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We can measure weight using a scale.

We can make a solid guess at volume using visible light and a rotating view (already provided by the unfortunately-common carousels), with a bit of CV and math.

We can therefore deduce density.

We can measure outside temperature using IR.

And we can measure the power put into the things being microwaved.

And we can also measure the temperature and humidity of the air that is exhausted from the microwave chamber.

With all of that data, we can do some cool things.

But with only single-button input, there's a lot we can't do:

We can't know if the user is cooking a hamburger from raw meat (yes, raw meat can be used in the science oven), or reheating one that was already cooked, or finishing one that was par-cooked.

We can't know if they're softening butter to spread onto toast, or melting it to pour over popcorn

We can't know lots of things. So we need more than one user input.

The slope to getting back to where we started is very short: Some preset buttons that most people will never understand, a speed control that most will never use, and a keypad for a timer.

[SoftTalker]

Agree. I think 90% if people use their microwave to reheat leftovers or cook pre-packaged meals. All they need is a timer. And I'd prefer a dial to a keypad.

My wife bought a countertop convection oven that has nearly 100 pre-defined cooking programs and 10 different "quick set" buttons. How do we actually use it? Set a temperature and time. With a dial. Could have be so much simpler.

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I use mine mostly for warming up shitty frozen burritos.

It has an inverter and a humidity sensor and 20 or so different preset buttons that use them, with sub permutations.

None of them work well at the job of warming up two shitty frozen burritos.

What does work well is this: One minute at power 10, and 3 minutes at power 3.

When others see me programming this in they think I'm a madman, and sometimes they even audibly question my sanity.

And I'm not sure that they're wrong.

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The microwave I grew up with had a mechanical timer knob (with a simple mechanical bell), a second knob to set duty cycle (probably borrowed from an electric range), and a start button.

It worked fine. I like being able to program things, but I'm usually standing right there anyway so I'm perfectly capable of turning the duty cycle knob down after about a minute passes and getting the same results that I do today.

(And that method did in fact work fine back then, too, even though people also thought I was crazy when they'd see me doing that)

And for bonus nachos: The timer also worked perfectly as a simple mechanical kitchen timer. Just give it a twist, avoid the start button, and it spins down until it goes "Ding!".

[ghaff]

>to reheat leftovers or cook pre-packaged meals

There was some experimentation early on--I even have a microwave cookbook--but, outside of some vegetables, very few people actually try to cook using one. And, yeah, I don't know the last time I did anything other than set time. I rarely even do anything other than full power. I do use the popcorn setting from time to time but even that is pretty much unnecessary if you listen to the popping.

I have to replace my microwave because it caught on fire in the middle of the night and I'll probably get a 4-in-1 Panasonic which will also replace my second oven which I basically never used.

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My parents used to cook taco meat and bacon in the microwave.

It worked OK-ish.

It's hard to actually get the Maillard process going in a microwave with a couple of pounds of ground cow, so proper browning wasn't a thing.

They'd just put the moo into a glass mixing bowl, turn the machine on, and give it rigorous toss with a wooden spoon every couple of minutes. Ground beef crumbles were the result.

For bacon, we had a special angled plastic tray with drainage slots for the grease. They'd layer up bacon separated by paper towels, and start the machine.

This worked better than the taco meat did, in my opinion, but it still sucked because picking little bits of greasy, stuck paper towels off of hot bacon is annoying.

I've never done either of these methods myself, because I naturally want to do things better than they did. In my adult life, ground taco meat goes in a skillet on the stove (and uses a cheap wire potato masher to break it up), and bacon goes in the oven on a sheet pan.

[ghaff]

I actually have one of those bacon tray things. It's just very messy as you say and doesn't really save effort overall. Probably better using a standard oven for big batches.

re: ground beef or meat in general, slow cookers have sort of the same problem with respect to Maillard reactions. You're generally better off using a dutch oven, browning, and then cooking in the dutch oven--unless you want to do prep and then toss in a pot and forget for the day. I have a slow cooker but wouldn't buy one today.

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(I'm straying pretty far from topic, and I for one don't care much. It's still about cooking food, right?)

I think the bacon tray thing I remember was made by Anchor Hocking. I've found them while thrifting and I leave them on the shelf for someone else -- bacon in the oven (or in a cast iron skillet) is just simpler, even including the differences in mess.

Man, slow cookers. My mom gave me one once. As such things were at that time, it was nice: Big, Crock Pot-branded, removable guts, stainless outside, glass lid, one knob, two or three speeds. She still has a big thing for them and was very pleased to give it to me as a gift.

A then-SO persuaded me to donate it during a downsizing. I was a little bit bummed, but then: I recognized that I had never really used it.

That was a decade ago. I've found that I haven't missed it a bit. The only thing it was really good for was shredded chicken sandwiches from locally-canned chicken (which seems to be an Ohio-only thing), and that was something I only ever made one time in my decades of cooking.

Otherwise it was just a glorified food-keeper-warmer, and there's other ways to do that.

I've politely refused other gifts of slow cookers.

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But these new-fangled Instant Pots (and their similar kin) are pretty sweet, I think. They don't really do even a quarter of the stuff they're advertised to do, but they're really good at doing things like beans and braised meats fast.

An electric pressure cooker allowed deciding to make a supper of chili with dry beans (another Midwestern thing) became a decision that could be made in the early evening instead of the night before. And with the Keep Warm function, it'll stay at a reasonably-safe serving temperature automatically -- much like the slow cooker's most-useful trick.

Swissed steak (you know, the economical dish that is ideally made with whatever low-grade hunk of cow is on sale cheap today along with some tomatoes and onions)? Fast, proper, spoon-tender, and delicious.

I don't use it as much as I could, but it's always pretty rewarding when I do.

(It's hypothetically no better or safer than a properly-used old-school stove-top pressure cooker, but the automatic timer and temperature/pressure regulation makes proper use a whole lot easier.)