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A Very Nice Appliance

I have only had this lovely toaster for a brief time, but I am very pleased. It does everything as advertised and it does it well.

I already have a great Black & Decker toaster-broiler that I continue to use. I consider this item in a different class. They have different strengths.

*First Impressions:
It smells like new plastic and chemicals out of the box. Up close it’s easy to see that the pretty shell is made of black plastic, but it’s not cheap-looking. After thoroughly wiping down the main unit, running the removable pieces through the dishwasher (top-shelf) and running the toast-cycle a few times, the odors went away. I wasn’t sure whether the little measuring cup was going to be much use.

*First Cooking Trials:
I made hard boiled eggs. The eggs weren’t boiled so much as steamed in the shell, but that’s being picky. The eggs came out perfect on the first try. The little measuring cup was very useful as the amounts of water needed for different yolk-hardness were clearly marked on it. The process was almost idiot-proof.

The eggs went from refrigerator to sandwich in around 10 minutes and cleanup took another minute or so, consisting of rinsing the steamer tray and lid and wiping the heating tray with a damp paper towel.

A poached egg sandwich takes about 5 minutes from fridge to plate. It’s a simple matter of placing the food on the appropriate tray (with a good bit of oil for the egg or else it will stick), pressing the right buttons and then coming back when you hear the toast pop up. The tray for heating sausage is more than large enough for a Garden Burger veggie patty if that’s what you prefer and if you don’t mind it soft and steamed. The toaster-slots can fit a wide range of breads, but perhaps not a thick bagel. The toaster has a clever timer so that toast is done at the same time as the egg.

The black plastic shell on the oven turns out to be an excellent heat-shield.

*Cleaning:
The trays can get messy — in particular, the heating tray ends up with hard water deposits. Everything is easily cleaned with the exception of the steaming tray used for hard-boiling eggs, which has little bits that protrude to catch a sponge or a paper towel. The trays are made of plastic and are already showing scratches after just a few uses, but it’s not noticeable from 3 feet away.

*One Annoying Thing:
If you cook something in the sausage tray, you’ll find that its juices will drip down onto your egg and pool on the surface of the egg. Keep a bit of paper towel handy to swab the top of the egg before you remove it from the poaching cup.

*Usefulness:
Quickly hard boil eggs for tomorrow’s lunch while you prepare for bed. Have it make your breakfast in the time that it takes you to make your morning cup of coffee. Make the kids a quick after-school snack. Make yourself a quick late-night snack. Any time you’re in the mood for eggs and want them quickly. And it also makes toast.

*Summary:
I really like my new toy. It has that cool-gadget-chic that makes it fun to use, the black case looks sweet on a kitchen counter. It’s easy to clean. When I ordered it on the advice of a friend, I thought that it was about $10 dollars too expensive, but the expense appears to be the consequence of making a high-quality product.

Update (2/9/2012): I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Back to Basics TEM500 Egg-and-Muffin 2-Slice Toaster and Egg Poacher Kitchen, was written by Hey Mo!!.

The average rating for this item is 4.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.