I don't know exactly why we don't see more tricks like this, but I can make a couple of suggestions:
1) For most people, active cooking time is a bigger cost than wall time.
2) Using a microwave for cooking is low-status.
3) Many people don't own a microwave. Alternatively, microwave are generally smaller than ovens and don't contain dishes for big families.
3)bis : many recipes were written, or are derivative of recipes written at a time where microwave did not exists and have not been updated.

Reply

[-]masasin4y30

In most of the places I've lived since going to uni, I've had a microwave but no oven. Some were both microwave and oven. One was no microwave and no oven. There was not a single one with an oven but no microwave.

Reply

[-]Dirichlet-to-Neumann4y30

Microwave but no oven was standard when I lived in Uni/students housing. Oven but no microwave seems quite frequent in France though - I'm French as you can guess.

Reply

[-]Viliam4y20

For most people, active cooking time is a bigger cost than wall time.

Probably also depends on whether you cook for yourself, or for kids. For myself, whatever, if it takes 1 hour to cook, I will just read some internet in the meanwhile. For kids, needs to be done quickly.

Reply

[-]MikkW4y00

I think I remember hearing that microwaves break down / degrade proteins, which there are plenty of in cheese. This shouldn't change the nutritional value of the dish, but may change the eating experience. Microwaving only the pasta and tomatoes, then adding the cheese before baking, may alleviate any problems this causes.

[This comment is no longer endorsed by its author]Reply

[-]jefftk4y20

Source? I looked quickly, and all I found was people saying that heating in general has an effect on protein (but we're going to be heating this cheese a lot whether in the microwave or the conventional oven)

Reply

[-]MikkW4y40

As far as source, I was going off my memory from what an instructor had said when I was taking a culinary arts class several years ago, so nothing I could easily point you to. The original statement as I recall it was that microwaving meat can break down the proteins, and therefore it should be cooked instead of microwaved... but, a quick google doesn't find anything along these lines, and instead shows many people saying microwaving meat is perfectly fine... so consider that a strong update against my original statement.

It's possible my memory completely made that statement up, or that the teacher was saying something not widely held to be the case, among other possibilities.

Reply

Moderation Log

LESSWRONG
LW

LESSWRONG
LW

11

Speed Pasta Bake

11

11