what recipes do kid NEED to be taught at school

[FluffyMummy123]

Message withdrawn

colditz - my sister has done cooking with the children in her sons' class. Her children's schools (IB curriculum all through) are very up for suggestions to enrich the timetable. Just try it - say "Can I come in and make X-recipe with the children one day"? And see what the school says.

I find it depressing that they were talking about parents who don't have the skills to teach their children to cook.

No one at all taught me how to cook. I learnt on the job when I was nannying and now I am a pretty good cook and I love to make meals.

Pasta plus cheese, bolognaise, tomato and variations sauces
Rice as risotto and boiled
Potatoes boiled, mashed, baked and roasted
using meat other than minced beef
Economical ways of stretching food
Construction of balanced meals on a budget

I only did one term of cookery at secondary school as it was pish. As a working mum, my mother had firm views on learning to cook to feed yourself. DHs mothers cooking is awful, so he learned quickly too.

I used to go into the infants school to make the Birthday cake - basically a cake for the kids whose birthdays it was in the coming week. I used 2 kids to help with measuring/weighing/mixing and 2 to help ice/chuck loads of sprinkles on. Then at assembly the next day the 4 who helped had a portion of cake along with the birthday kids. This lovely idea was stopped a year or so ago by the food police - a portion of iced homemade cake is not healthy.

colditz's list is fabulous but not going to be feasible in one term is it?

oh yes sparkybabe I have taken cakes into nursery for the last 6 years to celebrate one of my children's birthdays but this final year (DD will be leaving in the summer) I have to buy a cake because it must have a best before date on. The fact that mine will have been made the day before whereas the preservative laden one at Asda might have been sat on the shelf for weeks is apparently not relevent.

I was thinking more of the whole of year 7 being turned over to it, actually, with refreshers and additions up to year 11. They are all important skills for not being fat and poor - probably a greater contributer than, say graphic design or geography.

I learned to cook by starting with cakes.

If you can bake a cake, you can follow a recipe. All you really need to be able to do to cook is follow a recipe and tell the time.

But I'm all in favour of them doing cookery.

Haven't read the whole thread. I would do -

1. a lesson on mince - ie mince, onion - show them how starting with this you can add tomatoes/mushrooms and make a bolognese; add tomatoes, can of kidney beans, chili powder and make chili con carne; add a bit of flour, stock top with potato and make a cottage pie, etc

1. a lesson on chicken. Make sure they know how to cook chicken properly until it is actually cooked. Show them how to do a roast chicken supper in a single pan in half an hour using whole chicken legs, potatoes, carrots and roasting in olive oil. Tell them that roasting a whole chicken is just as easy but takes longer, tell them how to check it is cooked.

1. a lesson based on a cheese sauce. Show them how to make a bechamel, turn it into a cheese sauce, and then how to: mix it with cooked macaroni for macaroni cheese; use it with a mince mixture and lasagne pieces to make lasagna; use it for a vegetable gratin; tell them that if they mix it with flaked fish and top with potato it is a fish pie.

1. Alternatives to the potato. Show them how to cook rice, pasta, noodles. As part of that lesson I'd show them how to stir fry and how quick, easy and infinitely variable a way of producing food it can be.

1. Eggs. I'd show them how to scramble eggs, make an omelette, make egg mayonnaise for sandwiches. I'd also teach them how easy it is to make meringues, if they ever want to really impress someone with a pudding they can make weeks in advance and keep in a tin! And show them how to whip cream and top with fruit to make a pavlova.

1. Vegetables. I think a lot of children have a limited exposure to vegetables. I'd introduce them to lots of different kinds and different ways of eating them. I'd show them how to cut up courgettes, peppers, aubergines and onions to make mixed roasted vegetables; I'd introduce them to the concept of steaming rather than boiling; and I'd show them how incredibly quick and easy it is to make any kind of vegetable soup.

