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

And you know that’s not what this thread, or that comment, is about. It’s about general cooking standards.

I agree with this. I can only cook really basic meals. I wish I had been educated when younger on seasonings and different foods.

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

Except you don't.

I've been MN for 16 years, and I'm always on food threads. I don't recognise your statement at all.

I've long said there should be a Just Bragging section on MN, where people can just spout on about how brilliant they/their offspring are, without having shoehorn it all into a thread.

With all the things going on in the world, this isn't something I feel sad about.
I find cooking a chore like vacuuming or washing dishes.
It's fine if you like it, but equally you don't have to

I taught myself to cook as my mother was at work most nights and I had to feed my siblings.
I taught them too.
I've worked as a cook.
I'm teaching my daughter to cook.

My sons are great cooks ( in their 20s). They use YouTube, bbc good food recipes and other online recipes. Maybe they learned because I was such a rubbish cook! But they often just don’t have time to cook.

The point is that young people are often time poor which is why they resort to ready meals, kits, deliveries etc. When both of you are working, you’ve got young kids, house, hobbies, cooking is something that gets outsourced.

Or if you’re living in a shared house you’ve got no storage, so store cupboard basics and perhaps limited kitchen utensils, pans etc.

Anyone can follow a recipe or even instructions a pack of rice. But life gets in the way sometimes.

You can learn!

This is a great website, there's a video and notes on every recipe and you can adjust for how many people you are feeding
I've never had one of his recipes go wrong

www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk

Unless OP knows everyone’s health history, she has no place judging whether someone just can’t cook or is unable to cook for some reason 🙄

You are never too old to learn. You could look on line, watch TV shows, get a cookery book from the library.

It wasn’t the OP and she wasn’t commenting in people who have reasons not to be able to cook. The actual OP is about general levels of cooking skills.

I wasn't taught how to cook as such by my parents, I just got into it once I started living by myself. It's not exactly rocket science. My teens know how to cook basic meals and I'm sure they'll learn more once they have to.

I'm not sure where you're getting this from OP. It's never been easier to learn to cook. The young ones at my workplace are always trying out things they've seen on SM.

I feel sad for you. Sad you have such friends who can't cook. It's so sad you have to give them your sadness. In real life away from the sadness I don't know anyone who can't cook to some extent. In fact everyone seems a lot better than me. Yabu. I feel sad for you.

But it’s not based on anything except some random idea she has that loads of people can’t boil an egg 🤷‍♀️

I think there are endless resources available. TikTok is really good for this- loads of feed a family for a fiver simple recipes etc. when I was young there were student cookbooks that were similar. There are endless free recipes for everything you can google.

I learnt some but not a lot from my parents. But I was well paid and time poor so takeaways/ eating out were the go to. Then lockdown and living somewhere with no deliveries and no ready meals and lots of time changed everything. Now I can cook most things I want and I have the confidence to try others or make subs in recipes. I don't think you need mega knowledge or skills to cook moderately well, and actually knowing a few bases that you like- a basic curry, chilli, etc etc whatever is fine. I've found it very liberating to be able to knock up a curry and naan in the time it would take a takeaway to deliver!

From the people I meet who are desperate to make ends meet, who are in debt, who have never been taught how to do basic things and don't have the confidence or ability to read a recipe or follow videos on you tube.
Microwave rice, jars of pasta sauce etc cost so much more money.

I was taught to cook in school. Did ‘ Home Economics’ to O Level… I am that old.

But I learned the basics of cooking that means I can pretty much rustle up a meal out of very little and cook from scratch every evening. Saves us a huge amount of money

Again. Yes. The OP is talking nonsense. Don’t see how that’s relevant to the fact that generally people can follow a recipe if they can read.

I find this argument hard to get behind in the age of TikTok

This isn't really true. I've been abroad for a few years, but last time I Iived in the UK you could get a ready meal for just over a pound. Bread can also be quite cheap and not require any cooking.

The person I quoted stated that anyone who could read would be able to cook, I’m not sure why that means we aren’t allowes to acknowledge the existence of people with disabilities.

OK. Make every single thread about that. The Op is clearly not talking about people who have a reason not to be able to cook, and that’s what the post referred to.

I can’t boil eggs, well I can but I can’t get the shells off. Tried every trick and still shell is stuck on. Unless old, fresh no chance.

It takes me a long time to cook only a few minutes to eat. I learnt to cook myself influenced by food I enjoyed in restaurants and got the recipe online. I wasn't brilliant straight away , but I found that I enjoyed cooking and kept going. Soon, my repeated failures became skills. It took years of progress until I could could something decent. Not everyone enjoys cooking or just give up after the first few failures.

Jamie Oliver showed me how to do this (on TV, he didn't pop round to my kitchen).

Gentle roll the egg on a work surface until the whole shell is cracked all over. Then it peels off easily enough.