are americans culinarily illiterate? could you survive w/o fast food?

[niyad]

This was a comment in WaPo on Sunday (sorry, I can't find the link), but it (and a thread about recycling here a couple of days ago, got me thinking.

The article stated that americans, at least in the two younger generations, are basically culinarily illiterate--they don't have the slightest clue about cooking, what the terms mean, how to go about beating eggs, etc. The people who publish cookbooks and recipes are finding that they have to "dumb down" the recipes, that they cannot use basic cooking terms like "fold", "saute", "dredge", "cream" etc, because far too many people have absolutely no idea what they mean.

I found this rather appalling, but it also explained why I have not found a lot of coookbooks published in the last few years that interest me--they are, in fact, exactly what I thought--simplistic and geared to a lesser degree of skill than mine.

I ended up talking with a friend about it, and we were both rather saddened. We grew up learning to cook, to can, to garden, to sew, to knit, to be able to deal with things around the home. In short, we grew up learning the basics of survival. If this article is correct, at least the younger generations would be hard-pressed to fend for themselves if they were unable to do take-out--if they were suddenly in a situation of having to, say, live on the land. She and I both think that the decline of classes in home ec and shop has a lot to do with this (and I have always thought that those two classes needed to be mandatory for everyone in high school).

So I thought I would ask the wonderful people here on DU--are you one of those culinary illiterates? or could/can you survive if you actually have to cook, to garden, to do the things even our parents did? Where do you stand on this apparently-dminishing set of skills?

Years ago (actually, decades ago, when I was in college) there was an article published called "education for survival" that said that it would be prudent for everyone to learn basic survival skills--including things like swimming, hunting, etc. I agreed with him at the time, and think it is even more urgently needed today, as we look at possible scenarios of total disruption of our basic systems.

Comments?

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. Home Ec for girls was mandatory

when I was in school. That's how old I am! But honestly, as much as I hated it, I did learn things like knitting and basic cooking skills that serve me well to this day.

It's sad that younger folks don't know these things; it really makes them slaves to the K-Marts and McDonalds of the world.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/1097640

[MADem]

29. Home ec for the young ladies, shop for the young men!!!

The subsequent generation had a quarter of each for both sexes in many local schools around these parts. Not sure what they're doing these days....

[Der Blaue Engel]

75. My son took home ec in middle school

as a non-elected elective (they don't let kids pick their "electives" in San Francisco, but they only take them for a semester each).

He came home and made me spaghetti. :)

[Cleita]

31. I think it still should be mandatory, but for the boys too.

I don't think anyone needs to learn knitting, but basic cooking, sewing and household management, balancing checkbooks and other lifstyle skills should be taught at least for two semesters in high school for each child.

Honestly the only cooking I learned was one class in Jr. High, but it saved me when I was out on my own. My high school concentrated on college prep so there were no homemaking classes. I learned sewing, knitting and crocheting from my mother, but she didn't cook either. My dad always hired a cook.

[fasttense]

50. I flunked out of Home Ec.

All the girls in my class had to take it in High School (1970). I failed.

But I'm a great cook, can quilt, sew, embroider, knit, paint, you name it. Home Ec was too boring and did not interest me. Taking care of my home and family does interest me. I learned from my mother and from cook books. I've taught my son and daughter how to cook from cook books. They tell me there is nothing to cooking. As long as you can follow directions, you can cook.

I've learned most my skills from How To books. Give me a good How To book and I can do just about anything around the house. Some kids today just don't have the patiences to sit down with a book and go step by step to figure out how to do a project.

[SmokingJacket]

79. Me too: I can whip up a pair of shorts in nothing flat.

I made kickass creampuffs, too, back in 7th grade.

Ironically enough, though, I never cook now, though I'm fine at it, because my husband is a cooking genius. The metal-shop stuff never sunk in, I guess...

[pitohui]

84. home ec to keep girls from being valedictorians

don't know how widespread this practice was, but in one school system i'm aware of from when i was a kid, home ec was mandatory for girls only AND the teacher would not give any grade higher than a c

it was a way to make sure a boy and not a girl would be valedictorian as is almost invariably the case since, after all, we females average more intelligent (kidding, well I'M kidding but i'm pretty sure this was pretty much the logic behind this)

[oldtime dfl_er]

107. Our valedictorian was a girl

And I happen to know she smoked pot as well!!

If the schools taught cooking as chemistry (which it is) maybe they woudl make it more attractive.

[soothsayer]

2. Sure I could survive without it, but prepared food (not necessarily

'fast') is a great time saver.


It's probably good that cookbooks are being dumbed down---they're more accessible to the masses now. And that's a good thing, as Martha would say.

[TechBear_Seattle]

45. I disagree that dumbing down cookbooks is good

"Fold", "beat", "cream" and "stir" are different techniques which deliver different results. Same with "fry" and "saute," and many other cooking terms. Dumbing down cookbooks means that results will be different than expected, and that some dishes can't be made at all. People will try to cook, get less than happy results, and stop trying. Which is great if you are in the "hospitality" industry, but not great at all if you are, like most Americans, trying to cut back on family spending.

I was never taught to cook, either formally or informally. I learned to cook -- and cook well -- by reading older cookbooks which explained the terms and showed how to do them. As with public education, there has been a dumbing down of once high standards. The solution is not to dumb things down even more.

[CBGLuthier]

3. Over the last 20 years we have learned how to cook everything

We love sub sandwiches. Found dressing recipes.

We love chinese food. Make our own egrrolls and stir fry.

We love Pizza and Calazone. Make our own. Dough from scratch and all.

Mexican food. Enchiladas, tacos whatever, we make our own.

Got interested in Indian food. Bought the seasonings and we make our own.

Starting to dabble in Thai.

We can garden too.

A little weak on hunting to be honest but know the basics. Can fish at least.

[BiggJawn]

4. Not a very good Butcher...But once it's in pieces I can handle it.

Not very skilled at hunting, either. Maybe I could hookup with a Nooge-type and say "Hey, dontcha get tired of eatin' everything FRIED?"

Otherwise, I could get along very easily without Arby's or Carrion Helper....

[JuniperLea]

5. Not in my house!

Boyfriend cooks and follows recipes very well. My three kids (21, 23 & 27) are all excellent cooks and can read recipes very well. The oldest brews beer and you really have to follow those recipes carefully!

I was partially raised by my Godparents... my Godfather was an executive chef (my Godmother was a seamstress/taylor) and I received culinary training beginning at age five. I can recreate recipes about 95% of the time... you know, go out, have a great meal and try to do it yourself. Sometimes it takes a few attempts. I was very fortunate to have a great teacher.

Ok, so maybe I'm not your average cook. I guess my kids aren't either, but the home culinary arts will not die off in my family if I have anything to say about it!

Edited to say I can butcher chickens, game birds, rabbits, deer, I can clean fish and frogs... I know how to make soap and candles from animal tallow... I crochet and embroider, I can make clothes from patterns (thanks to my Mom and my Godmother) and have improvised a few pieces freehand by crochet.

[cynatnite]

6. With the fast pace of my life at times...

I need to be able to fix something fast, quick and easy that won't gross out my entire family. Hamburger Helper just doesn't cut it with us.

I like the cookbooks that show fast, easy and healthy recipes. We've got a couple that I use quite a bit. I learned cooking from my family anyway and my daughters learned from me.

