Dumbing down cookbooks

I read an article today that said they are having to dumb down cookbooks because most people today don't know basic cooking terminology. Like, simmer, saute, fold, cream.... I'm glad I had parents who taught me some basic cooking techniques. I'm not a very good cook, but I enjoy experimenting. The article stressed the importance of teaching your teenagers who will be soon going off to college some basic cooking skills. Some funny's from the article:

A college guy making spaghetti called his Mom at home to find out if he should cook the hamburger before he added it to the sauce. Guess he never noticed how to do it. It just "magically" appeared at the dinner table. (Frankly, I'm impressed he was making that much effort. Most guys I know would have just opened a jar of sauce).

A person was trying to bake something but didn't have any eggs. Sent e-mail to the company asking if they could substitute PEACHES instead. :confused:

Then, there is the man who called furious that his house caught on fire after he followed the instructions to grease the bottom of the pan. You guessed, it. He greased the bottom all right. The outside of the pan.

Laurababies If you ever get tired of going up and down the Mississippi, I think you could have a long career ahead of you teaching basic cooking techniques to all these kids who grew up nuking food that tastes like cardboard and plastic in the microwave. :D

I love to cook. I don't have a willing audience, currently, but, I do love to cook! :D

That is pretty funny Lisa (greasing bottom of pan)...

I LOVE cooking and so my kids grew up in the kitchen pretty much. There was one year that hubby was in Korea and my kids were about ages 8-12 or so. They each had one day of the week that they were in charge of shopping and cooking for the family. It was pretty interesting...only daughter Missy made macaroni & cheese or ramen noodles every single week :D Oldest son Bryan would fix homestyle meals and son Jason discovered a real love for cooking. He is 25 now and loves cooking like I do. He continues to fix family meals and experiments with new recipes.

I think part of the trouble today is that so many folks do not have time to cook meals and so kids grow up thinking that "dinner" comes in paper sacks at the drive-through or miraculously appears on a plate.

I'm sure that when I started looking at cookbooks, they always had a glossary of terms. They didn't necessarily assume knowledge. Surely they could still put that in? Perhaps they don't think poeple would bother to read it.

A while ago, one of our TV chef-types, published basic cookery books teaching people how to cook, assuming no knowledge whatsoever. Foolproof recipes for everything from cooking storecupboard staples to really quite accomplished dishes. It was aimed at people, possibly students, leaving home for the first time; and it attempted to equip readers with good techniques for cooking fresh food, who might otherwise only eat heated or take-away meals. She took an enormous amount of flak at the time for telling people how to boil an egg, but the books were very successful.

My mother did not like anyone else in the kitchen with her and felt it was just easier to do it herself. Something none of us particularly fought.... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

My senior year in high school....my mother went off on a trip and left my dad and me home. There were meals prepared (this was before microwaves).

I worked after school. One night my dad called me at work. He was trying to follow the instructions my mother had left. "Put some oil in the pan." An automotive engineer, I am sure he was looking for some crank case oil in the kitchen.

Just as sad.... I had to put him on hold while I went and asked a co-worker what I should tell him.....

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My mother did not like anyone else in the kitchen with her and felt it was just easier to do it herself. Something none of us particularly fought....

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My mom was the same way about cooking as well as the cleaning. I came to college with no domestic skills. My grandmother tried teaching me how to cook when I was a kid, but she passed away before I really got a chance to learn or remember most of what she showed me.

I know now some of the basics, but all of the dinners I cook are very basic and simple. So usually Alexa prefers to cook now because she claims she doesn't like my boring dinners.

I learned how to cook when I was young and had to help out in the kitchen as part of my daily chores. When I was 10 years old, my Mom got very ill and was in a coma for about a month. When she came to, she had brain damage and was in the hospital for an additional 3 months. The whole time, my Dad worked and my brother and I cooked supper. We had sausages, peas and mashed potatoes every night for 4 months. Occasionally my wicked step-sister would come over and prepare something else and that was OK with us. Even when Mom got home, her brain damage was so bad that we had to teach her how to do everything...read, write, dress, wash....all the things we take for granted. So we still had to cook but fortunately my Aunt introduced some variety. I remember learning how to cook fried chicken and once I mastered that, we had it every Sunday night.

