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.

@ShrikeAttack

No. I read what people are cooking, and it sounds terrible.

I read about cooking methods or recipes where people chuck in random veg. And then wonder why their children won't eat it.

Or people making a ragú which sounds like a watery tomato sauce.

Just throwing as many veg as possible into something and calling it a pasta sauce or curry or chillie.

And slow cookers, sweating stuff to death.

And jarred sauces.

Why are you referring to someone’s (watery) tomato sauce as a ‘ragú’?

That percentage does some a little high but on the basis that 'people' includes babies, toddlers, the sick and infirm etc. maybe it is correct.

With little or no formal instruction I cooked a beef and tomato meal yesterday, curry the day before, a noodle dish on Thursday, in fact I think I've cooked every flavour of Pot Noodle available on the 3 for 2 offer this week. So I do include myself in the top three percent.

@NiceGerbil I thought that too, different cultures. OP seems to be operating from set rules about what flavours work together and how ingredients should be used, whilst ignoring that there are countless cultural groups around the world who would do it differently. I guess most cultural groups must be in the 97%!

You can get pheasant off the road for free.

What a pheasant fucker you are OP I got an A level in food and technology.

There's nothing wrong with putting extra veg into a stew, curry or pasta sauce.

If you can cook then it tastes good, adds bulk and vitamins and fibre, for less money.

I'm really not understanding the problem with that.

Hi Op
If you are such a good cook why not take up that challenge of doing what one poster says,starting up zoom type cooking sessions then?

Has your post been inspired by the Post about a Op who cooked fish fingers sarnie whilst baby sitting a friends child?and her friend was bit pissed off with her when she found out,and said it was not proper food it was like Junk food/or depriving her child of food.?😕

@ShrikeAttack

Ok my food for the next week (including lunches as we're all at home).

Sunday- Brunch: Bacon, sausage and duck eggs. Rosti using the leftover potatoes from last night. Roast tomatoes and mushrooms. Black pudding.

Dinner; Roast pheasant. Roast potatoes. Braised red cabbage. Roast parsnips. Port gravy.

Monday: Jerusalem artichoke soup for lunch with hm bread.

Dinner; Roast beetroot with smoked mackerel, potatoes with soured cream and dill, cucumber salad.

Tuesday; Lunch: Ribollita, ciabatta, cheese, green salad.

Dinner; slow-cooked brisket. Rice. Soured cream. Hm guacamole. Pico de gallo. Hm tacos.

Ribollita is literally re-boil in Italian.

A quintessential peasant dish of chuck everything you have and boil it all together.
It was away to use up stale bread and left over veggies.

I can cook and do from scratch everyday.
I can bake cakes and make pastry but I can’t make bread for the life of me.
So I buy it from people who are good at making it.

Sometime weeks I use the jar of homemade Relish (made from the organic tomatoes, zucchini’s and onions home grown in our garden) others I buy a jar of pickles because I can and enjoy it just as much if not more.

I don’t see the need to look down on others about it.

I can’t cook. I don’t plan to learn how to cook unless I have to. I hate cooking, I’m not that boo there’s by food. My husband cooks.

I detest cooking and always have, food just doesn’t bother me, I’ll happily have a sandwich rather than a gourmet dinner. I have other skills in life.

The majority of people probably eat rubbish food!

Er...most of my friends eat really well. Every member of my family can cook and one is a head chef.

Perhaps you are a bit of a Chav op?!

So using ingredients that are not typical to
most like pheasant and duck eggs makes you a better cook. ?
Your menu for the week sounds pretty standard enough to me.
A fry up
A roast dinner
Soup
Stew, twice seeing as Ribolitta is for all intents purpose a stew.

OP why can't you understand that what your "good food" is is "bad food" to other people?

I mean in your sample menu you're roasting far too much imo. I could be dick like you and say learn how to fry, braise, steam and sauté properly, but at the end of the day you cook for you. Stop being a judgmental twat and accept what you like isn't what everyone else likes.

