I think part of the problem is people aren’t taught how to cook anymore, either by family or by schools. They’ll SAY “Oh, I don’t have time.” and that may be partly true, but you get down to it they don’t have the knowledge or practice that takes the time out of it.
If you don’t know what to do in the kitchen, yeah, fast food, ready to eat, prepared pre-packaged food is it.
I’ve dated people who basically told me my cooking was shit because it wasn’t fancy restaurant quality. and they only eat ‘quality’ food. then complain how they are broke all the time spending $200 a day eating out.
most people don’t make their own clothes because they don’t have access to the material resources to do so. they dont’ have sheep, or cotton plantations at home, let alone to make thread, and the weave it into cloth. then we have to die, cut, and sew it. most people who do make their own clothes buy fabric rolls and just do the cutting and sewing parts. it’s a hobby.
they have access to raw food. the only thing they don’t do is the farming.
I would argue that most people don’t make their own clothes mainly because the time and effort required to make clothes is VASTLY disproportionate to the time and effort required to buy clothes.
For food, it’s the same. Learning to cook palatable meals from ingredients (anywhere on the preprocessed spectrum not just raw) requires a lot of learning and often new kitchen equipment.
Especially if you’re truly starting from 0, as in no cooking knowledge was taught to you by family or community and you didn’t inherit any equipment.
Why should we expect people to sacrifice the time, money, and energy that their job is demanding more and more of from them as time goes on? Is cooking really different from all the other domestic skills that are no longer expected to be known by at least one household member?
More importantly, if encouraging cooking really is a more efficient way to improve average nutrition, why are we so quick to scoff at people who don’t know this skill, instead of acknowledging the myriad of reasons they were discouraged from acquiring it and using that knowledge to help us campaign more effectively?
(not saying you specifically were scoffing but def other people in this thread and people I’ve discussed this with IRL have, including myself in the past)
because learing to cook is way easier and cheaper than becoming someone who makes clothes. like orders of magntitude.
cooking for yourself requires a few pots and pants.
i scoff at them because the people who refuse to cook are often the ones for whom it would require minimal effort. but they act like it’s some cruel undue burden. and then they also WHINE that ubereats is so expensive. you can’t have it both ways.
Someone linked here to an article about inflation in US some time ago. It was talking about an older lady that couldn’t make cookies any more because the pre-made cookie mix she uses has different size now and her recipe doesn’t work. It was just mind boggling to me. Cooking and baking is not that difficult. I’m just an IT guy and I can bake. You just follow the recipe, it’s not rocket science. If older generations can’t follow a cookie mix recipe I don’t even want to imagine what young people eat.
And more on the topic. I do check ingredients on most things I buy and if I can’t find something without preservatives I just make it. Yesterday I was making tortillas for tacos because the ones in stores have lots of additives. It’s really simple but definitely more difficult than cookie mix recipe.
My grandmother was a great cook and also liked to cook, but she still needed my grandfather to do the very basic math to convert the recipe ratios in function of the amount of guests. She wasn’t stupid, she just left school at 13yo to help in the house and the only math that she did after that was counting.
All that to say: It’s not because it’s easy for you, that it’s easy for everyone.
I think the level of basic education in US is another issue and it’s possible both have impact here. My mother only finished primary school in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere in communist Poland and still has broad general knowledge, likes to read books and yes, can scale recipes without issues.
I’m pretty sure the new recipe in printed on the box. You can also look up new recipe that doesn’t use the mix and just follow it. What I mean is that is someone only knows one recipe by heart and is unable to learn a new one it means they can’t cook and if old people can’t cook then well… the skill of cooking in the society must be completely gone by now.
All the Boomers’ recipes were designed to use boxed, processed ingredients. Think green bean casserole with Campbell’s® Cream Of Mushroom Soup and French’s® Original Crispy Fried Onions, for example. “Modern” “convenience foods” were all the rage when they were growing up and it shows.
In USA right? My grandparents (which would have been boomers if I’m not mistaken) here in Europe have never been seen using that kind of crap. They were doing their cans and crap and all kind of horrific preservation methods but they always did 100%.
They, and my parents as well, had cooking courses in school.
They were also very much into foraging, hunting, fishing… all due to living through and after the war.
I think part of the problem is people aren’t taught how to cook anymore, either by family or by schools. They’ll SAY “Oh, I don’t have time.” and that may be partly true, but you get down to it they don’t have the knowledge or practice that takes the time out of it.
If you don’t know what to do in the kitchen, yeah, fast food, ready to eat, prepared pre-packaged food is it.
They’re also afraid to cook due to their lack of experience and their dependence on ‘good food’ made by someone else.
