By what age should a child have the skills to cook a meal by themselves? I think it's really sad that so many young adults don't even have basic cooking skills. Is it weird of me to be surprised that people don't know how to make cookies or simple spaghetti? I figured even a 10 year old could do that. Is there a reason that people don't teach their kids how to cook? :bugeye:
I didn't learn to cook until last year.. and I'm 22. I think the main reason is that everyone these days pampers their kids and treats them like babies until either highschool or collage ends and then BAM! they're supposed to act like adults.
it's like anything else these days, sometimes I wish my coworkers knew how to do their jobs, if people can do work that is beyond them, I'm sure that cooking isn't very important either, that's why there are places like mcdonalds or burger king, etc...
Mcdonalds and burger king are satan's playground. It's amazing though... 12 years of mandatory schooling and all the kids aren't required to learn something as simple and fundamental as proper cooking techniques...
My mother made sure I learned how to type, one of the few things I'm grateful to her for. Neither of us knew that a few decades later almost every human being in the Western world would have to know how to type in order to use a computer. I see all these people using the "hunt and peck" system to write a ten-page report and I don't know how they stand it. She taught me how to iron too, although we didn't have steam irons in those days. She even taught me shorthand so I could take notes in college. But she sent me to Caltech, and just try taking notes from a chemistry lecture in Gregg. But she never taught me to cook. The roommates in my first group house in my university days taught me that, although it wasn't much more than cooking bacon and eggs and heating frozen food. When I was 27 I had a girlfriend who was a masterful cook and she taught me quite a bit. I used to actually have people over for dinner parties. But my wife is the best cook in seven counties so about the only thing I make nowadays is dog food. These days with all the "For Dummies" books and entire TV channels devoted to food, I would think that anybody who really wants to learn to cook could pick it up pretty easily. Most men just don't care. I have a friend who never cooked a meal in his life, just ate pizza and Big Macs. He ended up with diabetes about 15 years ago, and I'm sure his diet had something to do with it. (He drank a six-pack of cola every day too.) I haven't been in very close touch with him since then, but since he's still alive I would imagine that he finally had to learn to cook.
Depends what you class as "cooking", a child should be able to make there own lunch under supervision by the time they go to school (at least i did). More complicated things come later oviously but from the time i could walk i "helped" (probably hindered more than helped) mum in the kitchen. I can also sew using a machine OR by hand (something PB cant even do) though no where near as well as mum can (she can make clothes, i can just fix them for the most part)
We've done chores with our parents since we were very little, whether it was helping to clean, cook, maintain investment portfolios or supervise workers, change fuses or clean tools, my parents believed in the principle that children learn by imitation. But all children are not the same. So with this same upbringing 2 of us can cook since before we were 10, one since they were 12 and the final one still struggles to make sense of the mystery of mixing ingredients to come up with a good dish - although there is no lack of ability but cooking is an art as well as a science and some people, in my opinion, simply know how to throw things together and come up with a delicious meal while others have to get it right by instruction.
ive always found that depends on what your making. Baking for instance requires a detailed recipy because its to easy to screw up if the proportions arnt exact. Stews, soups, roasts on the other hand can be altered as they are made to make the tastes balance and its very hard to fuck them up.
Thats method. I'm referring to art. Some people see apples, butter, sugar and flour and think apple pie. Other people need a recipe book then go shopping for the amounts of each ingredient needed. Does that make more sense?
I don't like to cook, but I've been doing so since I could drag a table chair over to the counter, so I could stand on it. I don't remember my parents ever forcing us to learn we just sort of learned by example I guess. It just drives me crazy when I'm cooking with friends and I feel like a head chef yelling at everyone because they don't know how to do anything. It's something that I did with little kids I shouldn't have to with "kids" my age. It just seems to me that cooking would be a high priority on the list of things that children should be taught.
yes, its always seemed to me that the things which should be at the top of importance arnt even taught at schools or are given the bottom priorities. The focus is on spelling and grammer, well spell check will deal with that if it has to but cooking, dealing with money, sexual education, dealing with the legal system and how and why we vote and how goverment is structured is left out or only glossed over. Hell we even stupidly give parents the right to opt there children out of sexual education when its of vital importance
I really don't think teaching simple life basics is a school's job. Skills or lessons like how to take a bath, use the toilet, cook, sweep the floor, washing dishes or clothes...etc really should come from one's parents.
My mom was terrible at cooking, way more concerned with health than taste. I think she is lacking taste buds, I really mean that. If I wanted to eat anything good, I had to make it myself, so I learned to cook (and beg to go out to eat).
You hit it right on the nail. I'm proud of my baking ability and enjoy experimenting. Because it's so formulaic, involving a great deal of chemistry, it's easy to screw up. The rewards, however, are quite nice. Overall, though, I enjoy recipes that are "a little of this, a little of that." I regularly make a meatloaf, saffron chicken cacciatore and tumeric chicken and rice that attracts friend and family from far and wide. Just saw a "Good Eats" episode ("The Curious Case Of Curry") and fully intend on making his Lamb Tikka Masala recipe. ~String
I am near 25 - can't cook to save my life. Have always struggled to be honest. I make my own breakfast, scrambled eggs, toast, orange juice and thats it. If I feel hungry I'll make a sandwich or eat out (kebabs - lamb or chicken, in fresh naan bread with vegetables). I am not too fussy so I can easily live on boring but healthy food. The thing that frustrates me most with cooking is that - shopping, preparation, cooking, waiting for it be ready, serving, tidying up, washing up etc. the effort that goes into all of that far outweighs the pleasure you get from eating. I'm not going to spend 1 hour + doing something and then just spend 10 minutes enjoying the result.
I didn't mean preparing some complicated meal. Just simple things like boiling pasta or frying eggs. The people I know around here can't even do that. "So, how do you make pasta not hard?" Is not a question a 24 year old should be asking.
When i was in my late teens an moved away from home... me an anuther guy roomed together... we was hungry but low on money so we desided to buy a bag of navy beans... we didnt have a stove but he had an electric pop-corn popper which we used to cook the beans... it heated the beans an salted water to a lite boil an we cooked 'em for at leas a half an houre but they jus woudnt get soft... we figered the pop-corn maker jus wasnt good enuff to cook beans so we ate 'em any way even tho they was a bit crunchy:-( I dated a girl once who made me som biskets... she cooked 'em for over an houre but they never did brown an they was still gooy an raw doe tastin... she had cooked 'em at 200 degrees... lol.!!!
