To not understand the obsession with ‘hot meals’?

[LastToBePicked]

As in “kids need to have a hot meal”, “They haven’t had a hot meal today” etc

Is it just short-hand for a more substantial meal or do people think there is some magic about food being hot that makes it more nutritious?

Is, for instance, a tuna pasta bake superior to a tuna sandwich? Or sausage and mash better than ham salad?

Don’t much mind in summer but a hot meal is a lot more comforting at the end of a cold, wet, dark afternoon than a tuna sandwich, felt much more so when I was a child.

@LastToBePicked do you really not understand? But it's true I'd rather have a tuna sandwich than a tuna pasta bake. I eat almost anything but would rather go to bed hungry than face warmed up tinned tuna with melted cheese.

Because creating a nutritious meal from unprocessed ingredients is easier when cooking a hot meal. Sandwiches tend to be full of processed stuff. Also a hot meal makes you feel good.

Wtaf is the tuna obsession on this thread?!!

@baroqueandblue

It’s a plot to keep us women in the kitchen.

Yes, like all dads never cook for their kids

The phrase "a hot meal", perhaps depending on your background, can imply that care and time has gone into preparing a decent meal with overtones of 'warmth' for those you're cooking for.

Or those of us who are single don't know how to cook for themselves.

I think it means a full, substantial meal (most likely cooked, so therefore hot) as opposed to a ham and coleslaw wrap with a munch bunch yoghurt.

I expect before central heating a hot meal would have meant a lot more to us than it does now when we have many ways to keep warm. I’ve done a lot of camping and hiking for long periods and a hot meal is more morale boosting than nutritious.

It's not about the temperature of the food per se, but hot meals are generally more likely to be varied and nutritious. Whereas for most people, a cold meal is most likely some variation of a sandwich.

I think you can pack a great deal more nutrition into a cooked meal rather than a sandwich.

A stew or casserole is likely to contain a bigger variety of trace mineral, micronutrients etc.
Will often contain root veg, garlic olive oil, spices, tomato, perhaps pulses and usually served with a bigger helping of veg.
Even my bolognese will contain upwards of 10 ingredients, curry even more.
I think a hot home cooked meal has more nutrition, is more comforting and filling on a cold day.

A ham sandwich is not particularly healthy anyway- it will be 75% bread, ham ( a bad protein source) a tiny bit of salad or whatever.

There's lots of cultural and anthropological stuff wrapped up in 'a hot meal' though.

Humans only became successful as humans when we learned to harness fire to cook food. Before then it was incredibly hard to get enough calories to survive and all our time was spent in gathering those categories. We were only able to turn our collective attention to other things when we were able to access protein through cooking raw food.

Note too that almost all the food you mention was hot once: tuna pasta salad has been cooked then reassembled. Bread is baked. Ham in a sandwich has been cooked and cured. So most of your cold food was hot once.

Then there's things like the middle class ideal of the mother at home producing the delicious home cooked meal. Not being able to cook food because you don't have access to an oven or can't afford fuel is a huge marker for poverty so people idealise 'hot' over cold.

It's complex stuff.

If you are cold and tired hot food just makes you feel better. I'm sure there is science behind that. In the past lots of men (and women) did very manual jobs and homes had no central heating. If you work physically hard you crave substantial food. Builder's Breakfast? Cold food doesn't really fit into that. Also the range of food most children and in fact most adults will eat increases when hot cooked food is added to list. So very few children and adults will eat raw veg like brocoli or cauliflower but will eat it cooked. Food ranges/variety didn't used to be as great. Cold food was pretty limited in 70s/80s even 90s. My ds's range is not huge and would be reduced further if hot food not regularly in that. Both my dc don't like breakfast cereal and are lukewarm about sandwiches, as am I. We are also vegetarian. We often have hot all 3 meals. How hard is eggs on toast, soup or microwaved left overs for lunch and a basic hot dinner with carbs. Older people living on own get malnourished and do suffer without hot meals so there must be evidence. Im sure a quick Google would find it.
If you dont like hot food then of course you can do what you want. No one will die if they don't have a hot meal on any given day. Although when young I knew a couple of colleagues get malnourished from not eating properly living the young life and then needing various injections like B12 and iron. I know my dc would moan a lot if I didn't make substantial meals for them. I'll be surprised if you are British and don't understand how we crave hot meals on cold days. And LOTS of cuppas.