The oldest daughter didn't take home ec, but my middle kid liked it enough to take a culinary arts class. It wasn't home ec and was strictly about cooking. Geez, the things that kid makes is enough to blow your mind. Also, hubby is a much better cook than I am and he usually takes over the kitchen when he's home on the weekends.

[LSparkle]

7. Thank God for junior high school ...

I learned to cook and to sew back in the '70s and have kept those skills up. I'm better at cooking than sewing (and I'm a decent knitter), but if I had to survive without the mall and take=out, I probably could. I've cut back on fast food and even frozen food during the past few years in favor of making my own meals because it's usually cheaper.

[madmom]

8. my hubby's sisters think I'm "uppity" because I cook most everything

from scratch. I often wondered why one of the first things schools cut is home ec. instead of sports or some thing like that.

[Arkansas Granny]

47. Some people just don't understand the enjoyment of cooking

from scratch. My daughter and I get together to cook Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner every year. We spend days with the menu, the shopping list, new recipes to try and spend hours in the kitchen making the dinner and desserts and love every minute of it. It can be a challenge, but you get to put your own creativity into the recipe and it tastes soooo good.

[shanti]

83. home ec

hasn't been cut here in nor cal. in fact, my son took it in middle school, and i'm glad he did! everyone, male and female, SHOULD know how to feed themself without the help of mickey dee's!

[madmom]

100. my sentiments exactly, home ec teaches them to fend for themselves

which is what is sorely lacking in the kids that are up and coming.IMO

[wicket]

106. Uppity???

Wow, I guess I'm "uppity" too. Stuff from scratch just tastes better!

[Sparkman]

9. SNACKING is my answer. Eating between meals, fruit/nuts/raw veggies/HOME

MADE cookies reduces the 3 meals caloric requirements. Hunter-gatherers had no set 3-meal thing.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I basically learned to cook by experimentation and from roommates

I grew up with a mother and grandmother in the house, and between the two of them, they monopolized the kitchen. I had home ec. in seventh and eighth grade, but the lessons were pretty rudimentary. Seventh grade was about making breakfast, and eighth grade was about making lunch.

I first started experimenting after college graduation when I moved into a dorm that didn't serve breakfast or any meals on weekends. I bought a hot plate and toaster oven and began with simple things like hamburgers and scrambled eggs. Gradually, I added other dishes to my repertoire.

Living alone, I get bored with my own cooking, so I eat out when I can afford it, usually at ethnic places, but I rarely go for fast food, maybe two or three times a year.

[Cleita]

41. Me too.

One of my roomate's mother was a caterer so she had learned helping mom prepare food for parties. So she taught me. My next roomate was a chef. I learned a lot of technique like with knives from her. I can do just about anything a cuisinart does just with knives and a cleaver.

[Initech]

11. I could survive without fast food...

Most of it is horse shit anyways!

[MadMaddie]

12. Another important Factor that impacted the cooking venue..

is the Microwave Oven.....

You really don't have to know how to cook to use a microwave...Microwave Cooking Books etc...

I was the tomboy of the family so I really didn't pay attention then.....but I am 40 now and I have started to pay attention to my moms recipes...I call her for advice etc...I learned to sew from my mom....

I could do without fastfood too...I would rather sit down with my spouse and eat a home cooked meal..

[FatDave]

26. I hate microwaves

IMO, they're the best way to ruin perfectly good food. Even the prepared stuff made for microwaves is better if you take the time to let it thaw and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes.

[MadMaddie]

33. I agree.....

it's sad that we live in a society that is growing lazier by the day...and purchasing the next big gadget is the thought of the day.....

[RumpusCat]

53. Got rid of mine, don't miss it

I didn't get rid of it for any particularly hippie reason, but rather because I had no counterspace for one and my roommates moved and kept theirs. It was a godsend in college when I only had that and a hotplate to cook on in my dorm room but now that I have a stove and oven to myself it's much better to cook on those. Food tastes tons better! I only use the microwave at work now to heat up leftovers, but half the time I'll just eat them cold or room-temp.

[Cleita]

54. The only thing a microwave cooks better than the stove

is artichokes. Other than that I only use mine for melting butter and reheating food in the summer when it's too hot to turn on the oven.

[cynatnite]

73. Works great for popcorn and potatoes

I love mine and wouldn't give it up, but we don't do most of our cooking there either. It's mostly for heating the food. The cooking is for what I mentioned above. I don't think the microwave was meant to take over cooking an entire meal.

I did cook eggs in it one time. Interesting. LOL

[On the Road]

13. It Doesn't Surprise Me Too Much

I cook often when I have the time. Soups, fresh vegetables, etc. I look forward to spending more time cooking when I'm older and have a less hectic schedule.

My 15-year-old daughter doesn't cook very often, but her culinary education is pretty good from watching cooking shows. I expect she'll learn more when she gets out on her own.

On the other hand, my girfriend (I'm divorced) is from China, and grew up on the other extreme from suburban America. She can not only cook, but sew her own clothes and do countless things around the house with very few materials. She is able to make a pair of shoes out of old rags, flour, and a needle and thread. She amazes me.

[juajen]

57. Please tell me how she makes the shoes?

She sounds delightful.

[On the Road]

104. Well, I Don't Know That's She Really Done It Since She Was A Kid

but the basic idea is that you soak the flour in water to make a paste, then make a multi-level sandwich out of the rags held together by the paste. That's the sole. You do something similar with the uppers, only not as thick, then sew the two together with needle and twine. Sounds flimsy, but during WWII Chinese soldiers all had mothers or wives as suppliers, and each infantryman carried three pairs. They beat the Japanese army on those homemade shoes.

Li-Ping is actually quite remarkable apart from cooking and crafts. She almost had her leg amputated when she was 12 years old, almost died in the hospital, was out of school for two years, had to work in a factory while the schools were closed during the cultural revolution, almost getting shipped to a collective farm and married off to a peasant. Eventually she went back to school and became a pediatrician. After Tienanmen square, she felt she couldn't stay in China and got a scholarship to Japan to get a PhD in cell biology. Li-Ping then came to NIH in the US (Bethesda MD) as a single parent with very little English and a 13-year-old son. Seven years later, she is a landlord with ten houses grossing over $10K a month part-time, all with a completely upbeat spirit and an engaging attitude.

Beats the hell out of me, that's for sure.

[KurtNYC]

14. I think "Cook's Illustrated" is written at a fairly high level

They explain in detail the "why" of what they are trying to achieve and that makes each recipe double as a lesson in technique and food science. But I don't doubt that on the whole people are less culinary than before. Their palates are ruined by overly sweet foods. And I know a lot of people who eat for the way it feels rather than the way it tastes. For example, many people swear that they can't resist McDonald's french fries, yet when the fries are cold, they find them disgusting. It is the same food. Same for coffee. There is a commercial for one of the fast food outlets that talks about feeling full and I think that is all many are after. Warm, salty, rich, sugary and over-portioned is the mainstream American diet.

I think "Media Studies" should be required in high schools. We have become a nation of cynics and are wary of what television pushes on us but a greater understanding would go further toward de-fanging what passes for news here.

[Sammy Pepys]

15. I'm no culinary genius

But I love cooking, and love using unusual (at least to American cooking) ingredients.

One thing I think the problem involves is the lack of time people have anymore to really throw down in the kitchen. They're not interested in a big 3-4 hour cooking production.

