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0 points4ad9y ago0 comments

Boiling an egg, sure. Fried eggs or making an omelette? That requires me to wait for the stove to cool enough, then wash it (and the controls too). Plus I most likely won't want to eat a plain egg. I will add some stuff, bacon, onion, etc. That means I will have to clean up the cutting board too. And there's always some stuff like bits of onion that fall off the cutting board to the counter, so I will have to clean up the counter too. Plus, while I eat, I will put the used fork on the table, so I will have to clean the table too.

The 20 minute number is not arbitrary. I deeply care about optimising time spent cooking and eating, and I have measured this stuff for myself. Sure I can make something that takes two minutes to clean, but I want to eat something more satisfying that requires me to fry something. And cleanup after that, takes 20 minutes (more or less) if you are insane about the cleanup standards like I am.

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smallnamespace9y ago

Sounds like you are a lot more fastidious than the average person.

I don't really see any need to clean my stove (or even the controls) more often than 1x / week (I cook daily), and the cutting board always occupies the same space on the counter, so the counter also gets thoroughly wiped once a week. The table gets wiped 1x a day, not after every single meal. Dishes, plates, and utensils just go soak in the sink so I only batch wash everything once a day.

Note that I'm still following all the usual food safety protocols, e.g. separating raw from cooked and washing my hands at appropriate times, etc.

I guess what I'm saying is that it probably does take you 20 minutes to clean after every meal, but that's probably much higher than average, and shouldn't be what keeps the average person from cooking.

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