Can Samsung's combi microwave replace the oven?

The Samsung MC28H5015CS has 35 automatic programmes for cooking and even has a "deodorant" programme. This makes intense odours disappear. The coating on the inside also makes the microwave very easy to clean.

Versatile microwave for many dishes

The Samsung microwave looks stylish. With its shiny black and silver exterior and stainless steel and glass front, it looks great in any kitchen. An LED display shows the time, programme, settings or remaining time of the current process in light blue. The combination appliance is slightly larger than conventional microwaves, but offers plenty of space to cook for a whole family. Overall, the cuboid appliance measures around 52 × 31 ×47 centimetres and has a capacity of 28 litres. At just under 18 kilograms, it is quite heavy, but you certainly rarely move microwaves.

What I particularly like is that the inside is completely coated with blue ceramic enamel, which makes it very easy to clean. It also has an antibacterial coating, which prevents odours from settling. This is also where the exhaust air function comes into play, which draws odours out of the microwave. Inside there is a glass turntable that runs on a ring with rollers. It is only placed on top and can be removed and cleaned. If required, you can switch off its rotating function. You can then use large rectangular casserole dishes, for example, which won't stick to the wall when rotating.

The buttons for the various automatic programmes and manual settings are located to the right of the door, which opens from right to left. You will find an overview of which programme number stands for which function printed on the frame of the microwave when you open the door.

To select a programme, first press the button for the corresponding category. These are, for example, "Healthy Cooking" for cooking vegetables, "Power Defrost" for quick defrosting, "Convection" for the convection oven or "Dough Proof" for faster rising of dough. Then use the arrow buttons to select the appropriate sub-programme in the automatic functions or set the number of degrees or wattage for the manual functions such as microwave, convection or grill. Press "Select" to confirm your choice. You can now usually set the weight of the food in the automatic programmes and the time in the manual functions. The "Start" button then begins the cooking process.

The buttons are all well labelled and use comprehensible symbols in addition to the English name. They are easy and clear to press and can simply be wiped clean with a cloth. The display is also very easy to read at all times.

Warming up, defrosting, baking and grilling

The microwave has three basic functions (microwave, convection and grill) and offers 35 automatic programmes. The scope of delivery includes a low and a high grill rack as well as a pizza crust plate, a kind of baking tin for a pizza. Also included is a small booklet with the operating instructions in German. This describes in more detail how the individual programmes work and which accessories should be used and how.

The 35 automatic programmes are divided into these categories:

Auto Reheat / Cook

• Reheat: Ready meal / mini ravioli
• Frozen pizza: Frozen pizza snacks / Frozen lasagne / Frozen bread rolls
• Cooking: Broccoli florets, Fresh vegetables / Chicken pieces / Roast chicken / Muffins

Healthy Cooking

• Cereals & pasta: brown rice / quinoa / macaroni
• Vegetables: Green beans / Spinach / Peeled potatoes / Potato gratin / Grilled aubergines / Grilled tomatoes
• Poultry & fish: Chicken breast / Turkey breast / Grilled chicken breast / Frozen fish fillets / Grilled salmon steaks / Fried fish

Dough Proof/Yoghurt (dough/yoghurt)

• Let the dough rise: Pizza dough / cake dough / bread dough
• Homemade yoghurt: small cups / large bowl

Power Defrost (defrost programmes)

• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish
• Bread/cake
• Fruit

Convection (hot air)
Grill
Comb

• Microwave and grill
• Microwave and hot air

Microwave as an all-purpose appliance in the kitchen

The appliance performs the standard tasks of a microwave without any problems. Grain pillows reach a good temperature in two minutes at 600 watts and even a glass of milk or a cup of tea that has been left standing will be warm again in no time. The quick ready meal is also evenly cooked at 600-900 watts, hot and tastes just as you would expect from a ready meal.