[Extend a Hand]

16. I didn't learn to cook until

I was 32 (12 years ago). It was something I always wanted to learn but just never had time until I was able to cut my hours back to part-time. My husband learned as a child. He likes to cook and is a very good cook. My son since he was in pre-school, has always liked to watch the food network. Now as a teenager he is a very good cook and prepares at least one meal per week.

I think there is hope even for those of us that don't get a chance to learn until later in life ;). I just started making a serious attempt at gardening last year.

One year a while back, I decided I was going to try to grow some watermelons. We went on vacation for a week and when we got home I went to take a look and I was so excited. Those vines just went everywhere! When my husband came home I told him I thought we were going to have a bumper crop and he looked at me kind of funny and said, "I didn't see any melons yet." I didn't see any either--- I thought they were like potatoes and grew underground. I was so bummed out. Now "Farmer Mom" is a family joke ;) I really don't know where I ever got that idea.

I did have a bumper crop of tomatoes last year. :) So I think anyone can learn.

[AngryAmish]

17. Women work outside the home more nowadays

Especially higher class women (poor women always had to work). When one works all day one does not want to fold, saute, etc. One's kid needs to eat now or he'll scream bloody murder.

Also, people's commutes have gotten longer. Less time to cook.

I cook because I have been single for a long time and like to eat well when I do cook.

[Bill McBlueState]

103. exactly

If I don't cook, it's because I just put in a 12 hour day and I'm tired. The problem isn't laziness; it's the opposite.

However, there is a wide gap between a three-course homemade dinner and a burger from Wendy's. I live in that gap!

[Blue_In_AK]

18. I'm a great cook

and I know all the lingo. My mom insisted on teaching me, so I was cooking full meals at an early age. I remember specifically making a fabulous paella for dinner when I was 10 and being so proud of myself. I tried to get my daughters interested, but didn't have much luck, although they do call me now all the time asking how to make this or that, so at least I know enough to tell them. I bought my youngest "Help, My Apartment has a Kitchen" for Christmas, because she is the most clueless. :)

[politicat]

19. At 30, I'm one of the last...

I learned to cook because my mother worked. My sisters, three and six years younger, did not learn as much, and thus cook less. They rely on convenience foods (though not fast food as much) and very simple recipes.

One can sew straight seams with a sewing machine. The other is limited to buttons. We have lots of emergency calls back and forth asking about stain removal, prep methods, etc.

Neither of them garden (but space and time limitations have a lot to do with that). They're pressed for time between work, school, parenting, trying to have adult relationships, maintain their health and maintain marriages.

Cooking takes time a lot of parents just don't have... I have time to cook because I'm not a parent. I have time to exercise because I don't have to drop kids off at school and pick them up and build papier mache dioramas of volcanoes. I have time for my partner and my friends and my education because I'm not involved with a child 24/7. I'm not saying that children are the cause of the lack of time for other things, but the societal pressure to be child-centric in the family means that other things get dropped. (My parents were not child-centric. That had ups and downs.)

[magellan]

20. I try to prepare as much from scratch as possible nowadays

And...I've become the queen of the crock pot! Beef & brats is our favorite recipe. I can also chop and mix and weigh and fold and sauté with the best of them, but I've been cooking since I was 13. We rarely do pre-packaged or fast food...That stuff's so loaded with grease it makes me sick for days afterward.

The downside to healthy eating and cooking from recipes is the cost, both in time and money. I completely understand why so many turn to pre-packaged or fast food. In many cases it's cheaper and more convenient. But if the resulting obesity doesn't kill you, the ingredients will....

[niyad]

91. although pre-packaged food may be faster, it most certainly isn't

cheaper, at least in my experience. for the price of, for example, one item from chipotle, I can prepare a whole meal from scratch that would feed four people, possibly even with leftovers. and rachel ray has nothing on me in terms of 30 (or even 20) minute meals.

then, of course, there is the horrendous salt factor in any prepared, fast or convenience food--nauseating, and, in some cases (mine, for example) definitely NOT healthy.

[Lorien]

21. I come from a Mennonite (turned atheist) family, so cooking,

gardening (veggies and fruits), canning, sewing, carpentry, candle making, etc. etc. were part of my upbringing (Mennonites-for those unfamiliar with them-are somewhat like Amish but with electricity and cars. They believe in self sufficiency and taking only from the land what they will use. every mennonite I've ever known was a Democrat, BTW).
But I HAVE seen what the WP is referring to firsthand. When I taught at a local college I had one student that I hired as my assistant who I gradually came to realize had NO domestic skills at all. His idea of cooking was shoving raw chicken into and oven.He didn't even know how to cook rice! And the rest of it? Well,at one point I was going to be away for a week, and I told him that if he could stop by to feed my cats he could also do his laundry while he was there (laundry was a real chore for him, since his apt. complex didn't have a laundry facility) I told him to bring all his towels, sheets, and other bedding...he said "what? You're supposed to wash your sheets"?....EWWWW!! I never visited his apartment. It just sounded too scary.

eventually I had him come by the house for a basic cooking lesson. He brought whatever he had in his fridge and we baked, grilled, and sauteed all afternoon, which left him with a weeks worth of ready to heat meals when we were done. He was stunned when he took a bite of grilled chicken with olive oil and herbs de Provence "this is the most delicious thing I've ever eaten"! he gasped. I cringe to think of what his own mother (or father) had been making for him throughout his childhood, poor kid!

[Cleita]

34. Corn dogs, no doubt.

The freezer section of the market it filled with microwave and serve garbage like corn dogs.

[Lorien]

40. the guy was clueless about microwaves, too

I'm guessing that he grew up entirely on fast food. :puke:

[Cleita]

42. Most likely. Of course his mother may have bothered herself

to microwave meals for her kids, too.

[lastliberalintexas]

125. And what the fuck about the father?

Even on a progressive site, I still see comments like this. Why didn't you feel the need to show your disdain for the young man's father's failure to prepare appropriate meals? Why only the mother? It isn't just the woman/mother who should be responsible for the well being of the children, people.



And the classist sentiments on this thread are also amazing. There are plenty of people who work 2 or 3 jobs, or who work 50-60 hour weeks just trying to survive and give their families a slice of the good life. Cooking and eating good healthy food often ends up costing more than cheap, high carb, high fat foods and products. Sometimes people just don't have the time/energy/money to play Martha Stewart at the end of a work day.

[Cleita]

128. Because we still have a classist society.

I personally think kids of both sexes should be taught to contribute to the household in cleaning, shopping and cooking and they should be getting an good example and instructions from both mom and dad. However, a trip to the supermarket any day will show that the majority of children are with their mothers. There are men who shop with their kids and couples who shop together with their kids, however, the majority of shoppers are women toting small children.

[serryjw]

77. I love this thread!

I have a basic philosophy..IF you can't make it in one pan it doesn't get made!
Remember 40% of America are single living alone. WHY cook? 10 of the last 20 years I have had a kitchen the size of a closet. Cooking doesn't work.I don't eat fast food and seldom buy frozen. I eat lots of salads( Grill a breast of chicken or add shrimp),cans of soap or grill fish.
When I grew up my mom was the 2nd daughter. My grandmother and Aunt were great at everything but never taught my mother. My dad was a VERY basic eater, so we B*B*Q almost every night.
When I took a sewing class in the early 60's, I was a teen and everyone in the class sewed great. The teacher didn't see any reason to teach ..just me! We had a family seamstress that did what ever needed to be done.
For 12 of the last 20 years I was involved with a man that LOVED to cook and he was terrific....why cook. I'm sorry I never learned to sew..that would have been fun.
Considering what we may be facing...I'm a little worried that I have NO survival skills. I couldn't grow a garden if it meant my life...and it may!

