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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I'm going to say about 97% of people can't cook.

999 replies

ShrikeAttack · 10/01/2021 00:41

I read threads on here about food all the time & even people who claim 'to 'cook', as in 'make stuff hot and eat it', have no idea about food. How to make delicious things, how to treat ingredients, what goes together.

It honestly makes me a bit sad.

The majority of people probably eat really rubbish food.

I really want people to understand food and eat better, not because I'm a dick, but because it would make their lives more pleasurable.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
ShrikeAttack · 10/01/2021 10:54

I did get a 'takeaway' for Christmas dinner! From L'enclume.

I don't think eating duck eggs makes me in sny eay superior. Someone asked me what I'm eating this week and I told them.

I wasn't suggesting it as a sample menu for better living!

OP posts:
TerrifiedOfTrying4No2 · 10/01/2021 10:54

Looked back through OP’s posts and can see she is in fact a master chef.

This is from when she made her hand reared chicken a le nuggèts with 30 day matured potato batons sourced from the depths of Belgium, finished with a homemade tomato sauce blended with only her ring finger.

10/10 OP.

Photographic evidence provided.

I'm going to say about 97% of people can't cook.
TerrifiedOfTrying4No2 · 10/01/2021 10:55

Sorry, that is in fact a tomato reduction.

Velvian · 10/01/2021 10:55

When you've had to produce a meal at a a reasonable time every night for 23 years to ensure children are fed, come back and tell me how much pleasure cooking is bringing to your lifeGrin

I mean, yes, it's my poor family planning that has ensured I have had dependent children for 23 years😭. I do it, I do not enjoy it.

I also live with 2 adult men that I occasionally engage in power struggles to try to shift this responsibility.

JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 10:56

@ShrikeAttack

* She appears to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it.

That is completely untrue. I do spend a fair amount of time thinking about food (I also spend qiite a bit of time thinking about shoes, and books, and the utter futility of existence), but as I eat three times a day, I like to make each meal count. Why wouldn't I think about something that I have to three times a day? It's a bit careless not to.

I don't even think about breakfast or lunch!

It's porridge, or eggs, or greek yoghurt.

Lunch is homemade soup or cheese and fruit.

Dinner is whatever we fancy, cooked from scratch, (and yes it might be a pheasant yay!) and pudding is always more yoghurt or fruit except at weekends.

And it's all lovely :)

EuroTrashed · 10/01/2021 10:57

@Hollyhocksarenotmessy I think that going to Ask / Prezzo / etc and expecting cooking is unrealistic. Most pubs that serve food are reheating whatever Brakes Bros have delivered to the freezer and are charging accordingly. There are a huge number of restaurant experiences, many of which don’t involve cooking. For “real” restaurants, it’s rarely disappointing but unless there’s proper expectation management on going to a chain / pub / national trust cafe or whatever, then yes - it’s not the food that gives the pleasure.

JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 10:57

@ShrikeAttack

I did get a 'takeaway' for Christmas dinner! From L'enclume.

I don't think eating duck eggs makes me in sny eay superior. Someone asked me what I'm eating this week and I told them.

I wasn't suggesting it as a sample menu for better living!

Never heard of them.

Are they an offshoot of KFC by any chance?

ShrikeAttack · 10/01/2021 10:57

I'm 47 @Velvian, I have teens.

I've been cooking for a while.

And that's not my photo @TerrifiedOfTrying4No2, you cheeky article!

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 10/01/2021 10:57

@ShrikeAttack

* She appears to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it.

That is completely untrue. I do spend a fair amount of time thinking about food (I also spend qiite a bit of time thinking about shoes, and books, and the utter futility of existence), but as I eat three times a day, I like to make each meal count. Why wouldn't I think about something that I have to three times a day? It's a bit careless not to.

Lots of people eat 2 or 3 times a day but that doesn't make them obsessed with food, or 'sad' for others because they want them to be filled with 'joy' over what they're eating.

You however...

Bonsai49 · 10/01/2021 10:57

I can cook OP - but I now don’t cook elaborately ... my children wouldn’t eat it - and ultimately I’d rather they eat something than nothing .

I’d also rather spend our time as a family running or walking in the countryside or have time to help with the evening homework than faffing about in the kitchen ! We eat a decent balanced diet ... just mostly simply cooked because I’m normally making 2/3 versions of the same meal - half of us are vegetarian and one a very fussy eater.

We all have different priorities

Hatstrategicallydipped · 10/01/2021 10:58

She did a few pages ago, one meal that showed off her superior cooking skills was a fry up, another was a very basic roast dinner 🤣

Was that the tacos? Or the pheasant?

MagicSummer · 10/01/2021 10:58

I have to admit OP's food is more to my taste than spicy food, Chinese, pasta, pizza et al. I was very pleased that I had ordered pheasant in my click and collect order today - just collected it and am inspired to do a full roast tonight!

ShrikeAttack · 10/01/2021 10:58

I lie! I'm 48.

OP posts:
JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 10:59

So you live nr Grange over Sands.

Lots of ducks for eggs in the Lake District :)

TerrifiedOfTrying4No2 · 10/01/2021 10:59

Where do you shop?

99.8% sure is begins with W.

Imissmoominmama · 10/01/2021 11:00

Do people really think that’s a bland menu? I don’t, and I love food!

I still disagree that people can’t cook though; especially young people; both my sons cook really well.

JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 11:00

Are you cooking for a family or you or you and a partner?

ineedaholidaynow · 10/01/2021 11:00

So you criticise people for not being able to cook and being lazy, then have a takeaway for Christmas.

