Loss of cooking skills has hurt our ability to adapt to rising food prices, experts say

[CdnFox]

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/cooking-skills-decline-1.7064348

Here's something i almost never say:  This was a very interesting CBC article.

Setting aside the cbc's solution (make it a gov't responsibility - quelle shock) the "Meat' of the article is right on the money in my experience.

I have always done most of the cooking,  I have a very wide range of dishes using lots of different ingredients that i shift through over time (tho i find i'm more and more going back to simple foods), and most of my male buddies growing up were good cooks to one degree or another.

But today i find most younger people, especially girls, have next to no cooking skills(once you eliminate reheating  prepackaged meal ) and if you can't make food from scratch it's very hard to adjust when food prices change. With girls i swear it almost feels like because the stereotype was that girls should be in the kitchen was so prevelant in years gone by their moms and dads deliberately didn't teach them those skills.

I make a bit of a game of eating well for less, looking at how i can keep the per plate price low and still eat great food and you can do it but you absolutely need to know how to cook food from scratch.

 

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot not teaching our kids more about how to cook properly?

[herbie]

How are they supposed to learn? There's a knob on the stove it either burns things to shit or it's off? And you have to touch disgusting things that grew in dirt or are dead, bloody and just infested with germs!

Just DoorDash me some pizza pockets!

My daughter before she married a head cook.

Hey Dad, let me make the agedashi tofu...
6 months later......

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, herbie said:

How are they supposed to learn? There's a knob on the stove it either burns things to shit or it's off? And you have to touch disgusting things that grew in dirt or are dead, bloody and just infested with germs!

LOL - well i would have said mom and dad should have taught them in the past - and not just how to cook one or two dishes but how to actually cook.  But - these days there's little excuse with an infinite number of recipes on line and youtube videos by the billion.

Maybe we should be encouraging youtube inflencers to make more "why does this dish work" videos where they share a dish and explain what the components bring to the dish and possible substitutes so people start to get the idea.  A lot of my fave personal recipes started with 'this would taste great with ....."

Quote

My daughter before she married a head cook.

Snicker - well everyone's daughters these days it would seem.  People might learn a dish or two but they don't really learn to cook and that puts them at a severe disadvantage when prices on some foods are shooting through the roof and they don't know how to use the cheaper ones.

[herbie]

My Mom made all the disgusting middle class 1960s specials - tuna casserole, weenies & beans, shit on a shingle, feed 6 of us all week on a turkey etc. even those nasty jello salads when throwing a party.
*dreaded her "Chinese food" w 5 day old leftover meat, soggy veggies and a can of pineapple tossed in. Hell, used to rag Mom about eating her "phlegumes"... veggies boiled in an aluminum pot until they were the consistency of snot.

The 1st wife's Dad did all the cooking when she grew up, her Mom filled the percolator w instant coffee and baked a ham with the cloves poked thru the plastic wrap once. Had to teach my wife how to make hot dogs on our 1st camping trip - take the plastic off FFS!
I had to learn...

I had to raise 2 teens when the 1st wife left and I was insolvent. Amazing what you can do with a $1.50 jar of Dollarama Ragu if you have a spice rack and some leftover Italian sausage. Or an appy dinner of crackers, veggie w dip, a can of kippers and oysters & cheese. Kids loved that.

Then I ended up w an ex camp cookie, fantastic baker, lover of exotic foods, over doer of everything. 2 of us and she cooked for a platoon. I was the budget buddy - no you're making meatballs, you don't need a whole pound of burger meat in the sauce too. Use the cheap cheese on pizza, not the 5 r old Balderson's from the deli...

Fortunately the cows they raise here only make $58kg steak or hamburger so it's not a hard choice. $90 frozen turkeys or $20 hams for Xmas.

[CdnFox]

8 minutes ago, herbie said:

Had to teach my wife how to make hot dogs on our 1st camping trip - take the plastic off FFS!
I had to learn...

Owtch! LOL

I think some single moms right now are working hard to learn the lessons and how to make good food with minimal and cheap ingredients.  Jamie Oliver always said the poor people of the world eat the best because they learned how to make simple ingredients do amazing things with a little technique.

I think a lot of kids right now would benefit from some schooling on how to cook your own stuff using whatever's on sale that week and make it shine.

 

[herbie]

Her family were Scots that emigrated here in 1965, One day her Mom visited and decided to cook us burgers and chips for dinner.
She mentioned to my 7yr old daughter that never before had she eaten one of "those" hamburgers.
My kid looked her square in the eye and said "Gramma what are you? Some kind of alien?"

 

[Perspektiv]

7 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot not teaching our kids more about how to cook properly?

I think this should be a most basic survival skill all kids should have.