[htuttle]

22. I can cook up a storm

But I like to cook -- that helps! I despise fast food -- not because I'm an elitist or anything, but because it kept making me sick when I ate it.

This weekend I made chicken curry, spaghetti with turkey meatballs (and homemade sauce), and a thai-influenced chicken with a spicy curry peanut sauce (made from chunky peanut butter). On different nights, of course.

Though I'd cooked some growing up, I really learned to cook when I was trying to live on the meager handouts the local food pantry gave me back in the lean Reagan/Bush years. We used to occasionally supplement it with poached pheasant or fishes ("poached" as describing the legality of how we got it -- not how we prepared it).

So yeah -- give me a few assorted vegetables, some oil and spices and whatever fish or game you can catch, and I'll make something good out of it (but only if my wife and I get some, too). I have a few killer rabbit recipes I haven't made in years! Rule#1: You kill it, you clean it. I just do the cooking...

You want a good survival guide for eating like a king on outdoor/wild food? Grab a Boy Scout Fieldbook from the 1950's. They actually taught kids how to live off the land back then (and there are handy recipes like "Cattail Biscuits", etc...that's the cattail PLANT, of course. Not real cat tails...).

[mandyky]

23. I was in my teens when we got MacDs and BK in rural upstate NY

I am 50 now.

Our family was poor, and we rarely ate out. I was the oldest, so often, if I did not cook the meals, I put them on to cook or bake. My mother would prepare them and leave me a note telling me what time to put them on.

There are still some cooking terms I don't know, and I have found the Cooking and Baking forum here a great learning tool.

We raised chickens, we kids plucked them. Dad beheaded them and Mom butchered and wrapped them for freezing. Mom worked outside the home so I did not learn canning. We did do some freezing of veggies, and we bought milk raw from the farm up the road, so occassionally we made butter in a churn.

I can live wihout fast food, but prepared foods like Bisquick, noodle/rice mixes, cake/muffin mixes, etc. make things easier than they used to be.

[ieoeja]

24. I thought I wasn't.

I cook a great deal. I like The Joy of Cooking because it contains a lot of reference material in addition to the recipes. But from time to time I run into a problem because it uses some term like "fold", "saute", "dredge", "cream" that I can not find defined anywhere.

So I guess I am culinarily illiterate. It would probably take no more than a two or three page glossary to fix that. But for some reason nobody wants to provide one.

And my mother was sure no help. My ex-wife had to learn all of her recipes so she could then teach me. My mom just couldn't wrap her mind around the notion that her son might want to know how to cook for himself.

[Lorien]

36. Here's a must have for you:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0028627717/002-8402018-3052818?v=glance&n=283155

I learned how to cook as a kid with an original copy of this book. It's written for new 1950's housewives, and it assumes that they have no prior cooking or baking experience (check out some of the sample pages). Every term and technique is covered.

[Blue_In_AK]

60. I have that very cookbook...

It was my mother's and was passed on to me when she died. Also her old Joy of Cooking.

[cally]

95. That's my Mom's recipe book

I used that one.

[cally]

96. What's dredge?

I thought I was an OK cook but I have no idea what that means. I can cook with a recipe but I don't do much that's too difficult. I've had gardens and can grow the less exotic vegetables and fruits. I do sew when necessary and I'm learning to knit.

I've tried to teach my kids the basics. They both know those but I wouldn't call either one a good cook.

Funny that you posted this thread tonight. I just bought a book on basic survival skills. I thought it would come in handy if I ever faced that situation because I have no idea on some of these things. I don't hunt or fish. I've made soap and candles but I doubt I could do it with basic ingredients. I definitely don't have these skills. I know my Mother did.

[MissB]

108. Think of breaded pork chops.

You dredge the chops in bread crumbs before putting them in the pan.

[ieoeja]

117. Thank you.

Just ordered it. Hope that fills in the gaps.

[radwriter0555]

119. I never found a betty crocker recipe that was edible.

Somehow, it was all plastic and fake and wooden and not very appealing.

I prefer The Joy of Cooking as a book for techniques and basic, classic recipes and great flavors but, the be-all, end-all cooking bible is Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Once you've worked your way through that book, you REALLY KNOW how to cook. And it isn't dumbed down, that's for sure. BUT she is very careful to explain her techniques and methods, which is why it IS the epitome of cooking bibles.

French cooking is the best in the world, with techniques, style, and flavors. When you know how to cook french food, you can cook anything in almost any kitchen.

Julie Child was a food god. Betty Crocker ain't no Julia Child.

[karlrschneider]

120. I guessed what that was before I clicked the link! Mom still has hers,

bought, I'm sure around 1950...and I learned a lot of cooking skills from that book and from Mom, of course. She taught me to make home-made noodles (almost dumplings) and there are few dishes I like as well as those with a big pot of chicken stew. Mmmmmm. :D

[Left Is Write]

133. I have an original first edition, first printing of that book.

I love it.

[mcscajun]

65. Here's a helpful link...

http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/bldictionary.htm

with an example from the "D" section...

Cooking Terms - D

Dash - Less than 1/8 teaspoon.

(snip)

Deglaze - To add liquid to the pan in which meat or other food was cooked. The liquid--usually broth or wine--is heated to loosen the browned bits left in the pan, and is often used as a base for sauce or gravy.

(snip)

Dice - To cut food into cubes about 1/8- to 3/4-inch in size.

(snip)

Dredge - To coat food with a dry mixture (usually seasoned flour or crumbs), either by sprinkling, rolling, or shaking the food in a bag with the flour or other ingredients.

[mopinko]

25. we have cut the apron strings

and gotten jobs. really, this kind of things strikes me as anti-feminist backlash. the fifties are OVER.

[MADem]

38. Hmmmm....the cooks in our family are mostly men!

The ladies can manage it as well, but the men are strong in the kitchen!

[mopinko]

46. that didn't happen much in the 50's either

aside from grilling.

[eyesroll]

49. This doesn't sound anti-feminist to me -- I don't think the OP mentioned

gender here.

Are you saying because women work, nobody should know how to cook or sew anymore?

I work full-time and I cook. It's cheaper and healthier than take-out, and it often doesn't take all that much time. Especially recipes that require "dredging" and "sauteeing."

[mopinko]

63. it reminds me of the rants about paper plates and disposable

diapers. things that made it possible for women to work all strike a lot of people as a waste.

[Lorien]

51. I see it as a self sufficiency and health issue

my own mother was literally a bra burning feminist of the 1960's and 70's, and yet she taught us to cook and sew.She also taught us car maintenance, carpentry, basic electrical wiring-all the skills of a self sufficient adult. I'm glad she did, too-processed food doesn't agree with me, so cook I must (and I'm a busy self employed business owner).

[niyad]

82. oh please, you are talking to a radical feminist here. This isn't about

going back to the 50's, it's a discussion about skills and survival. and please note that I thought these skills should be taught to both women and men as a matter of course.

