Is it important to know how to cook?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I know the basics - that is, I can boil pasta (for, er, pasta, or mac and cheese), nuke some rice, make a damn fine PB&J. I can also microwave frozen veggies. I cannot, however, do much more than that and still end up with something remotely palatable - I’ve tried proper cooking from a recipe at least three times and ended up with something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike food each time.

Personally I think that’s fine, because I like the food I know how to make, it’s cheap, and the best part is I don’t need to cook for an hour to get myself dinner. Apparently, though, an important part of Being An Adult is actual cooking beyond boiling water.

Is it? Am I doomed to a life of mediocrity and unhappiness because I can’t cook soup from scratch, or can I live a happy and fulfilling life from the frozen food and pasta aisle in the supermarket?

(The tone of future conversations with my mother hinge upon this issue.)

ETA: I take a daily multivitamin, don’t eat any meat and almost no fast food, and bike and/or jog at least 3 miles every day. I know my diet is carb-heavy, but health isn’t an issue.

2

Take classes. Local community college, co-op, Extended Education, that sort of thing. Learn.

Beings that can’t cook aren’t fully human.

3

If you are eating enough and staying healthy then you obviously have the bare minimum food prep skills that you need and your Mom can quit worrying about your survival and butt out.

However.

You can make an incredible variety of wonderful food, impress your friends and family (including Mom), wow your date, save money, have fun whipping up meals, feel qualified to answer cooking question on message boards and so on, all with some very basic cooking skills so I highly recommend acquiring them.

Got a friend who’s a decent cook? Ask them for lessons - you pay for the raw materials, they show you how to make the dish, you both enjoy a good meal. Take a cooking class - I’m pretty sure that every adult education center and community college has inexpensive courses on this. Buy “The Joy Of Cooking” so you know what parboiling means or the difference between “saute” and “fry”.

I would say that 90% of being a good cook is knowing how to cut things up (without lopping off your fingers) and how to heat stuff correctly. Learn that and you can make just about anything. Start simple - soups are great; dice, simmer, season, eat. One pot, no special ingredients needed, no special techniques, tons of leftovers, etc.

4

Well, as life goes on, health usually becomes an issue. Most people can eat whatever they want in their 20s, but again for most people that doesn’t last. So if you assume that you will have to learn to cook at some point, why not learn now to get the benefit over the longest stretch of your lifespan?

If you are going to be going to some effort and expense to feed yourself, to me it makes a lot of sense to learn how to do it well and economically. You don’t need to make a major hobby out of it, but not being able to cook your own food well is like constantly paying a “food preparation” tax in terms of money, quality, or both.

If Campbells is making your minestrone, they are trying to figure out how to sell you the cheapest possible combination of water, artificial flavors, pasta, and veggies that you will pay for. If you are making your own minestrone, you build up your own soup based on what tastes best containing real food.

5

I think few people start out as good cooks - it’s a skill that gets better as you work at it, like any other. Cooking a good meal for yourself is really nothing but a good thing - you use fresh ingredients, you make it as healthy as you want, it usually tastes great, it costs a fraction of a restaurant meal - all good.

6

Everyone should know how to cook - at least basic stuff.
First, what kind of recipes are you trying? I know of plenty of recipes that are darn hard to follow, and need special skills. However there are introductory cookbooks, that can lead you through the basics, though I suspect most of them will be heavily meat oriented.
Getting a friend to teach you might work, but it depends on the friend. A lot of cooking depends on experience, and it is easy to skip steps. It also takes practice, and time to begin with. Chopping an onion for the first time might take a while, chopping one for the nth time is a lot faster. There is no way to learn without doing it.

My kids learned to cook by hanging around the kitchen with my wife. I learned to cook from my father, who came from a restaurant family, both at home and in the Boy Scouts. I got decent at it cooking for myself in college and grad school.

How many utensils do you have? Spices? I don’t know of any starter books for vegetarians, but I assume there are some out there. if you have a wok, you should start by stir frying some things. Start buying fresh vegetables, and steam them, microwave them, or boil them if you must. That would be a good start.
We have a large collection of Weight Watchers cookbooks, each of which has a vegetarian section. Those recipes are targeted to people without a lot of time, and are pretty easy (and good.) Take some out of the library.

So why didn’t your mother teach you?

7

You should be angry with your mother for not teaching you how to cook. Health may not be an issue now, but with a steady diet of commercially prepared foods, it will be eventually. I’m just curious about the “tone of future conversations” you referred to. Is it anger at her for not teaching, or frustration with you for not learning? 'Cause IME, it’s all on the mom (or primary parent).

Some of my best childhood memories are from spending time with Mom, helping with dinner and baking bread, cakes, and cookies from scratch.

I even had my own “cookbook for kids” that my mom let me try to make stuff from by myself. Everything was age appropriate, of course. She didn’t let me handle a knife until my hands were big enough.

