it simply does not automatically turn on itself, if it is not turned on initially (or on demand) manually. This is a very convenient solution! There is a separate button for it that turns this mode on and off.
Pleased with the presence in the kit
two steamers (bottom stand and top hinged). True, I haven’t used them yet, but this opportunity is very convenient. The lower steamer has recesses for boiling eggs for steam. The workmanship of the lower steamer is higher than that of the upper. I was also pleased with the measuring cup, the workmanship is good.
What would I
wanted to change in this slow cooker?
First, the "Yogurt-3 (cottage cheese)" mode does not have
adjusting the time at the first stage (or turning it off completely), which allows you to cook curd only from milk and sourdough, that is, from a finished fermented milk product (whether it be kefir, yogurt or drinking yogurt), you cannot cook the curd in this mode.But, I think, this idea will be difficult to implement technically, and the "Manual" mode is a great help in this case. This is me so ... finding fault
Secondly,
closing resistance could be slightly reduced, otherwise you have to make some effort I don't know, maybe this can be done by reducing the height of the silicone stop for the lid on the rim of the case around the bowl. Over time, the cover is developed, and there is no such great resistance.
Thirdly, if there is such a possibility, then as
optional accessory I would like to be able to purchase
non-stick bowls.
Fourth,
it would be ideal for me personally if on the "Krupa-3 (pilaf)" or "Krupa-1 (express)" mode there was an opportunity light frying at the end of the mode... But I don't know how relevant this is for other users It began to happen over time in this way, only I have not yet understood the pattern.
Fifth, for me personally, it would be ideal if, in modes where the temperature should not exceed 100 ° C (for example, Stewing, Soup), the temperature still exceeded this threshold (say, the water boiled away completely),
the multicooker would switch to Heating, otherwise it turns out in such conditions not stewing, but frying until the error of overheating the bowl appears, and this, as I understand it, is far from 100 ° C.
In general, this slow cooker has made me only positive impressions!
We were very pleased with the temperature algorithms of the modes... Even those that I didn’t "taste" at first, I am very pleased by now! And I am very glad that
bowl volume 3 liters, can be cooked in small portions - this is especially important for me
Inaccuracies in the instructions:
on page 3, the device diagram 5 and 6 indicate the cover, however 5 is the cover and 6 is the valve. If a person purchases a multicooker for the first time, he will not understand what kind of valve it is. Perhaps it is worth separately showing the actual location of the valve on the diagram, and not just an indication of the cover?
page 11, "For other modes after
"Starts pressing the Start button
... countdown time.
Well
my recommendations for the care of the "ceramic" coating bowls for those who first encountered this:
1. It is possible to heat such a coating only with food, so that the pores of the heated coating are not clogged with cold food or oil.
2. It is imperative to wash thoroughly every time with the hard side of a non-new sponge (that is, so that it is not too hard), wash everything to a new state, so that no product remains on the coating (otherwise, upon subsequent heating, they will be sealed in the pores, and the coating may stick in these places). Also, the bowl can be washed with ground mustard moistened with water, so greasy accumulations on the surface of the bowl will be washed off.
3. And if the coating has acquired a plaque from hard water (and as a result began to stick), then in a bowl you can heat the water with lemon juice or citric acid.
If you follow these guidelines, the coating will last longer.