[KitSileya]

111. I don't see anti-feminism here,

as long as it's not automatically assumed that 1. it's the women's fault these kids can't cook, and 2. both genders should learn to be self-sufficient. Both men and women should learn to cook - we know that the convenience we have today will be gone the moment America's economy crashes. Learning to cook from scratch, let alone other skills in areas of finance, house maintenance, crafts and others, will be of enormous benefit because it's healthier, cheaper, and the ingredients are more accessible the day peak oil or crashed economy stops the flow of hamburger helpers.

With the obesity epidemic that is threatening to overwhelm America, teaching young Americans to cook can only be of benefit. Learning to be self-sufficient can also help with their self-esteem, sense of self worth, and ability to think independently.

[MadHound]

27. I live miles from the nearest fast food franchise

And even more miles from any sort of food delivery or decent restraunt. Thus, my wife and I do all the cooking. Most the time it turns out pretty good, we were both taught to cook as kids. But there are times when my "experiments" turn out really bad.

And now that we're growing a garden this year, our cooking is going back even further to the basics, canning, drying, freezing, etc. etc.

Yeah, I do miss the convience of coming home, ordering a pizza and having to do nothing but wait for it to get there. But cooking your own food is indeed fun, and it also tastes better and is better for you.

We still go out to restraunts once in awhile, but now it is more of a "treat" type of deal. Something to reward ourselves with, certainly not the norm.

[KitSileya]

112. LOL I don't garden etc like you do,

but ordering a pizza isn't on my menu either - here in Norway it's prohibitively expensive. And living alone, cooking for one is a drag. Not only cooking every single day, even if it is just to reheat leftovers, but also doing the dishes and so on. Sometimes I just don't bother. But sometimes, my job really has its perks - I'm a high school teacher at a vocational high school, teaching vocational English to a wide range of classes (I've learned more about building houses, electrical wiring, and plumbing, these last 7 months than in the previous 30 years!) 3 of my classes are training to work in the food and catering industry, which means that they learn to cook. Usually they get to eat the end product themselves, but occasionally they invite some of the faculty to eat with them, and today I ended up eating a 3 course dinner - mushroom soup, roast turkey, and jell-o. And almost the best thing about it all? Not a dish to clean afterwards! LOL


Right now, in fact, my F&C classes are doing a project about American regional culinary traditions. They're working in groups, delving into food from the Old South, New England, Creole cooking, Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, etc. It's sad to think that these traditional dishes are being replaced by McDonalds simply because Americans don't learn to cook them or even how to follow recipes enough to learn on their own.

[TechBear_Seattle]

28. A link to the article

As found in the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002874786_cook19.htm

[niyad]

64. thank you--when I read the article, it referred to WaPo, but I couldn't

find the article on their website (nor on the website of the paper where I read the article). will mark it.

[MissB]

30. My dog ate better than we did.

Growing up, the only "canned" things in our pantry were vegetable or pickles that my mother canned. She cooked virtually everything from scratch. "Fast food" for us was a baked potato.

Our dog had prime rib, but that was because Mom always brought home a doggie bag from her waitressing job at a yacht club. We didn't go out to eat, except for those rare occaisons when we'd go to the yacht club (I think they must've allowed their employees to bring their families once a month or something like that, because we were too poor to eat at a yacht club, let alone a normal restaurant.)

My grandmother taught me how to cook, bake, can, preserve, garden and sew. She was a gem of a woman.

I have an engineering degree, yet I still cook, bake, can, preserve, garden and sew. Cooking from scratch is one of those money saving methods we have to utilize around here because I'm staying at home with the kids. I think I may be the only one in my group of friends that can actually make bread from scratch. Using yeast, even.

[distantearlywarning]

32. I can't garden.

However, I am a fairly competent cook (certainly one who understands all of the terms you wrote above). I also think it's fair to say that I am an excellent seamstress, skilled at both hand-sewing and machine-sewing. If I ever got desperate for work or if the economy collapsed, I could probably take in tailoring or make clothing to keep myself alive.

I did not learn these skills through Home Ec, even though I took it as a middle-schooler. My home-ec classes were totally worthless. My mother and father taught me to cook as I was growing up. I learned how to sew after I joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (and if something bad ever happened to our modern society I would instantly hook up with my SCA friends, all of whom know how to do at least one thing that would help us all live happily in an age without modern conveniences and law enforcement).

[slor]

35. I am a bad mofo in the kitchen...

and do not get me started on the grill. My strawberry-tamarind glaze on ribs gets the people salivating everytime, though my favorite recipe is my spicy sweet potato soup.

[niyad]

56. would you be kind enough to provide said recipes? I will then share my

rhubarb bbq sauce with you (you can email, if you are so inclined)

[Arkansas Granny]

37. I was raised on a small farm. Although we were not totally

self-sufficient, we did raise some of what we ate. I learned to cook at an early age and I've always enjoyed it. When I raised my children, I taught all of them, sons and daughter alike, to cook simple dishes, how to do laundry, ironing and simple sewing by hand because I thought it was important for them to be able to do for themselves. We all took turns with daily chores from dish washing to lawn mowing. I figured what was good enough for some of us to know was good enough for all of us to know. I think the feeling of independence that gives you is very important.

[TechBear_Seattle]

52. My grandmother was the same way

She was raised on a farm in Nebraska; the first time she saw indoor toilets was when she went to college in California (smart lady, my granny; one of only a few college graduates from her town in the 1920s, and the first woman.) Even so, she taught both her sons and daughters how to do laundry, mend clothes, cook simple meals, etc. Her attitude was very straightforward and practical: if they knew how much work it was to clean out mud and grass stains, and how much time it took to patch torn knees and sleeves, they would take better care of what they had.

[LSdemocrat]

39. My high school home ec class (about 10 years ago) was very basic

We did not learn any advanced techniques and cooked very basic recipes (mostly baked items) and very simple stove top cooking. Learning to cook well is something I'd like to do, but I haven't had the need to do so nor has it crept to the top of my list of things to do in my spare time.

[malaise]

43. Profound observation

" We grew up learning to cook, to can, to garden, to sew, to knit, to be able to deal with things around the home. In short, we grew up learning the basics of survival".

but when the government works for corporations, there is no need to teach survival since it's role is to make the corporations survive and thrive not citizens.


I don't eat fast food period.

By the way I'm a great cook and still bake from scratch.

Edit -Add

[HereSince1628]

44. My S.O.'s favorite restaurant is our dining room.

We spend less than $20 a month eating out. Typically that is more often for a Tandoori Buffet than it is for a quarter pounder.

I enjoy cooking and during the week can produce stove top meals that are really pretty speedy.

I can gin up a Milwaukee survival kit in 5-8 minutes...a brat on a bun with chips a dill pickle and a Miller-lite.

But most of out meals are more like tonite...Chicken breasts stuffed with a slice of Monterrey Jack folded inside a luncheon meat slice of ham, with steamed asparagus, and mashed potatoes (admittedly instant).

The real time total prep and cooking time won't exceed 15-20 minutes. Even if I was making the potatoes from scratch I could do it in 20-25 minutes.

Typically, although I do start heating water ahead, I wait to go to the stove until she walks in the door. It is common for an entire meal to be OVER within 20-25 minute of her passing through the door. Sometimes it seem like there is hardly time for her to relax before I'm calling her to the table.

[FatDave]

48. Me, I love to cook

And do pretty good at it. Spent 10 years doing it professionally, not at a chef level or anything, but I worked in some pretty fancy restaurants.

