Teaching child to cook ideas

[mamma2013]

Hey, I know this isn't aibu but thought it would get some good traffic here and also bit more lighthearted than some of the recent topics recently!

I think teaching children to cook is so so important. I often get my primary aged children (11 and 8) to help with every day food prep and their lunch boxes as well as the usual cupcakes, cookies etc. I would like to do some more recipes but struggle with ideas which are not too simple but not too tricky either.

What sort of things do you all do with your children?

Hoping for some exciting or different ideas....😁🍰🥧

We started with soup and pasta dishes - room for a bit of creativity and not too much chance of mucking it up. DD now cooks lasagne, shepherds pie etc by herself, aged 11

My 9 year old likes making omelettes, pancakes, scrambled egg/beans on toast etc

Soup is good. White sauce is another and basic tomato sauce lots of transferrable skills there.

My eldest enjoys making pastry. My youngest likes Quesadillas.

Definitely teach them how to make a good white sauce (there's an 'all in one' method that is a lot easier than making a roux).
Opens up so many possibilities

Paella? Basically lots of chopping and stirring. Risotto. Chilli/spag Bol. Frittata.

What about getting them to plan some meals? Find a recipe, check you have the ingredients then add to shopping list. I’d then get that to feed in to a wider meal plan for the week, how could you use leftovers, are there any dishes which are good for odds and ends from the fridge.

Pizzas from scratch
Rice Krispie chicken recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/recipes/chicken-goujons-with-rice-pops
Fish and chips www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fakeaway_fish_and_chips_41029

Can I also 2nd Risotto, so many different flavour combinations, quite soothing to make and everyone thinks its terribly hard to do so you appear very clever.

Honestly a child of 11 should be able to cook most things -- only limitation is upper body strength, really. Eight year olds should be able to cope with most things.
The key is to let them make things and try techniques and flavours without hovering over them, stepping in to "do to properly", or worrying too much about how it "should" look/taste. Being comfortable trying new things (and making mistakes) is a life skill.

Sandwiches - lots of room for creativity, especially with a sandwich grill

Fantastic ideas thank you. I'm thinking risotto is the next thing we will try! She is great at roux sauce and I do tend to try to do lots of things like sauces which can be adapted to different meals. I remember it being a good moment finding a spag bol recipe in her school book with no real clue what the teacher had actually asked her to do but it looked very random. 🤣

My 7 yo can make scrambled egg in the microwave, she knows an adult needs to be in the kitchen to observe but otherwise she can do it start to end with no assistance. She has recently started making scrambled egg and omelettes on the hob but needs us to light the hob and do bits like lifting the pan on and off the stove.

She knows the ingredients and cooking methods for basic dishes like chicken in tomato sauce and pasta, sausage and mash, macaroni cheese and such like.

She can make cupcakes from scratch, we use the sponge recipe where you weigh 2 eggs in the shell then use the same weight of castor sugar, SR flour and butter, so it was easy for her to remember.

We'll keep including her in cooking for as long as she's interested and even if she loses interest we'll make sure she has the basics sorted so she can feed herself when she one day leaves home. Same reason we've taught her how to use the washing machine, tumble dryer and explained how and why we clean. Also why we explain when doing the weekly shop, why we're choosing special offers, how a budget works and what foods are healthy and which are special treats.

How about things like meatballs, pizza/bread/scones, elements of a roast like making the Yorkshire batter and peeling veg

The first meals I learned to make were scrambled eggs, omelette, fry up and soup.
Otherwise I did sections of meals, so eg. mash or dauphinoise potatoes from potato to table, or the sauce (agree about white sauce as a key skill) or either chopping things to pass to my mum or her chopping stuff for me.
By the time my brother and I went to university we could both cook pretty much anything.

She needs to concentrate on basic kitchen skills like safe use of knives, cookers and boiling liquids, building up her abilities gradually.

So things like fruit skewers, coleslaw, pasta salad, scones, jambalaya, cookies, mini pizzas (more fun than big ones), bolognaise/chilli, soup, fruit crumble, all in one sauce for eg broccoli cheese etc etc.

The more confident she is with basic methods the more versatile she'll become and won't be churning out endless cakes.

I started cooking with my grandchild when they were about 5, so about 6 years. They have cooked fish pie, roast chicken, spaghetti bolognese, quiche (bought pastry because I make terrible pastry - hot hands), home made burgers and lots of other stuff as well as puddings and the odd cake. We started with things that didn't need much knife work but they now do most of it themselves, although I am with them all the time. I do any lifting in and out of the oven but they now do the stirring and frying, and all the recipe reading and measuring. We have always cooked food for meals rather than treats or extras and I think that is the way to go - cook real food, but choose things that require skills suitable for their age and teach them new skills as they get older.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot asking for a friend, about this white sauce you speak of... Is there a recipe?

Hasn't Darina Allen just written a book along these lines?

I’d look at key techniques which can be used in different meals. If you can peel, chop, boil and mash potatoes you can go on to develop that into making cottage pie, fish pie, fish cakes, sausage and mash etc.

Teach her to make a batter that can be used for pancakes, toad in the hole, Yorkshire puddings etc.

Teach a white sauce then go on to teach cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, lasagne etc etc and so on.

It’s a great way to build confidence and independence in the kitchen.

[quote MrsHookey]@RockingMyFiftiesNot asking for a friend, about this white sauce you speak of... Is there a recipe?[/quote]
I came across it in this recipe
That recipe in itself is amazing

For the 11 year old I would say anything, (so long as it isn't too crazy) mine from about 10 liked to do the cooking independent of me, so a nice straightforward recipe from the internet was the answer. She would have a look and consider with me which recipe may be good. Some of them have included Quesadillas, scotch pancakes, fajitas, scotch broth, goulash, stir-fry. Scrambled eggs were a good starting point, unlike me she followed a recipe and the whole family agrees that her scrambled eggs are the best.