I’ve dated people who basically told me my cooking was shit because it wasn’t fancy restaurant quality. and they only eat ‘quality’ food. then complain how they are broke all the time spending $200 a day eating out.
stupid and insane.
most people don’t want to cook because it takes effort and time. they are lazy.
devils advocate: do most people not make their own clothes because it takes effort and they’re lazy?
most people don’t make their own clothes because they don’t have access to the material resources to do so. they dont’ have sheep, or cotton plantations at home, let alone to make thread, and the weave it into cloth. then we have to die, cut, and sew it. most people who do make their own clothes buy fabric rolls and just do the cutting and sewing parts. it’s a hobby.
they have access to raw food. the only thing they don’t do is the farming.
I would argue that most people don’t make their own clothes mainly because the time and effort required to make clothes is VASTLY disproportionate to the time and effort required to buy clothes.
For food, it’s the same. Learning to cook palatable meals from ingredients (anywhere on the preprocessed spectrum not just raw) requires a lot of learning and often new kitchen equipment.
Especially if you’re truly starting from 0, as in no cooking knowledge was taught to you by family or community and you didn’t inherit any equipment.
Why should we expect people to sacrifice the time, money, and energy that their job is demanding more and more of from them as time goes on? Is cooking really different from all the other domestic skills that are no longer expected to be known by at least one household member?
More importantly, if encouraging cooking really is a more efficient way to improve average nutrition, why are we so quick to scoff at people who don’t know this skill, instead of acknowledging the myriad of reasons they were discouraged from acquiring it and using that knowledge to help us campaign more effectively?
(not saying you specifically were scoffing but def other people in this thread and people I’ve discussed this with IRL have, including myself in the past)
because learing to cook is way easier and cheaper than becoming someone who makes clothes. like orders of magntitude.
cooking for yourself requires a few pots and pants.
i scoff at them because the people who refuse to cook are often the ones for whom it would require minimal effort. but they act like it’s some cruel undue burden. and then they also WHINE that ubereats is so expensive. you can’t have it both ways.
Someone linked here to an article about inflation in US some time ago. It was talking about an older lady that couldn’t make cookies any more because the pre-made cookie mix she uses has different size now and her recipe doesn’t work. It was just mind boggling to me. Cooking and baking is not that difficult. I’m just an IT guy and I can bake. You just follow the recipe, it’s not rocket science. If older generations can’t follow a cookie mix recipe I don’t even want to imagine what young people eat.
And more on the topic. I do check ingredients on most things I buy and if I can’t find something without preservatives I just make it. Yesterday I was making tortillas for tacos because the ones in stores have lots of additives. It’s really simple but definitely more difficult than cookie mix recipe.
My grandmother was a great cook and also liked to cook, but she still needed my grandfather to do the very basic math to convert the recipe ratios in function of the amount of guests. She wasn’t stupid, she just left school at 13yo to help in the house and the only math that she did after that was counting.
All that to say: It’s not because it’s easy for you, that it’s easy for everyone.
I think the level of basic education in US is another issue and it’s possible both have impact here. My mother only finished primary school in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere in communist Poland and still has broad general knowledge, likes to read books and yes, can scale recipes without issues.
most people can’t follow directions. let alone do fractional math conversions that are required for converting recipies.
I’m pretty sure the new recipe in printed on the box. You can also look up new recipe that doesn’t use the mix and just follow it. What I mean is that is someone only knows one recipe by heart and is unable to learn a new one it means they can’t cook and if old people can’t cook then well… the skill of cooking in the society must be completely gone by now.
you are making assumptions that people can do what you can do, or that they are willing/want to do it.
they can’t/don’t.
other people aren’t you.
I’m not assuming people can cook. My whole point is that they can’t.
All the Boomers’ recipes were designed to use boxed, processed ingredients. Think green bean casserole with Campbell’s® Cream Of Mushroom Soup and French’s® Original Crispy Fried Onions, for example. “Modern” “convenience foods” were all the rage when they were growing up and it shows.
In USA right? My grandparents (which would have been boomers if I’m not mistaken) here in Europe have never been seen using that kind of crap. They were doing their cans and crap and all kind of horrific preservation methods but they always did 100%. They, and my parents as well, had cooking courses in school. They were also very much into foraging, hunting, fishing… all due to living through and after the war.
Yeah, I hit the same thing with a chocolate cheesecake recipe of mine. It calls for a 12 ounce bag of miniature chocolate chips.
The “good” brand chips are all 10 ounce and 20 ounce bags now. Fortunately I found a store brand that was 12 ounces.
I do have a kitchen scale so it would have been possible to buy the 20 ounce bag and measure out 12 ounces…but still!