To worry about the lack of cooking skills of the next generation

[jdoe8]

People seem to barely cook these days and peoples supermarket trolleys are bursting foods that are quick and easy to make. Such as mashed potato, pre chopped onion and soup. Soup is very easy to make and home made is fresher and better for you.

Crushing up some ginger nuts, mixing with butter and dipping in melted chocolate seems to count as cooking. Lots of mess when you can just eat the chocolate and ginger nuts. The same for making a brownie mix and then icing with pre made icing. That is cooking?

My grandfather only ate tinned spam and chips (seriously). He lived til he was 98.

I'm not being blasé but I really think unless you are living entirely off deep fried cake batter a few tins or ready meals here and there are not going to kill you.

I cook every single day from scratch and I am so fed up of it! If I lived in the UK I would definitely get some prepared meals as they are actually nice there - even things like fish being already boned is a big bonus. I hate gutting fish! I agree that prechopped onions saves on waste - I use prechopped onion/carrot/celery as a base for past sauces and it is far more efficient than buying a head of celery and it going off.

*pasta sauces

My mum taught me how to cook.

I cook 5 days a week. Even when I was working full time, I cooked 5 days a week (I'm on maternity leave).

I don't know about the rest of you, but I will be teaching my son how to cook from scratch as soon as he's old enough. His dad likes cooking too and is very good at baking.

I would say don't worry about the next generation, just worry about your own family.

I agree, cooking skills now days are lacking in the younger generation, I love cooking and read a lot of cooking blogs my favourite is www.livingdeadcakes.co.uk

Lots of people don't have time to spend an hour in the kitchen a day cooking,

Which cooking skills are you referring to specifically?

Funny, most threads about cooking, food, weight etc here all seem to start 'i cook from scratch every night', maybe mums net isn't a representative sample...
And I think it's very possible to cook from scratch using pre prepared veg etc.

I hate to disappoint the PP bit cans have a long shelf life due to thermal processing, not preservatives. Bread from the bakery counter in a supermarket is generally purchased from a factory part baked and finished in store and contains the same flour improvers etc. as sliced. Biscuits and cornflakes have a long life due to low Aw ( water activity) and good packaging.

*My grandfather only ate tinned spam and chips (seriously). He lived til he was 98.

I'm not being blasé but I really think unless you are living entirely off deep fried cake batter a few tins or ready meals here and there are not going to kill you.*

I knew someone would say that. But with 70% of adults obese or overweight and the NHS expected to spend most of its cash on diabetes I don't think we are going in the right direction.

Yes but pre chopped onion is really not much of a big deal is it - that's what I'm saying.

DH and I are currently undertaking "batch cooking" ahead of DC1 who's due soon. This has so far seen me make and freeze 10 portions of tomato & basil soup and him make and freeze 6 portions of chilli.
Today we're making cottage pie (him) and fish pie (me) but we'll work together for the mash(!!)

The idea of stocking up on ready meals didn't cross my mind. We don't eat them. I don't like them usually.

Yes there's oven chips in the freezer
And fish fingers

The rest of our freezer is "fresh meat" "fresh fruit" and meals we've over made and then frozen.
BTW, freezing fruit is awesome. You can make to most amazing deserts/smoothies in seconds and it's SO cheap if you buy whatever's going out of date so on offer and then wash, bag and freeze it the same day.

Oh. I live in a flat. I have 1 fridge freezer and that's it!!!

Chopped onion probably wasn't a good choice. I was referring to the fresh ones though. Regularly see them piled up in the reduced food - they are slimy and off but you can buy for 15% less...

I do find supermarket food odd, and the new innovations. You can now buy wine in a plastic glass with a foil top. But I'm sure that's great for all the people that just like one glass, as people will tell me.

Carrot batons are vile though. Made in a factory a long time ago, dipped in chlorine and other stuff.

I'm excited to discover there is such a thing as pre chopped onion, does it taste any different to the self chopped? I guess also if I chop an onion I can freeze half to avoid wastage... I recently got a proper freezer and we are trying to have less food wastage so it has been an eye opener to me what you can bung in the freezer.

Surely pre-prepared foods (such a ready chopped potatoes) are different to 'ready meals'? I see no great virtue in chopping yourself unless there is some nutritional or taste benefit. Although agree whoever said carrot batons are yuck - a strange mixture of dried out and watery...