Think that's it. Obviously all of this would be done in the context of nutrition, portion control and the benefits of using and eating food which is as little processed and as close to nature as possible....

now off to read the rest of the thread!

don't joke fio, our first "dom sci" lesson at school was making a packet blancmange. our second was "welsh rarebit" aka cheese on toast.
sad

[thank you aitch - we all seem to have a consensus on this thread, maybe mumsnet should write the curriculum! although I disagree re pastry - I don't think they need any more fat in their lives generally speaking, think they should be taught things they can use to feed themselves/family easily every day, and can learn how to make pastry at a later date. Ditto sponge cakes)

popcorn. they should all know how to make popcorn. so much healthier than crisps etc.

maybe we should send the thread to Gordon? i never did home economics but my mum could cook so i was fine. wasn't someone saying on here the other day that their child was told to bring some pasta and a jar of Ragu to their home economics class? i was really .

The first thing I learned to cook was scrambled eggs on toast and how to make a cup of tea.

then Coconut pyramids
Scones
Rock cakes
Sponges (with and without fat) including a victoria sponge and a swiss roll.
pastry (cheese straws and a plate jam tart)
Boiled cakes....gingerbread
Rice pudding
Bread
Salads (totaly tasteless and pointless)
Stews

TBH i don't think that you nead to teach them that many techniques. Most of those you can pick up over time.

More what makes a basic meal, what goes with what, how much of different food types do you nead each day, how to cook on a limited budget.

How to be logical and follow the instructions.

The rest sort of comes, I think

When I was at school we did cookery for 3 years were taught how to make

Different kinds of pastry (learnt about fat/flour ratios etc)
Victoria sponge cake
A couple of puddings, including crumble
Liver & bacon
Mashed potato
Cooked breakfast
Roux

Loads more but I can't remember. Even now I use some of those basic techniques.

Cooking is just as much about being able to follow instructions, how to manage time, and bit of science as being able to feed yourself.

Mercy, cross posted, but I agree with you. We also did choux pastry. and how to make white sauce

I went into school to help with a flapjack making class, the teacher (dep head, very experienced) held up several spoons and asked both of us helpers which one was a tablespoon (she ahd guessed the teaspoon).

FGS!

Agree with Colditz's list, actually. Why eggs and fish are the best fast food' would be a good one as well I think.

I wish they'd brought this in pre my degree- i'd have loved to teach this - bang up my street (well with one gluten free and 3 dary free family members, you get good at it LOL)

Oh and probably a lesson on how to survive of £5 a day (good soups etc) for their student days

Peachy, I really learned to cook preperly when I was a student. Its amazing how eating the stuff you've messed up, because you are out of cash, sharpens your ability!

Yes, the cost of food and how to cook to a budget would be a good idea. Also basic nutrition.

I can't understand why cooking lessons were phased out in the first place tbh. I went to a grammar school and those lessons were considered just as valid as English or Maths.

There should also be lessons on how to cook pulses properly and ideas for meat free meals which aren't meat substitute + potatoes + 2 veg.
There should be lessons on how to assemble quick meals from only a few basic ingredients. A lot of people nowadays don't want to/can't spend hours slaving in the kitchen so we need to teach healthy home made "fast" food to offset the reliance on ready meals.
There should be lessons on how to cook pasta properly, soggy pasta is the pits

I got taught how to make scones, cauliflower cheese (when caulis were not in season) and meat loaf (we're veggie). OK, it was the 70s/early 80s but still.

hell yes, eating what you can't afford to replace when you screw up provides a VERY strong negative reinforcer!

All the girls in our school had to do needlework for a year and cookery for a year (the boys did woodwork and metalwork, it was in the sexist 70s!)

In form 3 (Y9) you could pick 2 practical subjects and I chose cookery and music.
both of which I still enjoy.

Far too much of school 'cookery' has got wroapped up in Food technology. My cousin teaches it, and loathes the fact that she doesn't have enough time for 'real' cookery.

I like pph's idea. For the mince lesson, one group could make a chilli, another a sapg bol, another meatloaf or burgers or whatever.... or would this be expecting too much of the teacher?

I hated needlework!

I quite liked doing cross-stitch and embroidery though. Towards the end of the year, we ended up bringing in our jeans for my friend to take in as she was a whizz with the sewing machine. Drainpipes were the in thing then.