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?

YY Francis - I learned to cook from my DM. Who was an oft-quoted relatively senior civil servant. She learned to cook from her DM, who owned and ran at least three business in her lifetime, including through WWII.

My mum cooked sausage/ fish fingers / gammon and mash, eggs and peas, maybe cottage pie, but she especially loved oven food with oven chips. In the 70s she had a book that showed you how to cook everything- even cakes- in the microwave.

My granparents cooked cabbage, potatoes and meat. Or stews, pies or a stewed pie. Boiled liver.
The only flavouring they used was salt. They thought garlic, spices, herbs or anything strongly flavoured was disgusting.

I have always encouraged my stepsons and DS to help me in the kitchen. DSS1 is a good plain cook - meat and potatoes kind of stuff, but everything from scratch. DSS2 is good at curries, but can turn his hand to most food and cooks every night as his fiancée can't cook. DS is 16 and did GCSE Catering, and cooks at least twice a week, and has a very advanced repertoire. My DH and I both love cooking too, so it can be very haphazard as to who is cooking at any one time. His first wife couldn't cook, and on the odd occasion she has looked after my DS for the day, he has only had toast or pizza, and has had to cook it for himself.

I think if you foster a love of food, and give children the tools from an early age, they are more likely to want to cook and feel confident in the kitchen. My mum and nan always got me preparing veg and making gravy etc as a child, and my DH learnt from his mum too (as a middle child with 6 siblings it was a good way of getting attention!).

I'm 30 and can cook better than my parents. Just really like food so taught myself from books. My parents did cook but very simply and would not have occurred to them to make things like soup - I remember being amazed how easy making soup was the first time I did it and how much nicer it was than from a tin.

My grandmother, born in the 30's, didn't cook at all, bought m&s ready meals for the decades I knew her. She hated cooking and associated it with her poor upbringing and rationing.

Ok Francis, but it was women returning to work in numbers, after children, that created the ready meal market. Of course there were pioneers before that but it was then that it started to become common place that mothers would work.

I'm a good cook but find it boring as hell.

I force myself to cook from scratch most of the time, but rely on some sort of ready meal (like a quiche or fish fingers) at least once a week for a night off. Always with fresh veg or salad of course .

My dh quite often works 4 or 5 evenings per week so he can't be relied on to give me much of a break from cooking. DS is now showing an interest, DD only wants to know if it involves making a cake or baking!

I cook most things from scratch on days when I'm not working until 6. Then we have a pizza.

Other days, I cook roasts, curries (no jar), casseroles, chili, stir fries etc. etc.

My DCs also cook one day a week each. DC1 is cooking tomorrow as I'm working til 6. He is 12. I work at home so he'll get me if there's a problem. He's doing spag bol.

Last Thursday DC2 cooked fajitas, even made his own guacamole. He's 10. I supervised that one more closely as it involved an electric mixer...!

So you're wrong about our family.

It's not because I enjoy cooking either, but I do enjoy being healthy and fit, and I want my kids to eat healthy balanced diets. So we cook from scratch, but a lot of it is cooking that can be done in half an hour max.

Possum

I wouldn't worry too much about your daughter. I was that 16 year old. I literally didn't cook a single thing until I was about 23 apart from heating up beans in the microwave. My mum was at her wits end, and when I moved in with my husband when I was 30 weeks pregnant at the age of 25, I couldn't even peel a potato so she worried. I just wasn't interested and because my mum cooked for us, I was a bit lazy.

I'm 31 now and pretty much cook every meal now for the husband and three kids! I taught myself (and my husband helped because he is an amazing cook!) and even though for time reasons (3 kids under 5) I resort to the odd jar or frozen roast potatoes, I consider myself a damn good cook.

We get our three boys involved in cooking. The toddler has the potatoes peels and a plastic knife and pretends to chop. They all do some mixing and measuring. They seem to have a love for it so hoping that will grow with them.

Frozen mash is awesome. It's just frozen.... mash.

Noone's gonna give me an award for peeling potatoes myself.

Frozen sweet potato mash is even better, with a knob of butter and black pepper served with Cumberland sausages from our local Butcher, sweetcorn and broccoli, guess what we are having for tea tonight 😀.