Knowing how to do dishes, your own laundry, understanding money.

I remember an elderly woman looking at me in shock when I was at a laundromat many years ago, doing my laundry. She was shocked at seeing a man not only properly do their own laundry, but being able to rapidly fold it perfectly, while standing up.

I just don't understand why you would want to have a child be virtually useless by the time they hit 20.

I think this is a western issue, as only had western women at times almost proudly tell me they didn't know how to cook.

[Moonbox]

20 hours ago, CdnFox said:

today i find most younger people, especially girls, have next to no cooking skills(once you eliminate reheating  prepackaged meal ) and if you can't make food from scratch it's very hard to adjust when food prices change.

Especially girls, huh?  Are you basing that on anything in particular?  🤔 

20 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot not teaching our kids more about how to cook properly?

Learning how to cook is a pretty basic life skill, and it's ridiculously easy to learn.  Whether you do it or you don't is a lifestyle choice akin to exercising or becoming a slob.  When someone says, "I'm a terrible cook," what that really means is, "I'm too lazy to go to the grocery store and follow simple directions."' 

[Michael Hardner]

3 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

1. Especially girls, huh?  Are you basing that on anything in particular?  🤔 

2. Learning how to cook is a pretty basic life skill, and it's ridiculously easy to learn.  Whether you do it or you don't is a lifestyle choice akin to exercising or becoming a slob. 

3. When someone says, "I'm a terrible cook," what that really means is, "I'm too lazy to go to the grocery store and follow simple directions."' 

1. "Girls" is those who identify as "woman" but under 18 FYI.  They likely haven't completed life skills training ie. the 1955 Home Economics requirement I'm guessing

2. It got way easier for me when microwaves came down in price.  

3. Not lazy but bored.  I didn't cook home meals until I was in my 1950s and something in my life happened that ruined it 
forced me to alter my life patterns.  The pizza guy cried in front of my porch for 4 days and I lost 60 pounds.

[Moonbox]

1 minute ago, Michael Hardner said:

1. "Girls" is those who identify as "woman" but under 18 FYI.  They likely haven't completed life skills training ie. the 1955 Home Economics requirement I'm guessing

What a travesty.  Get those girls back in their aprons and make them complete their pre-requisites!  

(somehow I doubt there are more 17 year old boys than girls that can cook)

3 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

2. It got way easier for me when microwaves came down in price.  

😑

3 minutes ago, Michael Hardner said:

3. Not lazy but bored.  I didn't cook home meals until I was in my 1950s and something in my life happened that ruined it 
forced me to alter my life patterns.  The pizza guy cried in front of my porch for 4 days and I lost 60 pounds.

If you don't do the stuff you should unless it entertains you...isn't that just lazy?  🤔

I hope the pizza guy can still feed his kids.  

[Michael Hardner]

34 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

 

😑

1. If you don't do the stuff you should unless it entertains you...isn't that just lazy?  🤔

2. I hope the pizza guy can still feed his kids.  

1. No, bored.

2. He sells me vapes now.  All good 👍🏻

[CdnFox]

Just now, Michael Hardner said:

1. No, bored.

2. He sells me vapes now.  All good 👍🏻

So you're saying you haven't learned to mix your own juice yet?  

And doesn't sound so much 'bored' as just kind of incompetent   never learned to cook either i take it?

[CdnFox]

53 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

Especially girls, huh?  Are you basing that on anything in particular?  🤔 

 

Observation mostly.  I still run into a lot of younger guys who can cook, but girls not so much. Of course that's just a personal sample of a few hundred people max over a few years but it was noticeable. I noticed it when i used to date a lot as well,  i don't think this is a 'new' thing or the like, it seems like it goes back to Gen x.

56 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

Learning how to cook is a pretty basic life skill, and it's ridiculously easy to learn.  Whether you do it or you don't is a lifestyle choice akin to exercising or becoming a slob.  When someone says, "I'm a terrible cook," what that really means is, "I'm too lazy to go to the grocery store and follow simple directions."' 

IT's not hard to put a recipe together for most people (most - there are those who still burn water somehow)

but learning to cook is a little more involved.  There's technique that makes a huge difference, understanding what kinds of meat like to be cooked fast or slow, some basic flavour pairings and such.

Now - THAT is ALSO not 'that' hard.  It's pretty simple. Strawberries and pork chops probably don't go well together.  Etc.  Here's how to sautee, here's what a double boiler is, here's how to use covers to get meat more tender, etc.  Not rocket science.

But it does take a little bit of knowledge and experience to be able to use it. Not a lot but a little. 

But it's those skills that let you walk into a grocery, look at what's on sale and say "i could make...."

