3 ms·
I disagree. A regular oven is slow and inefficient because of the high thermal mass (taking a long time to heat to working temperature), and it's hard to contro
by mrob 7y ago
I disagree. A regular oven is slow and inefficient because of the high thermal mass (taking a long time to heat to working temperature), and it's hard to control.
IMO, the most valuable cooking tool is the microwave oven. You can cook grains (pasta, rice, oatmeal etc.) and frozen vegetables, and you can reheat canned beans. It's fast and flexible, and much cheaper and smaller than a regular oven.
Second most valuable cooking tool is an electric pressure cooker. This lets you cook dry beans (cheaper than canned), and some have a saute mode for when you're making something fancy. It's better than the microwave for cooking large quantities of food, because you don't need to stir it for even heat distribution. And you can even cook bread in a pressure cooker if you don't mind a soft crust.
- orev 7y agoA microwave is indeed a very powerful kitchen tool, however almost nobody knows how to use it. People blast food at high power because they can’t wait 2 more minutes for a lower power cycle. To most people, a microwave’s primary function is to “cook” frozen/processed foods like TV dinners and burritos, which is exactly the type of food the OP article is talking about avoiding. You also absolutely cannot cook meat in a microwave oven and expect it to come out palatable (and if you just expect people to not eat meat you’re out of touch with reality). So when talking about getting away from processed foods, it’s very helpful to also get away from the microwave, because people have such a strong association of the two things. An oven can do it all. Once you accept the concept and master it, you then stop looking for shortcuts in other gadgets.