If you are familiar with the classics, you should immediately recognize our family's pet name for the Ninja Foodi, but if you were so unfortunate at not to grow up with Satudary morning cartoons, namely the original animated Garfield and Friends (think 1989 here!) then I am truly sorry for you but happily you can redress this terrible wrong and find it on DVD for a reasonable price (there I go dating myself again!). I didn't know this thing was actually Crome until I opened the box, but before it ever got shipped to our house we had already christened it, and no, sadly I am not an affiliate who gets paid for this sort of thing or gets free kitchen gadgets for reviews, rather I'm just a hungry slub with a family to feed.
I wasn't sure what to expect, as like the original, it slices, it dices, what doesn't it do? The story behind the fabulous name stems from one Roy the Rooster, a rascal and a rogue, trying to get his friends' money back after they were swindled by another rascal and rogue. He enacted a live action infomercial for 'the zippety Crome thing' and convinced the scoundrel he couldn't live without one, thus selling him an empty shell and retrieving the stolen money. The story behind my personal investment therein was simply seeing one in action at a friend's house and becoming curious. I had no interest in either an air fryer or an instant pot but the combination was intriguing. Then I saw they were drastically reduced in price of late and decided to try it.
I'm not much of an appliance or gadget person. If something is going to take up counter space it needs to earn its keep. This thing is 20+ pounds and involves water and grease, it's a monster and no little hand mixer that will tuck nicely in a cupboard. It was time to put it to the test.
First off, don't connect it to the same electrical circuit as your microwave (or other major appliance) and run them both at the same time or you'll trip the breaker!
I tried the proof function, as I bake a lot of bread, and wasn't really impressed. It maxes out at 90F whereas I preheat my oven to 165 and turn it off. My bread didn't rise noticeably in an hour and a half whereas the oven gets it done in 45 minutes. It is also pretty small so you'd have to do half a loaf at a time.
I don't like it for grains/pasta either, especially if you are trying to do meat and carbs at the same time. It is either too wet/dry or over/undercooked.
Don't run the steam/bake function for gluten free bread, I think it would be nice for actual wheat bread but gluten free dough is super moist already, but it does a great job if you use the bake function and do small portions like 3-4 bagels, a small focaccia, or dinner rolls. The crust is crunchy and the inside soft and chewy, definitely a win there.
It doesn't really save time on most things, yes I can bake a bagel in 4 minutes but I can only do 3 at a time thus it still takes 15-20 minutes to bake a whole batch. If you are going from frozen to done and using the pressure cooker function, yes it will save time, as it is also awesome for bone broth (1 hour versus 12-24 in the crock pot), but for the tender crisp or bake functions or air fry, it doesn't cut any time off.
It doesn't heat up the whole house like the oven does, which is nice in the summer.
It does small batches well, I wish I had one of these when I was single!
It does amazing things with meat! I love the tender crisp function for just about any meat you can name, especially chicken breasts. Also great for roasted veggies!
I can 'fry' my chicken without frying my chicken.
You can now have an oven without having to have an oven! Think camping or small apartment.
I can even 'fry' raised donuts, though they aren't quite as good as truly fried donuts.
The pressure cook setting is amazing for baked apples (5 minutes!).
Overall, I love the thing, and it is a great fit for our family's needs and tastes, but it doesn't quite do everything but what I need it to do it does well!
