to beleive that a lot of people in the UK don't actually know how to cook.

[OrmIrian]

They know how to follow recipes. And it isn't the same thing.

I am quite old. I was brought up with a mum who had been through the war and was totally intolerant of waste. So left over meat from Sunday roast was always used up - cold with salad and baked potatoes, or made into cottage pie or a stew. Whatever was left over in the fridge got made into something and if you were a half-decent cook it was delicious. For example last Sundays lamb shoulder leftover were taken off the bone and slow-cooked with some pearl barley, lentils, sweet potatoes and the remains of the red wine gravy. On Tuesday there was half a pack of sausages in the fridge - they were chopped and cooked with some chorizo, garlic, passata, basil, chilli and onions and served with pasta. Dh was about to get a load of mince out of the freezer and cook spag bol - the sausages would have stayed there till they were ready to walk out of the fridge on their own.

When my children cook at school they always seem to learn how to cook specific dishes - not the general techniques that would serve them well for general day-to-day cooking. DD loves cookery programs - when she decides to cook she comes out with a huge list of ingredients that would cost a small fortune because someone on Masterchef did it! They are learning to do it my way, but it's slow progress.

Cooking is being able to make something good out of whatever is available. Not just being able to make something good out of a trolley load of expensive ingredients.

ompletely agree. I like to cook and experiment but I'm rubbish at it. I blame it partly on my mum (she was a very busy single mum and didn't really have time to teach me) and partly on school. I'm old enough that we did have home ec lessons but were never shown the basics. If we'd been taught how to make a basic stock, casserole or even pastry, maybe my cooking might be a bit better.

My post makes no sense whatsoever!

It's quite easy to learn the basics even as an adult though, if you weren't taught by your parents or school. It's not just recipe books, there are lots of instructions and videos on the web (it's often useful to actually see how something is being done).

For many people I think it's more a question of having the time and/or motivation to learn, rather than being absolutely unable.

I think that is what I am saying ephiny - people don't value it as a skill. I don't think that some people are naturally better at cooking than others, they just have more experience and confidence. But if you don't think it's a skill worth learning you won't bother. Celebrity chefs have made it seem desirable to be able to make special meals and 'signature dishes' - but that isn't the sort of cooking that you eat on a day to day basis.

I don´t have a problem with schools teaching specific recipes, or people using recipes.

Often recipes are where you get the inspiration for leftover usage.

And the usages you´ve given are fairly standard, aren´t they?

Meat in a stew, sausages for a pasta sauce?

Isn´t most cooking for a planned meal & leftovers incidental?

The local secondary school in my area has quite a diverse catchment and includes quite a lot of children whose parents don't have much money, some of which are my friends. I've been horrified at some of the ingredient lists my friends DC have been sent home with, which are horribly expensive and in some cases represent more than 30% of the weekly food budget.

Most children can read and can make quite complex technology work. Therefore, they are quite capable of following a recipe and expanding their dish repertoire that way. While we're in the middle of a recession and are seeing an unprecedented level of obesity, would it not be better to concentrate cooking lessons on skills such as stretching out leftovers and cooking on a budget?

I'm one of these people - I cannot cook (never have claimed to be able to). I never cooked at home/with my mum, I never cooked at school. I'm very good at heating food up but don't have the first clue about actual cooking. If I do push the boat out and try to do something different it doesn't work (burns or tastes foul) or my kids refuse to eat it and its wasted. I'm now stuck in this rut with no way out - what would you suggest I do?

Learning from your mum is learning from a recipe - it's just not a recipe that's written down, but one from your mums head. There's no difference other than the fact the written down one doesn't need a person standing there, and you can ask it questions.

Borrow Delia's "How to Cook" from the library and start from the beginning.

Or you could do what one blogger did and learnt to cook by buying Julia Child's cookbook and cooking her way through every recipe in the book and blogging the results.

Agree again Fred!

