People forgetting to cook?
 

This is something I noticed about other people at grocery stores when I am out shopping with my mother. When I push my shopping cart around the store, I notice other people's carts and notice what they buy. Mostly soda and snacks and dozens of microwavable food items with several fruits like apples and oranges. Although I do sometimes buy these items myself... I notice that roughly a good 85% of the people shop this way. I noticed the same thing a few years back when I was woking as a cashier at the same grocery store.

It just looks like people are either lazy to cook or just don't really know how to. In Europe, older women cook. My grandmother who has arthiritis and is almost 80 still cooks every day. I am also sure that there are many other women like my grandmother. Here, I notice people around her age buy the frozen Marie Calendar's meals, and any frozen meals that happens to be on sale that day. Is this a cultural difference? Are these people unable to cook? Do they know how to cook?

Our country has a problem with obesity... could this be one of many reasons as to why this is? People living off fast food and micowavable meals on a daily basis? I have friends in Europe, and they are all around my age or so and they know how to cook and prepare meals. From what I see here, I am not too sure if people my age would be able to make an omelette.

Pretty sad from what I see...

Yes.

Lazy yes
 

What I find amazing is the type of foods people buy - Frozen Baked Potatoes - all you do is bak'em and serve:confused: Maybe I could produce and market frozen toast "all you have to do is pop them in the toaster!:D

Re: People forgetting to cook?
 

I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that people seem to have less "free" time to cook too. Or at least time they are willing to spend on preparing a meal.

Re: Re: People forgetting to cook?
 

Even if they had free time, lets say a Sunday evening... would they then cook a meal? Last Thanksgiving, I remember seeing several programs dedicated in taking viewer calls on how to cook. I don't think lack of time has a big part in dealing with people not wanting to cook. I have a feeling that a couple generations down the road.. cooking will not be something seen in the household. It will just be seen in restaurants or in households where there are strong family ties. Kind of sad, considering diet and lifestyles has a lot to do with the quality of life.

The reason people don't have time to cook is because cooking takes too much time for them. Most of it is spent reading the recipe and gathering the ingredients. My suggestion for most people is to try and not follow recipes but learn the basics. For example, when you see a recipe which calls for 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Measuring out that 1/4 teaspoon probably takes a minute. By the time you go to the drawer, fumble around for a measuring spoon, measure the salt, you're probably at around 1 min. You're really much better off sprinkling whatever you're cooking with a little salt just like you'd have to do it to a piece of chicken.

Cooking is really axiomatic. Follow a few simple rules and you can't screwup.

Have to agree with Kuan, and I usually do. Cooking, after learning the basics, is more an art than science (except baking which really is science) and we have generally become a society of "end users" than creative types. Early in my life, I rebelled against cooking since my mother was a caterer and cooking was just "work." After maturing a bit, I've come to look at cooking as a great mix of art and science, and tastier than any watercolor or clay pot.

Kuan:
I'm ready to learn. Give us some axioms.

I'm curious as to why this is happening. Some of the causes I can imagine: Husbands and wives both tend to work. Home Economics classes are not taught as much in high school. Related to that, women used to do most of the cooking in American homes and feminism has pushed women towards other skills and men have not stepped into the gap. Corporations have taken over the food industry with cooked meals producing higher profits than raw materials (??) Fast food restaurants have reduced the cost of eating out. The invention and widespread ownerhship of refrigertors and freezers.

We have 2 frozen entrees that have been in the freezer for at least 6 months now, but I don't fault people for buying frozen food because it's their life not mine.

I think people who buy meat are lazy, if I want meat I put on my boots and go sloshing around in the swamps looking for it, my groceries comes in a hide not a bag, most years we never need to buy meat.

Obviously, laziness is in the eye of the beholder.

Well it's harvasting time gotta run.

The first thing I tell everyone is season. Season light and season often. OK, on to cooking.

There are two basics types of cooking methods. Low heat and high heat. Add to these two methods, wet heat and dry heat. So far we have Low heat wet, High heat wet, Low heat dry, High heat dry.

Examples of low heat wet:

Braising: Brown the meat and then cook in added liquid. Suitable for sinewy cuts of meat such as veal shank and oxtail. (actually this is a hybrid high/low heat method. High heat to brown the meat, low heat to finish cooking)

Poaching: Adding the meat to liquid slightly below boiling. Not recommended for red meat, suitable for poultry and fish.

steaming: Using vapor as the heat source for cooking. Suitable for poultry and fish, again not suitable for red meat.

Examples of low heat dry:

Slow roasting: Temperature below 300 degrees F. Suitable for mid to large cuts of meat such as Pork butt and Beef sirloin.

Examples of high heat dry:

Saute: The most versatile method. Suitable for single serving cuts as chicken breast and salmon filet. Suitable for most cuts of red meat as well which aren't sinewy.

Roast: High heat oven cooking. Suitable for medium cuts intended for more than one person such as whole birds.

Broil: Cooking over open flame. Very versatile. Once again, suitable for single serving cuts such as Ribeye and Filet Mignon.

Fry: Immersion in hot oil between 325 and 375 degrees F. Suitable for small cuts such as chicken wings and small fish such as smelt.

Examples of high heat wet:

None.

An understanding of these methods can help you make a quick and easy decision. For example, if you have two salmon filets you find yourself with a few choices. You can saute, broil, poach, or steam. Just pick the one which fits your mood.

If you find yourself with, say, lamb shanks. They're sinewy, hence they need a long cooking time in order to become tender. You can't use high heat because the lamb will dry out or burn before it's tender. So you immediatel go to low heat. The options are poach, braise, or steam. Poaching sounds good, but it's not recommended for red meat due to lack of browning. The same goes for steaming. The only remaining option is braising, which works very well actually.

So there, that's a short rundown on the axiomatic method of cooking. OK, maybe the axioms aren't as concise Euclid's. Count this as a prologemena to cooking the axiomatic way by chef Kuan :)

LOL it's 75 degrees out. Good luck with dem ducks. :)

I find that to overcome time restrictions, you just need to think ahead. I plan menus going out a couple weeks, and then shop for those. For things that need very fresh ingredients, I make a time-sensitive list so I know when to shop again.

To replace frozen micro-wave dinner-in-a-box, I pre cook a stock-pot full of chili, pasta sauce, etc. and freeze meal sized portions. Those meals can be made in minute, just like the crappy stuff from the store.

For most meals, I make enough for two meals, and then have leftovers either the very next night (some stuff is better the next day anyway) or if it'll keep an extra day, the day after.

My daughter loves to go to Burger King. On Friday's after play-school, some of the parents take their kids there for further playing and parent-social-time. I brown-bag our food, as I won't let either of us eat that garbage. At first, people thought I was nuts. They might kick us out? Well, just to ease my guilt, I buy her a milk and myself a diet Coke. But no greasy junk food.

With some practice, even a non-chef like myself can provide easy, nutricious (sp? methinks me lost language ability) home cooked meals. And guess what? It's not any more expensive than fast food, and often cheaper when you buy right. We're fortunate in that we have a chest freezer. Despite the electricity consumption, it saves us lots of dough (punny) on the grocery bill.

LOL, It was deer tonight I hunted ducks all weekend and needed to relax.

Blanket Coverage?
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MedMech
[B]

I think people who buy meat are lazy
-----------------------------------------------------------

Should that be applied to the general population? What about people who live in urban areas?:confused: