GE Profile Trivection - we're in love!

Last year we purchased a GE Profile JT980 stainless steel double trivection wall oven. We had one small technical glitch in the beginning - the left screen didn't light up - but after a phone call and two technician visits (because they had to order a part and come back after it had arrived), the problem was resolved.

This oven is never wrong about cooking time. Just enter in the regular temp and time of your recipe, and the conversion happens automatically.

It is also very easy to use. The worst part is the initial learning curve, about 20 minutes of watching the introductory DVD (which only demonstrates the single oven model, rather than the double oven like ours, but it's still very informative). Just watch this and you learn all you need to know. Then explain the highlights to your husband in two minutes. Operating the oven is quite self-explanatory, with controls that are well thought-out. In fact, our phone is harder to operate.

Because of the trivection technology there are a few things to be aware of, such as not putting metal pans or tinfoil too close to the edges (can cause arcing which can mark cookware) and surrounding food completely in tinfoil (not exactly a problem, but will block the microwaves and therefore food will cook more slowly). We have had some arcing when using tinfoil and our largest cookie sheets. If I avoid using tinfoil over a cookie sheet then there is no arcing at all.

If you're a Le Creuset collector, you're a bit out of luck with this oven. You can still use it, but you won't be able to take advantage of the speedcook option (trivection) because the metal pan will block the microwaves, if it's a covered dish.

The GE ad "food cooks up to 5 times faster" is true. But the only food that actually cooks 5 times faster is a potato. FYI. However, almost everything else averages about 1/4 to 1/3 of the normal cooking time, which is pretty close. Beef cooks faster than chicken. A large roast chicken, which would normally take 1.75 hours, takes only 35 minutes - with a pan of potatoes in the oven at the same time. In fact the trivection oven is so efficient at cooking a whole oven full of food, and so quickly, it's very rare we find ourselves using the second oven at all.

Now three years later, I find this oven indispensible. I use it much more than I did my old oven, because it's so convenient to cook at home now. Everything cooks so quickly. Thanksgiving dinner was so easy - the turkey, a stuffed 18-lber, was finished in 2 hours. And it was perfect in every way. I just cooked a large tri-tip/portobello mushroom roast in 12 minutes (a regular oven would have been 40 minutes). Or how about 1" thick smoked pork chops baked with new potatoes, roasted butternut squash, mushrooms and sherry? Throw everything into a dish and it will be done in 20 minutes. And they are better than in almost any restaurant, I've been told by many.

Our friends are amazed at my cooking ability, but I don't have any special talent - the combination of the microwave power with the browning power of the convection is my secret weapon. I was worried meat would come out rubbery with the microwave power, but that is not even the slightest bit true. In fact, it comes out restaurant-quality. The convection heat sears the outside perfectly so the inside remains tender.

You can even throw a whole bunch of food in this oven and it doesn't seem to affect the cooking time much at all. There is a setting for multi-rack cooking, which is for convection use (not trivection). This is very helpful for baking things like cookies.

Entertaining is much easier now b/c cooking time is so much faster. We can whip out appetizers in no time and they are fresh and hot out of the oven. Before, we would make things ahead of time and let sit out. Not as nice.

I have two small complaints about this oven. #1, our oven is the 30" wide version (also comes in 27"), so we have plenty of side-to-side space -- but it lacks the depth of our old 1960s oven, because of the large fan at the back which circulates air for convection heating. All our pans still fit in the oven even with the shortened depth, although my largest cookie sheets just *barely* fit front-to-back. The second problem I have with this oven is the noise of the fan. It runs even after the oven is turned off to cool the computer circuitry, and it sometimes runs for a long time. This time can be significantly shortened by cracking open the oven door to let out the heat faster. We do this, and the fan shuts off within a few minutes.

The only counter-intuitive feature I've encountered is on the menu - when pressing the "meat" button on the main menu, you can choose from beef or pork -- but not chicken and fish. Those you have to get to by navigating to a secondary menu. Since when are chicken and fish not meat?

Overall, our trivection oven has turned out to be the best purchase we made in our kitchen remodel. We fight over who gets to use it. Imagine that, ladies! We love the shortened cooking time. It is such a time-saver! That to us is priceless, a huge stress relief for me. Cooking at home on weeknights is much more feasible now. I know I can shop, prepare, and cook a healthy, home-cooked, roast chicken dinner with potatoes and veggies - all within 1 hour!!