1687

I find this more of an annoyance than a help, since I need to check to see whatever I am cooking is done before it switches off. I just put my toaster over to run for an hour to avoid this.

1688

I used to run the toaster oven because it was a pain to heat up the full size oven for small things. We now have a stove with two ovens. The top one is small and heats up quickly so the toaster oven has been packed away.

1689

I don’t cook things where I need to check if it’s done in it. I cook like, toast and frozen pizza and stuff, and those have defined amounts of time that produce consistent results, whereas I have to remember to take that stuff out of the regular oven before they burn.

1690

Timers are your friend…

1691

Timers do not actually turn off the oven, is the important part.

1692

My oven has a timer that actually will turn off the heat. But of course that’s not a standard feature.

1693

But I mean you get up when the timer goes off and turn it off then.

(excepting cases of crippling lack of executive function, in which case, apologies for dickish ableism on my part)

1694

Or, you could just use a toaster oven and not have to worry about it.

1695

Yes, of course you can use a timer and get off your flat ass to take your stuff out of the oven, but an integrated cook timer is much more convenient. Really what I want is one of those smart ovens with a camera inside so I can watch my crap cook from my couch iPad and be assured my buttocks remain cushioned until the very last moment.

Even better, we can leverage machine learning to track every human being in the world, I’d like my oven to tell me when my Costco onion rings are the perfect shade of golden brown, turn off the heat itself, and then summon an android in an olympic figure skater outfit to docilely fetch me said snacks which I will eat whilst it expertly fellates me. When done with both the meal and my orgasm, it will then transform to a toilet and I will defecate in its integrated receptacle. Following my bowel movement, NancyBot (ala Kerrigan) will lovingly lick my butthole clean and obligingly climb down on its hands and knees to act as an ottoman. I will fart, soundly and loudly, with great satisfaction, in its face, and it will thank me for it, and compliment me on its duration and timbre. For I am its master.

That’s the future I want. Nay, deserve.

1696

@stusser will be the first one that our eventual robot overlords will kill.

1697

Can I change my vote for kitchen gadget I’d keep?

1698

I have this for that $1000 easy bake oven my boss got me. Also shows the temp of the thermometer if you’re using it on day a piece of protein.

It’s less useful than I’d like. Any moisture tends to obscure the image a bit so you can tell that something has burned but it’s harder to judge that something is almost done. I still wind up looking at the food “in person “ to decide if I want to cook it longer.

image

1699

Yeah the Juul oven or whatever. That’s the sort of automation I deserve. They have to fix the fogging lens issue though.

1700

+1. I want to be in the same world as my food.

1701

Yes! Because I would too after thinking about it more.

1702

One thing I find interesting is that no one has mentioned a microwave.

I am thinking this is due to most microwaves being placed above the regular stove and they do not take space on the counter (like they would have twenty years ago). The Toaster Oven as a counter item seems to have replaced the microwave in that respect.

1703

I guess most people think of a microwave as a standard appliance, as opposed to an optional extra. Something like 90% of American households own a microwave, which is pretty close to the stove and the fridge in terms of ubiquity.

They still don’t register as necessities with me, though. We never had one when I was a kid (I’m pretty sure my dad thought they were radioactive), so I didn’t grow up with one. By the time I put together my first kitchen, I was too comfortable with the toaster oven to want to replace it.

1704

I think the current trend is that microwaves are bad/toxic these days. As in they destroy all the healthy stuff in the food, so the modern cook avoids it out of principle. I only really use it for leftovers, so not actually a necessity.

1705

That’s not true at all. Heat is heat, microwaving is no less healthy than steaming or baking. It does kill the texture, though.

1706

I wouldn’t know how to reheat food if not for a microwave or toaster oven. :)