45 minutes ago, Moonbox said:

What a travesty.  Get those girls back in their aprons and make them complete their pre-requisites!  

(somehow I doubt there are more 17 year old boys than girls that can cook)

 

I betcha there is. Maybe not right now possibly, i don't get to interact with a lot of 17 year old kids but without a doubt in the past that was true. And the 20'somethings that still seems to be true. 

[Moonbox]

35 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

Observation mostly.  I still run into a lot of younger guys who can cook, but girls not so much. Of course that's just a personal sample of a few hundred people max over a few years but it was noticeable. I noticed it when i used to date a lot as well,  i don't think this is a 'new' thing or the like, it seems like it goes back to Gen x.

I think that's just your own observation, and while nobody can argue with you on that, the generalization you draw from it is probably wrong overall.   

42 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

But it does take a little bit of knowledge and experience to be able to use it. Not a lot but a little. 

There's a pretty wide range of cooking skills and knowledge, sure, and some things need more of it than others.  In the end, however, I'd say that even the lowliest mook can follow a recipe and make something better than McDonald's or whatever else they decide is the alternative.  

45 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

I betcha there is. Maybe not right now possibly, i don't get to interact with a lot of 17 year old kids but without a doubt in the past that was true. And the 20'somethings that still seems to be true. 

Not my experience, and I actually spend time with 20-something girls and guys on a regular basis.  Some of the guys I know can cook well, but almost all of the girls can. 

[CdnFox]

8 hours ago, Moonbox said:

I think that's just your own observation, and while nobody can argue with you on that, the generalization you draw from it is probably wrong overall.   

 

Maybe - it's a pretty small sample to be extrapolating to nationally.  But the article would seem to suggest that others have at least noticed there's a problem over all.

[Nefarious Banana]

On 1/1/2024 at 8:34 PM, herbie said:

Her family were Scots that emigrated here in 1965, One day her Mom visited and decided to cook us burgers and chips for dinner.

The Scottish folks are known for their fine cuisine . . . . 

What other band  of 'girlie' Vikings would leave the lamb chops on the hillside and take home the gutbag to eat?  Washed down the gullet with the most vile swill on the face of the earth. A potion made from distilled wool, and that these muttering skirt wearers name after themselves.

Stacking lumber is foreign to these creatures.  They would much prefer throwing boards helter skelter . . . and their hovel dwellings are a testament to this 'skill' . . .

Oh well . . .  

[eyeball]

13 hours ago, Moonbox said:

(somehow I doubt there are more 17 year old boys than girls that can cook)

I had to learn how to cook when I started working on fish boats when I was 16, usually on old oil stoves. Fisherman's coffee was just cowboy coffee that sloshed back and forth on the stove all day.  It was also good for polishing brass.

Sidestripe shrimp rarely ever made it off the boat before being eaten, the sweetest shrimp you ever tasted...bigger than pink shrimp...a vegetarian with really tender meat

Dey's uh shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.

[PIK]

No more cooking classes in school? Was for boys and girls back in my day.

[Moonbox]

12 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Maybe - it's a pretty small sample to be extrapolating to nationally.  But the article would seem to suggest that others have at least noticed there's a problem over all.

I agree it's a problem overall, but I don't think it has anything to do with girls or boys - it's everyone.  I don't think it has anything to do with home-ec classes either. I guess it could, but I think the more important factor is that the alternatives are so easy.  McDonald's is easy.  A boxed meal is easy, and you can have it delivered straight to you from the grocery store, and so the fat get fatter.    

Cooking was never really a chore for me, and it's even less so now with big-screen TV's and iPads and stuff that you can have running while you prepare your meals.  If someone has time to sit on their ass and watch TV, they have all the time they need to cook.  They just don't, because we're in this weird race to the bottom as functional human beings or something.

[herbie]

When my Scot F.I.L. ragged me for having 'eye-tye' blood I'd rag him back that Scot cuisine was derived from the offal the Romans tossed over Hadrian's wall....
Natives because they had the misfortune of living between Europeans and pepper.
India was England's Jewel in the Crown as they could actually taste something when they ate.
Canadians argue over pineapple on pizza when anchovies aren't even on the topping selection..

[impartialobserver]

I need to read this article. From my experience, this is true. I am no chef but can make all of the food that I want to eat. We are trying to teach my kids how to make food but they are as of yet indifferent. They just say, "But dad.. just go get it from the store or  ___ restaurant". 

In my older years, I find cooking to be almost therapeutic. The chopping of veggies, the trimming of the meat, etc. demands your focus and therefore the outside noise gets put aside. 

[taxesanddeath]

What a shallow opinion🙄.  C'mon, it is the loss of adaptability and the sense of prioritization