Personally I usually think to myself (never say it out loud) that people who “bake cookies” with their kids by cutting up Pillsbury dough from a tube are really pathetic.

8

I think it’s important to know the basics- but my idea of “basics” means being able to reproduce your own non-fancy favorite meals. Beyond that is a bonus, but not necessary.

9

I’m like you, I make simple things that don’t require a lot of preparation. I’m also a vegetarian. I just don’t like to spend much time cooking, and I don’t think it’s important (for me). Some people like a meat and potatoes kind of diet and don’t feel satisfied without it (or other kinds of foods that require time and skill to prepare) but I’m not like that. I eat a lot of things like veggie sandwiches that are easy to make, but healthy. And I really enjoy them and so does my child. Every once in a while I do crave more traditional food, so I do make vegetarian chili or something, or eat at a restaurant or family’s house. So, I don’t see a problem really. The only thing is I wouldn’t know how to, for example, host Thanksgiving at my house by myself. But I also really, really wouldn’t want to. I can and do, however, bring a dish that everyone enjoys, and that is just going to have to be good enough.

We can’t excel at everything.

10

Cooking something tasty is a creative act: Exciting, somewhat daunting, and oh so rewarding. I love to take the time to put together decent ingredients and savor the results.

11

I think it’s important to know how to at least cook a variety of nutritious, economical meals for yourself and others. Once you know the basics, cooking becomes easier and more enjoyable. Most things aren’t really hard, and any halfway intelligent person can learn to cook good, healthy, inexpensive meals.

(I’m currently learning to bake my own bread, and I recently did my first roast. I didn’t do bread before, largely because my waistline doesn’t need it, but now I’m needing to save money. And baking bread is easy and fun, last night I did honey granola bread and it is to die for. The granola is also what I made myself–cheap and yummy, I’ve been eating it most mornings and it’s better in every way than bought cereal/granola.)

Adults should be able to feed themselves. Heck, kids ought to be able to feed themselves several things. It’s just part of being a reasonably self-sufficient person, and it’s

a. healthier
b. cheaper
c. more civilized, homey, and emotionally fulfilling

than eating prepared food all the time.

12

I think that’s a pretty good start. Acquire a crockpot and learn how to make stew and maybe a bean-based soup, which are ridiculously easy and I’d say you’re pretty set.

13

As long as you know how to make rice, boil pasta, brown ground meat, roast a chicken, pan fry steaks/pork chops, and bake something out of a box, then you’re not doing so bad as a cook.

Eventually you’ll tire of the microwave (I did when I reached my late 20s) and you’ll feel more comfortable experimenting with stuff. All the main entrees that I know are not from recipes, but from taking the basics and just throwing in extras. Like, I know how to boil spaghetti and toss in some alfredo sauce from a jar. So while I’m heating the sauce up, I’ll throw in some chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, and thawed salad shrimp. Suddenly a boring fetticine alfredo is transformed into a fancier dish. Spicen up your own stand-bys a couple of times and you suddenly feel like you could learn how to make something from scratch.

There are a lot of simple recipes out there. Start off with the ones containing ingredients you already have, that don’t require too many steps. I have a hard time following directions, so I steer clear of long-ass ones.

14

If you’re happy with pasta and frozen vegetables, and you want to put your future health into the hands of vitamin pills (which still haven’t been definitively proven effective), then it’s your call.

I’d imagine, however, that one day you’ll get tired of frozen vegetables (bleah), and you’ll some day want to make different sauces for your pasta (pesto, etc.). You don’t need to impress anybody; you just want to look forward to your meals.

My mother didn’t teach me to cook; I taught myself. I live in Thaitown/Little Armenia, and have tasted a great variety dishes from Thailand and Armenia, which by trial and error I’ve learned how to cook. Now I cook better than she does.

15

She never taught me because I never wanted to learn. The conversations we’ve been having are along the lines of she says I can’t live on pasta alone, and I say that A) I don’t and B) leave me alone, I’m not starving.

The obstacle isn’t even really that I don’t know how to cook, it’s that I’m no good at it and personally don’t feel any drive to learn, beyond simply to satisfy other people.

16

Well, I’ll be the one to present the opposing viewpoint. No, it’s not important to know how to cook if you have some other way of getting meals that work for you, particularly if you are a terrible, terrible cook.

I can’t cook. I have taken cooking classes. I have used the Joy of Cooking until it is stained and spotted. I have worked beside my mother, who is a fabulous cook, in the kitchen. I have spent a year preparing a fully cooked dinner for myself every night.

My food is disgusting. What may seem simple and self-evident to you is not to me. Even a very simple dish that requires only basic cooking skills will not come out the same way twice (and will taste how I want it to taste only one time out of three at best).

Also, I do not find cooking to be creative, interesting or fun. I find it to be monumentally boring. Making three-minute Cream of Wheat for myself is a long agony of whisking while staring at the clock waiting for it to be over.

