Convenience cooking is the practice of streamlining recipes for simplicity and speed of preparation. It is a common practice in Western cultures, where both men and women work outside the home and elaborate meals are difficult if not impossible to pull off given the usual time constraints. Though seemingly a recent phenomenon, guides to convenience cooking go as far back as 1930 French Cooking in Ten Minutes by Edouard de Pomiane, which tried to minimize the time put into much French cooking of the day.

Current well-known practitioners of the art include Rachael Ray

Rachael Ray

Rachael Domenica Ray is an American television personality, businesswoman, celebrity chef and author. She hosts the syndicated talk and lifestyle program Rachael Ray and three Food Network series, 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels and $40 a Day...

 and Sandra Lee; in addition, Cook's Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated is an American cooking magazine published by America's Test Kitchen in Brookline, Massachusetts, every two months. It accepts no advertising and is characterized by extensive recipe testing and detailed instructions; the magazine also conducts thorough evaluations of kitchen...

magazine has often incorporated convenience-cooking principles into their recipes.

Ingredient simplification

A significant amount of convenience cooking revolves around simplifying recipes to five or fewer ingredients. There is a substantial genre of cookbooks devoted to such dishes, often, though not always using other prepared foods as ingredients. In this division, "ingredients" generally does not include such things as spices and water.

Time economy

Another important skill in convenience cooking is time management. This genre of cooking focuses largely on process and technique rather than ingredients, and is aimed at getting the best quality out of a quickly prepared meal as possible, especially using common kitchen tools rather than specialized equipment such as convection oven

Convection oven

Although the word convection is usually used to describe the natural circulation of gas or liquid caused by temperature differences, the convection in "convection oven" has a more general definition: the transfer of heat via movement of gas or liquid...

s and microwave oven

Microwave oven

A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that heats food by dielectric heating, using microwave radiation to heat polarized molecules within the food...

s. Some recipes remove certain steps that take large amounts of time. Sometimes kneading dough is removed from the process of making bread because it requires large amounts of time and effort.

A common adjunct to this school of food preparation is the slow cooker

Slow cooker

A slow cooker, also known as a Crock-Pot or Slo-Cooker , is a countertop electrical cooking appliance that is used for simmering, which requires maintaining a relatively low temperature compared to other cooking methods for many hours, allowing unattended cooking...

, which allows unattended preparation of braises, soups, and stews.