I love to cook and so does DH. But I will always have a pasta bake jar in the cupboard and fish fingers in the freezer for the days I can't be arsed or we're too busy.

I'm in my 30's, hate cooking with a passion, i hate being in the kitchen so my idea of cooking is generally something that takes 30mins start to finish including all prep which means it's normally something pasta based

My mum is a very good cook, but said i was not interested in learning at all when growing up, despite her best efforts.

I don't eat ready meals, but i have far less waste buying pre-chopped veg than i do when i have had to buy whole ones. Plus the 10mins of chopping is saved, which means i am not in the kitchen as long!!

Actually I think men's cooking skills have improved hugely, thanks to Selfish Working Feminists who shoved a wooden spoon at them while heading out of the kitchen.

I am an excellent cook. I grind my own spices in a mortar and pestle. I also adore frozen ready-chopped onion which enables me to do so. Tomorrow I shall make mattar paneer using Bought Paneer and frozen peas.

And tonight my fellow-inmates and I will dine on baked potatoes with tinned salmon in mayo/yogurt with frozen sweetcorn and a large Bag Salad. It will be delicious and crammed worth omega3 oils.

That's true Mother. DDad was quite a New Man in the 80s (my DM was an actual bra burning feminist so God help him if he hadn't been) and is an excellent cook. DH is just as capable as me at cooking and I would even go so far as to say that his roasties are better than mine!

We had pheasant in a red wine sauce with creamy mash last night so I think I might go a bit simpler this evening - shakshuka possibly.

Also the idea of living on plain meat and boiled veg makes me feel quite ill.

And I'm far more worried about the number of women who still do all or most of the sodding cooking and indeed the rest of the housework than these mythical Lost Cooking Skills.

This thread has inspired me to buy frozen chopped onions and peppers.

DH hates peppers so it won't waste them.

My mum is a chef, so my upbringing may have been different,but one of earliest memories was being in the kitchen with my mum. No when I bake/cook I have dd (1) in the kitchen with me and she stirs things and I explain what I am cooking to her. She also eats better when I am prepping food and always has a taste. That said occasionally we have ready food.

DH doesn't ever cook because he hates it and is rubbish at it and I love it.

However he does all the cleaning. Everything.

I don't know anyone like that DD 25 and her DP cook from scratch every day and have packed lunches or leftovers
DS 23 cooks as do I - we quick cook by grilling and steaming fresh meat poultry fish veg when we need to
I always make double portions and freeze the extra for nights when I'm in a real hurry
The only person I know who doesn't cook much is my DP who batch cooks with my help and supplements that with soup, omelettes, beans on toast etc and an occasional takeaway - he has a long commute and is also a shift worker so easier

Cooking is a class issue.

I have 2 distinct groups of friends.

My school and uni friends are very middle class. They all love to cook and are very good at it... anyone of them could host a dinner party with their eyes closed.

After I had my dc, I've made friends with other mums, many of whom are more working than middle class. I've noticed they very rarely cook from scratch and have no idea how to make basic things like a spag bol or a roast chicken.

I had one of my dc friends round for tea who was amazed to eat chicken that wasn't covered in breadcrumbs.

*Of course, this is a new thing; baking. Not like the Tudors made marchpane or anything hmm

It depends what your definition of 'junk' is, OP. I eat in Michelin starred restaurants relatively frequently, and the food from there is terribly unhealthy, as it's full of salt and fat. That's what makes it taste good. Not sure I would call it junk though.*

yes because marzipan was a staple for the average Tudor diet, you do sound out of touch.

I think this is a class thing, the middle upperclass nigela types probably cook alot (with one parent not working) the lowerclass not so much from my circle of friends.

That's absolute crap formerbabe.

God you're an awful uniformed snob OP.

Cooking isn't even an accomplishment. I suggest your standards of attainment are very low if you think is impressive or indicative of education or intelligence levels

What are you basing your opinion on OP?

What's made you come to this conclusion?

I'm 26 and cook from scratch as well as using pre prepared veg. Also have the odd meal out as well.

I find that actually having the frozen pre cooked stuff saves me lots of time, and it's needed with two toddlers and a seven year old.

As someone else said don't worry about the next generation, worry about your own family if you feel the need.