51 minutes ago, weinoo said:Oy. We'll end up with a whole generation of "cooks," none of whom really know how to cook, to say nothing of knowing the difference between a rib eye and an eye round.
I suppose I'm (uncharacteristically) optimistic on this front. To buy something like an immersion circulator or a smart oven requires at least a degree of curiosity about cooking, if not skills. The former isn't self-explanatory, and the latter costs a heck of a lot more than the toaster ovens that cost the same. Some proportion of those folks will undoubtedly pick up nothing from the experience, but I think a good number of others will probably pay attention to what the pre-programmed settings are doing and learn from that. Most of the good cooking apps still walk you through the recipe, they just add the convenience of pushing the buttons and setting the timer for you automatically.
This is distinctly different from the people now buying their first Instant Pot — in my experience, most people buy them because everyone else on their block has one (or get them as gifts), and then they spend a month trying to figure out how to not overcook steaks or spaghetti before chucking it in the closet.
(As an aside, I follow both a regular Instant Pot group and an Indian Instant Pot group on Facebook, and the quality of posts in the latter is leagues ahead of the former. I think it's mostly because it consists of people who already cook every day learning to use a new tool, rather than people who would rather not cook and are seduced by the word "instant.")