The appliance becomes interesting with the special functions listed above. I place the frozen pizza on the low grid according to the operating instructions. The "Auto Reheat/Cook 1-3" programme takes 14:30 minutes for a 400 to 450 gram pizza and produces a hot pizza with a little bubbling cheese on top, but not yet heavily browned. Not bad for a frozen pizza. It will be better if you place the pizza in the Pizza Crust plate provided and bake it according to the baking instructions using hot air (possible from 40 to 200 degrees). However, you will need to preheat the pizza crust tray for this. Overall, the process then takes around five to ten minutes longer than with the automatic programme, but tastes a little bit better. In the end, of course, it is still a frozen pizza.

The "Healthy Cooking" programmes are practical: Chicken breast remains juicy after 8:20 minutes but cooks completely through, spinach doesn't disintegrate into a mushy mass and brown rice becomes nice and fluffy. The "Power Defrost" programmes, on the other hand, have remained a mystery to me. You set the weight of the respective frozen food, but it is still frozen after the appropriate programme has finished. In my minced meat test, you can see from the photos that it was still frozen in many places after running through "Power Defrost 1, 200 grams", but was already cooked brown on the sides. What usually worked for me was to go up a level in the weight setting, if this was possible. Then the products were defrosted. If you run the defrost programme several times, there is a risk that your fruit or meat will be cooked rather than defrosted. Even after four weeks of testing, I had to keep checking the consistency from time to time. You don't want your mince to come out like the third photo. This half-cooked mush in blood sauce was the result of my first attempt to defrost minced meat by running the defrost programme twice.

The "Roast chicken" programme (Auto Cook 2-3, 1100-1150 grams, 33 minutes) sounds interesting. Due to the current coronavirus situation, I only got a few marinated chicken pieces at the supermarket and not a whole bird, but it's great for testing. Simply place on the high grill rack and grill on the roast chicken programme. The result: perfect chicken wings. Tender meat that slips off the bone effortlessly and a crispy skin. If you like it even crispier, you can activate the "Grill" mode for three to five minutes at the end. I served the chicken pieces with chips and mayonnaise and became the heroine of the film evening.

If you have leftovers from the previous day, you can conjure up a great casserole in no time at all. Simply place the leftovers in a casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese and bake for six minutes using the combined grill/microwave programme. My leftover pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce was hot to the centre and the cheese melted nicely.

If you like to make your own pizza, the recipe says you always need "a warm place" to let the yeast dough rise. In my house, it's usually rather cool, which means that my yeast doughs have always risen, but somehow the pile of dough never looked like my grandma's. The Samsung Smart Oven provides me with this "warm place" with an automatic programme (Dough Proof/Yogurt 1-1). 40 minutes later, I removed my pile of dough with a dome that even my grandma approved of.

I found the yoghurt fermentation programme a little absurd. But I still wanted to try it out. You put about a heaped teaspoon of yoghurt in each of six small cups and fill the rest up with milk. Cover these cups with cling film and place them in the microwave for seven hours (!) (Dough Proof/Yogurt 2-1). Then put them in the fridge for six hours. The yoghurt tasted great, but I probably wouldn't go to the trouble a second time if I could get the same amount of yoghurt (approx. 500 grams) in the supermarket for little money.

In order to actually replace an oven, the microwave must also be able to bake cakes. I tried to prepare a chocolate cake the way I am used to with an oven: Preheat, put in, bake at 180 degrees hot air for 30 minutes. What came out of the oven as a perfect brownie cake was a chocolate lava cake in the microwave - wonderful on the outside, but very runny on the inside. After another 20 minutes, however, the cake from the microwave was also very tasty. You need to be a little more patient here and try more at the beginning.

The "Deodorisation" programme helped a lot. Here, the microwave sucks the odours out of its interior for five minutes. I was impressed by how neutral the appliance smelled again afterwards. The coating on the inside makes the microwave generally very easy to clean.

Oven replacement for small kitchens

Samsung's MC28H5015CS microwave is an ingenious combination appliance that can replace the oven in small flats and kitchens. If you don't have a space problem, this appliance is a great addition to your cooking area. However, you will need to allow a little more time for some recipes and should check more often at the beginning to make sure everything is going according to plan. But at least I got used to this after a few days. The Smart Oven offers plenty of space, is easy to clean and masters the test scenarios perfectly after a little routine.

Microwave ovens

Samsung MC28H5015CS

28 l

Microwave ovens

Samsung MC28H5015CS

28 l