Basic Cooking Skills

I am very fond of idioms, proverbs and sayings. And here are 2:

1) "He or she cannot boil wáter" ..

The answer to this is:

2) Sounds cliché, however, it is quite true even today: " The way to a man´s heart, is through his stomach " ...

So with this in mind, it is part of maturity and responsibility to learn the basics and learn them well. One´s grandmother or mother are the best teachers or invest a few Euros or Currency, in an Intensive Cooking Course whether it be an Adult Education Course or upscale, Le Cordón Bleu or Ducasse or Similar .. One shall never be sorry for this !!
 
Elawin said:
Flour and vinegar would be considered staples here. Everyone I know has at least one pack of flour in their cupboard, and we need vinegar for our fish and chips. Bicarbonate of soda is sold in most food shops and easy bake yeast is common. As for ice cream, you can pick up ice cream makers here quite easily for just a few pounds, although you don't actually need one to make ice cream, and you only need to freeze a lot of ice cream for a couple of hours.

Again, I think it is the difference between cooking in the US and cooking in the UK, although I agree that home cooking from scratch is becoming uncommon amongst younger people. The only cooking smells that emanate from the house next door to me are from when she lights her barbecue in the garden, and then the food looks as though it has been cremated rather than cooked. Otherwise, the only sounds from her kitchen are of her microwave pinging. But I don't know anyone who doesn't read something!
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Alas here, it isn't just the younger people. One I was thinking of is older than me.
As to the flour, it is typically only bought here if one bakes or deep fries everything or in some cases make their own tortillas (flour). Now during the winter months here, more people bake but not in the summer.
As to vinegar on fish and chips that isn't common here. What is common with fried fish is tartar sauce.

Yes, there is a difference in the cooking style. Oh I said baking powder not baking soda. Now most people do buy baking soda to put in their refrigerator to absorb odors (not for cooking).
Note: I do have all 4 items.
I also think that the US uses way more convenience foods.
I noticed on several plates that Brits do canned baked beans. Just for a curiosity, how many different varieties (not brands) of baked beans do you have in your stores? Here there are at least 10 different flavor combinations of baked beans. Same beans different seasonings.
Note: I buy none of them. I buy plain pork n beans (although pork is not the main ingredient) and fix my own.
 
Cinisajoy said:
I noticed on several plates that Brits do canned baked beans. Just for a curiosity, how many different varieties (not brands) of baked beans do you have in your stores? Here there are at least 10 different flavor combinations of baked beans. Same beans different seasonings.
Note: I buy none of them. I buy plain pork n beans (although pork is not the main ingredient) and fix my own.
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We have baked beans in tomato sauce (the most common type) and baked beans with small pork sausages. I have noticed that one or two of the supermarkets also do baked beans with chorizo. There may be other types, but I have not seen any others.
 
Francesca said:
So with this in mind, it is part of maturity and responsibility to learn the basics and learn them well. One´s grandmother or mother are the best teachers or invest a few Euros or Currency, in an Intensive Cooking Course whether it be an Adult Education Course or upscale, Le Cordón Bleu or Ducasse or Similar .. One shall never be sorry for this !!
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I bought myself a good basic cookery book (by Marguerite Patten) and started from there.
 
Elawin,

Sorry I do not know the author .. Books are an excellent way to learn the basics too.

My cookbooks need an apartment of their own ! Ha Ha ..

It is getting late (12.40am ) and I must get to bed. I have to work Saturday and Sunday however, I will be off from the 9th through the 15th ..

We are coming into Tourist Season and so, I shall work 3 weeks and be off 1 week ..

Have a lovely weekend ..
 
Francesca said:
Elawin,

Sorry I do not know the author .. Books are an excellent way to learn the basics too.

My cookbooks need an apartment of their own ! Ha Ha ..

It is getting late (12.40am ) and I must get to bed. I have to work Saturday and Sunday however, I will be off from the 9th through the 15th ..

We are coming into Tourist Season and so, I shall work 3 weeks and be off 1 week ..

Have a lovely weekend ..
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Francesca, about how many cookbooks do you own?
I have a little over 1400 at last count + over 600 booklets. But I don't think I own a Persian.
 
Elawin said:
We have baked beans in tomato sauce (the most common type) and baked beans with small pork sausages. I have noticed that one or two of the supermarkets also do baked beans with chorizo. There may be other types, but I have not seen any others.
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Ok. The latter two were not what I was thinking. Those would be called beanie weenies here.
I was referring to the tomato sauce ones. We have at least 10 flavors of those. From fake maple to hickory.

So we can now conclude that cooking is very different, but for people that like to cook the ingredients are similar but used differently.
For those that don't, it appears that Chef Mike rules in both countries.
*Chef Mike tends to ding when he is done.
 
