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.

No thanks. I can cook maybe 15 dishes well from scratch. Chilli, a couple of pasta dishes, tagine, fish pie, a good steak. In summer I make a great salad dressing. That's all I need.

I used to live with someone who you would say could cook. He spent hours on over-complicated meals and it was a stressful expensive misery. I don't want food as an art form, it's ostentatious and a waste of time.

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'm going to say about 100% of OPs on this thread don't understand statistics.

@GypsyLee how do you make your joey grey? I want to give it a try! Seen some recipes but wondered if there's a nice tested one

I can cook . From scratch every meal. My son cooks . My daughter does not because her boyfriend is an excellent cook .

So not my experience at all .

Raises hand. I hate cooking with a passion. I think subconsciously I associate it with subjugated women.

I decline to do it for anyone, apart from putting the odd pizza in the oven.

I don't think there's bad food. I do think there's shit food.

I have no idea what that means.

As others have mentioned above everyone has different tastes. I'm sure if we tasted your cooking some would class it as shit food wheras others may like it. I'm south Asian and make a mean curry as that's mostly what we eat. My Korean neighbour loves it as she claims she can never make it the way I do. In the same way I love her dishes as I can never make Korean food the way she does. You're telling me your desi or Korean cooking is better than ours?

Sure there are some crap cooks out there but it's usually due to having no interest in cooking (nothing wrong with that!) or they weren't taught the basics of cooking from a young age so struggled in adulthood. The majority of people I know irl are great cooks. You must socialise with the wrong kinds of people.

Bet my cajun chicken is better than yours though.

Yes, very amusing. I'm not talking about making complicated meals every night. More an understanding of what actually tastes great.

I just want people to treat themselves to good food,, it doesn't have to be expensive or hard.

I honestly want you to all eat good stuff. Not 'orrible mixes of shite.

Sorry for being an arse, it just pains me when I read about rubbish food. And I know it's everywhere, because I've eaten it.

because it would make their lives more pleasurable
Nah it really wouldn't.
But if you enjoy it then go ahead. Don't try and tell other people what they should find enjoyable though.

I’ve done lots of cooking courses so I think I’m an ok cook but I as this week dd has declared gammon food of the gods it’s not worth spending hours on her. As for friends that come over it’s probably for my well stocked wine fridge and sparkling wit rather than the food I grant you. If we want an amazing meal we eat out. I cook stuff that maximises my time at the table rather than the oven. So I can cook but only when it suits me.

Who the fuck cares

Honestly OP, you probably have a point.

That said, I think 97% is on the high side and you do come over as a bit up yourself

What do you class as a good tasty meal?

Oh here comes the Food police and OP being the commander, somehow knows we are all eating shite food 🙄 wow what amazing powers you have to knownwhat I eat.

Here let me crank up your pedestal a bit higher

Well, in my experience 97% of people can cook. Or at least obviously the people that cook for me can.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say about techniques, if I make something and you turn your nose up because I've added a grated carrot and it's not 'authentic' enough for you, but it tastes good....I'm not sure what the problem is?

Surely everyone would be on a sliding scale from very basic/barely passable, all the way to advanced? It isn't a binary choice between can and can not cook.

And I think the main thing which dictates where you fall on that scale is how much you like cooking, and how much of a shit you give about doing it, rather than some sort of sad inability to "understand ingredients" or whatever.

I absolutely love cooking, so as you can imagine, I'm really good at it. If I didn't like doing it then I probably wouldn't bother much and wouldn't be as good, but that would be fine because I wouldn't care. People who don't cook much probably don't care... if they did then they would probably cook more and improve at it. 🤷‍♀️

So are you going to enlighten us on how to cook orrrr... ???

I probably do @justanotherremainer.

I am a bit of a tosser.

I always have been.

And there's fuck-all I can do about that. I don't try to be a dick. I do feel a bit sad when I eat sad food though. I'd like everyone to eat good things.

Everyone can eat good food. Any budget can.

I can cook

But I don't

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

This a million percent. Luckily dh is a good cook, and actually enjoys it so I don't have to do it very often.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with chucking random veg in stuff though, if I had say an aubergine that was otherwise going to go to waste why not chuck it in the bolognese sauce? I know that it strictly doesn't belong there, but who care it's not like it's going to ruin the meal and better to be eaten than wasted.

D) From your arse

🤣🤣🤣

I can cook but don't particularly enjoy it. I cannot bake a single cake which I really don't care about as I might eat a slice of cake once every three months.

I put lots of veg in my food for my DS as it's all about what's healthy. I presume this is why mumsnetters do too.