My New Oven Story

Sorry to keep you all waiting for this post. Actually, I have been wanting to post this since 2-3 days, but I am hardly getting much free time these days. The entire day just goes off in cooking, washing, cleaning and running around. So, finally, after lot of speculation and apprehensions, I decided to buy a new oven. Most of you would know that I was quite happy with my Glen cooking range and didn’t have much courage to try my bakes on a new OTG.

Microwave was not in my list and so the only issue was to finalise on the brand.

• Background story:

I had bought my Glen cooking range around 15 years back when we made our kitchen cabinets. I had always wanted a cooking range in my kitchen since childhood. So, we cut the kitchen platform and installed the range. That time, I had never thought that I shall be using the oven compartment to this extent. I would have baked more than 3-4 times a week in the last four years (after joining HBG). When we were planning to shift to a rented apartment after Neha’s tenth standard (to be close to her new school), I was quite sure that I shall take the range with me and keep it somewhere in the new house. Since there was no provision to use the range for cooking, I had to buy a new gas stove. Sanjeev and my mil suggested that we leave the range in the old house and that I can buy a new oven, but I wasn’t ready 🙁 So, we got the range to the new apartment and kept it in the kitchen utility area.But then life is always unpredictable and things don’t happen as you plan !! We shifted to the new house and the lockdown started the next day. Covid changed our lives in more than one ways. When we realised that I can’t switch on my oven as the power cord was too short and the switch board was at a higher height, I was pretty upset to say the least. I somehow managed for two weeks without my oven, baking, blogging and breads hoping that we will call an electrician and fix it. But then on the eve of Neha’s birthday, we both did something very stupid which could have turned into a life threatening calamity !!! We placed the range on some cartons (left by the packers) and made the plug fit into the socket. I made her favourite semolina bread and a simple strawberry vanilla hot milk cake.

• The big escape:

After two days, I baked some burger buns and I could see some faint smoke eminating from the range after the buns were ready. I immediately switched off the range and unplugged it. When the light smoke didn’t go after 1-2 hrs, Sanjeev checked the range and shook it slightly !! And we could see that the cartons under the range were burning and with the sudden oxygen supply because of shaking, it started burning vigorously. Immediately we covered it with rugs and poured water. Omg !!! We got terribly scared… anything could have happened. The entire building could have caught fire and got burnt… We were damn lucky to escape 🙂 After that, I swore not to touch the range till things are safe everywhere and we are in a position to call a technician and get it checked. Because, now I wasn’t sure how intact the plug cord is after the fire.

• Days passed by:

Days and weeks passed by. Things weren’t improving and on the contrary, worsening at many places. Getting the oven repaired was the last priority in our lives. We were all thankful to be alive, safe and healthy. I started making our weekly breads in pressure cooker and pans. Though, they turned out good, I was really missing my oven. Without my oven, there was nothing for me to blog. Moreover, with limited supply of veggies, food was more for survival. No fancy cooking or blogging 🙁 I started focussing more on Neha’s studies. Brushed up eleventh standard Mathematics and Chemistry, but the real me was always pining to bake 🙁 Hubby casually remarked once or twice, “Tu cooking range ko bhool ja.. naya oven khared tey hai”. I didn’t know how serious he was. Also, I had seen many people say that their ovens do not lend a beautiful crust colour to their breads…. so, I was quite sceptical to try one.

• Help from hbg friends:

I did a quick research and read reviews about best otgs in India. From my past experience, I knew that many bakers were using Morphy Richards or Bajaj. When I first saw this Borosil Prima 60 litres OTG (on the net), it was like love at first sight 🙂 I fell in love with its black body and beautiful knobs. I just had to post in hbg (a facebook baking group) asking reviews of this and many of my friends were too sweet to share their inputs. Many messaged me privately to tell me how good it was. One was too sweet to message me about its availability on Amazon. Thanks to everyone for their help. It surely means a lot.

• How I procured it:

As most of us are scared to go out and prefer online shopping, the first place where I looked was Amazon. But unfortunately, they are not delivering anything to our area. Flipkart didn’t have availability of this model. And many told me as most of these appliances are imported from China, it might be difficult to get it now. I was losing hope of getting it and feeling a bit low 🙁 I was more or less ok to buy Morphy Richards too. But again, that was out of stock in most places. Then during that weekend, I told Sanjeev to call up shops and find out of they have MR. But as usual men forget these things and we got to remind them often, which I find very embarassing. Though I know it’s not correct, I expect my people to understand my wish and do it for me as I do in most of my relations 🙂 Anyways … Meanwhile I came across the Borosil official website and saw availability there. Tada! I was quite excited …. So after some 40 hours of light sulking, I went up to Sanjeev and showed him the website. He was equally excited ( Poor he, didn’t even realise that I was expecting something from him) and told me “chal order karte hai and within five minutes, the money was paid and the order completed.” And I realised I was unnecessarily getting upset all this while and maybe I should have done all this on Saturday morning rather than wait for him to take the initiative 🙂 But I guess I will never change, find it very difficult to demand something. I was scared to be over enthusiastic as I wasn’t sure whether they would really deliver it during this lockdown ( That’s the reason I didn’t tell anyone when I ordered). We got a 15% discount on MRP and this made happier 🙂 We paid the money and I got an payment confirmation email from them. Still silly me, wasn’t sure whether it will be delivered. Finally after two days I got order confirmation email from them and shipment details. And lo!! It was delivered home the next saturday. Now, as we have been doing for the past few months with regard to any home delivery, I was not supposed to touch it for atleast 24 hours. So, the wait was not yet over. Finally on Sunday evening, we unboxed it. And let me tell you, it’s a beauty !! But it looks very very big, infact found it to be a bit oversized for my kitchen.