I find it strange that Jamie Oliver (if it was he who compiled the list) talks of cooking pulses correctly. He doesn't even know how to make mushy peas. And why making salsa is considered difficult I don't know. A list of ingredients and the ability to chop stuff up is all that is required. I don't make curry paste as I'd have no idea how or in what to use it. How do you make batter "not from scratch"?
 
The best thing that ever happened to me (besides my wife and son, of course) was that my parents moved out from underneath me when my dad retired. Lol.

Actually, that's not true. I hadn't finished college when I got my first real (career) job at the ripe old age of 20, and though I was chomping at the bit to move out of my parents house, they made me stay at home and save money.

Shortly thereafter, though, my dad retired and sold the house very quickly.
So at 23 years old, I got my first apartment and had to learn how to live like a human, not a caveman with a servant (my mom).

Having been brought up in an immaculate house with great food on the table all the time, I had a choice to make. Either learn to cook, clean, do laundry, and so on, or never live up to the standards with which I was accustomed, or more importantly, never get a date.

So I started cooking, which leads to cleaning (the dishes... man, do dishes in a sink smell after a day or two).

So my best advice is to teach your kids to cook and clean, then kick their asses out the door asap.
 
I find it hard to even think that people are so lacking in cooking skills that they cannot boil an egg. My Mom, who taught me well, would always say that if you can read, you can cook. My sis-in-law is living proof of that, since she learned to sew at her Mom's knee, but never expressed a real interest in learning to cook. Still, she has become a very proficient cook and baker. These days, with internet access for most and libraries a common thing, I would think that anyone who was the least interested would find the time and desire to learn to cook. Which brings us to...are some people so disinterested in cooking for themselves that they are perfectly happy with take-away?

As far as the list? I found it oddly specific. Like Cin mentioned
Cinisajoy said:
....Now, I do know people that can't cook.
1. They couldn't do a simple meat.
2. Vegetables are beyond them.
3. Seasoning eludes them. Heck, they probably don't own any.
4. If it doesn't come from a can or box, they are lost.
5. They think measurements are only for baking.
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^Those are basics.^ (Except for #5. It applies to baking, since that is science. Not always to cooking, since cooking is art.) Not falafel (I tried it prepared by someone else, did not care for the texture/flavor, and chose not to bother making at home), not ice cream (quality store bought suffices - the high-end brand we buy makes theirs by the French Pot method in 2 1/2 gallon batches, even for retail purposes), and if you can make a proper bechamel you can make a proper cheese sauce, so redundancy.

Both of our kids learned to cook when young. He was very interested even before he could see the top of the counter. I called him "Chef Kiss and Tell" because Chef Tell was popular in the U.S. at the time. He cooks from many different cultures, makes his own Kimchee...he's levels above me in some cuisines. She learned under duress, but can now cook just fine. In fact, when we stay with her on our trips back home to OH, I'm pleasantly surprised at the new and interesting basics she's added to her larder from our last visit.

As far as things like flour - basic. Vinegar? Sure you need it in Britain for fish and chips, but Malt vinegar doesn't play well with some other foods. That's why I have close to ten? vinegars in my pantry...:whistling:
 
Yorky said:
I find it strange that Jamie Oliver (if it was he who compiled the list) talks of cooking pulses correctly. He doesn't even know how to make mushy peas. And why making salsa is considered difficult I don't know. A list of ingredients and the ability to chop stuff up is all that is required. I don't make curry paste as I'd have no idea how or in what to use it. How do you make batter "not from scratch"?
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Of course Jamie knows how to make mushy peas! Did he say it was the classic/traditional mushy peas? No! He gives his variation on it, just like the paella. Traditional mushy peas are overrated to me.
 
creative said:
Of course Jamie knows how to make mushy peas!
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No, he knows how to heat garden peas and then mash them or put them in a blender/processer. If he wishes to call them "mashed garden peas", fair enough.

[Edit - If you Google "Jamie Oliver authentic mushy peas" you are presented with the same result.]
 
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Much as I agree with many of the above posts [a lot of the items on the list are just odd and TBH there is a lot of very nice bread out there for very reasonable prices if you look around] It is the basic point that I must agree with - way too many people just can't manage the simplest things and I still maintain that any man that can't cook even a simple meal should be ashamed of himself. My father [who came from a generation where men didn't cook] could still produce a reasonable meal when he had to. As to whether this was independence learned during the war I don't know. Ok it was plain and basic but it would feed a hungry family. He never baked a sponge and I doubt if he knew what a falafel was but Yorshire pudding vegetables potatoes and meat [the basic roast dinner really] was not much of a problem. Simple stuff but it seems far too many now find anything beyond their abilities. It really is a bit pathetic .
 
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