Domestic science atrocity.

[WingBingo]

DS12 cooked food for the first time at school today

This is what the teacher thought was a good idea for them to cook. It really is the end of a loaf, covered in tomato sauce and sprinkled with grated cheese.

I do wonder what was going through their mind when they decided this was a good idea.

Yum.

My first lesson was to make a banana sandwich. I was 11.
however as it was the 70s we went on to make a huge range of stuff, even learning how to gut a fish. - for our O level we had to make a 3 course meal, along with the recipes, nutritional information and method. My son got his GCSE by making choux buns.

Ours was cheese and tomatoes on toast. My bench mate set the oven gloves on fire as she left them on the hob when she turned it on.

Ok so I get using a grill safely, using a grater etc but why on earth add tomato ketchup? Is it a faux pizza?
What about some Worcester sauce?
Agree with a pp that many schools seem to concentrate on the packaging and marketing of foods with the occasional cake baked. Not really DS imo.
So glad my parents taught us to cook. No forrin muck! Just English food. I’m still unadventurous but at 13 I regularly prepped and cooked dinner for a household of 7.

Personal hygiene routines at start of practical, then safe use of the grill, use of correct colour chopping board to prevent cross contamination, safe use of grater, adding seasonings herbs/spices. Time to show how to wash up correctly, dry equipment thoroughly and sanitise work surfaces. Also time to eat food and discuss sensory properties. Excellent first practical for a Y7 student to learn routines of the kitchen before moving on to more skilful practicals next week.

Thinking back to my first 12 weeks of Home Economics (you 'learned' what you were doing one week and made it the next), we did;

1. Cup of weak instant coffee made by boiling half a cup of milk and half a cup of water in a pan, pouring it onto half a teaspoon of cheap instant. I'd been using a Moka since I was about seven and hated drinking milk.
2. Cheese on toast. A very challenging lesson as nobody else knew how to use a gas grill and five of them said they had been told they weren't allowed to use them at school (after saying they'd watched milk being boiled the previous fortnight) because fire was dangerous. Following the coffee incident, I ignored the instructions to bring mild cheddar or Edam and brought in one chunk of strong cheddar and a mini portion of blue cheese. She told me I'd forgotten the margarine. No, I just didn't like it.
3. Pudding made with a can of evaporated milk and a packet of jelly.
4. Salad. Well, tomato, cucumber and lettuce on a plate. She'd worked out I could generally be left to get on with things, so didn't clock that I'd brought in my own equipment - a super sharp kitchen knife and a Japanese mandolin - not sure how she though transparent slices of cucumber, tomato roses and unapproved carrot ribbons happened.
5. Peppermint draughts pieces creams and chocolate truffles.
6. Cheese and potato pie. Peel potatoes, boil potatoes, mash and add cheese. She then twigged that I was bringing in equipment, as I was peeling the potatoes with the super sharp kitchen knife instead of a blunt peeler. Mind you, I had also brought in some butter, milk and white pepper because I thought she'd forgotten to put them on the list.

The next time we were anywhere near HE was in Y9 where we made a pananda (teacher's spelling - not to go with anything, just so we'd made one), bread bricks without salt or a second proving and only five minutes kneading time, mince pies (I brought in a star cutter because I CBA with making lids), a plain cookie dough (brought in chocolate chips) and the abomination that was tuna and pasta bake (pasta, tuna, mix in tin, bake).

Strangely enough, it was not a subject I ever contemplated taking for GCSE.

Decades later, DD going to school on an HE 'cook what you want bring the recipe book from home' day nearly ended with her being in detention for a month when she took in a nice tin, the ingredients for a sponge cake and my written instructions - I'd written in the instructions that if the mix split when she added egg, just add a tablespoonful of the flour and it would come back together again - the teacher tried to swoop in saying she'd ruined it and it would have to be thrown away, but DD refused to budge with a 'leave me alone, it'll be fine my mum knows more about cooking than you do'. That didn't go down well at all, unsurprisingly enough. The cake was grand, though.

