DS is 'cooking' lasagne in food tech tomorrow

[Salmonellie]

So, DS is cooking lasagne tomorrow.

Of course he only gave me the ingredients list yesterday, so off I scuttled to the supermarket after work to buy the missing ingredients this evening.

Now he has told me the exact details I am beginning to wish I hadn't bothered. Apparently he has to prepare the meat sauce this evening. This will be taken (chilled) to school, where they have to make the white sauce and will layer it with the meat sauce. However, because the lesson is only an hour long, the lasagne will not be baked at school. I can only assume that this will also mean the white sauce will not have long to cool down and will still be warm when it is added to the chilled meat base - which will then sit at school all day festering...

AIBU to think this is not good food hygiene and I should plan an alternative menu for tomorrow?

My brother's first lesson was 'making a milkshake'. With Nesquik. At least things seem to have improved a bit!

I work in food tech. Believe me, a class of 20 children struggle to make the simplest thing in an hour. It takes them so long to clean up it is ridiculous. I blame dishwashers! It seems very few children actually know how to wash up correctly. Running it undr the cold tsp, without a sniff of a soap or a cloth will just not suffice, nor will wiping food not removed by the cold tap with a tea towel. Grr!!
The lasagne will be refrigerated until the end of the day I would think.

They can do it though kaFay as long as they build up the skill. True s1 couldn't but by s4 they should manage it if they have been taught and no spot dems needed. I've seen it done right (& wrong tbf) but it certainly can be done.

DD told me that she made the white sauce without any problems and the others couldn't believe how well she made it. She just told them that she had seen me make white sauce often enough to know how to do it (preens!)

YANBU even if the layered prepped dish is kept in the fridge till home time that's still meat sauce that has been cooked, chilled, travelled to school, sat out in the cookery room before use (ie gone through several changes in temperature) then had warm cheese sauce poured over it and then been chilled again (or worse not properly chilled all day till hometime) Then travelled home and cooked.

I think it's teaching dreadful food hygiene TBH

Just stick to something that can be done within the time available!

Better than DSS who has so far made jam tarts and pizza using a frozen base. Not the best for either cookery skills or nutritional value.

The state of home economics classes these days baffles me.

I went to school in Scotland left 13 years ago , we had 50 minutes for each class.

School provided the ingredients and we cooked it all in the class.

I still have the recipe book from my class, including lasagne.

Fuck knows how they can't cook that in 45 minutes.

foodtech I'm in an all boys school. Yr9 might manage it but yr7 definitely wouldn't.
All cooking is done only on a lesson leading to break, lunch or hometime, otherwise they don't get cleaned up and the over worked technician ends up having to do it.

I have to say, my lasagne recipe I use needs 45-50 minutes in the oven (OK its a huge family sized one), plus lots of veg chopping time and the sauce making. I think its a big ask in such a short lesson - DD has her tech in doubles for the practical(by the time they are in the room ,registered, washed hands and so on they have lost 10 minutes already) . She also has a single lesson which would either be a demo of a technique, or theory or evaluating the nutritional content of their dish, or tasting /comparing shop bought things.
I don't think there is any room for using convenience frozen pastry/pizza bases etc, that's very poor. Reminds me of back in the early 90s when an apple pie was a tin of filling and a pack of chilled pastry. In the early 80s when I was at school we would have done the lot from scratch.

oh and we were taught how to wash up to - what order to do things in etc!

Ew. Surely teaching them basic components would be better. How to Make the meat sauce. How up do a white sauce. Defeats whole object if the main part is done at home night before. What are the fridge facilities like. Dairy and meat. Two things you want kept refrigerated.

Yr 9 is probably my s4 I would think. It isn't easy and I have in the past ended up washing 40 pots when it went wrong but with the right class and proper lead up can go well. Ginger don't worry home economics is still taught in Scotland the proper way. We only have 50 minutes though which does limit things. Used to be 55 and the drop to 50 has had an impact. The focus needs to be on skill and lower class sizes (ours are capped at 20) to make it fun and useful to kids.

