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We don't cook because our parents didn't. Prepackaged convenience foods have always been something of a status item. This whole "return to cooking" is something

We don't cook because our parents didn't. Prepackaged convenience foods have always been something of a status item. This whole "return to cooking" is something of an amusing rebellion to me, since it was something of a stigma in my childhood. If your parents had money, your lunch was filled with tasty items sealed in plastic from a factory. I used to bake bread in my dorm kitchen. My floormates thought it astounding. This is how I learned that nobody's parents had taught them how to cook. As an only child of a single parent, the responsibility for the evening meal fell to me (as well as my own meals throughout the day). Eventually I set upon the family collection of cookbooks and was allowed to make pretty much anything. Even a recipe from a Campbell's Soup cookbook for oatmeal cookies containing a can of tomato soup (as disgusting as it sounds). Perhaps it's worth noting that my kids generally prefer prepackaged foods over our cooking. So maybe it's a cyclical thing, in some subset of each generation. But I'm hoping that teaching them to cook will change that.

wdewind 16y ago
The last thing you said is what I came in here to write. Everything in the NYTimes article is correct (about how easy it is to cook those 3 basic meals etc), but it misses one thing: there is no way that someone goes from eating burgers and prepackaged foods to salads and lentils instantly, and it's not because it's difficult or time consuming to cook (it's not really for most things). Restaurant food has a major convenience factor, but the NYTimes article completely disregards that it also just plain tastes better than a salad to most people. As someone who hates healthy food, lives in NYC where I can literally order delivery off the internet, and is trying to cook a lot more, you can't force two things on people at once: healthy eating AND cooking. I'm beginning to really like cooking, but only because I'm making things that aren't super healthy. My mother is a librarian and highly encourages her kids to read comics because to her they are a) totally valid reading material and b) are sometimes a gateway drug to much more reading. It's the same with cooking: teach someone to cook a butter burger and fry up some potatoes first (they'll still probably be knocking a few hundred calories off a restaurant version of the same meal anyway) and get them hooked on it. Maybe they'll transition to healthier stuff, worst case you at least have them eating SLIGHTLY healthier, and far closer to the source. TLDR: Make a man a salad and he will order delivery for a night, teach a man to make salad and he will order deliver for a lifetime.
- chipsy 16y ago
  You seem to possess a dogmatised notion of "healthy food." Burgers, even the over-processed fast-food kind, stack up pretty well as these things go. It's the fries and Coke that'll destroy you. And if a salad gets you down, it may benefit with more oil or cheese. Understanding the relationships between carbs, fats, salt, and spices is most of what you need to make something taste good. "Healthy" just means that the food is beneficial and doesn't harm you. To know with some real certainty that something is or isn't harmful you have to run your own tests: The effects of sesame oil vs. olive oil, more butter vs. more sugar, etc. Given the speed at which dietary guidelines change, the facts and hard rules should be given less weight than your own feelings and behavior post-consumption.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    So, from a lot of random sources but (weirdly enough) mostly Cooks Illustrated, let me just observe that in a lot of cases, testers will prefer dishes that have been sweetened at various different points, even savory ones; similarly, you can get tasters to rate dishes more highly by boosting the "mouthfeel" with excess fats or - obviously - by frying them. Take the same item prepared at home or "commercially" (either in a package or at a restaurant) and the home version is apt to be healthier, because you have to go out of your way to make it as unhealthy as the commercial version will have been made so that it sells better. The most obvious example is that you're much less likely to deep fry something at home, but you're also less likely to spike your salad dressing with corn syrup.
- michaelchisari 16y ago
  I wholeheartedly agree with the point that homecooked meals from raw ingredients, are, by design, healthier than fast food or restaurant meals. I grew up eating homecooked meals, but by no means health food, and my family was all in generally good health.
- bobf 16y ago
  In the same vein.. if you want a delicious salad, try making this: an over-easy egg served on top of chunks of crispy bacon over baby spinach greens, with a dressing of a mixture of a decent balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago
As an only child of a single parent, the responsibility for the evening meal fell to me Same here. Mom couldn't afford much convenience food, so I learned to go to the butcher down the street -- 25 years ago in Brooklyn, NY there were still neighborhood butchers. Wonder if they're still there -- and get chicken/ground beef/etc, season it and either cook it following her instructions or wait until she came home to finish the meal. Learning basic cooking techniques from an early age (I started baking around age 9 and I'm bringing my son up the same way) means they became second nature without me even realizing it. I think it's that automatic response that is most important to learn; "I'm hungry" means I start thinking about what ingredients are on hand that I can cook quickly, not what boxed meal I can microwave. I still remember being amazed post-college at how helpless my roommate was (Burger King every night or detailed instructions from his gf on how to make cinnamon sugar toast!).
marcinw 16y ago
"Perhaps it's worth noting that my kids generally prefer prepackaged foods over our cooking. So maybe it's a cyclical thing, in some subset of each generation. But I'm hoping that teaching them to cook will change that." Trust me, as they each grow older, they will appreciate your cooking more and more. I myself was a hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese kid growing up, but going home to my parents to eat Mom's cooking is priceless now.

