Cooking with steam is a health nut’s dream. Steaming broccoli at a temperature over 100°C, retains up to 54% more nutrients and as much as 10% additional vitamin C, compared to conventional cooking methods¹. In addition to gently preserving your food’s natural goodness, water vapour also produces great texture. Your fish will be soft and succulent, while veggies stay crisp and crunchy. The only downside is that it doesn’t enhance flavours the way that cooking with oil does. Luckily, there’s a simple solution – marinades, for instance a tablespoon of herb pesto or sticky teriyaki sauce with some lemon juice. Mix your veggies and the sauce in a bowl, making sure everything is well coated. And keep in mind: always season with salt and pepper after steaming.

¹ _{Bosch Steam Function Plus compared to cooking in boiling water, University of Hohenheim test results 5/2022 and 10/2022}

Bosch ovens with the Steam Plus function can cook with water vapour at a temperature of up to 120°C. Your dishes will be done in no time – potatoes are ready up to 35% faster, while green beans and carrots can be on your plate as little as 50% of the usual time². Even if your oven doesn’t have this function, you can still cook with steam. Traditional clay pots, such as tagines, cazuela, donabe or römertopfs absorb water and release it as steam in the oven.

Alternatively, you can also use your hob. You'll need to add a saucepan steamer insert with a special grate that suspends the food above a bath of water so it cooks in the rising vapour. The water should only be 1–2 cm deep so that the food in the insert doesn’t come into contact with it, even when it starts to bubble. Then reduce the heat slightly and close the lid tightly. Your food will be ready in minutes.

² _{Steam Function Plus compared to 100°C steam, BSH laboratory test.}

Did you know you can use your oven or hob a bit like an indoor BBQ? While there shouldn’t be any smoke – or smoky flavour – your food is cooked using the same kind of intense heat. For this reason, it’s important to use special oven grill pans with a slotted grate that allows fat to drip into a lower pan so it won’t ignite. The channels in our induction griddle plate for hobs with FlexInduction or CombiZone do something similar. Whichever you choose, the good news is that rendering animal fat like this is a healthy way of enjoying meat. It’s also a good option for veg because most vitamins will be retained as long as you don’t set the heat too high. Coating the vegetables with olive oil will also help to soften cell walls, releasing more antioxidants and aid in the absorption of carotenoids.

Because of the intense heat used, grilling is generally pretty quick. To prevent food catching, you need to keep a close watch and turn it a couple of times. The parts of your veg positioned closest to the heat should get a nice char in no time, while larger, thicker pieces of poultry will take longer. To ensure they cook through in the oven without burning, you’ll need to select a lower setting and position the grill pan on the second or third rack. By tweaking the time, temperature and position you can also get your meat done just the way you like it. For rare or medium rare, grill for a shorter period under high heat. Lower temperatures and longer periods will ensure there’s no pink when you cut into your beef or lamb. The same principles apply in a griddle pan.

Roasting may be a lot of hot air, but the results speak for themselves. At temperatures of 150°C and up, this dry-heat cooking method caramelises and browns food, enhancing flavours and creating a delicious crust. Vitamin losses, including of vitamin C, are minimal with roasting, but the longer cooking times can have more of an impact on B vitamins. With that in mind, it’s better to roast ingredients briefly at high temperatures than for extended periods. What’s more, vegetables, in particular, can disintegrate if roasted for too long.

Want a roast with the most? Protein-rich foods, such as meat, fish and egg dishes as well as vegetables and potatoes are all showstoppers when roasted. Since browning depends on your choice of oil, that’s also key to achieving that ta-da moment. You need something with a high smoke point that’s water free so that it won’t leave food tasting bitter and burnt or produce harmful chemicals. Ghee (clarified butter), avocado, sunflower, canola or peanut oil are best. Your choice of foods to roast is much wider. If your oven has Perfect Roast, don’t forget to use the meat probe so you know exactly when your dish is perfectly tender.

Need to cook on a weekday? Sauté! All you need for this simple stove-top technique is a shallow skillet, a small amount of oil or fat and relatively high heat. It’s perfect for vegetables, such as kale, because it preserves the powerful antioxidants in these leafy greens, which would be lost when steaming or boiling. Mushrooms, zucchini, carrots as well as very fresh, firm fish and strips of meat are also good candidates. But avoid sautéing mincemeat, which needs to be well done to eliminate any bacteria.

Sautéing is simplicity itself, if you keep a few basic pointers in mind. For starters, cut the food into small strips or pieces. Next you heat the fat. Remember, a little goes a long way. You only need enough to lubricate the skillet. And since sautéing is a high heat process, you should only use fats and oils with very high smoke points. For this reason, butter isn’t ideal and you’re better off with sunflower or canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the ingredients, but don’t overcrowd the pan. Rather do smaller portions at a time so that the food cooks quickly and evenly. To achieve that you’ll need to turn the food, either with a spatula or by flipping it – pushing the skillet away from you and then pulling back quickly so the contents are flicked in the air.

Need to feed (yourself or others) with speed? It’s hard to beat a microwave’s short cooking times. What’s more, they preserve nutrients, such as vitamin C in vegetables as well as antioxidants in mushrooms and garlic. Our Series 8 ovens not only boast a classic microwave function to warm a glass of milk but also intelligently combine it with conventional heating modes so that you can quickly roast, bake or warm up a dish. As a result, they’ll save you time and electricity – while retaining flavour.

Hang on a minute, isn’t frying the same as sautéing? It’s true, they are very similar – pan frying even uses the same minimal amount of oil as sautéing. But the skillet is heated to a slightly lower temperature. That’s because the food prepared this way, including chicken breasts, steak, pork chops and fish fillets, hasn’t been cut up and the bigger pieces need longer to cook through. While that happens, you don’t want to burn the outside. That said, be sure that the oil is still hot enough for the moisture in the food to escape as steam. This is important to keep the oil from soaking into the food. And that also goes for the other types of frying that use more oil:

• Shallow frying requires a bit more oil than pan frying – enough to reach halfway up the sides of the food. You then need to flip it so it’s cooked on both sides.
• Deep frying requires enough oil to totally submerse whatever you’re cooking. As a result, there’s no need to turn it.

Since air frying not only dramatically reduces calories but may also cut down on some of the other harmful effects of frying food, it has become very popular. If your new Bosch oven has the air fry function, you don’t even need an extra appliance to make potato or fresh vegetable chips. Simply place thinly sliced potatoes or other root veg on the Air Fry & Grill tray, add a little oil and select Air Fry. Soon you’ll be munching comfortably in front of the TV.