Food hygiene certificates explicitly state you shouldn't wash raw chicken because it does not remove bacteria and actually increases the risk of food poisoning

I always remember doing my food hygiene and the person taking the course told us some horror stories along the way - possibly this teacher would be one of those horror stories

The goal is to learn various techniques, preferably cheaply. I still remember how we learned to use the broiler setting on the oven by making toast. There was also a lesson on the blender with one scoop of ice cream, some ice cubes, and diluted juice concentrate. I personally thought the result was vile, but I knew how to use a blender from that point forward.

Late 1980s school. Most random selection of recipes ever. Eves pudding and cinnamon toast.

I could do basics from home - cheese on toast, veg prep etc. But my Mother erred heavily on packet sauces and Home Ec didn't sort that out. It was Delia's classic cook book as a student that finally taught me how to make white sauce!

I feel sorry for kids who don't get exposed to cooking at home - must be so difficult in later life. In general I cba to cook faffy savoury stuff but I will push the boat out when I bake.

1973

first, we learned how to make breakfast for our husbands. Cutting a grapefruit into two and loosening each segment, and I think we grilled sugar on top, boiling coffee grounds up, then scrambled eggs on toast. That was two lessons.

dainty afternoon tea; scones one week, buttercream sponge the next.

never anything useful like a stew or a pasta dish.

it seemed to be assumed at my grammar school that we would be stay at home wives.

Preparation for college/uni??

Years of teaching or actual safely trained and FS level 2 cooking 🤔🤔🤔🤢😱

Also their level of experience/ability

When I was at school doing home ec we had to make a baked potato then hollow out the middle, mix it with cheese and milk, and put it back into the potato.

I don’t remember anything else except for making scones once. I’ve still got the scar on my wrist from burning it on the oven rack.

Our first lesson was sausage plait. We made the pastry. I love cooking, but I’ve never made my own pastry since, and that was 49 years ago.

My sister in law (similar era) makes sausage plait. It's delicious!

(I also don't make pastry.)

Today he has gone in with half a red pepper, celery stick and a carrot.

My first cookery lesson I prepared half a grapefruit with a cherry !

In a year 7 cookery lesson we 'made' chocolate by melting down an existing bar of white chocolate, adding butter and sugar then putting in the fridge to set. It was absolutely vile and I still look back and wonder what the fuck that was? This would've been 2001/2002

I have no idea - but whatever it was, she missed that memo! 🤢🤮

My friends DD had to make sausage rolls...from pre-cooked mini sausages and ready to roll puff pastry.

Back in the day I made Chili con Carne. When I got home my mum flushed it down the loo.

Oh, well.

Trifle.

Obviously.

@ NeverDropYourMooncup -

It all sounds horribly familiar. A particular low for me was making lemon meringue pie from a packet mix - I’d been making it properly at home for years. The deal was you made it in tables - so four of us - and you cooked it, and then ate it. Despite the minimal preparation required, one group didn’t have time to cook theirs so ate it raw….

We made fruit salad, pizza (at least we made the dough!), sausage plait (shop bought puff pastry), mincemeat plait, mince pies (we made the mincemeat in an earlier lesson), Swiss roll, cheese and onion pie, pasties(made the pastry this time) and cherry bakewell tart.

I gave up Home Economics/ Food Technology for whatever it was called at the end of year 9. My teacher was quite scary, culminating in her throwing a particularly aggravating male student against a wall and thrusting a knife into corkboard on the wall, narrowly missing his ear.

He seemed OK, though a little subdued for a week or two afterwards. She went off sick with stress for nearly a year. I'd already chosen a different Design Technology option because she was so snappy and I didn't want to feel on edge in my GCSE lessons in case it affected my grades.

I used to do that as our dinner - the dses loved it, @Gengha. Though I didn’t use milk - butter is better - and I put in crispy bacon bits as well as lots of cheese. I must remember to put this back on the menu for the autumn.