This is a classic case of judging people by one’s own standards then expecting them to behave in the same way as oneself. Op you live in the most tiny bubble imaginable and believe yourself to be infinitesimally superior for it. Rather sad actually.

I know one very bad cook, her food is inedible. Everyone else I know and whose food I graciously accept can cook flavoursome meals. So more like 97% of people I know can cook. Maybe you need to stop accepting food others have prepared for you if it revolts you so much.

OP, I'm really sorry to have to say this, but tonight I'm really pushed for time so me and the kids are going to have a supermarket pizza for tea.

I know it's probably very upsetting for you. I'm here if you want to talk.

I live alone so don't cook because I hate it and what's the point when it's just me? If I'm hungry in the evenings I just eat a sandwich. My mother is appalled. But not everyone is a foodie. I have other things I'd rather be doing.

You eat non-stop animal carcasses judging by your menu so I can’t really take it seriously I don’t think good cooking involves meat myself - so you can see how very subjective it is.

I'm a good cook, my husband is an even better cook. We both enjoy it. We don't generally buy jars of sauce etc because we don't like them.

But the patronising tone of the OP makes me want to spend the next week eating Dolmio and pasta, or fish fingers and potato waffles just to make her sad.

OP, no one is asking asking you to eat their dinner for them. As long as they enjoy it, then it doesn't matter what you think.

Yeah.... nah. About 80% of all my friends are bloody good cooks. Some are meat eaters, some veggie, some vegan, but all are talented, inventive and skilful. A male friend of mine is a master of all kinds of soda bread and SE Asian curries; I’ve eaten gastropub to restaurant level food at all their houses. We regularly have dinner parties and British versions of pot lucks. Maybe 20% of friends are not amazing cooks but they eat a core diet that is healthy and homemade - stir fries and spag bogs etc.

If I told people I was eating duck and pheasant I'd be taking the piss, and they'd know it.

The best cooks I know make the same food everyone else does, it just tastes so much better when they do it. Like, you call this roast beef, THIS is is roast beef! 🙄

And baking, they whip up restaurant quality desserts from pantry staples as easily as mere mortals take a shower.

There's nothing wrong with using unusual ingredients, but it blows out the cost of food, for a marginal benefit. Most people are limited by budget.

Although my Grandmother swore by duck eggs, but she kept ducks as pets.

@Quaagars as someone who personally sucks at baking and fucks things up all the time.. ciabatta is really easy and SO nice when freshly made at home. If you're already good at baking I recommend having a go!

I find it weird that you want everybody to eat what you eat because it is a 'pleasure'. Some people really aren't that into food - I'm not. I get hungry but I am happy with hearty, filling and healthy food that doesn't take too much effort, because I don't enjoy cooking especially - I categorize it with washing, changing sheets and helping my kids with homework - it is something that has to be done. So don't be sad on my account.
I do believe in cooking from scratch where possible (ie avoiding prepared jars etc) so I do, but again it's not because I get much joy out of slaving over home prepared sauces and chopping up vegetables.

I vote for you finding something else to be sad about other than the eating and cooking habits of people you are not related to.

Is that you Jamie?

@Misshapencha0s

Is that you Jamie?

He was mostly into simple food wasn't he, rather than a diet of duck eggs etc?

How sanctimonious are you OP? Just because most people don't cook roast pheasant or solely use only the freshest, most expensive ingredients, doesn't mean that they can't cook. I would say that I can cook and I've used pheasant and other game in many recipes, but why do you think everyone should do it all of the time. I'm also quite partial to cheese and beans on toast, (plain old Red Leicester on thick toastie bread with Branston beans) not organic, home grown beans lovingly dressed in a tomato and herb jus, atop homemade, lightly toasted bread topped with only the best shavings of cheddar made in the heart of a mountain using only the freshest milk from Jersey cows.
Get over yourself OP.