to think that people should be able to cook?

[bobbytorq]

I've been lsitening to radio 2 this morning and Joanna Scanlan is on ans she said she made a roux for the first time recently and found it hard work. I make a roux often and it's really easy and my kids have been making them since they were 10/11 too. It made me think that there musrt be loads of people who just don't have the cooking basics.

Well obviously yanbu but if you’re brought up on a diet of chicken dippers and waffles then you’re not going to know how to make your own sauce from scratch are you?

Hardly any of my friends can properly
cook which I think is a shame but they’re all alive and not malnourished so obviously doesn't really matter that much in the real world.

Oh big whup. I make roux out the wazoo but I've never darned a sock or wired a plug. We've all got our failings.

Well obviously everyone should, I don’t think anyone would disagree that cooking skills are important. But sometimes it’s more complicated - how you were raised, culture, if you grew up in poverty and so didn’t learn how to make decent meals every night, if you’re disabled and struggle with the chopping/cutting etc, if you have a complicated relationship with food etc.

Some people didn’t learn when they were younger and are intimidated to start, others just feel they don’t need to if they’re happy with instant food. It’s great you started teaching your kids from a young age but that’s not the case for everyone.

It's a skill you nees to learn and some.people have a better feel for it than others. It's not something routinely taught in schools anymore to any great standard.

Having shelves full of ingredients you use once in a while and a cupboard full of cookware is something reserved for the better off. Being able to leave a casserole in an oven for 3 hours is a thing of the past from a cost of living perspective. Being able to buy cookbooks or even watch TV programmes isn't easy if you're cash and time poor.

And I suspect that many people reading this will have been 'making a roux' for yards without necessarily knowing that's what it's called

If someone can't or doesn't cook, then their children won't learn from them.

Using your example of a roux... the first time I did it, it went wrong. But having seen my dad do it many times, I knew it should be possible, so I tried again. Now its something I do without thinking.
My dad had to relearn after being diagnosed with coeliac disease, as it feels different with GF flour or cornflour.

If you are short on money or unsure about it, its harder to try.

Its easy to say that kids should learn at school. My DD in Yr7 has had Food tech this past term and I've been impressed. But they only do things once. Shes go one to repeat some recipes at home, so has improved her skills at them. But the kid who did it once and not since won't remember.

Premium mumsnet to judge people for not being able to make a roux.

People have different skills.

I kind of agree tbh. If you can't cook, you're either eating crap (and spending more) or depending on someone else to cook for you, neither of those are good options.

Making a roux sounds fancy but it's just the starter for gravy, right? Not that posh

My thoughts exactly

I've never even heard of a roux.

A roux is a white sauce. I make it all the time as a base for meals. Loads of people can’t cook for a whole host of reasons, I won’t judge them for it.

Roux is just the flour, butter and milk base for things like cheese sauce.

Yanbu but you will get proper "but" Olympics here.
Most of my immigrant friends and I still can't get our heads over the fact that unlike in many other countries (maaany) including our native ones, only "well off" people here can apparently cook and afford to cook. It's the other way around nearly everywhere. No way could my family afford ready meals and takeaways!

Not learning when someone was a child is also not a stopper. I mean we would never know most things then, wouldn't we.

Not being able to make a roux is hardly s measure of whether or not you can cook. Lots of people may not even eat food in a white sauce.

Roux can also be brown used in other sauces. It's a thickener used quite widely

Absolutely! My mum is an amazing cook, and her mum even better. Unfortunately mum decided that my education was more important and didn't teach me, so now I have no idea how to cook traditional meals for my gradmothers native country. Ironically my mum being progressive has not done me any favours. My cousins are all the same!

Well ideally yes, people should be able to cook, but there are all sorts of reasons why it's not that surprising that many people can't. There's really no need to be smug or judgmental about it.

Fwiw I don't really think teaching it more in schools would help that much. People either learn to cook at home when they're growing up, or choose to learn later as adults. Or they don’t, because it's not a priority for them.

