Best Review on West Bend TEM4500W Muffin Toaster
I get up early for work everyday, and would find myself eating toaster pastries, or stopping at the c-store for a sandwich. This obviously didn't work out too well when I decided to try drop a few pounds, so I purchased this baby, and I haven't looked back. I use it at least 5 days a week. I make a sandwich with a whole wheat bagel (bagels fit without issue), egg whites, and a slice of thin deli ham. My roommate does a more traditional sandwich (sausage, egg, cheese) and says they turn out great too.
The unit itself is well built, and is nicer than any other toaster I've purchased, and poaching the eggs is just about full proof. I haven't hard boiled eggs so I cant speak to that. The plastic pieces are easy to clean. The little metal trays for the eggs take a little more work, but are not bad (they are none stick). A little PAM in the dish before you put the eggs in goes a long ways. the only thing that isn't easy to clean is the tray that boils the water, but it really only needs occasional cleaning, as it doesn't dirty fast, and doesn't contact food. The only other note I'd make is that your meat will drip onto your eggs, which isn't a big deal, but isn't really a great design either.
Overall, the pros are so good I give it five out of five.
We waited a few weeks to do this review, in order to give a fair amount of time to use the toaster in various modes. First, as a toaster, it toasts bread well. Any reviews here that state this is not the case, well, if they can't make toast with a toaster, they should not be in the kitchen, or maybe even indoors at all!
BalasHapusAs a hard-boiled egg cooker, it is pretty awesome. After a few dozen, I only had a few break during cooking, was no big deal, clean-up was a breeze. I've been cooking a long time, it is not easy to cook a GOOD, easy to peel egg, salt, vinegar in the water, boil, soak 20 min, even after that 1/2 don't peel cleanly. With this machine and little practice you can hard boil eggs till the chickens come home. The shells practically fall off, good texture, never any nasty green yolk.
As a breakfast sandwich machine, it is equally awesome. A dab of butter in a pre-warmed tray, the eggs fall right out, cleanup a non event, as mentioned previously, the toast part is a no-brainer. The egg cooker heating tray is chrome steel, after a few dozen eggs it had a slight scale build up, two minutes of CLR and it was like new. Crumb trays, collect crumbs, as they should. I have not cooked any meat in it, nor will I, not a vegan, just not a fan of meat on my breakfast sandwich! All around quality seems very good, nice controls and toast range, it actually cooks a pop-tart as perfect as I've ever seen!
Highly recommend, will re-review in a year as to durability.
BalasHapusI ordered this toaster with some hesitation since I was skeptical the egg cooker would actually work, and fearful that I would get a frankenstein machine that doesn't do anything well. So far a month of daily use has left me completely impressed. The toaster function works very consistently and once I found the right setting for my bread it has not burned a single piece. It also accomodates bagels and frozen goods with settings for those items. The egg cooker has also worked flawlessly. So far I have used it to make poached eggs for english muffin sandwiches, egg beater omeletes, and to hard boil eggs. I have yet to use the meat warming tray but I see no reason it would not work. The egg cooker comes with two small skillets for poaching and mini omletes which require a non-stick spray to actually get your egg out with making a mess. It also has the hard boiling insert that can fit up to 8 eggs, and a perforated tray for heating up pre-cooked breakfast meats like bacon and sausage patties. To cook you measure out water in the included measuring cup according to what you want to cook, pour it in the cooker, place your food tray on, and cover and hit the egg button. The cooker steams your food and appears to stop heating as soon as the water boils off, so using the measuring cup is vital unless you want improperly cooked eggs. 6 hard boiled eggs took around 10 minutes to cook. I only have a few quibbles with the toaster, and they don't merit a star deduction. One is the fact the skillets absolutely must be greased with spray or you will ruin your poached eggs. The crumb trays open to the back of the toaster and require you to turn it around to do that. This could be an issue for older or smaller folks since this thing is pretty large and occupies a lot of counter space. And last, once you start cooking an egg anything you put into a toasting slot will be held until the egg is done cooking. This is considered a feature so your english muffin will finish toasting at the same time as the egg finishes. If you are hardboiling a bunch of eggs this might be annoying when all you want is a piece of toast. All in all this thing is amazing, and I hope it lasts me many years.
BalasHapusGenerally, I've only had a very cheap toaster in my kitchen. However, I decided to splurge on this one so my girlfriend and I could make breakfast sandwiches on our way out the door for work. The toasting function works well, and things come out evenly and not burnt. As far as the breakfast sandwiches, they come out excellently - as good or better than what you'd pick up on the way in to work. (McDonald's, Starbucks, etc.). It also ends up saving a lot of money, as i can make a sandwich at home for less than a dollar.
BalasHapusThe way it works is you measure out water into the right section and crack the eggs in pans over the water. I also usually puncture the yolk. The water boils, poaching (I believe) the eggs, and the toaster will hold the bread product in a warming phase until the eggs are done. As far as the meat, you just set whatever piece of pre-cooked meat over the eggs, and that heats via the steam (I have used lunchmeat style ham or Canadian bacon slices with good results). The results are very good using bagels, English muffins, croissants.
The machine is simple to set up and easy to clean. Though a reviewer said the egg portion was not easy to clean, I did not find that to be the case, though it helps if you put some non-stick cooking spray on the egg pan before use. I highly recommend this product.
I get up early for work everyday, and would find myself eating toaster pastries, or stopping at the c-store for a sandwich. This obviously didn't work out too well when I decided to try drop a few pounds, so I purchased this baby, and I haven't looked back. I use it at least 5 days a week. I make a sandwich with a whole wheat bagel (bagels fit without issue), egg whites, and a slice of thin deli ham. My roommate does a more traditional sandwich (sausage, egg, cheese) and says they turn out great too.
BalasHapusThe unit itself is well built, and is nicer than any other toaster I've purchased, and poaching the eggs is just about full proof. I haven't hard boiled eggs so I cant speak to that. The plastic pieces are easy to clean. The little metal trays for the eggs take a little more work, but are not bad (they are none stick). A little PAM in the dish before you put the eggs in goes a long ways. the only thing that isn't easy to clean is the tray that boils the water, but it really only needs occasional cleaning, as it doesn't dirty fast, and doesn't contact food. The only other note I'd make is that your meat will drip onto your eggs, which isn't a big deal, but isn't really a great design either.
Overall, the pros are so good I give it five out of five.