I don't have a problem with anyone using a recipe (hell, I don't really give a toss either way ) especially when they are learning, I think that it isn't neccessarily the best way to cook all the time. And I am not sure that following a recipe to make, for example, a fish pie, is going to teach you a great deal about cooking fish. It is going to teach you how to cook fish pie.

I am not sure that the way mum taught me to cook is the equivalent of a recipe - she followed the chuck it in method of cooking most of the time. She could also cook the most stupendously beautiful dinner party food too but that wasn't everyday fare.

But surely if you cook a fish pie that can get you interested in fish dishes & you then find out about other ways to cook it?

I've not read the whole thread, just skimmed through it, but I'm not really convinced that

' lamb shoulder leftover were taken off the bone and slow-cooked with some pearl barley, lentils, sweet potatoes and the remains of the red wine gravy'

it sounds rather too much, just thrown altogether, and not very nice tbh!

I was brought up on Findus pancakes and the like, and I learned to cook as an adult from friends, dh family, tv and books. I do agree with you that following a recipe isn't really being able to cook neither. I think being a good cook is understanding flavours and being able to balance them well, having a good knowledge of herbs and spices and use them properly.

Im rather pleased all the chucking stuff in a pan is seen as an art form

There I was just thinking it was because I was lazy!

properly is the wrong word - use them well.

It was lovely chops beleive me. Served with green beans and some curly kale.

It is an art form when it tastes amazing - and lazy when it tastes horrid!

"I'm now stuck in this rut with no way out - what would you suggest I do?"

According to the OP, apparently you should just stand in front of the stove with a few random ingredients and wait for inspiration to strike so that you can say you are a 'proper cook'

Or you can do what proper cooks actually do, get hold of a book like OhdearNigel recommended, have a go at something basic and practice it until you can do it with your eyes shut. :)

I think recipes have an important part in learning how to cook. you have to learn the basic techniques before you can experiment.
People just arent adventurous because they dont need to be. During the war food was rationed, you needed to use every last bit, and you needed to experiment in order to make food palateable. There werent flavour enhancers, artificial flavours, ready meals, or even just the wide range of foods we have now.
Nowadays, food is a throwaway commodity. We can buy ready meals, meal kits, there are microwaves, sandwich toasters... and more recipe books than you can shake a stick at.
We are lazy nowadays, because we can be.
YANBU, in that people dont bother to be inventive anymore, they dont need to. Its a shame.

I use up my leftovers. But I use a recipe to tell me how to make it taste nice so it's not wasted. Stop being such a snob OP.

Well I don't see anything wrong in using recipes for something you have never done before or for inspiration if you want to find something different.

I generally plan my meals a week in advance and shop accordingly so I rarely have anything lying around in the fridge or veggie basket that I haven't got plans for.

Despite being a "planner" I can and do use up surplus ingredients rather than waste them. For instance, I panic bought brussel sprouts at Christmas and we were getting sick of the sight of them as a veg so one lunch time I used them up by inventing brussel sprout and Wensleydale soup. Regarded by all (even DD!) as quite delicious. Now I woldn't have felt confident creating that if I hadn't followed recipes for soup in the past and knew the basic technique already.

cogito - don't be daft. That isn't what I said. I would recommend using a recipe book if that is the only way to get started. All I said was the knowing how to cook is more than simply following recipes.

I would like to experiment with using lavender in cooking

But I don't just know how to do it, or what it will taste nice with. Off the top of the head I would say shortbread

But I still would double check what the experts recommend first who have tried and tested

I agree with you OP. My mother didn't enjoy cooking so I didn't learn at home. But when DC1 was born, I was given a free tiny recipe book to stick on the fridge which taught me to make cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese.
I then bought a basic cookbook in a charity shop. It has taught me how to make roux and pastry and bread and cake, and I slowly taught myself. I cannot being to put into words the pleasure this has given me, and the money it's saved me.

I do think it's a basic skill that children shouldn't leave school without. I make a concerted effort to teach my children so that they can take over on weekends :o

i make rose flavoured cupcakes - lavender would be a lvoely alternative, but I can't find lavender extract anywhere!