[gtr]

I know it's not the point of the comment but it's a bit of a flawed analogy. Microwaves have wone to a large extent, such that people without them are a bit of an oddity, and cooking with an oven is more of a special occasion thing than the default cooking method that it was before.

[mjr00]

> cooking with an oven is more of a special occasion thing than the default cooking method that it was before.

This is an incredible self-report. If you consider microwaved meals to be your default method of cooking and not something primarily for reheating leftovers or defrosting frozen meat, I sincerely hope you've gotten your cholesterol and blood pressure checked recently. That is not normal.

[j3k3]

"cooking with an oven is more of a special occasion thing"

this is nuts! I use an oven every day dude - so its a special occasion is it?

The default method for cooking is using an oven or using a stove. Microwaving is for heating up left-overs for the most part.

One of the dangers of people who are too close to programming is that they think of life as binary.

[baggachipz]

Not to mention the amount of plastic they're adding to their body and the amount of trash they're creating. I know cooking for one can be arduous, but meal prep is a thing.

[cj]

I haven't used my oven since buying a counter top air fryer (and a sous vide) a couple years ago. I can't think of a single reason why anyone needs a full size oven on a daily basis unless you're cooking for a large family.

[bobthepanda]

Owning a counter top air fryer requires you to have enough counter space for one, I have been in kitchens where there is an oven built into the stove but counter space is at a premium.

I’d also say that while I like my air fryer oven, I would prefer to do some of the bigger things like a whole bird in the oven. It’s cheaper to buy a whole bird for meal prep.

[mjr00]

Sure, but we were talking about using microwaves as your primary cooking appliance.

[wiether]

> unless you're cooking for a large family.

Or you're batch cooking

[esafak]

You make your soups in an air fryer??

[throw-qqqqq]

Interesting point! Is this an Americanism?

I’m from northern Europe. I might use the micro to heat up leftovers or a cup of water for tea or whatever in a pinch, but in this household (and at all my friends’), the stove and the oven cooks the food. I know literally no-one who could say they cook most meals in the micro.

I didn’t have a microwave oven before we bought a house. It took up too much space to justify, for such a relatively rarely-used appliance.

[PyWoody]

American here, I haven't owned a microwave in over a decade.

I think OP is just an outlier.

[SoftTalker]

Same. Microwave is mainly used for defrosting or warming up leftovers. Maybe baking a potato in a rush, it works and it's faster but it's not as good as oven-baked.

[codeulike]

Definitely not going to dinner round your house

[tylervigen]

Seems like a lot of people are dunking on this comment with anecdata.

Thankfully there is real data if we want to know how microwaves are used. Survey below says they are used a bit more than ovens, but half as much as cooktops/stoves. Varies by cohort and meal.

Source: https://indoor.lbl.gov/publications/residential-cooking-beha...

[bee_rider]

Most houses still have ovens. Microwaves are pretty widespread as well. But, their main job is to warm up food which was cooked in an oven (either locally or at a centralized oven in a food manufacturing factory). Microwave and ovens are mostly complementary tools.

Although, the analogy seems sort of useless, in that the food preparation ecosystem is really not any less complex than the program creation ecosystem, so it doesn’t offer any simplification.

[gzread]

When I had neither I found it convenient to buy a small oven - the size of a microwave. It performs both functions. It doesn't reheat things as quickly as a microwave.

I've lived without a microwave for a long time and it's only a little bit inconvenient because things take longer to reheat.

[tobr]

Microwaves are for heating, ovens are for cooking. Obviously it’s possible to live on only microwaved food but it sounds pretty miserable.

[Bukhmanizer]

You don’t use pots or pans?

Ovens are a special occasion thing in my house because our oven is huge and I can usually do the same thing in the air fryer, which is just a small convection oven.

[the_af]

> [...] and cooking with an oven is more of a special occasion thing than the default cooking method that it was before.

Not true in my household, in my parent's, in my in-laws, or any of my closest friends'. And none of us are cooks, so it's not a niche thing.

I'm sure in a lot of households the microwave oven is the primary form of cooking, but it's important to look outside the bubble before reporting trends.

[pluralmonad]

Your social circles must be very different from mine if everyone you know uses their microwave for cooking, rather than just reheating leftovers.

[kaicianflone]

There’s a bit of irony here. A lot of commercial kitchens already rely heavily on microwaves and rapid heating equipment. In many restaurants the microwave is a very important tool in the workflow rather than something unusual. Do your friends not eat out much?

[wiether]

They don't cook food in a microwave, though. They reheat it.

The food have been cooked in industrial ovens in the factory.

[jghn]

Sort of, although there's importance nuance. One would be surprised how often microwaves get used in proper commercial kitchens, as in places making their own food & not reheating stuff from a central commissary. But it's not being used in the way one likely pictures when they hear this. An example is that microwaves are great for par cooking vegetables, especially potatoes.

[gzread]

Does everyone you know work at a restaurant?

[gwbas1c]

> and cooking with an oven is more of a special occasion thing than the default cooking method that it was before.

That really only makes sense if for households with a toaster oven, single adults, childless couples, and retired people. A toaster oven makes a lot more sense for small meals, in part because it can heat up much faster than a full oven.

Otherwise, a daily family meal isn't a special occasion.

[jvanderbot]

They won at automating a task and becoming indispensable in the larger ecosystem of related tasks.