How much did that cost then? Probably explains your inability to understand that an average supermarket chicken which is what most people can only afford, does not cost the same as a pheasant and that you are probably comparing it to a fancy organic one.

ShrikeAttack · 10/01/2021 11:00

I'm not sure why a 'basic roast dinner' is getting a hammering. I make the best roast potatoes in the known world. Tis fact.

OP posts:
bumblingbovine49 · 10/01/2021 11:01

@LaurieFairyCake

I can cook

But I don't

(I find it boring now, would rather eat a sandwich and watch Netflix)

Ditto.
JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 11:01

@TerrifiedOfTrying4No2

Where do you shop?

99.8% sure is begins with W.

They don't have Waitrose in Grange over Sands.

She must do farm shops and local suppliers.

EuroTrashed · 10/01/2021 11:01

Ah- are you the poster who bragged about their several thousand pound spend on Christmas food from the butcher, baker, cheeseminger, game merchant, the Berry bros order etc etc? So you’re a gourmand, that’s cool. It’s the air of superiority and smug assumption that your food hobby makes you superior that grates.

JerichosPenisInADeadChickHat · 10/01/2021 11:01

Ok. Plot twist.

The OP (who got her dinner from L'enclume) is here telling everyone it doesn't have to be expensive to eat how she does.

However, on other threads started by her she freely admits she spends in excess of 1k a month at Waitrose and that doesn't include most of her meat and fish.

Can I suggest @ShrikeAttack that you are simply a bit of a snob who rates her cooking highly but so far has demonstrated zero knowledge or skill? You're out if touch with the general population and its current struggles and priorities (and I can afford to do the things you do easily).

Here is a photograph of a recent Ocado order of the OPs.

Including a katsu curry kit (thought you don't buy sauces OP, I don't, you do though.

MICROWAVE RICE!!!! Shock

And sourdough that isn't quite "homemade" now is it?! Grin

I'm going to say about 97% of people can't cook.
JinglingHellsBells · 10/01/2021 11:02

@ShrikeAttack

I'm not sure why a 'basic roast dinner' is getting a hammering. I make the best roast potatoes in the known world. Tis fact.
Isn't it time you were smoking those kippers now? It's getting near lunchtime!

get off the web @ShrikeAttack and sort your lunch!

CurlyhairedAssassin · 10/01/2021 11:02

Op I would like most of your menu but wouldn't enjoy the artichoke soup as it's not a vegetable I love the taste of. Same with aubergine. Celery I just can't abide but I eat all other veg. My kids and DH are a tad on the fussy side and DH seems to lack taste buds so would want chilli on everything, so it wouldn't go down a treat with them.

I sort of know what you're saying about properly cooked home made stuff with nice ingredients being more enjoyable. eg DH and the teens like takeaway pizza but I don't enjoy it at all really, it's floppy by the time it gets here and always has an odd underlying taste to me (of cardboard box?!) They also happily eat supermarket pizza whereas for me it's just a convenience mid-week thing. It tastes ok. Whereas last nigth DH did his home-made pizza. So bread from scratch, tomato sauce from scratch, plenty of toppings and nice cheese. They are fantastic and delicious and like nothing else.

Tonight he's cooking curry, from scratch. (And not some other people's opinion of cooking a curry from scratch which seems to be opening a jar of curry sauce.). If cooking at the weekend and have more time we use a Madhur Jaffrey book which is really good, proper authentic recipes (not Anglicised takeaway versions of curries). If cooking a curry midweek we'll often use some Patak's spice paste from a jar rather than grind our own spices etc (this is different from the jarred curry sauces). If using the ready made spice paste mid-week then we still add garlic, chillies, fresh coriander etc with the tomatoes (tinned chopped as they taste better than UK anaemic tomatoes from supermarkets) or coconut milk.

At the weekend we often have home made bread too, it IS delicious and much nicer than shop bought bread, you're right.

But you don't acknowledge convenience and cost at all. Dh usually works 60 plus hours a week, and comes in at odd times like 10pm. He will do a pot noodle for himself as that's all he feels like at that time. Sometimes he will CHOOSE it for liunch at the weekend even if he has more time. That's the difference between us as I would never eat that shit out of choice. But it's his choice. If he likes it, fair enough. I can't even stand the smell of it and have to leave the room.

I do find it odd that he can appreciate lovely home made tasty food but still enjoy a pot noodle, but it's up to him. If I was hungry but short on time I'd make a quick omelette and salad, or beans on toast (NOT tinned spaghetti on toast- yuck)

So I see what you mean in some ways. BUT I will buy and eat some things for convenience mid week eg fresh pasta sauce and tortellini rom the chiller. SOME ready meals like Charley Bingham's fish pie (as the other 3 don't like it and I'm not cooking a fish pie just for me). We all like chicken kievs, but I will only buy the breasts not the fully processed shaped and formed stuff. When we had less money we bought and ate the processed stuff instead which was fine. Sometimes had fish fingers as they were cheap. I would eat them now if they were given to me in someone else's house but they could never be classed as fine dining or cooking from scratch. But fresh fish can be very expensive in comparison so I fully understand why people buy and eat them. And they are easy to cook.

You sound a bit unaware of how normal people live, or WHY they might choose to cook certain things. And you don't acknowledge that they might simply LIKE some of the crap stuff. LIke my DH likes his pot noodles.

In short, perhaps they don't need educating by people like you at all.