Toaster ovens have been around for a long time, but I feel like not many people are using them. Many people use a conventional oven and a toaster combination, but they don’t know that they can cut down on their electric bills and the amount of space needed for an appliance by upgrading to a toaster oven.
Listing all the things a toaster oven is good for would take a long time. But I’m going to focus on three key areas: versatility, settings, and cooking times. By looking at these three things, you will see why a toaster oven could change the way you cook.
Of course, there are weaknesses to toaster ovens. But they are so versatile and come in a range of sizes. If you’re worried in the past about how useful a toaster oven is, then all you need to do is find the perfect toaster oven for you and get cooking.
Table of contents
How versatile is a toaster oven?
How can I use toaster oven settings to cook dishes?
Are toaster ovens fast enough to cook?
Conclusion
How versatile is a toaster oven?
Incredibly. When I bought my first toaster oven, I basically used it as a big, inefficient toaster. But there’s so much more you can use it for. The journey to learning how to use your toaster oven properly is a brilliant chance for you to experiment with what you can and can’t do with your appliance.
Depending on the size of your toaster oven, you can roast, broil, bake, and reheat food. My toaster oven is relatively small, but I can still cook an entire chicken in it. Because they work like conventional ovens, you can cook anything that you can fit into the cooking cavity.
Similarly, you can change the settings and let the toaster oven bake cookies and other small dishes. Because of this versatility, my question really becomes “what aren’t toaster ovens good for?” – never did I expect a device called a toaster to be able to bake me cookies in a shorter time than my larger oven.
For those of you who want a device that can cook larger dishes, some toaster ovens come in sizes that are big enough to cook entire pizzas. They generally have specialized bottoms which means you can slot your pizza into your toaster oven and let the toaster oven do what it’s good at.
Basically, all toaster ovens are extremely versatile appliances. If there’s something you need to be done, it will be able to do it. They really are excellent devices for people who are space conscious and need to cut down on the electronics they use in their kitchen.
How can I use toaster oven settings to cook dishes?
Playing with the settings on your toaster oven will give you the best idea of what you can accomplish with your toaster oven. There is a real range of what you can find on toaster ovens, so you will need to shop around for a device that has the correct settings.
At the bottom of the range, you can find them with simple dials or programmable settings which make you turn or press so it starts cooking. For mid-to upper-range devices, however, you can get a variety of pre-settings built into the device.
This means that baking cookies is as easy as popping the cookie dough into the toaster oven and pressing the correct setting. The same goes for a variety of dishes like pizza or roast chickens. Pop them in and let the toaster oven work it’s magic.
Are toaster ovens fast enough to cook?
Yes, toaster ovens are exceptionally quick. This is definitely true if you are comparing them to conventional ovens. Testing on a few devices, I found that they heat up to the 390 degrees celsius in 5 to 10 minutes (my own one falling comfortably in that range at 7 and a half minutes).
Because of this, cooking with a toaster oven is easy because they can heat up quickly. Similarly, they can cook dishes in a similar amount of time it takes to cook them in a conventional oven. I found that I could roast a small chicken in the time it takes my large oven to one plus 5 minutes. This made me very happy as I was using less energy and still getting great results.
If you’re worried about finding the right toaster oven for you, you’ll need to experiment or find a mid- to upper-range device that is designed specifically for cooking certain dishes. Finding toaster ovens which have dedicated roast chicken settings isn’t difficult, so the toaster oven that is perfect for you might only be a few clicks away.
Conclusion
Toaster ovens really changed the way I could. They are excellent for a range of dishes and can make even the most difficult dishes easy to cook in an energy efficient way. I loved being able to turn my toaster oven on and just let it cook.
The versatility of my toaster oven has really impressed me since I’ve bought it. I could get rid of my conventional oven and toaster and still enjoy almost all of the dishes that I cook with them thanks to my toaster oven. So, the question “what is a toaster oven good for?” can be answered with “almost anything your oven or toaster can make”.
Of course, a lot of toaster ovens are very different from the one I own. I’m really happy with my device, but I could upgrade and have automatic settings built into the device. I could even get a larger one, meaning that difficult dishes like joints of beef or small turkeys could be another possibility for the toaster ovens impressive portfolio.