The best cookbook you'll ever buy is The Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America (amazon link). It's not just recipes, but also covers technique and that pesky terminology. Whole chapters on spices and their interrelationships, for example. Many of the recipes are a "base" version with tips on how to improvise on it. Basically, with this book you will learn to cook, not just follow a recipe.

IMO, recipes should only be strictly followed the first time you make a dish. After eating it you should have ideas for improvement. Most of my favorite dishes I don't measure anything. I know about what should go in, taste along the way, adjust as necessary. Cooking is an art, not a science.

All that being said, I do rely on pre-packaged foods more than I'd like to. Just too little time some days.

Neither my brother nor his wife know a thing about cooking, despite my attempts to teach them.

[Mandate My Ass]

61. I'm like that too

I follow a recipe fairly accurately the first time and then toss it. It drives my mother crazy because she's a strict measurer and I'm not so when she asks me how much of something went into a dish I can never answer her to her satisfaction. She can't believe I make bread from scratch without ever using a measuring cup or spoon. It skipped a generation because I cook more like my mother's mother than she does. However, her cakes are awesome and mine are only fair because you can't deviate that much on cake.

[FatDave]

87. Well, you're definitely a better baker than me.

Baking is one of the few times I measure everything. My wife usually handles the baking though. She can make some damn fine breads.

Technically, when baking you're supposed to weigh most of the ingredients rather than measure. There's a huge difference between a cup of sifted flour and a cup of packed flour, but a quarter-pound is always a quarter-pound. Strangely though, most cookbooks still give you measurements in cups, even for breads and cakes.

[Mandate My Ass]

88. I've resorted to doctored up box mixes

although I make a fabulous Jewish Apple cake from scratch that compelled my Jewish friend to make me an honorary member of the tribe.

Yes, successful baking relies on strict adherence to measurements so I rarely bother. :hi:

[AllegroRondo]

90. Cooking is an art, baking is a science

you absolutely must measure when baking because of so many factors like how acidity affects the leavening, etc. While with cooking you go more by flavor and can get away with 'educated guesses'.

[jeffrey_X]

74. Thanks for the book recommendation

:thumbup:

[warrens]

55. I've been able to cook most of my life

My parents both got very ill when I was 10, so I had to learn to cook or my brothers and I would have had to live on canned beans. I got to like it and am actually a fairly good cook today, although I have a fairly limited diet lately. Eating processed foods is just a bad idea, period. They're loaded with salt, cheap fat, sugar and preservatives. I pretty much cook from scratch except for pasta sauce, which has become a lot more healthy lately.

My daughter, OTOH, has mastered one dish in 16 years: French toast.

[slide to the left]

58. I'll admit

I took home ec in high school, and food science (aka, cooking) in college. Well worth the outragous tuition.

[Lavender Brown]

59. I grew up with parents who both enjoyed cooking

and who didn't take us out to restaurants very often. My repertoire isn't huge but I've always depended less on prepared foods than a lot of people I know.

[newportdadde]

62. Have you seen that KFC commercial where 'eating at home' is

a bucket of chicken? My wife(a good cook) just laughs when that comes on and says how sad our society is anymore.

[confludemocrat]

131. most americans don't know what taste is & know only the bland

and spices or anything exotic is considered elitist or uppity
for them fattiness or saltiness or sweet are the essence of enjoyment, note how in a chinese restaurant most people typically go with the sweet and sour whatever
it's fitting that targeting those family-learned taste preferences would pay off so well for fast food purveyors

but cooking is truly a chore and furthermore it takes work to pick among the trash the food companies want to sell you, to find something good
One good fast food company is Subway

[jeffrey_X]

66. I'm an American and haven't eaten ANY fast food in over 3 years.

I do 100% of the cooking for me and my wife.

[mcscajun]

67. I can certainly survive without fast food...but I'll have to team up

with someone who hunts and gardens. :)

I prefer cooking from scratch, and prefer hand-kneading bread to bread machines. I can fish, but am not crazy about cleaning 'em, either. Doesn't mean I wouldn't if I Had To...just that I'd rather not.

[Obamarama]

68. If they're too damned dumb to read a cookbook, let em' starve!

Seriously....I've had it with the "dumbing down" of America (OMG, that sounds so Resmuglican!). I guess if someone can't comprehend the terms in a cookbook, they can starve. We're not talking rocket science here, unless you're trying your hand at haute cuisine or something.

[Mutley]

69. Yes, we could all survive without fast food.

In fact, we'd probably be better off.

Fast food is just a convenience, not a necessity, and people would learn how to cook again really quick if all the fast food joints suddenly disappeared.

[lukasahero]

70. My mother didn't cook everything from scratch - nor did she garden

I grew up (now 42) during the boon of canned and frozen foods. My mom worked full time once I was in junior high school. She was very good at killing things she tried to grow and, while we never ate TV dinners, my idea of vegetables was that they grew in cans. (JK.)

Today I grow my own vegetables (albeit during the short NE growing season). I cook almost everything from scratch. Not sure where we get the idea that we can't do the things our parents did - our parents did the best they could but they were not all the romantic subsistence farmers and happy homemakers we idealize them to be.

I grew up learning how to learn. My parents (and my working mom especially) taught me that as long as I could do that, I could learn how to do the things she wasn't home to teach me and then some. Traditions handed down are wonderful things but this younger generation is no different than mine. I didn't learn how to cook until I wanted to learn how to cook. This generation will do the same in their time. (My 17 year old nephew is the best cook in his house. :) )

[slackmaster]

71. I haven't eaten typical fast food in many years

No greasy burgers or fries for me.

[porphyrian]

72. If that was the case, there would be no Food Network.

The variety in the produce isle of major grocery stores has tripled or more in the last decade, and not just in ethnically diverse populations. If anything, I would argue the opposite. That doesn't mean we aren't lazy or don't like our corn syrup and saturated fats, however.

[geniph]

76. What's funny is that I know what all the terms mean

but I don't cook, at all. I CAN, if I have to, follow a recipe, but I hate cooking. It bores the hell out of me and I have a bad habit of wandering away and getting involved in something else and ruining the food. My husband does all the cooking - but I'll bet he doesn't know what the terms mean.

I'm a culinary refusenik!

and as to fast food - I'd say we eat fast food probably once every six months, at most. I don't eat red meat, and my husband is no great fan of fast food burgers, so it rules a lot of the fast food places out (half of them still cook their french fries in beef tallow). If I'm going to spend good money on a restaurant, I want it to be a real restaurant.

I took mandatory home ec in 8th grade, but I'll be damned if I can think of one thing I actually learned from it. I know we mixed things in bowls and put something in the oven, but mostly I farted around and giggled with my friends. I got a D in sewing, too; that teacher was a total hardass. I certainly didn't learn to cook or sew from my mother - her idea of teaching something is to show you, at full speed, what she does, and then bitch at you for being an idiot if you don't instantly get it. That's why I still can't crochet, that's how she tried to teach me to crochet. On the other hand, that's also how she taught me to read, and that I picked up instantly (I was reading before I was three).

On the other hand, I got A's in both wood and metal shop, but they'd only let girls take one quarter of the two combined (half the quarter in wood shop and half in metal shop). The advanced shop classes weren't open to girls. I have no idea if there were advanced cooking and sewing classes, since I got such shit grades in both that I wouldn't have been too welcome in either class.

My real problem with cooking is that I'm not all that interested in food most of the time. I'd just as soon heat a can of soup as spend time with food prep. I find it boring and not worth the effort.

