IFA

Smart saucepans, steam drawers and outdoor kitchens

Smart kitchen appliances sound boring? Not necessarily! Smart saucepans, space-saving steam cooking drawers and smart gas grills have piqued our curiosity.

Sep 6, 2025 at 9:22 pm CEST

5 min. read

c't Magazin

By

Ulrike Kuhlmann

Smart saucepans, steam drawers and outdoor kitchens

The smart fridge with display and camera is now a running gag, the smart stove that follows recipes is old hat. New are drawers that can be controlled to zero degrees Celsius for vegetables, fish or meat in the fridge. With Samsung, you can also enter the storage date and the fridge will let you know when the food is about to expire. So that brings us back to the smart fridge ...

Smart drawers

There are also other innovations at IFA, including the steam drawer, which is designed for small kitchens. The steamers in the drawer fit perfectly under the oven in the place where many people store additional baking trays, the rolling pin or other little-used accessories behind a flap. However, the 14 cm high steam drawers can also be installed anywhere else in the kitchen, as they are completely self-sufficient.

The drawer does not have a protruding handle, but opens when pressure is applied to the front.

Once you have placed the desired food in the drawer, you select the temperature and time on the touch display, then simply pour water into a small container and close the drawer. Alternatively, the drawers offer various automatic programs, for example Siemens has five for defrosting, preserving or rising cake batter. Further presets can be found in the corresponding app, up to 100 in the case of Miele. After the appropriate time, the drawer or the app signals that the appliance is ready, the appliance switches off automatically and the vegetables or fish are ready to eat.

Miele's 14-liter steam drawer can be divided into two compartments with inserts. The drawers from Bosch and Siemens consist of one large compartment.

Miele has two separate compartments in the steam cooking drawer, which can also be converted into one large compartment with a capacity of 14 liters. Bosch and Siemens have a large compartment with a capacity of 10 liters, which according to Siemens can hold around 2.5 kilograms of potatoes; Miele states 3 kilograms.

The advantage of steam cooking is that the fat-free preparation preserves vitamins as well as the color of the food. The 3-in-1 drawers can be used for defrosting and baking as well as steaming. The manufacturers have not yet announced prices for the smart steam cooking drawers.

Videos by heise

Smart saucepans

In the past, anyone who wanted to heat milk without it overflowing used a simmer pot with a double-walled, water-filled base. At the IFA, Miele is now presenting the digital version of the Simmer pot, namely pots and pans that communicate with the hob via Bluetooth and thus prevent the pot from overflowing or the food in it from burning. As soon as the pot signals that the pasta water is about to overflow, for example, the hob reduces the temperature. The matching hob recognizes up to four smart pots or pans at the same time.

(Image: Drei Sensorstreifen im Boden und am Topfra.nd erkennen die Hitze des Kochguts und übermitteln diese an das Kochfeld)

Miele has integrated three sensors in each M-Sense pot, one on the base and two on the side wall, one just above the base and the second close to the edge of the pot. There are also two replaceable batteries. They are located in the handle, which also contains a touch field that is used to activate the pot and set the desired dish. You can then cook with the lid closed with peace of mind – and energy efficiency.

(Image: Außer in einen schlauen Kochtopf hat Miele die Sensoren auch in Pfannen integriert; Deren Griffe integrieren die Elektronik und ein Touchfeld,)

Unfortunately, the smart cooking pot or M-Sense pan developed at the Miele site in Bünde in Westphalia only communicates with a modern Miele KM8000 generation induction hob from the upper price range. Miele has not yet announced prices for the cookware. One consolation: the pot and pan also function as analog cooking containers in "dumb" mode.

Outdoor cooking

Outdoor cooking appears to be particularly popular this year. With its robust kitchens with metal doors, Miele is right on trend. The modular outdoor kitchen "Dreams" can be assembled from 60 coordinated modules. Another new feature is the kitchen design in matt black-grey; the whole thing is weatherproof and should withstand rain as well as snow showers.

With the intelligent Fire Pro IQ gas barbecue, you can also barbecue in the rain or strong winds. It can be controlled remotely using the Miele app and also accepts recipes, which it then carries out as intended. It can control its six grilling zones independently and also cleans them immediately after the party. The smart grill is set to go on sale in time for the 2026 barbecue season, but the manufacturer has not yet announced any prices.