# Is it odd for an adult American to never use stove, oven, or microwave? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082 "2018-11-25T22:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/41 "2018-11-26T17:49:17Z")
There’s nothing incompetent about relying entirely on meals outside the house. It may seem an odd way to go but has one advantage; no food in the house means no snacking. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/42 "2018-11-26T17:55:40Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > It is very unusual. Even my son from age 10 or so would make Ramen or heat things in the microwave. Since then he has picked up Mac & Cheese, toasted cheese and the like. That sounds like the progression in my house. One addition was microwaving frozen burritos. I was a single parent and I decided that the rule was that you eat whatever I cook, unless you cook for yourself. They could also hit the frozen burritos (and fruit and veg) whenever they were hungry. By high school, the burritos were a daily thing. They got home before I did and were usually hungry. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/43 "2018-11-26T18:07:54Z")
My wife & I pick up meals at a local cafeteria. Get two meals from each dinner. That means reheating in the microwave. We only cook big dinners when our girls visit on breaks from college. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/44 "2018-11-26T18:17:00Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I have a friend who probably could not make a cup of tea. I have a friend whose parents’ method of making tea is to turn the hot water on the tap up all the way, fill their cup, and then mix in some kind of powdered tea mix (I’m imagining like some kind of Nestea thing?). They are English. And it being England and all, I imagine their version of “hot water from the tap” is like 104 degrees. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/45 "2018-11-26T19:15:04Z")
I don’t really get the microwave love. Maybe it’s just that I’m not in a hurry all that often. I use ours to melt butter, and even that is done better in a little heavy sauce pan. Our current microwave just barely fits a dinner plate and it is ancient. It is difficult to find one that small, yet that size is all that fits in the space we have for a microwave. I’m arguing to not replace. Give away what we have and do without. My gf is leaning in favor of keeping a microwave. When she is drunk she likes to microwave a mug of milk and mashed potato flakes (which is kept solely for this purpose). She claims it prevents hangovers. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/46 "2018-11-26T19:17:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Honestly, between the high cost of ingredients in Manhattan (at least when I was there, there weren’t any regular supermarkets, in large part because they didn’t allow 18-wheelers on the island) and the low cost of take-out (frequently subsidized by underpaid illegal workers) it’s often cheaper to buy pre-made food than to cook. We did cook in Manhattan, and I suppose if you whip up a pot of lentils, that costs less than dining out. But I think the excellent local chicken schwarma was cheaper than buying raw chicken to cook it. W magazine [wrote about Bill Cunningham](https://www.wmagazine.com/story/what-will-become-of-bill-cunninghams-dollar1-million-photo-archive): Bill Cunningham famously detested money. “Money is the cheapest thing,” he was known to say. "Liberty is the most expensive.” The documentary “Bill Cunningham New York” detailed his almost monk-like way of life. He ate frugally-priced deli food, wore utilitarian blue smocks meant for janitors, lived in a spartan apartment, never took a taxi, and wouldn’t even accept a glass of water as a gift from the host of a party he was covering. At times viewers almost had to wonder, “Is The New York Times paying this guy fairly?” Turns out even though he didn’t have much interest in spending it, Cunningham was making it. In fact, he’s left behind a tidy sum of $3 million. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/47 "2018-11-26T19:37:05Z")
Never? As in their whole life? Maybe not stove or oven, if it was a kid that just left the house (and had over doting or rich parents and always ate out), but microwave? I would be shocked if you got to an adult and never used a microwave once. Even if other people prepared your food you’d have to warm it up at least rarely. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/48 "2018-11-26T19:37:45Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > … > … > > Putting all of the onus on mom IS the underlying problem - she is responsible for everything, and he doesn’t lift a finger. > > Personally, I’d never feel comfortable if a basic survival necessity was entirely out of my hands. Do these guys think women are immortal? If mom/wife gets sick, hospitalized, breaks both arms, what have you … what, you just sit there and starve? > > Or else have to leave your own home just to eat? What’s next, having to go out just to poop? Naaaah, fuck all that noise. In my case it wouldn’t be having to leave the house to eat so much as preferring it over preparing my own food. I don’t cook in my own household except when I fire up the grill, my wife does the cooking or one of children will under her supervision. If she were sick or injured I’d probably lose weight but I wouldn’t starve, the kids are old enough to cook for themselves but I’d probably cook for them as well, my mother made sure I knew how before I left home, so I’m capable. I just don’t like it. Since I’m the pooper fixer it’s unlikely I’d have to leave for that unless they were both broken simultaneously, so I doubt that would be an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/49 "2018-11-26T20:08:03Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > This used to be entirely common in cities. Living space was so costly in cities and the tenements so packed that the poor didn’t have kitchens. They ate out all the time. Thus things like workplace canteens and school lunches were actually important reforms. In ancient times, cookhouses were a thing - you dropped off your pot of stew or whatever in the morning and you picked up the cooked meal in the evening or at lunchtime. And the cookhouse charged you for it, of course. We went to the Tenement Museum in New York, and toured two restored tenement apartments, one from the 1870s the other from the 1930s, and they both definitely had kitchens. Small kitchens, multi-use kitchens, but kitchens. These people were so poor (it was the Hard Times tour) that they could not afford to eat out. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/50 "2018-11-26T20:10:07Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I could see not using an Oven. It’s not typical and probably not even common but even for myself until a few years ago I could count on the fingers of both hands how many times used an oven. When my daughter lived in Hong Kong she discovered that apartments - even reasonably new and expensive ones - did not have ovens. Stoves, yes. Microwaves, yes. Just no ovens. Which isn’t really that surprising when you think of it. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/51 "2018-11-26T20:26:55Z")
**Leaffan** , dial it way back. You are free to express your opinion, but not in such a dismissive manner. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Of course it seems strange. What the fuck did you expect as an answer? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/52 "2018-11-26T20:58:23Z")
Gloria Steinem famously never used her apartment’s oven. Dunno about other cooking methods. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/53 "2018-11-26T21:09:01Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > In my case it wouldn’t be having to leave the house to eat so much as preferring it over preparing my own food. > > I don’t cook in my own household except when I fire up the grill, my wife does the cooking or one of children will under her supervision. If she were sick or injured I’d probably lose weight but I wouldn’t starve, the kids are old enough to cook for themselves but I’d probably cook for them as well, my mother made sure I knew how before I left home, so I’m capable. I just don’t like it. > > Since I’m the pooper fixer it’s unlikely I’d have to leave for that unless they were both broken simultaneously, so I doubt that would be an issue. My boss said he’d tried it once, and the food came out fine, it was just more bother than he wanted. If you start from nothing, and have to buy everything – including the salt and pepper – before you start cooking, I’m sure it IS a lot of work. He was a perfectly competent adult, and I believed him. He just didn’t care much about food and didn’t want to cook it. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/54 "2018-11-26T21:15:44Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Personally, I’d never feel comfortable if a basic survival necessity was entirely out of my hands. Do these guys think women are immortal? If mom/wife gets sick, hospitalized, breaks both arms, what have you … what, you just sit there and starve? I’m pretty sure my uncle expects that if his wife dies or gets ill, either his daughter will bring food around, or he’ll just move in with her. Either way, he genuinely doesn’t think it’s his problem, that’s for women to sort out. I’m also pretty sure that if that does happen, it isn’t gonna go how he thinks. Am I the only one round here who doesn’t have a microwave? Even with 4 adults in my last place, it barely got used and now I have less space, so left it behind when I moved. I don’t think I’ve wished for one more than twice in the last year, about the same as I’ve wanted a waffle maker. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/55 "2018-11-26T21:58:47Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yeah, I think my boss with no (need for a) kitchen never ate at home. He picked up a breakfast sandwich on the way to work. He never had leftovers because he never brought food into his house. > > Weird, but the guy was an otherwise competent adult. There’s a difference between knowing how to cook but \*choosing \*not to do so, and being _unable_ to cook. I’ve known a number of people who knew how to cook (because I saw them do it) but usually chose not to, sometimes for years at a time. When I met my spouse he ate out three times a day for some of the reasons given above - lived alone, very busy at work, etc. - but he was _able_ to cook if he needed to do so, or chose to do so. I did the majority of the cooking when we were married but if I needed to go somewhere for a few days or a week (or in one case for three months) he was perfectly able to feed himself, and even had a couple specialty dishes (cornbread, hummus, we don’t talk about the flaming egg foo young…) Choosing not to do so is fine. It’s being UNABLE to cook because you never learned the first thing about it that I would find weird and even limiting. And yes, I’ve met a couple very much older guys who _really did_ expect to always have a woman in their lives to cook for them (among other things, like cleaning). Boy, did they get surprised when they found themselves alone! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/56 "2018-11-26T22:02:27Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I don’t really get the microwave love. Maybe it’s just that I’m not in a hurry all that often. I can do a “baked” potato in the microwave in 15-20 minutes instead of an hour or more in the oven. Not sure if that’s being in a hurry by your definition or not, but after 8+ hours on my feet when I come home from work I sort of like to eat something in a half hour or less. It’s convenient. Could I live without one? Sure - I used to up through the mid-1980’s. But I like having one. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/57 "2018-11-26T22:22:00Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What do you eat if you don’t cook? Are you on a raw food diet? For breakfast I eat cereal, for lunch I pick something up at a local takeout place to eat at work (usually a sandwich or salad), and for dinner I eat fruit and yogurt. I have nothing against cooked food - sometimes my sandwiches have cooked lunchmeat or eggs in them, and on special occasions I will have Chinese, Mexican, pizza, or food that someone else has cooked for me (like Thanksgiving dinner), but on my own, I tend to eat only food that doesn’t require cooking. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/58 "2018-11-26T22:25:53Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Am I the only one round here who doesn’t have a microwave? Even with 4 adults in my last place, it barely got used and now I have less space, so left it behind when I moved. I don’t think I’ve wished for one more than twice in the last year, about the same as I’ve wanted a waffle maker. It’s one of those things that I can (and have) lived without, but definitely use if/when I have one. I live alone. I feel weird eating out of a saucepan or off of a sheet pan. I’m totally ok eating out of tupperware (or other microwave safe dishes). So for food prep that pretty much involves heating something up (e.g., leftovers), a microwave is easier, fewer steps, and less clean up. ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/59 "2018-11-26T22:49:51Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Gloria Steinem famously never used her apartment’s oven. Dunno about other cooking methods. When the oven in my old house broke, we never had it repaired. Lived without an oven for over 20 years. Other than baking which I don’t like to do anyway, there are (at least for me) few foods that must be cooked in an oven. I finally got a Nu-Wave oven about 5 years ago because I wanted to make a prime rib roast at home. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082/60 "2018-11-26T22:54:53Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Am I the only one round here who doesn’t have a microwave? Even with 4 adults in my last place, it barely got used and now I have less space, so left it behind when I moved. I don’t think I’ve wished for one more than twice in the last year, about the same as I’ve wanted a waffle maker. I’m old enough to have grown up without a microwave. We didn’t have one when our first daughter was born, and got one when our second daughter came to speed up heating her formula. The difference now is that so many foods are designed for microwaves. We didn’t have one in the apartment we rented, so when we ate in we used the stovetop instructions for the frozen vegetables. But it was a pain. And reheating coffee is much easier with the microwave. When our oven was dead we made to with a toaster oven. When our microwave was dead, we wound up buying a cheap one at a thrift store until it got fixed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-odd-for-an-adult-american-to-never-use-stove-oven-or-microwave/825082.md?page=4)