So I have given up the ghost. I now eat my primary meal at lunch, when I can purchase it already prepared for me, and for dinner I eat mostly things that require no preparation at all (bagels, fruit, yogurt), and occasionally something that can go in the microwave or toaster oven. It works absolutely fine for me.

If I decide to share my life with someone, I’m going to be upfront about the fact that I can’t cook. If they want to try to teach me to cook, they’re welcome, but I see no evidence that they will enjoy the results.

17

I used to be indifferent to/suck at cooking too. It was only after living by myself and finally getting sick of canned/pre-prepared foods that I forced myself to make more of an effort. For me the whole trial-and-error thing worked, but it took half a year before I could produce anything I’d share with another person.

I still like the simple stuff though. Like for pasta sauce, I’ll used stuff from a jar but I’ll add fresh mushrooms/garlic/ground beef. I rarely cook completely from scratch.

18

The key thing about cooking is that it isn’t the practice of following directions. In fact, almost all professional recipes suck because they’re geared towards some hypothetical person who’s never tasted anything with more flavor than water. (And I’m not just talking about spicy spices. Garlic and basil are cut down to bland levels.)

Really, all you should take from a recipe are the steps, and just ignore the quantities on the ingredient list. More often than not, you’ll be just as happy to swap out half of what’s on the ingredient list for whatever it is that you actually have in the kitchen.

Cooking is a creative process, and it’s one where achieving the right taste isn’t dependent on measuring stuff accurately (unless you’re baking), but by constantly sampling to see if it matches what you’re looking for. You need to be able to visualize the taste you’re headed towards.

One of the greatest things about cooking, perhaps, is that you get to make all the foods that you can’t find. I used to live in Japan, so a lot of my favorite dishes just don’t exist here. Mexican tortilla soup is a wondrous thing, but there’s no good Mexican restaurants near me. Philly cheesesteak is also a great dish, but again there’s no place nearby. Once you’ve made any of these a couple times, remaking them in a short period of time becomes pretty simple, at least if you follow my advice in the next paragraph.

If you want to cook, especially if you’re only cooking for one, you need to Prep and Freeze. Go to the supermarket and grab all the vegetables that you like/particularly like. Buy a bunch of ziplock freezer bags. Come home and dice all the vegetables into bite sized portions and fill the freezer bags (separating the veggies by type, obviously). Keep these in the freezer. When you have a recipe, just use whatever veggies seem like the ones that would best match the recipe from what you have. When a bag starts to get low, buy more veggies and throw them in.

Keep frozen meats of all types around. You don’t want to keep them in their original packaging, since they’re pushed together and become a single block of stuff when they freeze. Generally you can fit 4-6 meat cuts in a single freezer bag, not touching one another.

If you want to bake your own bread, you can make dough, separate it into small balls and freeze those for later. (I haven’t done this one yet).

If you do all this, you can make full meals very quickly. Dicing stuff and sticking it in the freezer takes practically no time, so there’s not a lot of excuse not to keep it up.

19

So your concern is more along the lines of learning how to cook the way young women in 19th century upper-class society Europe were expected to know how to play the piano or sing? Something like a social skill?

I do the same thing. If you learn how to do just a few basic procedures (saute, season with garlic, stir fry, etc.), you can combine these procedures in a great variety of ways.

Exactly. Especially for “foreign” dishes. If you follow the directions exactly, it probably will come out horribly. It’s not your fault, NinjaChick.

Again, bullseye, Rat. For me, sometimes the best way to learn the techniques, however, isn’t on paper, but by watching a cooking show or other visual presentation of how they do it.

It’s pretty hard to find turkeys in Colombia, and so when I lived there, on Thanksgiving, I invited the Americans I knew over and made “American” food: chicken and vegetables in a red sauce over pasta al dente. Easy as pudin.

But still didn’t get the day off. :frowning:

20

Cooking can be a very useful skill, but for most people it’s not a necessary one. Its importance depends on your needs and circumstances.

It seems to me you’re not in bad shape with what you already know. You’ve got a couple of staples (pasta and rice), a method for vegetables, meat’s not an issue, and things like PB&J, cheese, fruit, etc. don’t need cooking. And of course there are always microwavable entrees and other prepared foods at groceries, and restaurants. Heck, I cook and I’ve never made soup from scratch - I like the canned or boxed stuff well enough that it’s just not worth the trouble to me.

I’ll offer one suggestion; act on it if and when you see fit: learn to steam vegetables. It’s bone simple, requires just a pan (w/ lid) and either a steaming basket or large enough sieve, and opens up the option of fresh veggies. The reward is better flavor and texture than frozen veggies offer. About the only things that can go wrong are boiling the pan dry (easy to avoid) and overcooking them to mush (not the end of the world). It’s as easy as boiling water. :cool:

My thought is to tell your mom that you appreciate her concern, but you’re confident that you can eat well with the skills and resources you already have. Learning more about cooking (which realistically ain’t gonna happen anyway) isn’t going to improve your diet. Then change the subject. :smiley: