Many kitchens contain a toaster oven, which is a small electric oven that is capable of toasting bread, but also capable of cooking many of the same foods that can be cooked in a conventional oven, on a much smaller scale. A toaster oven with rotisserie is a type of toaster oven that features a horizontal spit on which foods can be suspended. The spit will rotate, thereby exposing all sides of the food to heating elements evenly. A toaster oven with rotisserie is generally a bit more expensive than standard toaster ovens, though they tend to be more versatile.
The toaster oven with rotisserie will feature additional components a normal toaster oven will not have. The spit is usually made from stainless steel because it is resistant to water damage and heat damage, and is generally a strong metal. The spit will be attached to a motor that will rotate the spit consistently throughout the cooking process. Sometimes the spit will accommodate additional add-ons, such as a vegetable basket, but such attachments must be fairly small since they must be designed to fit in the small oven space. The toaster oven with rotisserie will also need to feature a drip pan to catch any fat or debris that falls from cooking meats.
If the rotisserie feature is not needed, it can be removed from the toaster oven. This allows a user to cook other types of food without the spit interfering or reducing the amount of available space in the oven. It is possible to make toast in the oven, though it usually takes longer to make toast in a toaster oven than it does in a more conventional toaster, since the heating elements are placed farther away from the bread itself. Unlike a conventional toaster, however, the toaster oven with rotisserie can allow a user to cook other items on top of the bread at the same time.
Most toaster ovens feature more than one setting, much like a conventional oven. A user can, for example, use the broil feature, which turns on only the top burner, to cook foods in a certain fashion. There is also usually a bake function that turns both the top and bottom burners on; sometimes this is called the toast function rather than the bake function. The oven is also usually heat-adjustable, much like a conventional oven.