Gordon ramsay did a cook-a-long 3 course meal in an hour. Including lasagne.

It's my fave quick lasagne recipe.

Why on earth would a home ec class NOT start at the basics and InCLUDE prep/clearing up instructions fgs.

They'd be better off teaching the kids to cook the meat, and showing how it can be used for lasagne OR bolognese. Why couldn't they split the sections of the lasagne and make a group tray/dish?

I used to have double home economics, and I shit you not, the first lesson was how to make a cheese sandwich. This apparently takes 1 hour and 50 minutes. I can remember having to go back and gather round the 'demonstration table' after buttering the bread.

Seriously? A sandwich. Ffs how stupid do they think people are?

Bring back proper home economics. Cakes, scones, pasta dishes soups, all stuff you did in lessons and was actually edible.

That is pretty bloody stupid.

I reckon DS1 (9) could knock up a lasagne on his own now.

It isn't rocket science.

What a waste of good food.

Wouldn't it make sense to schedule these things for the periods before lunch? That way you cook it, and stay there to eat it for lunch that day.

That is what we used to do back when I was at high school.

Home Ec was a double period before lunch. Didn't take ingredients either, we used to have to pay a fee at the start of term to do it and then they would buy all the stuff in. I think it was about $15 or something.

That's great that some people's DC could make lasagne on their own. But that's because they've been taught. There will be loads of people in the class that haven't been, and need a lot more time/attention. You can't pace the lesson for those at the top end of the scale.

When I was at school I hadn't been taught how to cook by my parents. I was totally rubbish at everything except chopping veg. They taught me excellent maths skills very early though, and I didn't start school going on about how ridiculous it was that we were only learning to count in maths classes. You start with the basics after all.

Yeah but they are not learning how to make lasagne are they?

They are learning how to assemble lasagne with the lion's share of the work being done at home the night before.

It would have made more sense to have broken the job up over a two weeks. Or alternatively done a veggie one that doesn't need as long to cook.

You can knock a veggie lasagne together in under an hour easy, it wouldn't be that hard or require any special skills. Can use a grater for most of the veg and a tin of tomatoes with a stock cube, job done.

I wouldn't be particularly worried about food poisoning, but what's the point of having the kids make lasagne if there's no time to complete it? I mean I can make lasagne in 30 minutes, but I can see why it would be hard to squeeze into an hour class given the kids are still learning and have to wash up as well. So why bother? They could make meat sauce and pasta one class, and make white sauce for a quick vegie bake the next. Both of those are achievable in an hour.

"Fuck knows how they can't cook that in 45 minutes."

My home made lasagne takes longer than that. A decent ragu needs a couple of hours in a slow oven. Even the cooking time of the lasagne once assembled would take up most of that time.

I blame dishwashers! It seems very few children actually know how to wash up correctly.

LOL

That was one of my first lessons in domestic science. We had a dishwasher and I don't think I would have learned if I wasn't taught at school.

Sure, a proper lasagne takes the best part of a day, but it's a dish that can be make quickly.

I pity the kids, they are being let down by the teaching staff, and wasting food to boot. Some families don't have that kind of money to waste on food that'll be inedible, unfinished.

part of the appeal/pay off with cooking is what comes out of it.

Schools would serve society far better if they concentrated on supporting kids on what actually CAN be achieved within the hour. They could organise into teams, food prep, cooking and clear up and alternate it.

Food tech in Secondary is generally hilarious/inedible. DS1 did a fruit salad which was an exercise in chopping I think-straight in the food waste bin.

On an Open day in one High School I visited used crumble mix when making Apple Crumble.

Dear god, a crumble mix?

Crumble has 3 ingredients.

You could knock together an OK lasagne in an hour, wouldn't be a really exciting one with slow cooked meat etc. But a basic veggie one would be easy enough.