To feel that sad that basic cooking skills are dying out

[SingleDoubleWhippedClotted]

Me and my brother were taught to cook by my gran and mum. Dad used to cook too but worked away a lot so wasn't around as much.

So many people now seem to be incapable of basic food prep and spend a fortune on food. Cooking seems to be an undervalued life skill, I think its so important to have the skills to be able to prepare simple cheap healthy meals.

I have taught my teen to cook and she could fend for herself if she left home tomorrow. She can cook healthy cheap meals.

I see so many threads on here where people can't boil rice, boil an egg etc

My mum tried her damnedest to inspire me into enjoying cooking but as I was such an oppositional little toad it just made me resent cooking more. Now in my thirties I've discovered I enjoy it, purely because I've had so many disappointing takeaways in my twenties and wanted to be able to eat delicious food every night!

For anyone wanting a good curry, I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Madhur-Jaffreys-Ultimate-Curry-Bible/dp/0091874157

I think some obstacles to cooking today involve:

• upfront costs of stocking up spices/herbs/canned goods etc (hint: you don't need all the ingredients! Feel free to look up substitutes for ingredients you don't have, or modify recipes to avoid buying something for just one dish)
• anxiety about getting the dish wrong or putting effort in for a mediocre outcome (hint: it takes a few times of making a dish to calibrate it to your personal preference, write down your modifications on the recipe book/card so you remember for next time!)
• feeling time poor (nb: I've found that cooking from scratch still takes less time than the average delivery, however obviously isn't as easy as throwing a pizza into the oven)

To everyone who thinks the OP is talking nonsense….

Im in my 40’s. Grew up on very healthy home cooking (both parents cooked). I have children. I have degrees and a professional career.

I don’t cook “from scratch” very much! Partly because I’m time poor but MAINLY because I lack confidence. It’s very annoying to space over something for half an hour only for it to not taste that nice.

I can cook various things well (my dc are eating risotto as I type - while in front of a cartoon I’m afraid). But cheese sauce is tricky (I don’t know why?!?) and so my macaroni cheese often goes wrong.

Baking is easy (for me). But even easy things like dahl often don’t taste great when I make them.

And I’m one of the old people who actually had cookery lessons at school!

But yeah, I’d actually benefit from a basics cooking course. Wondering about taking my children to one “for their benefits” (but really also for mine).

So OP, I believe you and I see this all the time anecdotally with people on low incomes who I work with. But us middle class people can be clueless too (I think a main problem for me is we have a variety of allergies in our house and some quite fussy eaters too - lasagne for example would not be popular with my children (although they love the ingredients separately)

I was a member of WI for a couple of years. All the others were more than 60 years old. Most of them had hardly any cooking skills. They did a cooking course for the WI members where they learned to roast a chicken ffs. I thought it would be a new an exciting recipe but it was as basic as can be. So happy I had other plans that day.

You know the cooking skills the staff had in that series where Jamie Oliver tried to ensure that school lunches were healthy food? Where most of them didn't even know how to slice veggies for a salad? Normal in Britain amongst people of all ages. My kids have had several friends who were surprised that we cook from scratch 95% of the time because their parents never ever did. Never ever. Never ever is normal in Britain.

So please don't start making up stories about young people "these days" don't know how to cook. Obviously neither did young people 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago.

And before anyone start: No we didn't and don't live in a low income area with lots of social problems.

I'm under no illusion that it's uncommon for people never to cook from scratch. What I find odd is how many people apparently would like to, but throw up their hands and say 'Sadly, I never learned, so I don't have the skills'. You can teach yourself pretty much anything from recipe books, and especially YouTube or even bloody TikTok. You don't have to start with complicated or expensive things.

Surely the vast majority of competent home cooks are mostly self-taught, even if they started off with a few pointers from their mum or in school?

@AllProperTeaIsTheft Exactly! It isn't exactly quantum mechanics!

Nonsense, loads watch a tik tok or YouTube or one of the billion programs on TV. People may be choosing to not cook and outsourcing, which I do during the week because it saves me time.

It is cheaper to outsource some evening meals, it saves me head space, planning and prep time and amd ensures portion control.

