Preaching To The Choir

[poliphilo]

Convenience food is a bit of a con.  I just made mayonnaise.  It took me ten minutes. How inconvenient is that?

OK, the steak and kidney pie I made the other day took a bit longer - but not much. You coat the meat in seasoned flour, throw it in a dish with some onion, stock and tomato puree, then cover with pastry. Making the pastry is the toughest bit (and I'm afraid I cheated and used ready-made). The rest is cooking time. And of course the result is very much nicer than anything that ever came out of a tin.

There's no mystery to cooking. You take things that taste nice, mix them together, heat 'em for however long it takes. And that's it.

Everyone should learn to cook.

Comments

[oakmouse]

Here here! I count myself very lucky that I grew up in a household where most foods were made from scratch until I was about 12 years old. That included jam, pickles, frozen veg, and yogurt. I learned as a child to enjoy the process of cooking, and felt a deep sense of loss when my mother switched to mostly packaged foods. When I moved out on my own, I went back to cooking from scratch as much as possible again. And of course now with the celiac and the dairy allergy, I have very little choice --- which makes a convenient excuse when I run into one of those people who resents and gets sniffy about home cooking. ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Like you I grew up with home cooking- and home-made jams and cakes and all sorts. Being a boy, though, I never got any instruction in the female mysteries. I'd like to think things have changed now- and that boys are routinely taught how to cook- but I don't suppose they are.

[oakmouse]

I suspect it depends on the household, but nowadays even girls are rarely taught to cook.

My mother was an anomaly there, in that she taught my brother (who IIRC is about your age) to cook, just as us girls were taught how to mow the lawns. He wanted to learn, though, and I'm not sure how common a trait that was.