Accessories for Joule Oven / Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

So gang... I know that the Joule Oven (and Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro) are not radically different from other ovens when it comes to what's useful and usable. Ovens are ovens, after all. But if you know of any cookware or other tools that work especially nicely in the Joule Oven (or other Breville Smart Ovens) let us know here!

Right off the bat, I think adding another air fryer basket is a strong move. And I assume that since we're ChefSteppers, we all have quarter sheet pans with cooling racks. Those are some obvious additions... but what else?

I've edited this post to add that after receiving mine, I think adding the bamboo cutting board that sits on top is a good idea. I hate bamboo cutting boards. They have a high silica content which makes them harder than most other cutting boards, and this is bad for your edges. But I would buy this one just to have a sort of insulated layer on top so that you can rest objects on the hot oven without worrying about damaging them (or the oven itself). Kind of a bummer to spend $50 for a cutting board I won't cut on, but at least it looks nice. I wonder how well the glue will hold up to years of thermal expansion/contraction.

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

There's a lot of related content on the Breville Facebook groups, but I don't trust those people (no offense) like I trust the OG forum members. But here are some links to those groups if people want to use them as a resource:

Breville Countertop Cuisine - Smart Oven Air Community

And the much larger Breville Smart Oven Air Recipes & Tips (Private Group)

whenric

You getting one? So far seems much more ‘Breville’ than ‘chefsteps’. Which maybe isn’t bad, but not as exciting. Also, I really want some more precise temp control. If they could make this thing work with Chris young’s new combustion.inc probe….that would be worth something.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

It's definitely more "Breville" than "ChefSteps." The word "ChefSteps" doesn't appear anywhere on the Breville product page, which I think is a branding mistake because ChefSteps's content is the unique value proposition of this oven. But if ChefSteps were to make a countertop oven from the ground up, I'm sure they would have innovated and made a combi and not duplicated an existing Breville product. The OG Joule itself was radically different from every other product in the category; all other circulators were fundamentally the same, but Joule has a different heater and impeller design, added the magnet, interchangeable clips, waterproof design, an incredibly small profile, and a fully realized smart phone app with visual doneness. There was only one non-custom part in the Joule -- a small screw. Everything else was developed from scratch. ChefSteps even designed the robots that built the Joule. It was a giant leap forward in circulator technology. Incredible. The Joule Oven, while nice, is a stock Breville oven with a software layer slapped on top. It has potential, but it doesn't seem to break new ground. In other words, it's no Joule.

As for me, I'm getting one of the non-Joule versions. I think Breville did themselves a disservice introducing this oven at the same time they put the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro on sale. Right now, you're paying a 43% premium for the Joule version of that oven, and the software functionality is, at this point, somewhat half-baked. I have no doubt that ChefSteps will add a ton of great content and recipes to the app in the future, but it's not there yet. And you can't program your own recipes. If Breville had kept the original SOAFP at $400 and introduced the Joule Oven at an introductory price of $450, paying the extra $50 for the connected version. But it's instead a $150 premium for functionality that's still in the works. I think that's a promotion/price blunder from the Breville marketing people.

I've been in the market for a countertop oven for a long time. I even implored ChefSteps to make a countertop combi, once upon a time. The Anova Precision Oven has been on my radar for a long time, but it's quite large, quite pricey, and doesn't function as an adequate toaster. I had considered getting an APO and a Breville toaster to cover all my bases, but that's an even more expensive and physically large setup. I honestly don't know how much I'd use the steam function on the Anova since I have a few circulators and a chamber vac for low temp cooking, and I don't really bake. But I know that the steam function makes it almost the best tool there is for reheating food, which is something everyone does all the time. But steam ovens like the APO and Cuisinart Steam Oven seem to be less reliable than their non-combi counterparts. Anyway, these are the reasons that I went Breville over Anova, at least for the moment.

The Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, on sale, is just over half the price of the APO. It also appears to make halfway decent toast. (If it doesn't, it's going back). And it has a smaller footprint than an APO+Toaster. For half the price of the APO+toaster, it seems like the best thing going in countertop ovens. And I don't know what it won't do that the Joule oven can do, apart from having autopilot (which does seem nice). Maybe in a year or two the Joule Oven will be worth the extra $150 to me. But it's not there yet.

The temperature control is actually supposed to be pretty good on this, like /- 5 degrees. That's plenty good for conventional applications and non-combis aren't useful for low-temp ("sous vide") work. I agree that having an integrated probe would have added a lot of value to the product, and maybe that's coming via BlueTooth with something like Meater or the Combustion probe. But I'm not holding my breath. I feel like if they were going to introduce that functionality, they wouldn't be coy about it and would announce it at launch. But maybe.

I also think it's kind of weird that the air fryer course is coming *in August*. That's almost five months past the launch date of the oven. Surely Breville and CS knew that their air fryer oven would be hitting the market much earlier. The timing of everything seems weird. The app should have launched with more content and there should have been some more clear promotional videos to drive home the uniqueness of the product. The ChefSteps videos have been pretty good, but the product videos on the Breville and Williams Sonoma YouTube channel are close to useless. They're on average like 30 seconds long and are all focused on selling the oven like Ron Popeil sold his Showtime Rotisserie: "SET IT AND FORGET IT!". If Breville had taken another month to build up the app and create better promos, and then released the oven with an intro discount while the SOAFP wasn't on sale....well, that would have been better all around.

grant

Thanks for this extremely thoughtful write up @Brandon_Byrd_40557. I hope we can inspire you to stick with us and I hope to keep pushing to reinvent experiences inside Breville that get you super excited. We're growing and learning.

grant

We will be updating this page with all sorts of our favorite accessories.

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/other-tools-and-equipment?context=the-countertop-toaster-oven-class

chadxp

Combustion probe integration would be ideal!

penga25

Really loooking forward to getting my joule oven, ordered the black one the day it dropped and it’s hella back ordered. Delivery now into late May… anything the chef steps crew can let me in on? If it’s going to keep slipping later I’ll get the stainless model..

Kyl_Haselbauer_worked_at_chefsteps_1040170

Should be soon.. just saw some pictures of them at the USA shipping centers.

gregor_180984

Hey Brandon - I'm coming around to the idea of a combo countertop ideally that CAN airfry. Where might you point me out of curiosity - Cheers!

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I assume that by "combo countertop" you mean "countertop combi oven" -- a convection oven with steam injection and humidity control. As far as countertop combis go, the Anova Precision Oven is the only consumer model I know about, and it has an air fry mode. It is also quite large and is not quite as user friendly as the ChefSteps/Breville ovens. But if you have the money, space, and desire for an oven with steam with convection, the APO is the way to go.

If by "combo countertop" you mean a countertop oven that can work as a toaster and also has a fan in it for convection and air frying, then the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer (and the larger Pro model) or the Joule oven are great options. I am very happy with my BSOAFP, and I don't fire up my normal oven nearly as much much anymore.