Besides being part of your everyday life, food is also a source of happiness and a social activity. Everyone enjoys eating food while watching movies or a basketball game on the television. Others eat while talking to their peers about updates in their lives. Many people prefer cooking their own food than buying outside, so they require basic kitchen equipment.
There are a variety of tools in your kitchen but the main focus is always on the toaster oven and the microwave. It’s a “toaster oven versus microwave” match-up. So do you have these kitchen tools and do you known their difference? Have you thought of comparing the two? Are you curious about their advantages? Well, this article will attempt to answer those questions. Here’s a comparative look at these two kitchen wares.
Before marching on to the more detailed specification, taking a look on how food is cooked in these kitchen appliances should go first. Microwave uses electromagnetic waves to cook or heat up food, while toaster ovens cook food through heating the oven’s interiors. Between the two, cooking food is a lot faster with microwave than with toaster oven. After establishing that, take a look at the common usages of the two and compare.
Common usage | Toaster Oven | Microwave |
Reheating Food | It is possible to reheat food using the toaster oven. There’s been a lot of surprises with this, as most do not even know that reheating food here is not impossible. Although, it will definitely take some time. | This is probably the most common thing done using the microwave. Because the process is a lot faster than toaster oven, it’s a choice often used for reheating food. |
Cooking Pizza | Sufficient amounts of toaster ovens are sizable enough to fit a pizza. Proportions of 9” to 13” can fit in the toaster oven. With its slow process of cooking, the result of the pizza will be crispy and juicy. | A single pizza may fit in the microwave, but not the whole. And with its fast approach in cooking/heating, the end results are not that crispy and flavorful, mild to what the best pizza is all about. |
Cooking Frozen Food | Toaster ovens are great at cooking frozen food. There are toaster oven brands that can adjust the temperature and cooking time of the food to make it tastier. The crispiness and flavor are superb too, although the time for the process is longer. | Microwave is an excellent option for cooking frozen foods. They are a lot faster than toaster ovens, making the cooking time minimal. |
Heating Bread | Being a “toaster”, leaves a step ahead for the toaster oven. All kinds of bread heated here will be magnificently warm and tasty – soft inside and crunchy outside. | Microwaves are not really for the job of heating bread. The end result of the bread is either chewy and tough or too warm and soggy. The microwave simply isn’t for bread warming. |
Crisping | Toaster ovens rule this part of the sphere. Crisping is one of the toaster oven’s best assets. Not only are the food crispy when done, they are also delicious. | Microwaves are not fit for crisping. The results are usually sogginess. When trying to crisp meat, like bacon for example, you wouldn’t like the outcome if you used a microwave. |
Cooking Potatoes | Potatoes cooked in toaster ovens are delicious. Not only are they mushy, soft and sweet, they are also very enjoyable to munch when having a snack. It may take time to finish, but the taste is one of the best. | Potatoes cooked in microwaves are really good. It doesn’t really matter if it’s sweet potato or not, the cooking is done in a favorable amount of time, much faster than toaster ovens, again. |
Browning and Toasting | Toaster ovens are the best in this area. The heating machinery inside the toaster is equipped for browning and toasting. It is its specialty. | Microwaves cannot do browning and crisping for food. Its equipment can’t do the magic of browning and toasting. |
Convention Cooking | Convention cooking involves having the top and bottom surfaces stemming out heat. There is an internal fan that helps in the circulation of heat to make sure there is an even distribution of heating in the cooking. Toaster ovens are furnished with these features. Additionally, temperatures can be adjusted for the benefit of making the food sumptuous. | Unfortunately, microwaves do not cater the usage of convention cooking. |
Cooking Large Quantities | Toaster ovens are really excellent in cooking food for better taste and crispiness. It’s also great for smaller amounts of food. But when it comes to large items, this is not one for that particular job. Although, a whole chicken can be cooked in toaster ovens, other kinds of food would not do. | Microwaves have the edge when it comes to food with larger pieces and quantity. The size of the microwaves is good for cooking food in large amounts. |
Cleaning | Despite the first-rate quality of food rendered from using toaster ovens, the cleaning toaster ovens can be a tough job. Having to clean the toaster oven is not easy because of the many things to refresh (click here for tips). There are crumb trays to wash, doors and walls to sponge and wire racks to arrange and clean. | For the benefit of most, cleaning the microwave is easy. The parts of the microwave are easy to access and clean. In some microwave models, the glass trays are removable and easy to take out, wash and clean, or even wipe. |
So, there are some of the things to note when toaster oven and the microwave are compared with each other. When the quality of food cooked is on the line, one can always look at the benefits of toaster ovens. When you want speed, microwaves may be a better option. But it’s always been the quality and excellence of food before time concerns.
Click here to read toaster oven reviews to help determine the best toaster oven for you.
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