I'm a bit miffed about this Food Tech ingredients list

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Not feeling brave enough for AIBU, and I'm sure the teacher has her reasons, but this is what DS needs to take to school next week. He's 14/Y9, do not into GCSE course yet, and food tech isn't one on his options. Also, he has food tech after lunch, and has to carry his cooking around for the rest of the day, as the fridges are full of heat the morning lessons have made. OK for scones, but for chicken?

Here is the offending ingredients list:

Thai Green Curry - 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 80g sugar snap peas, 2 small chicken breasts, 30ml Thai green curry paste. 200ml coconut milk, ½ lime, small bunch coriander.

My concerns - there's about £8 worth of stuff there, many of which (curry paste, coconut milk, coriander) come in bigger packs than required. That doesn't seem to be considerate of the CoL crisis - it's a big standard academy comp in a not-particularly affluent area.

Also - no veggie alternative ingredients offered - so half our household wouldn't eat the results anyway.

DS is not matey enough with anyone in his FFT class to suggest sharing ingredients. Expensive ingredients!

I'm delighted that the school is teaching the kids to make something other than scones and pizza, but there are so many cheaper curries to mark in an hour! They could start by making the curry paste! Or school providing (and charging for) the ingredients the kids won't need need "all" of.

(DS's previous school/DD's school charge for all FFT and RMT ingredients and materials at the start of the year, abs supply everything. I appreciate limited kitchen space doesn't always make this possible).

I remember taking things a few times but everything I made was binned at home. It was never refrigerated and was left at the back of the class to pick up later. We had no hot water for dishes and the washing up liquid was watered down to actual water. All the bowls and utensils were greasy. The also has a bit to store the cutting board…,next to your feet, there was dirt in the holder from shoes. Nope I wasn’t eating anything from there. Plus I could already cook so it was a wasted double lesson each week.

Not much use if you don’t like the curry or if your budget doesn’t stretch to making meals like that.

And lots of low income families still eat chicken. Like I said before, OP could have substituted chicken breast for something cheaper or vegetarian substitutions. It’s unreasonable to think schools should have to stick to pizzas and bread/pasta based products for years because some parents resent paying a few quid for their child to learn to cook & produce a curry.
At GCSE, pupils have to produce a 3 course meal. That would really blow her mind.

You could say that about any sauce though. And all you need to make it again is the coconut milk and veg and rice. You can leave out the garlic etc.

Yes. I think the principle carries to all ingredients where only a portion of the smallest unit is required. But it’s especially problematic with ingredients that aren’t a staple of the vast majority of people’s pantries.

I agree tbh. But the half a lime and the food safety of the chicken would still annoy me

I don't bother buying them, don't they come in a 5 pack? If we've had them in free recipe boxes, any half is just eaten.

Very rarely do I eat chicken. It’s very much a treat. It was over a year ago I last had it.
And I wouldn’t want to waste £5 buying it for food tech.

im not saying stick
to pizza but perhaps a bit more mindful of budget and adaptations.

It’s not resentment - it’s trying to keep my head above water.

If a family can only afford chicken once a year I would expect the child to be on free school meals and the child to be able to access extra funding towards things like ingredients.
Children can always adapt recipes in school food tech lessons and trust me, most of them do as they won’t like everything in a recipe or their parents don’t have it/don’t want to buy it. It’s no big deal. No one would bat an eyelid if a child came in with chicken thighs instead of breast or a vegetarian alternative.

Thankfully ours chose not to do food tech any longer than they had to. At least they did have appropriate food storage at school but buying double the ingredients and making sure any split pack would keep over a week or so as they weren't in the same class was a pain. Buying one pack of lemongrass is fine when they both need it but having to buy 2 and lose half of so each time is a waste.

thats not the case. My dc are not entitled to free school meals. The threshold is shockingly low.

Point being i don’t buy chicken as it’s expensive and I make my food shop stretch by buying cheaper ingredients.

• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

It’s not just families who only have chicken once a year who would struggle to afford it on demand for school. Certainly, many families who receive FSM will probably find it difficult to justify. As will families who qualify for FSM but don’t receive them (estimated to be around 3% of the school population) and those whose income is just above the FSM threshold.

Even those families who might buy chicken reasonably often as part of a tight but manageable budget could reasonably be resentful at the idea of buying it for a meal they think will be unfit to eat or which is not their cup of tea.

Exactly

I give up - you’re all being unreasonable who think schools shouldn’t give pupils recipes with chicken in. What about mince, would you object to that too?
Bit hard to teach pupils to cook a range of meals while not using any meat or meat alternatives. Because obviously the school would have no problem with meat alternatives or a vegetable curry but some of you are just determined to moan.

@Twiglets1 to be honest do schools need to teach cooking at all? They can't teach everything - some things should be taught at home.
You could have some fun cooking lessons over the years (cakes etc) but actual 'proper' cooking be left for those who take it as a GCSE option.

The problem with that is that pupils won’t know if they like cooking so want to pick Food Tech as a GCSE option unless they have experience of it in younger years.
I agree it could be taught at home, but it’s very apparent as a secondary school teaching assistant that many pupils do nothing at all in the kitchen at home, let alone cook. Also, Food Tech & other practical subjects can be good options for pupils who aren’t very academic and don’t enjoy too much reading/writing etc. It’s a great life skill as well as a possible career if they find they are suited to it.

I am 38 and have managed quite well without ever needing to know how to make a Victoria sponge or a decent shortcrust pastry. I can cook. But I cannot think of a single occasion in my life where I’ve been required to make a sponge or a tray of biscuits…

I make sponges for birthdays that's about it

You just eat half a lime?

Anyway I think Y7 is fine to make a pizza but it needs to get more involved to build them up to taking GCSEs

We ate 1/4 each. Just cut up and ate like we would an orange or grapefruit, it's nice. You could use it in drinks instead.

@Twiglets1 actually that's a good point. There were subjects I didn't take for GCSE because I didn't really understand what jobs and opportunities they could have led too and now as an adult really wish I had opted to study.
The most obvious one is parents pay a set amount of money each term in advance and ingredients are bought in bulk. Proper storage for food in the classroom (big fridge, big freezer).
Not all parents will pay (for various reasons) but if most do then there should be enough.
Perhaps Lesson One should be a trip to the supermarket as a class to purchase the products.

Besides from the cost, I'd be really concerned that you are risking serious food poisoning. Crazy they want kids carrying around raw chicken 🐔 😷