As for now, I really don't like nuked food and I always try to cook a balanced meal on weekends. Last night I had a baked chicken breast with steamed asparagus with "real" hollandaise sauce. :)

Alot of times I will also cook in bulk, for example a huge pot of chicken soup, a big lasagne or a whole roast stuffed chicken. That way I can freeze leftovers for lunch and suppers during the week.

...and thanks to Pet Talk, I can now boil the purrrrfect egg!! ;) :D

Wow, its amazing how things have changed. I LOVE to cook :D

I'm currently in a Food and Nutritional Science class at school. The teacher one day asked who knew what hamburger came from ( :rolleyes: ) and some Freshman said Horse! She honestly thought beef came from a horse :rolleyes: I'm not surprised they're having to "dumb down" cookbooks...

My mom taught me everything I know! As she had MS, she couldn't do lots of things, but she gave me instructions from her wheelchair! Though I don't like to cook, I know all I have to know thanks to her!!!
No spaghetti sauce from jars here, I make most things from scratch :)

I had trained many cooks when I ran that cafeteria. One lady had no idea how to even follow a recipe, have never made anything by a recipe. After the first year of her working for me, her husband came to pick her up from work one day and told me how much he has benifitted from what she learned at work. He smiled and said, "I actually get HOMEMADE cornbread and ROLLS now.... AT HOME!"

I am proud to say, I taught all my kids how to cook, even the boys and what they didn't learn from me they learned from cook books. I think both my son's had to teach their wives how to cook. Kevlin really enjoys cooking.

It is just not the art of cooking that the kids today are not learning. We all sat at the dinner table to eat at the same time, families don't do that much anymore and to me that is a very important part of being a "family".

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Originally Posted by sirrahbed

I LOVE cooking and so my kids grew up in the kitchen pretty much. There was one year that hubby was in Korea and my kids were about ages 8-12 or so. They each had one day of the week that they were in charge of shopping and cooking for the family. It was pretty interesting...only daughter Missy made macaroni & cheese or ramen noodles every single week :D Oldest son Bryan would fix homestyle meals and son Jason discovered a real love for cooking. He is 25 now and loves cooking like I do. He continues to fix family meals and experiments with new recipes.

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Debbie ~ My folks did something similar when we got old enough. Each child was responsible for making 1 dinner a week. I think I made Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff every week. To this day, I can't even look at a box of Hamburger helper without getting queasy. :p

When I cook fresh bread ans scones, the birds come to my window and enjoy the smell...some days I don't cook and I can see them fluttering around the window waiting for me to cook. The days I don't cook are the days I am lazy!

:o I'm one of those people .. I would love to learn how to cook, Althought I can honestly say I haven't( this year!) and have no plans on eating any microwave meals again because seriously you can just taste how bad they are!

I did cooking at school but my teacher never taught us the basics and if we couldnt do it we was told to sit out so never really got the chance to learn! I know its very sad but I have only recently figured out how to use the oven in my house! I guess its just down to never being shown or taught how to do certain things.
I know very few things but definatly would love to learn more because I enjoy being in the kitchen making things!

Every child in our family could put a meal on the table for the whole family by the time they finished elementary school. Male or female, made no difference. Both my parents enjoyed cooking, and passed that enjoyment to us, which I am sure our respective spouses appreciate. My eldest neice and nephew have been trained that way as well, and I am sure all subsequent ones will be.

For bridal showers for people who did NOT grow up in my family, I usually make sure to include a paperback Fanny Farmer cookbook. It defines everything, cooking terms, etc., and always has. It is invaluable for a beginning cook of any age.

