Why are British women such shit cooks??

[moondog]

I mix with a lot of different people.
Over the years, the women I know who can cook could be counted on one hand (and my mother and sister are two of those.)

Seriously, people haven't got a fucking clue about even the most basic stuff.On the rare occasion I am even invited to eat in someone else's house it is usually inedible slop.

And yet,the tv has nothing but cookery programmes on it,Gordon Ramsey is a househole name and the bookshops burst with glossy tomes that make the best seller list.

Seriously, any ideas???

I'm a very good cook thank you very much!

In fact, today I made a lovely fish, spinach and tomato pie thingie that everyone loved.

These days I make from scratch with fresh ingredients, although I used to be more lazy but now I'm really on a healthy eating mission!

I haven't got time to read the whole thread but I can cook

Is it because we are such good lovers,,,?

Like a previous poster, I only started to cook when I weaned ds1 (I was 26 at the time), he is 4 now and I can make many of the basics from scratch.

It has taken 4 years to learn the basics - mostly through trial and error. I can follow a recipe but it is a slow process because I have to be so careful. What I want to know is, if you havnt spent every hour of your childhood observing your mum or dad cook and you didn't choose food as a career then how do you go about learning to cook as an adult - particulary all those useful little tips like why a sauce splits and how to avoid it .

Good point Raggy.
A good cook has usually accrued years of expertise without realising it.
I think those of us who like and can cook maybe forget how mysterious and terrifying it is when you have no background/interest.

Rather like my terror when faced with a mobile phone or computer game i would imagine.

I sometimes watched my mum cook, but never really did any cooking when I lived at home. Then apent 3 years in a university hall of residence where most meals were provided, so didn't need to know how to cook until I was in my early 20s. I knew a little bit from watching my mum, but learned most of it from Delia Smith's complete cookery course book, which has most of the basics, including times for roasting meat, pastry, most of the usual sauces etc.

Raggydoll - I learnt quite a bit from being around my mother while she was cooking (and shopping - shopping is a huge, underrated skill IMO), a bit more from cookery books (Marguerite Patten's Step-by-Step and later Constance Spry), did a two-month cookery course in Italy when I was 18 and then have just continued adding to that base I acquired before I left home. I could certainly cater healthily for myself on a budget when I went to University.

So yes, I would agree that learning to cater from scratch as an adult is quite a major skill to acquire. I'm glad I got it out of the way early on.

Agree with shopping being a real skill too.

I learned to cook when I was very young at home - it became a real passion quite early on (I still have a very battered copy of the Kitchen Wizard - my first ever cookery book). My sister, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with it, but suddenly discovered cooking when she had children. I now get many phonecalls asking for tips, and telling me in detail what she's making!
The ability to cook, and in particular to bake, got me out of a lot of washing up and bathroom cleaning when sharing a flat as a student...

LoveAngelGabriel - I have never read any Blue Nun - is it a Richard & Judy "Good Read"?

Oh, Raggydoll - Leith's Techniques Bible is great for picking up tips, and has useful "what has gone wrong when.." bits at the end of each section.

Actually moondog I'm inclined to agree with you. At work recently we had an international lunch. My department is pretty international so we all brought something from our home country. I'd had a really busy week so I flung together a pumpkin and dahl soup the night before. It's not particularly Kiwi, but something I can do with a raging migraine and a child clinging to my leg. To my surprise I was the only woman who had actually cooked. The rest had bought something in from the shop. The men, most of whom are Asian, got their wives to make something (boy, those women are fabulous cooks)

I remember the look on dh's face when he came home from a Saturday morning at work to find me teaching dd, aged 18 months, how to make cheese scones. It was a similar look to the one he gave me when the car didn't start one morning and I popped the bonnet and got it working.

A friend of mine thinks it's because we are the children of the depression children. My parents had a real make do and mend mentality which was instilled into us at an early age. Kiwis, and to a lesser extend Australians, were fairly isolated until recently. The cheap, year round availability of food wasn't really something we grew up with. Consequently we all learnt how to bake, preserve and cook seasonally. Pre-prepared food was just too expensive.

moondog - maybe this question should be related to the quality of life in the uk generally.

when we were in britain, I was working all hours and we had very little money, I would end up rushing round tesco, not able to spend a lot of money.

fruit and veg would come from our fab corner shop, but otherwise I'd be stuck with the same old stuff week in week out. I couldnt afford stuff like herbs and spices, or bacon or other useful things most of the time.
The meat was v boring, any nice stuff is so expensive. And british meat just doesnt taste right anyway.

It's hard to be a good cook if you havent got time or money. Either will do on its own, but without both, you are struggling imo.

Moondog - can I hijack and point you towards this thread - if I'm right in thinking you're a SALT?

Well I can dispel that right now.

My grandmother was a good cook, very traditional but did all her cooking from scratch. My mother is a lazy git who buys micro-chips.

I cook from scratch and refuse to have a microwave. I have cookbooks and love making good meals that people enjoy. As does my sister. I also bake cakes and biscuits and stuff.

You can't say that everyone is shit at cooking just because you know people who live off takeaways. You ought to widen your social circle if that's the case. We're not all the same you know.

thanks for the book advice habbibu - sounds like what I need. Its disheartening when things go wrong but just plain annoying when you don't know why .

Raggydoll, I started a new thread with you in mind, but it's not got too far yet: here. All you hardcore cooks on this thread - come and share your favourite books.