I can’t think of any cold meals that are as satisfying when the weather is cold

I love cold lasagne but with hot chips on the side

In really hot countries you still often have a hot meal often twice a day (I’ve struggled with this)

I don't get it either. Mine has school dinners because she is in reception and it's free and I cba to add another task in the morning of making her a packed lunch but I would still give her a hot dinner in the evening if she wanted it. But tbh she's happy with the dreaded beige foods crackers, toast, bagels, fruit and yoghurt

But salads are cold, raw and delicious.

OP you are right. I’ve never thought about it. I don’t really like hot food but always feel like I should have it.

You may have changed my life

In general I just prefer hot food. I have toast and coffee every morning. I prefer a toasties/panini/something cooked to a sandwich. I'm not a fan of slabs unless it's a side salad. Unless it's from the roll shop in the next town, they are generally boring as fuck bit the salads from the roll shop must be at lease 800 calories so not really that healthy.

I have a friend who doesn’t like hot food she always has a huge salad and something on the side (she isn’t health conscious)

I’m not keen on cold foods unless it’s very very hot. But would still want a hot meal in the evening

Visiting family in Asia we have hot breakfast, lunch and dinner and I will still drink hot tea

There are different types of cold meal.

Take your ham salad - what you have described is quite substantial with the potato salad and crusty bread. It’s more balanced than just salad vegetables and ham.

A standard sandwich to me isn’t a decent evening meal. A salad feels more of a meal if you make it more substantial as discussed above.

There have been many discussion on MN about whether soup is an evening meal. I’m the autumn / winter we often have homemade chicken and rice soup or lentil soup with crusty bread for our evening meal. Some people say this is more appropriate for a lunch, yet it is hot and nutritious.

I think there are far more varieties of hot meals too. It conjures up a decent meal, where a cold dinner always sounds and feels more snacks - despite the fact that you cold consume many more calories quite easily on a cold meal (prosciutto ham, olives, crusty bread, cheese etc)

I don't get it either. And I don't get why people assume that a cold meal is always a sandwich or a salad. I make a delicious vegetable cous cous that can be eaten hot or cold. It's the same nutrients either way.

If you CAN give your children more dinner in the evening (after a school hot meal) then yes you should. Some children don't live in homes where this is possible so at least there's one meal a day available thats been balanced and so its hot because parents may not be able to do that. My parents used to know kids who just had a slice of bread and lard for lunch in 1950s. Everyone knew they were poor but it was just the way it was. And some still are like this but a child sent to school with bread and lard would mean questions being asked now.
Its good that hot meals are available for children. Long may it continue. In fact its one of the few things not been cut...which shows how it is valued. Food projects are popping up everywhere because there is such a need to feed people. They offer hot food.

For me it's not the nutritional value but more the having something hot on a cold day. I've literally just switched DS to school lunches today rather than packed lunches now that it's getting colder as something hot is more of a comfort when it's freezing outside. When I was cold this afternoon working I made myself a nice hot chocolate rather than a glass of juice for example

There have been many discussion on MN about whether soup is an evening meal. I’m the autumn / winter we often have homemade chicken and rice soup or lentil soup with crusty bread for our evening meal. Some people say this is more appropriate for a lunch, yet it is hot and nutritious.

• yes, in my house soup is also an evening meal. Homemade, full of veg with pulses and/or chicken - mostly blended - if I were to serve it all up individually as a meal, the kids wouldn’t touch it!

@Opalfeet

Because a hot meal is usually more nutritious with more variety and lots of hot cookedveggies

But it doesn't have to be, we eat many very nutritious cold meals and raw vegetables are better in terms of health than cooked.

Where I grew up it was a cooked dinner, terribly confusing as not all cooked food qualified as a cooked dinner. Basically a cooked dinner meant a roast or definitely meat and 2 veg, so spaghetti bolognese didn't qualify, nor did something with chips or rice.

My Dad claims a hot meal is more filling than a cold meal - cheese on toast is more filling than a cheese sandwich, pasta bake is more filling than a pasta salad etc. I really do not get it.