wdewind 16y ago

The last thing you said is what I came in here to write. Everything in the NYTimes article is correct (about how easy it is to cook those 3 basic meals etc), but it misses one thing: there is no way that someone goes from eating burgers and prepackaged foods to salads and lentils instantly, and it's not because it's difficult or time consuming to cook (it's not really for most things). Restaurant food has a major convenience factor, but the NYTimes article completely disregards that it also just plain tastes better than a salad to most people. As someone who hates healthy food, lives in NYC where I can literally order delivery off the internet, and is trying to cook a lot more, you can't force two things on people at once: healthy eating AND cooking. I'm beginning to really like cooking, but only because I'm making things that aren't super healthy. My mother is a librarian and highly encourages her kids to read comics because to her they are a) totally valid reading material and b) are sometimes a gateway drug to much more reading. It's the same with cooking: teach someone to cook a butter burger and fry up some potatoes first (they'll still probably be knocking a few hundred calories off a restaurant version of the same meal anyway) and get them hooked on it. Maybe they'll transition to healthier stuff, worst case you at least have them eating SLIGHTLY healthier, and far closer to the source. TLDR: Make a man a salad and he will order delivery for a night, teach a man to make salad and he will order deliver for a lifetime.

chipsy 16y ago
You seem to possess a dogmatised notion of "healthy food." Burgers, even the over-processed fast-food kind, stack up pretty well as these things go. It's the fries and Coke that'll destroy you. And if a salad gets you down, it may benefit with more oil or cheese. Understanding the relationships between carbs, fats, salt, and spices is most of what you need to make something taste good. "Healthy" just means that the food is beneficial and doesn't harm you. To know with some real certainty that something is or isn't harmful you have to run your own tests: The effects of sesame oil vs. olive oil, more butter vs. more sugar, etc. Given the speed at which dietary guidelines change, the facts and hard rules should be given less weight than your own feelings and behavior post-consumption.
- tptacek 16y ago
  So, from a lot of random sources but (weirdly enough) mostly Cooks Illustrated, let me just observe that in a lot of cases, testers will prefer dishes that have been sweetened at various different points, even savory ones; similarly, you can get tasters to rate dishes more highly by boosting the "mouthfeel" with excess fats or - obviously - by frying them. Take the same item prepared at home or "commercially" (either in a package or at a restaurant) and the home version is apt to be healthier, because you have to go out of your way to make it as unhealthy as the commercial version will have been made so that it sells better. The most obvious example is that you're much less likely to deep fry something at home, but you're also less likely to spike your salad dressing with corn syrup.
michaelchisari 16y ago
I wholeheartedly agree with the point that homecooked meals from raw ingredients, are, by design, healthier than fast food or restaurant meals. I grew up eating homecooked meals, but by no means health food, and my family was all in generally good health.
bobf 16y ago
In the same vein.. if you want a delicious salad, try making this: an over-easy egg served on top of chunks of crispy bacon over baby spinach greens, with a dressing of a mixture of a decent balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

HeyLaughingBoy 16y ago

As an only child of a single parent, the responsibility for the evening meal fell to me Same here. Mom couldn't afford much convenience food, so I learned to go to the butcher down the street -- 25 years ago in Brooklyn, NY there were still neighborhood butchers. Wonder if they're still there -- and get chicken/ground beef/etc, season it and either cook it following her instructions or wait until she came home to finish the meal. Learning basic cooking techniques from an early age (I started baking around age 9 and I'm bringing my son up the same way) means they became second nature without me even realizing it. I think it's that automatic response that is most important to learn; "I'm hungry" means I start thinking about what ingredients are on hand that I can cook quickly, not what boxed meal I can microwave. I still remember being amazed post-college at how helpless my roommate was (Burger King every night or detailed instructions from his gf on how to make cinnamon sugar toast!).

marcinw 16y ago

"Perhaps it's worth noting that my kids generally prefer prepackaged foods over our cooking. So maybe it's a cyclical thing, in some subset of each generation. But I'm hoping that teaching them to cook will change that." Trust me, as they each grow older, they will appreciate your cooking more and more. I myself was a hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese kid growing up, but going home to my parents to eat Mom's cooking is priceless now.