• Specifications:

The outer dimensions of the oven are 15 x 25 x 19 inches (height x width x depth) and internal dimensions are 12 x 17 x 16 inches (height x width x depth). There are four racks. The four knobs corresponds to fan mode/rotisserie, temperature (upto 250 degree Celsius), timer (upto 120 minutes) and the last one points to the rod settings (I have baked only a set of cupcakes, a tray of pav and two cookies in it till now, so not in a position to give you guys a full fledged review. Will update it as soon as I get more familiar with it.

First hand impression :

• looks absolutely stylish and robust.
• Door double glass and sturdy. Closes well. No gaps whatsoever.
• Inner space – quite good.
• Knobs quality- satisfactory.
• Temperature control-quite good.
• Fan-very very silent.
• Gets heated up pretty fast.
• Bakes evenly and quickly.

Well, aren’t these enough reasons to own it? I just hope and pray that it never lets me down 🙂

• Negative aspects/cons if any:

Nothing that I can think of with just a couple of trials. I get a feeling that the moment you open the door to place the tray (after it is preheated), the temperature falls by 10-15 degrees, though I think it’s bound to happen. Also, if I preheat for exactly ten minutes (by setting the timer), I found the oven to be switching off in around 6 minutes. These seem to be trivial issues though 🙂

Ok. So now let me compile few questions which many of you have already asked me or are likely to ask and compose answers for them 🙂

• Q1: What is the name of the model? Capacity? Wattage? Dimensions?

It’s Borosil Prima 60 L Oven Toaster Griller. 60 litres capacity and 2000 Watts. Model Code BOTG60CRS16

The outer dimensions of the oven are 15 x 25 x 19 inches (height x width x depth) and internal dimensions are 12 x 17 x 16 inches (height x width x depth).

• Q2: Where did you buy this from?

I ordered it from myborosil.com

• Q3: What’s the cost? Did you get any discount?

• Q4: How long did it take to reach you?

I ordered on Sunday night and received it the following saturday afternoon.

• Q5: Can you place 2 eight inch cake tins adjacent to each other?

Yes. You can even maybe squeeze in a six inch tin too 🙂 It’s actually quite spacious, don’t worry.

• Q6: How long is the warranty period?

Two years.

• Q7: How many trays do you get along with the product?

A steel grill wire rack, a sturdy non glossy aluminium baking tray (17.5 x 13.5 inches) and an aluminium food crumb tray to be placed at the bottom.

• Q8: How do you use an oven thermometer?

Place your oven thermometer inside the oven on the grill rack where you intend to keep your tin or tray and switch on the oven with the desired settings and temperature for around ten minutes. If the set temperature matches with the temperature on the thermometer, you can be at peace and continue following your recipe. Now in case you set 180 degrees in the oven and the thermometer shows 200 degree Celsius, then adjust the settings accordingly in your subsequent bakes. ( Provided your oven thermometer is fool proof 🙂 ) You can leave the oven thermometer inside the oven while you bake. I had purchased this oven thermometer from amazon.com

• Q9:What are the settings to be used for breads, buns, pavs, pizza etc?

Use upper and lower rods with the fan on for a uniform baking.

• Q10: Settings for cakes, cookies?

For cakes, use lower rod with fan mode on. For cookies, use upper and lower rod settings with fan on.

• Q11: How’s the recipe booklet?

Simple and no frills. There are 26 simple recipes of muffins cakes, cookies, pizza, baked potatoes etc .

• Q12: Is there a lamp inside?

Yes. There is a lamp inside and the glass quality is good enough to show the baking process quite clearly.

• Q13: Did you get rotisserie and screwers?

Yes there is a central rotisserie rod to grill whole chicken. Additionally, there are eight thin screwers to grill paneer cubes, chicken tikka, potatoes and other veggies. I haven’t used it yet and will update later.

• Q14: Are you satisfied with the product? Would you recommend it to your friends ?

Yes I am 🙂 So far so good. I guess I shall recommend it to others.

• Q15: Is it better than MR and Bajaj? (Someone asked ne this yesterday)

I am sorry. I can’t answer this as I haven’t used them. But yes, looks wise, I think this scores a point or two over others 🙂

If you have any further queries, I shall try to answer them and update it here. Let me post this now will append the changes soon.

22 nd December 2020 : Its been around 5 months since I have been using my Borosil and I can say that the experience has been quite good so far. I have baked many breads, cookies and cakes in it and the results have been quite satisfactory. For the first couple of cakes, I had some issues. I thought only the lower rod option with fan will work for cakes and I was disappointed to see some big bubbles on the top of the cake which settled upto some extent by the end of the bake. But could sense that some thing was not right with the settings. And as always, I got lot of suggestions and pointers from my facebook friends and I could sort it out.

So, what I do now is use both rod settings with the fan mode on for cakes, cookies and breads. I bake my cakes and cookies at around 150-170 and breads at 180-200 degree Celsius. At times I switch only the top rod for the last 2-3 minutes. But be very careful when you do this, a slight negligence and your cookies and cakes can overbrown. Be ready to experiment and take chances, ofcourse being very watchful of what you are doing.

The only draw back that I sense now is, whether the grill rack or cookie tray will be able to bear the weight of my Dutch oven whenever I plan to bake a sourdough boule ???? Not sure about it. The groove through which the tray slides into the side walls of the oven is not very pronounced. Once I kept my cast iron tava with a pizza on the wire rack and I felt as if it would bend. Other than that everything seems fine with the oven.

I am happy to know that many of you have opted to buy Borosil. Happy baking to all. Do not hesitate to ask any queries you have in your mind regarding the oven.