I did home economics at school and my mum was a pretty good cook. Neither of those things actually taught me to cook though - I taught myself as an adult because I like good food and so I had the motivation.

People who claim they just can't learn to cook or follow a recipe are talking bollocks though (barring disabilities etc). Anyone can cook if they want to learn.

Making a roux is not the only measure of ability to cook. I don't think my husband can make one (I mean, he obviously could - he could look it up on the internet and then do it) and he isn't massively in to cooking but he can cook a number of things from scratch.

I do loads of cooking with my 10 year old daughter, but that is only because she really enjoys it. I wouldn't insist if she wasn't in to it. I left home without being able to cook anything at all, and consider myself a fairly decent home cook now.

It's not rocket science. Very easy to teach yourself anything about cooking you want to know, as long as you have access to the internet. Much harder for those who don't,of course.

Also agree there is a financial element to cooking from scratch. Tho each individual meal might turn out cheaper, you have to be able to make the initial investment in the different types of pans, different seasonings you might need to make stuff taste nice, etc etc..

I did three years of home economics at school, years 7-9. We learnt the basics of nutrition, cooking and sewing.

On the basis of an hour a week for those three years, I cook from scratch every day, make all my own curtains and soft furnishings and know how to keep ds healthy. I can repair our clothes, making them last much longer. I can make clothes if necessary.

Those lessons have saved me thousands over the years. The difference between just one set of decent ready made curtains and making them myself is probably £500. I've never been overweight or wasted money on "slimming" foods. I can avoid some price rises by knowing what to substitute.

Those skills are essential for anyone without a helpful mum.

Not everyone enjoys cooking. I do, and I was lucky enough to have a Mum who was a trained cook, so I enjoy the entire process, from planning, shopping, cooking and, of course, eating.
I'd like to think if anyone I know wants to learn but isn't confident, they'd ask me and I could pass my skills on, but I don't blame them if they're not interested or don't have time. We're fortunate that there are healthy, easy alternatives these days.

If I was forced too I could if I absolutely had too, I am forever grateful my husband does 99% of it while I happily do other things

A roux would not be my measure of basic cooking. I'd say it's more intermediate as it's often combined with other cooking stages and can curdle easily, so requires monitoring and technique.

A tomato based sauce to make something like bolognese is simpler and a more basic skill. That's more transferable to make things like simple curries.

The majority of people should have the competency to cook a range of healthy meals covering the key food groups (time is another issue) but some people with conditions that affect executive function or co-ordination may struggle.

You can't pick out one skill and use that as a benchmark.
Eldest DD barely uses the 'old fashioned/classic' cooking techniques that I taught her but cooks light, vegetable and meat low carb meals mostly.
When my parents got married (in the 60s) she was from a rural farming family: lots of eggs and seasonal veg , pies and cobblers and meat left in the aga all day cooked to within an inch of its life. My father on the other hand was living with friends in the city and they ate steak and chops with boiled potatoes and grilled tomatoes.
So he taught her to make a rare steak, she taught him to scramble eggs and make pastry. If you have never needed to make a roux, why would you learn?

I consider myself a good cook, I can cook meals from scratch, make my own pastry, sauces , bread, and so on but I cannot make a decent custard or decent poached egg.

There are lots of reasons why people might not be able to cook, but I think a lot of it comes down to how you were brought up, your preferred diet (which is linked to upbringing) and your finances.

Imagine you were not brought up in a home where cooking was the norm and you lived on frozen food. You have very little budget yourself to spend on food and have followed the same pattern as your parents. You are aware that your diet is not the healthiest and that cooking from scratch would probably be better, but you fear that your kids won't like what you cook and that it will end up in the bin, wasting precious resources you can't spare. You also worry that you will mess it up, so it will taste awful and again it will end up in the bin. You google a recipe and find that the recipe calls for lots of ingredients you don't have, like herbs or spices. The cost per portion might be low because you only use a tiny amount but can you afford the initial outlay for all the ingredients, knowing that if everyone hates it or it goes wrong, you won't make it again?

Lots of people are also refusing things like potatoes from the food bank as they can't afford to cook them. Just saying.