As for me - I am far too tight to pay the mark up for ready chopped foods regularly. I'd rather just buy the squash and chop it myself. Plus I do wonder what they put on then to keep them looking 'fresh' oncechopped.

We do indulge ourselves in cooking 'ready to cook' foods relatively often (as opposed to full on ready meals) albeit not for the children, whose meals are all from scratch even if it's simple stuff! Just can't be bothered to cook properly for ourselves every evening. I'm glad we are past the days where you had no choice but to spend hours slaving over three meals a day... and options seem to be getting better for 'convenience food'. Now we can just enjoy cooking 'properly' when we fancy it and it's not a chore.

Fwiw my mother was a SAHM and always cooked for us (or my dad did) but somehow I had little idea of how to cook myself on leaving home. Figured it out along the way (and I still am). But surely that is usual. Only learnt to make a roux and cheese sauce after my children were born if that is any measure...

I love those carrot batons lol
I roast them in the oven with curry powder, olive oil and a bit of salt. My hubby loves them. I have to jazz up most veggies for my husband or else he doesn't eat them.

Surely if there's chlorine on them legally they would have to say as much on the packaging?

Some things are worth making from scratch and some are not. No way I'm shelling peas!

Yes that's basically it.

Whether for cost, nutrition or taste. I once tried shelling broad beans. Never again.

You are being really judgey OP.

there's loads of things we have in 2016 to save us time or effort - including, but not only food. This is a good thing - that people have more choice.

I have to disagree with your "next generation" label though - my dc love cooking. ds spends far more time cooking that I do, as, as a University student he has far more time than I do, and is also on more of a limited budget.
Hate these mass generalisations.

we don't have to wait a generation to worry!

I always thought the wine glasses with the foil top were for picnics? That's why I've bought them anyway. They're probably also a good size good if you don't like wine but need it for a recipe like a goulash or something.

Speak for yourself, I never ever buy ready meals, pizza being the only exception.
Even my 8 year old can cook something, it's not difficulty that stops people it's the convenience of buying it already prepared for you.

In every generation there will be people who like to cook and those that will do the bare minimum, rely on convenience foods etc. I took some of my daughter's leftover birthday cake into work and several of my colleagues, older than me, we're amazed I had made it myself and one had never made a cake at all without using a pre-made mix.

I'made a pretty competent cook and I enjoy it. I have the skills to look in the cupboard and make a healthy filling meal out of what's available. Easy when you know the core techniques. I'm doing my best to pass on the skills to my children. FWIW, I was never taught anything at school, went to a very academic school and there was no home economics. "Cooking is a hobby, not a school subject" we were told. You can learn a lot by taking an interest at home (if your parents cook) and the rest when you get packed off to uni and suddenly need to feed yourself, on a budget, without wanting to pile on weight.

Pre-prepped veg is probably pretty awful in terms of waste and packaging. A carrot with it's skin on lasting much longer than one peeled and cut into batons, which will probably need to be in some sort of plastic bag. Takes mere minutes to peel and chop a whole bunch so I don't see much excuse for those. Pre-prepped mash as a one-off and chopped onions I can see the appeal of, although I wouldn't buy them myself as I grow these myself and even if I didn't I try to make green choices. Who am I to judge a single working mother/ parent of children with additional needs etc though. Lots of reasons people choose convenience foods.

The next generation will be fine, it's my generation (school in the 80's, first generation of WOHMs) who can't cook.

I was considered very odd because I had homemade cake in my lunch box and ready meals were just becoming available for busy families, at the same time as cookery was being replaced by HE

I've been very impressed by the quality of things my dc have cooked at school (we have spiced lamb patties and onion bhargees that came home from school tonight).

The young adults I know all enjoy cooking a proper meal for friends etc

YANBU.

There have been reports recently about the rise of scurvy in Australia and earlier this year there were worries about the same thing here.

There were reports in July, about the Seabridge family in Wales after the home schooled 8 yo boy died of scurvy.

Diets are getting worse and obesity and diseases of malnutrition are on the rise.

Ignorance of nutrition, food in general and how to cook it is appalling.

There are too many ready meals, takeaways and sandwiches being eaten and no amount of Masterchef or Bake Offs is going to help.