Personally, I think a real "home skills" course should be mandatory for all students - teaching them how to pay a bill, balance an account, budget for expenses, shop for groceries, cook basic foods like rice and potatoes, do laundry, do simple home repairs like screwing a knob back on a drawer - things like that.

[RB TexLa]

78. I go days on water and protein powder mix

You don't have to have food, you can get all the nutrients you need from man-made products. It saves a ton of money and you can lose weight fast. When I do it, I go two days without eating anything then about four or five days with just water the protein mix and vitamins

[annabanana]

80. I can't can.. and I probably couldn't grow enough

to keep me alive..
But I can do rudimentary sewing, I used to knit (and I suspect that's like bike riding & I could pick it up again)

But fast food? no problem. . . it tastes terrible (except a good NY pizza) costs too much per meal and "gets old" real fast.

My newly colleged son (after years of leaving stuff on his plate at supper) is now SO APPRECIATIVE of my mundane cooking skills that it's pretty funny..

[pitohui]

81. i never buy fast food and clearly i have survived

i no longer buy cookbooks because it is a waste of money when there are bazillions of recipes free on the internet that can be searched for exactly the ingredients in my garden, freezer, etc.

i feel the cookbook is somewhat a thing of the past

i now print out the recipe i want to use and if i get it all grease on it, fine, throw that print-out away at the end of the evening

after awhile if you've got the feel for it, you don't need a recipe any way, it is more a suggestion than anything else

while i was taught to sew, this is indeed a skill that has become irrelevant and a waste of money, i can't buy supplies for what i can buy clothing for even new, because of worldwide slave labor, and realistically i don't buy clothes new either, i get it from thrifts for a fraction of the cost in time and money of sewing, all you need to know of sewing is how to tack back on a button securely, how to secure a loose seam, how to hem, and you can do all that without the bother of a machine taking up space and cash to boot

[Nickster]

86. Naah, I got to have pictures to look at. That's half the fun, look through

the cookbook like a big menu, pick out the prettiest one, then get to cooking. I've lately been on a big Korean cooking spree myself.

[Iniquitous Bunny]

85. We could more than do without fast food.

In my house (busy I may add), we cook most things from scratch. It tastes better and it's not that hard. Other than roadtrips (when there's no other options), we don't do really fast food.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

89. My mother didn't raise me to be a housewife.

That statement is NOT a slam at anyone, male or female, who keeps house. It's simply a fact. My mother did not want her daughters to focus on domestic skills because she wanted us to have careers. So if we weren't interested in cooking or gardening or sewing, she didn't make us learn it.

The only exceptions were cleaning and ironing. All us kids had cleaning chores - we were cheap labor. :) And you can't look professional in wrinkled clothes, so we had to learn that. But I never did laundry till I was out on my own.

Gardening? Plants die in my care. Sewing, knitting, crocheting? I tried but no good at it. (I can embroider - that's useful, eh?) I can paint and patch and repair around the house, but electricity still scares me. I can bake, and I'm better at cooking than I used to be. It's been years since I ate fast food.

I used to buy cookbooks but now I get all my recipes online. Google something like 'coq au vin' and you will get a slew of returns. allrecipes.com is a good fast resource: enter the ingredients you have on hand and they will search for recipes. When I find one that really works, I print it out, put it in a vinyl sleeve and keep it in a 3-ring binder. Voila - custom cookbook.

[niyad]

93. are you, by chance, a "rumpole" fan??

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

105. Not fanatical, but I do enjoy it

The ID was suggested to me by The Magistrate. He is the only one to whom it applies. ;)

[DarbyUSMC]

92. When I was a kid, I didn't learn anything from my mother except

how to type. That didn't mean that I wouldn't have the common sense needed to do basic cooking or keeping house when needed. Home economics was mandatory but I was afraid of the sewing machine, so other than making cookies and two meals made by the class in seventh and eighth grade, there was no earth shaking knowledge imparted. I've never been domestic, as most people define the word anyway. No interest in crafts and no talent for art, music, gardening, canning et al. I wasn't allowed to baby-sit but somehow managed to bring up three children without too many catastrophes.

For most of my childhood, the girls next door had exactly the opposite experience. They had chores including doing the dishes every night and all sorts of other things. They would sporadically try to beg off of them by mentioning to their mother that I didn't have to do anything. She told them that I'd be sorry someday because I wouldn't know how to do anything when out on my own. In that I was an only child I spent a lot of time in the adult world. My mother's viewpoint was that you have to work almost all of your adult life so when you are a kid, be a kid. There were no fast food places in those years. We did eat out once a week or so at a diner in town. My mother was a good cook but it wasn't because she enjoyed it all that much. She just knew what she was doing.

My kids all went to work while still in high school. They all have different degrees of survival skills. My daughter, who has two businesses, would be a prime contestant on The Apprentice; one son has worked for Disney World for twelve years in various capacities; the other son has worked in the restaurant business for about ten years in every capacity from bartender to manager. He has been hither and yon training the restaurant's employees on a new computer system as well. All in all balanced lives and a variety of knowledge and skills.

(How did I learn anything at all? I enlisted in the Marine Corps when I was eighteen. Never had KP because I made myself indispensable in the communications center where I was assigned.)

Osmosis shouldn't be overlooked either. We are like sponges when around things for any length of time, IMO. That is why there is so much trivia in our gray matter. How handy that I know the words to The Merry Minuet. ;)

Merry Minuet
They’re rioting in Africa (whistling)
They’re starving in Spain (whistling)
There’s hurricanes in Flo-ri-da (whistling)
And Texas needs rain the whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch
AND I DON’T LIKE ANYBODY VERY MUCH!!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day Someone will set the spark off
AND WE WILL ALL BE BLOWN AWAY!!
They’re rioting in Africa (whistling)
There’s strife in Iran
What nature doesn’t so to us
Will be done by our fellow "man"



A home ec. class learns about nutrition in the 1950's.

[karlrschneider]

122. Cool post, you should put it into your journal!

:D

[MelissaB]

94. For those who like to cook or would like to know more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=236

Yeah, DU has a cooking and baking group. It's a great place to poke around when you have some time. :)

[Swamp Rat]

97. Nope

I'm from New Orleans. ;)

[upi402]

98. I could live without all the damn cooking shows

Enough already -we're fat and love our food. Stop it with all the cooking shows fer Chrissakes.

[hyphenate]

99. I'm probably older than a lot of other DUers

but when I was a child, cooking was a major delight for me. My father's mother was a cook for a living, and my mother's mother used to make cheese, biscuits and all kind of other great stuff with only a wood stove and an old refrigerator.

I learned early how to cook, bake and do all kinds of stuff. Some of the knowledge left me, but I still do my share of cooking, and at Christmas time, I do a lot of baking as well. The one thing my grandmother did teach me that I've forgotten is how to make the perfect pie crust.

[dragonlady]

101. Never eat fast food

We might have fast food perhaps once a year or so when we're on vacation and desperate. Even then it would be a reasonably nutritious sub or pizza, not the detestable Big Mac. In our house, the closest we come to prepared food is veggie burgers. It's just so much more economical to buy ingredients and put them together.

Our 18-year-old son likes to cook. His best dish is lasagna from scratch. He has also been known to make cakes. (Now if he will just learn to clean up after himself...)