My 16 year old can cook very well and the ten year old lad is getting there. Most of the eldest year do home economics and our together a vegan treat cook book as part of their enterprise module.

Maybe not, but if you've never learned then it's not something that's necessarily very easy to start - it costs money (especially if it goes wrong), it takes time and it's generally easier to stick something in the oven than it is to admit that you can't cook pasta or rice.

I also think it's easy to sit and say "it's really not hard" when you're lucky enough to be one of those who were taught by your parents.

I'm not saddened by anecdotal evidence that some people can't cook and it's somehow different from the way things were in the good old days.

Macaroni cheese is really quick if you use evaporated milk. Literally cook pasta, drain and throw milk and grated cheese in along with any seasoning etc you like.

evaporated milk? Won’t it be sweet? My DM used evaporated milk to make rice pudding/ over tinned fruit (showing my WC life).
I sometimes use single cream but normally use cornflour and milk( a Delia recipe) and plenty of cheese.

I was wondering that…but nigellla has a recipe for it….

Are you sure you're not confusing evaporated milk with condensed milk? Evaporates milk isn't especially sweet. Condensed milk is.

I'm good at deconstructed omelettes.

No my DM never ever used condensed milk for anything. I once boiled the tin as a teenager for caramel.
No her recipe (remember WC) tin evaporated milk, then fill tin with water. Rice then a couple of spoons of sugar (not much) then grated nutmeg. Served with a spoonful of jam. We use to fight over the skin. Still make with same recipe but fill tin with milk.

My kids can cook....

I know people who spend a fortune on ready meals etc. It is not a lack of cooking skills... it is a lack of time, or issues with executive function.

I can cook though I’m self taught largely - I can’t make a tasty cheese sauce though so am now going to try the nigella recipe mentioned above … good ole mumsnet 👍

Precisely!

The whole thing is a huge stress to me. No satisfaction at all. Waste of time and resources for one lousy meal. I’d much rather spend the time knitting, where I get results that give me use and satisfaction for years. (I notice knitters and crocheters of my acquaintance don’t say “if you can read/watch a video you can knit/crochet” or sneer at those who can’t do it.)

Hmm, this thread is a bit "all the 'poor' people who don't know how to cook"

But it's naive to think everyone could cook in the past. My mum was a fantastic cook, and she taught me. I was shocked to discover that my gran was a very average cook and it turned out it was my Dad that had taught my Mum how to cook (who could burn a fray bentos pie when they married), he'd learned out of necessity when he left home!

Similar, @PianPianPiano. My grandmother had to cook for twelve during the Depression and Mum remembered her as a lousy cook. Mum only learned when she got married.

Not the point of this sanctimonious thread but this has really made me want to go out and buy findus crispy pancakes tomorrow.

My mum taught me a lot. I’m not an adventurous cook but can make a lot of the basics. My boys have learnt to cook from me and will happily batch cook for the freezer so Have learnt about portion sizes etc and like to try out new things.

I don't think op is judging. It is sad that more people are less connected to the actual food and often opt for something semi/ ready made, with all the added non food in it (additives, etc). Somebody mentioned stir fry's, great... But what percentage of people buy the bundle ingredients - chopped veg, pre cooked noodles and ready made sauce- rather than make it all from scratch? If upf's are as unhealthy as recent research shows we are all in huge trouble.

As a contrast, my mum called today and asked me at ten amwhat have I cooked for today (!). Bless her. She starts her day with a menu in her head and she spends a lot of her day cooking/ prepping. I realised it's because her fridge is not full with lots. She literally has a small pantry and only in-season veg, meat in the freezer, some diary and lots of eggs (lives on a farm). She does need to be creative every day and it is a huge part of her life. Not what I'd want for myself but I get her.

I can cook certain meals where most ingredients are from "scratch" i.e roast dinners, curries, casseroles, lasagne, spag bol etc, etc

However, no idea how to make scrambled or poached egg, or make bread. And don't intend to learn how to make these things.

Still wait for the op to link to the numerous threads on incompetent egg boilers that are making them sad