Is a Toaster Oven or Microwave Better for Cooking?

Whenever you are looking to make a quick snack or small meal, you will find that many packages and recipes offer instructions for both the microwave and the toaster oven.  The question is, which one of these things is really better for cooking?  Quality, consistency, and taste are all affected by the choice you make, as is cooking time.  Today we will look at which option is really best for you.

If you are simply looking for the fastest way to cook your food, then the microwave is the hands-down winner in this scenario.  The microwave works much faster than a toaster oven because it heats the molecules in your food’s moisture rapidly, causing fast heating.  This can cause problems with foods with high water content, such as anything with a sauce on it.  The food can come out still frozen or cool on the outside, whilst having a boiling hot liquid center. 

If you are considering taste and consistency, however, then the toaster oven is your winner.  When you are cooking with a toaster oven, you are actually heating the food evenly and properly, as you would do in a full-sized oven.  This takes a considerably longer amount of time, but it means that your food will not cook unevenly and that your bread will toast rather than turning into a mushy or rock-hard mess.  Toaster ovens do not mess up the moisture in the foods you are cooking and will produce consistent results.

The microwave is certainly a great cooking convenience, but it isn’t always the best choice if you’re at your local hardware store comparing the two.  Whenever you are looking to prepare foods and don’t mind waiting a few extra minutes, you will find that putting them in the toaster oven instead offers much better and more flavorful cooking results.