The good part about learning to cook? The results are usually edible - and if not, at least then you know what NOT to do! A dear friend once brought muffins to work, handed one to me and said "Tell me what's wrong with it!" Took a bite, the flavor was okay, just the texture kind odd. She had stirred them into submission, not necessary for muffins!

I LOVE to cook and learned from my mom and grandmother at a very early age. Mom went to work when I was about 12 or 13 and my sister and I shared the duties of cooking for a family of five. Home-Economics (basically teaching you how to be a housewife) was mandatory in high school back in those days and I LOVED the cooking classes.

The microwave is merely a nice accessory to my kitchen. I use it mainly for cooking vegetables which is does very well and very quickly. I don't buy frozen, prepared or packaged foods, preferring to cook fresh food "from scratch" and I live alone. I prefer my cooking over anything that comes in frozen boxes. It really doesn't take too long if you know what you're doing in the kitchen.

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Originally Posted by RedHedd

Home-Economics (basically teaching you how to be a housewife) was mandatory in high school back in those days and I LOVED the cooking classes.

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Home Ec was cut from the curriculum in our city schools about 7 years ago. My boys learned to cook and even use a sewing machine. By the time Missy was in that school - it was no longer available which I think is too bad.

Do kids still learn cooking at school in your area??

Oh and I still keep my "Joy of Cooking Cookbook" handy to refer to... I also love to watch Foodnetwork, where I continue to learn even now :D

I kind of know how to cook. I know enough so that if I was left alone for a while, I could eat without ordering take-out. During the summer each of us was in charge of one meal a week. My brother and I were partners because we couldn't make stuff on our own. One week we had mushroom filled meatloaf. It was wonderful! I really enjoy cooking, even if sometimes I don't know what I'm doing. :p :rolleyes: :D

Funny that you mentioned "Home Ec" - it was mandatory in Jr. High in my town (3/4 the year for girls, 1/4 for boys) and my mother nicely talked them out of me having to take it. She said "She can already put a meal on the table for six people, and she makes her own clothes. What were you planning on teaching her?" So I got to hang out and do independent study in the art room for 3/4 of the year. The other 1/4 (which boys had 3/4 of) was wood shop, and that I did do.

I was recently visiting with a friend from school, and we talked about that. She said ""I TOOK Home Ec - made an ugly blouse which I never wore, and don't remember learning anything useful."

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I was recently visiting with a friend from school, and we talked about that. She said ""I TOOK Home Ec - made an ugly blouse which I never wore, and don't remember learning anything useful."

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Ha!!! I took Home-Ec too.....1/2 a year of cooking and 1/2 a year of sewing and yes, we made a blouse too.

....I failed them both.... :o

I didn't learn to cook much at home, my mom didn't want me to mess around in the kitchen. :eek: She was a fairly good cook, but only made country type meals, nothing too fancy, but she did that very well! :)

When I moved in with my first boyfriend, I was lucky that he liked to cook and I learned quite a few tips from him. As time went by, I started experimenting more with all the new things you could get, and I'm still learning. :)

These days, there are so many TV shows with excellent chefs you can learn from too. :)

The ex owner of a Bar John and I went to (Charlie's), was collecting cookbooks, he had boxes full of them in the cellar. When he died, the new owner wanted to get rid of most of them, so I got to pick the ones I wanted. :) They're all quite old and in english - with "funny" measurements, but I can still use a lot of the recipees from them.

I did learn a bit of cooking in school, but I don't remember any of that, apart from turning pancakes in the air. :D

That culinary classic The Joy of Cooking is pretty basic, even in the 1950s edition that my mom got for a wedding present. I go to my copy when I'm confronted with something that I'm not sure about. :confused:

Liz

I went on to study fashion design in college and made my own clothes for many years. <sigh> i just don't have the time nor the desire to do that anymore. Joy of Cooking is a staple in my kitchen (along with that old Red Gingham bound Betty Crocker cookbook), but the one I truly love these days is the Microwave Gourmet