[lakemonster11]

102. I'm 24, and you could not pay me to eat fast food.

Most people my age that I know can cook. In early college, we rarely cooked because we all had a full meal plan, but even then I remember exchanging recipes for various foods in the section lounge. As upper-classmen, we used to have regular potlucks, and people would bring everything from salads with homemade dressings, grilled chicken or vegetables, casseroles, chili, and homemade baked goods. My senior year, when I was living in a house with a kitchen, I cooked dinner in my slow-cooker three or four times a week and would eat leftovers the other nights.

I do eat out fairly often, but not at fast food places or because I'm incapable of cooking for myself. There are just too many good, cheap, healthy places to eat around.

Even my (20-year-old) brother, who eats out most of the time, is perfectly able to cook for himself when he wants to. He actually did take home-ec in junior high. I never did.

[electron_blue]

109. I don't see this as a big deal

So what -t hey're culinarily illiterate. If they are forced to learn how to cook, they will.

Gardening is a bigger deal of the two, I'd say. You can always cook exceedingly simply and survive, but if gardening is trickier if one's survival is to depend on it.

[BiggJawn]

113. Uh, my first wife was a "Culinary Illiterate"

Sit down to one of her "meals" and I guaran-dam-TEE ya you'd think it was a Big Deal.

There's a wide gulf between simple and in-edible.

Gardening's not all that hard. Unless you're raising Bonsai or Orchids, and those you don't eat.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

110. I enjoy cooking and have cooked since I was a little girl. I try to

encourage my sons to cook also. Now since the advent of Foodnetwork, I have improved, learning new techniques all the time that I didn't know existed because I am mostly self-taught.

[BloodyWilliam]

114. If I had more counter space and a working oven, I'd cook far more!

I make a many-layer lasagna you have to taste to believe. Incredibly simple- player on browned beef, sauteed eggplant and mushrooms, ricotta and mozzerella cheeses, and meatsauce, bake until done. Also incredibly not-health food, but DAMN... I wish my oven worked right now. :)

[Clark2008]

115. Fast food? What's that?

Everyone in my family - including my 6-year-old watches the Food Network, religiously.

If I had to live on fast food, I'd die. It's just gross.

Tonight I'm fixing salmon, broccoli and spinach.

[Atman]

116. I survive without it now

What the hell is so difficult about avoiding Mickey D's, Burger King, or anything food outlet where you don't even have to get your fat lazy ass out of your car?

[AnneD]

118. I recently read Fast Food Nation

and it got my brain thinking about this. I remember having Mom and Pop hamburger places, but not that many. Sonic and Dairy Queen were the first chains out here. KFC was the first big national chain. I didn't have my first McDonald's burger until Junior High (not impressed). Mom believed in teaching all of us survival skills. She had home ec in high school but in that rural Az school boys and girls swapped for a semester so she got some shop experience too.

My skill inventory list...
I can proudly say I could survive most things. I can use rudimentary tools but modern knives, etc are faster(I want to learn how to knap flint but haven't done that yet). I can hunt and prepare the game and preserve it. I can cure the skin for wear, sew the hides together and even decorate them. I can make containers, shelters, and have a moderate knowledge of edible and medicinal herbs of North America. I know how to look for water and what water is safe to drink (factory pollution makes it hard to tell though). I can tell time by the sun and months by using a stick in the ground. I have medical skills, animal husbandry, and farming savvy. All this I learned from my Grandmother during my summer visits to Okla as a child. I tried to pass these things on to my daughter, but she was not interested. The funny thing is that when we go 'camping', she is always surprised at what I know...go figure.

Now if I have the luxury of electricity and running water, yes I can cook from scratch and frequently do. I can and preserve. Hubby says I own every cookbook in the world. While that may be an exaggeration, I generally don't need a computer generated menue-I know where they are in my library. I have switched over to organic veggies and meats because they just plain taste better (and this country girl can tell the difference-blind folded). As I get older I am finding that fast food does make me feel ill. The list of places I refuse to eat at grows longer and longer. I regret that I ever took my daughter to one but she really isn't too keen on them.

Now my daughter has learned to cook and sew and knows her way around technology better than I ever will. So I guess she is prepared for her world as she needs to be. I just wish she were more interested in the old skills.

[DanCa]

121. I could thrive without fast food.

Garbage rotting stuff but i can't cook for myself - damn hands - so I gotta eat what my family gets. But I'd do just fine if I'd never eat mcdonalds junk food again. wait do you consider beer and soda pop as part of the fast food culture?

[Nikia]

123. I can be a gourment cook when I try

Being just my husband and I though and having little kitchen/refrigerator/cupboard space, it is sometimes easier to buy convience items rather than a ton of ingredients that won't be used up before they go bad and just take up space. I suppose with better planning, I could do better on this but I have a lot of other things on my mind.

[taught_me_patience]

124. no time to cook

Long work days and long commutes make taking the time to cook a leisure most Americans are finding harder and harder to do. I've noticed that I hardly save any money by cooking myself anyway (especially when cooking something elaborate).

[Jose Diablo]

126. Hmmpt, I'll have you know

That between making spaghetti and 3 Alarm Clili, the Diablo residence eats just fine. I can even make a chicken salad, using canned chicken and pasta. Change the recipe a little, and viola, its tuna salad. Then there are BLT's or toasted cheese sandwiches, using authentic Velveeta American style cheese, and Campbell's chicken noodle soup. Wat ya mean Willis? We eat just fine.

Around here, Jose takes care of the cooking, because the missus is busy at work, wiping dirty butts at a nursing home. All those years I busted my butt working to bring home the bacon, but now, I am enlightened, as a Home Boy. Shoulda retired 40 years ago.

[banana republican]

127. Learned to cook from my Mom &

about 3 years of managing a resteraunt. I cook better than my wife (but don't tell her that).

[rucky]

129. Do you add the cheese powder before or after you boil the noodles? nt

[bumblebee1]

130. Home Ec for girls, Shop for boys

It was the same way when I was in junior high and high school. Personally, I think both boys and girls should take Home Ec. Both sexes should be able to cook and take care of themselves. I wanted a husband that could take care of himself. I wanted to be able to go away for a few days and be able to come home and not find a disaster area. I have that kind of husband. Both of us cook, but not at the same time. I'm a recipe follower and measurer. My husband is an experimenter. When it comes to baking, I do most of it. Hubby uses the bread machine. I have a nice collection of cookbooks at home. I do get some use out of them.

It's amazing with all the cookbooks on the market and the Food Network that most Americans are culinarily ignorant. My hubby and I had a discussion about thei. We came to the conclusion that we're a convenience oriented society. I prefer home cooked food. When in a pinch, I'll use the convenience foods. We've yet to buy the mashed potatoes and buttered noodles that are in the deli section.

To paraphrase Jay Leno: How lazy are we getting? You can buy pbj sandwiches already made along with mashed potatoes and buttered noodles. You can even buy your holiday dinner already made. All you have to do is heat it up.

[Left Is Write]

132. Could I survive without fast food? Of course.

I learned how to cook watching my mother from a young age.

[Odin2005]

134. When people work 14hr's a day...

...it's not suprising they are too tired to cook. My mom is a good example, she loves too cook, but she's usually to tired after she gets off of work to slave over the stove. Quit bashing people who buy pre-made frozen food, it's elitist BS, just like bashing people for not buying organic foods; it just confirms the "liberal elitist snob who doesn't care about working-class stiffs" rhetoric the wing-nuts spew.