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

[ShrikeAttack]

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.

@Soundbyte

This evening we had home cooked ham, poached farm eggs, good bread and winter salad from the greenhouse. And a glass of wine. It took me 10 minutes at most. Bliss

I love cooking, have no training and don’t think I’m great at it but keep being told I am so must be doing something right. However the above sounds absolutely perfect to me and is my favourite kind of meal!

Mine too

AKA egg and bacon with salad

Well WE are having fèves au lard sur pain grillê. Possibly avec champignons ou sauce brune.

@Bilgepumper

Duck eggs aren't much different to hen's eggs and you cook them the same. The OP isn't talking about great cooking skills, she's just showing off.

Yes I've cooked pheasant, I prefer chicken.

Well I like them both and pheasant is seasonal, unlike ubiquitous chicken, from which it makes a welcome change.

I’d much rather have pheasant than steak.

OP is taking about interesting menus as much as cooking skills.

I'm a great cook. The best in the universe according to the 10yr old that I childmind. That's good enough for me.

The Italian restaurant near us do a pizza with artichokes on. It's divine.

Pheasant Normande (with apples and cream) is amazing.

OP isn't making pheasant Normande though. She's making plain old roast pheasant. It might as well be a chicken for all the cooking ability it requires.

Her menu isn't that interesting, actually.

@nokidshere

I'm a great cook. The best in the universe according to the 10yr old that I childmind. That's good enough for me.

Me too according to my niece!

Perhaps you need to get some fresh air.

@midnightstar66

Pheasant Normande (with apples and cream) is amazing.

OP isn't making pheasant Normande though. She's making plain old roast pheasant. It might as well be a chicken for all the cooking ability it requires.

Roast pheasant is very different from chicken.

And actually you can do Normande with roast pheasant - you just chuck the apples to roast with the pheasant, then chuck in the the cider/ calvados and cream.

@Bilgepumper

Her menu isn't that interesting, actually.

It’s interesting to me, far more so than shoulder of lamb and pork which I don’t actually eat.

The pheasant Normande recipe works well with guinea fowl too.

I can see what you are saying. I like to cook and enjoy eating nice food but i admit i am not that great at it. I was never given good food as a child and I was never shown how to cook or bake. Anything I can cook well now, i have learned how to make myself through books and online. I will keep on doing so and learning more as the meals i can now cook properly taste so much better.

@Bilgepumper

If you buy the cheapest cuts of meat and cook them well, they are more tasty than the more expensive cuts.

I prefer shoulder of lamb and pork to the leg cuts. You just have to know how to cook them.

They all have their place - if you know how to cook!

[quote EuroTrashed]@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.[/quote]
Yes, Brakes Bros all over now. We dont go to any chains now, we go to independent places, but still get served utter shite most of the time.

Roast pheasant is very different from chicken.

And actually you can do Normande with roast pheasant - you just chuck the apples to roast with the pheasant, then chuck in the the cider/ calvados and cream.

Again, I'm quite sure op would have mentioned if she was doing roast pheasant nomande. She wasn't, she was just doing plain old roast pheasant. Obviously timings etc are different to a chicken and different seasonings complement but at the end of the day roasting a bird is roasting a bird and you can take instruction from the internet. There is no skill to it. I said it didn't need any extra skills not that it didn't need a different method.

It really makes no odds if she’s doing it with apples or not, you can cook the same way.

There is absolutely skill in roasting birds. I’ve eaten a lot of dried or underdone roasts!

I would say out of the people i know 50% can’t cook from scratch.

Im included in that 50%.

When i do a spaghetti bolognaise, i use a dolmino jar. This means i havent cooked it from scratch.

My sister calls melting chocolate and stirring it into cornflakes ‘cooking!’

Putting something in the oven that we have bought (for example a chicken pie) is not cooking but it is preparing a meal.

What a weird thread. I can only assume lockdown has made people crave validation, and assurance that they are special- indeed better than everyone else-for being able to cook what to me would be an inedible menu.

@TatianaBis

It really makes no odds if she’s doing it with apples or not, you can cook the same way.

There is absolutely skill in roasting birds. I’ve eaten a lot of dried or underdone roasts!

Absolutely - no skill in roasting pheasant my arse! I fact I would venture that the simpler the meal - the more skill you need to make it taste good - there's nowhere to hide!

@TarnishedSilver It feeds two adults and one child, its only just enough to get our five a day, plus it is three meals per day. We don’t eat meat/fish/dairy.

Yes, lots of typing! I tried to take a photo of the shopping list but it didn’t work.

When i do a spaghetti bolognaise, i use a dolmino jar. This means i havent cooked it from scratch.

Scratch can also means lots of things, if i use a tin of chopped tomatoes does that mean it's not scratch as I haven't used actual tomatoes? What about chopped onion from the freezer? Combining ingredients that sometimes come from tins or jars into a meal is different from a ready meal or one jar of sauce added to meat but where do we draw the line?

I'm doing a lamb thing for dinner, if I use a lamb stock cube is that technically not scratch either as I haven't made my own stock?

I use sauce jars as base for my chilli😁 Adding tinned tomatoes, homemade stock, fried onion, spices and herbs. And then let it simmer in slowcooker for 4 hours just to get the sauce right. Then I add all the other bits.
Is that cooking from scratch?🙈

There is absolutely skill in roasting birds. I’ve eaten a lot of dried or underdone roasts!

Yes but if you can understand how to cook a chicken well - which as you say can be badly done, you should be able to adapt that to any bird with a little research or reading. Anyway You have no idea if the OP can cook a pheasant well or if she just claims she's a good cook by naming slightly less usual produce.