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

I recommend Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Cookery. It isn't a recipe book as such it teaches you about cooking techniques and things like what the terms mean. Where different cuts of meat come from, the difference between types of rice etc.

I had mine from the 1980s I think, then a fiend 'borrowed' it and I bought it again.

I do think cook books / recipe books have changed. I have a very dogeared old M and S book, again from the 1980s and the main difference between it and more modern books is that it uses the occasional packet or tin.

I remember in the 1970s there being books issued by manufacturers, often small paperback books all using whatever they were selling, so Stork or Bero.

I learned to cook from the Bero book. My mum was a very good cook but went on strike in her 50s so it was ready meals (just starting then), find us crispy pancakes or cook.

I’m a good cook now, quite enjoy it, watch food programmes or you tube, lived in houseshares with good cooks and picked up tips. Taught my husband to cook.

@fieldsofbutterflies My DH's parents didn't even teach him how to boil a potato. When he moved away from them he bought a cook book. When I met him three months later he was very good at cooking.

Food price inflation has made the consequences being unable to cook more severe.

It’s possible to live entirely on ready made food and still maintain good health if you have a decent budget to buy in meals made with good quality ingredients. I can cook but I bought in some meals when I had a high paid job with long hours that made me time poor. So I do understand that.

But a lot of families now don’t have enough budget to buy in good quality ready to eat food, so end up cutting other expenses, such as not using the heating, or buying the kinds of foods that will cause future health problems.

It reminds me of all the threads about husbands who think they can cook but apparently can’t.

just because someone can (on paper) follow a recipe and get a meal on the table, doesn’t mean it’s actually decent or edible 😉

I feel like the OP just wanted us all to say well done, you're an excellent cook and you're a saint for teaching the poor to do it too.

I recommend this recipe for quick macaroni cheese:

https://www.seriouseats.com/ingredient-stovetop-mac-and-cheese-recipe

I add nutmeg, cayenne pepper and a knob of butter to mine.

I'm surprised at the examples of rice and eggs because I feel like 'vegan chickpea curry with rice' and 'poached eggs with avocado on sourdough toast' are the sort of things people cook now. Along with everyone making thier own hummus and baking banana bread.
People still cook it's just not all roast dinners any more.

I do think school cooking is weird. My Y5 daughter had to bring in ingredients to make a sandwich and that was one of her lessons. It surprised me a 9/10 year old wouldn’t already know how to do basic bits of cooking particularly after the lockdowns when they were stuck at home with parents for weeks on end

@Temushopper

I started high school the same day as my cousin and next door neighbour.

At my school we made something like date crispies or buns or something. My cousin made a piece of toast and a cup of tea.

The next door neighbour at the same school as my cousin made a sandwich.

You would think children would already be able to do those things but if you are from a family where sandwiches are not part of the culture and you have had school dinners you might not have those skills.

You may well have other skills though.

Practice makes perfect...dont leave all the burden to your partner... You will be undesteroux if you never practice ....

Just adding to this, I'm dyspraxic and clumsy too - just take things slow and be kind to yourself, don't rush (speed comes naturally the more you do something). Everyone is crap at chopping veggies when they first start, then they get better - I promise!

Try to start with one-pot recipes, preferably stuff that takes a while to simmer. Multi-pan meals, oven recipes, and fried meals are the enemy of someone new to cooking as it's either a lot happening all at once, it all happens too fast/can burn easily, or you have no chance to adapt and modify after you get started.

At least with a simmering pot you get to taste the food as it cooks and adjust the salt levels etc until you like what it tastes like.

I agree. Quietly judgemental people running classes in church halls sounds an unappealing way to learn. There are a ton of free cooking resources online.

Agree with all this.

I’m a fairly confident cook but DIY is my nemesis. My tip is to find tools that make whatever you find challenging easier. For instance, I have weak wrists and fingers, so an electric screwdriver was a good investment. It feels counter intuitive for someone without much interest to invest in gadgets but for me, it was a game changer.

If chopping is something you struggle with, for example, would a food processor be useful? See if a friend will lend you one to try out.

The thing with "practise makes perfect" is it costs time and money to practise, and most people aren't going to bother if there's a risk that the end result will be completely inedible or wasted.

Ain't that the truth!

I still remember how bad the one and only sponge cake I made (at school, when we had to) was. It was on the solid side.

I can cook basic meals of stuff i like but have no interest in learning more or care if ive covered xyz on a health basis - taste, time and convenience are top 3 considerations
I hate cooking and i mean hate it, its tedious, boring, messy and i have little interest in food. When i cook, i lose my appetite, sick of looking at it by time its ready

Takeaway is cooked for me, value wise works out cheaper for many things with just 3 of us and me and dd have a tiny appetite as it is and little mess
We dont like leftovers
We eat based on what we feel like, not what will make use of stuff in pantry and eating something just cos its there

I don't know why op is getting a hard time. Don't let comments here get you down op. What you're doing is so needed. People here don't actually know what it's like for some families or even some communities.

There are lots of people who don't know how to cook at all. They think it's something that's really difficult.
They consider cooking to be putting frozen foods in the oven or boiling pasta to eat with hot dogs.
I've heard comments from people that they think making home made pasta sauce means you must be on a level with Gordon Ramsey. I've heard children wishing that their parent would make meals like spaghetti bolognese because that's what they've heard other families do.
It's no judgement on the parents because they are where they are due to their circumstances but don't be naive in thinking this isn't going on.
Any yes, it is sad. It's a small thing but can make a massive difference to some peoples health, well-being and outcomes.

Two words: frozen mash.

Other than frozen mash the way I make sausage and mash.

Chop the potatoes without peeling and put in a pan with salt and boiling water. I sometimes use a mix of potato and parsnips. Other veg can go in a steamer over the pan.

Get a frying pan, add a small amount of fat and your sausages. I like onion gravy so I put onion in at the same time. Frozen chopped onions are as good as fresh.

Brown the sausages on all sides, then add some flour to the pan, stir in with a wooden spoon and add boiling water and a stock cube to make gravy.

Leave to simmer so the gravy thickens a little.

Get a glass of wine.

When the potatoes are ready drain them and mash in the pan (mash or use a ricer or a stick blender).

Serve.

Raised on UPFs with a mother who didn’t really cook and taught myself. Tonight’s dinner: chicken breast, mushrooms, frozen spinach, chicken stock cube, onion granules, garlic granules, black pepper, double cream. Plus potatoes air fried with a bit of unsalted butter. (Not a professional food photographer!)

I think there are those that can cook but are time poor, those that deny being able to cook but make little effort and expect others to do it for them and there are those that were not taught cooking skills but are blessed with resilience and perseverance and taught themselves.

My school cooking classes were diabolical. DC classes were much better, they had a very good teacher and learnt how to make stir fries and more modern cuisine. My DC have always been in the kitchen with me and can cook for themselves, as can their friends. However I am aware of people who do not cook from scratch. They do exist but with the advent of the internet/popular cooking shows and both sexes expected to be able to cook the numbers are greatly reduced.

We had open/Scandinavian sandwich in the first year of secondary and this was almost 40 years ago!