After reading this lengthy article in the NYT I was wondering how true it is that most people don't or can't cook anymore despite the popularity of cooking shows. One of the things that is mentioned is that when people do cook what they mean by that has expanded to include a rather wide range. So in answering this question, how would you characterize the extent to which you cook at least four nights out of seven?
Meh. Odd question and poll choices. I CAN cook, but never on a "regular" basis. My best dish is Moussaka, which is done from scratch, but last night I baked some prepared meatballs, prepared sauce which I tinkered with, and spaghetti. Who makes their own pasta?
I heard Michael Pollon on NPR talking about that. Its an interesting point about how popular cooking shows are yet cooking is at an all time low. Food is something that we are vicerally interested in and I think we enjoy living vicariously watching someone cook from scratch as opposed to watching someone do laundry by hand. One thing that I'm wondering about is with the recession if we are going to see cooking return now that people have more time to cook and less money to spend on eating out.
My wife and I do sometimes. I'd put myself in the last two categories depending on the available time.
The reason why the artilce brings up the question of the extent to which people cook is that he is arguing in part that a lot of people either don't know how to cook or have redefined cooking to mean something else. He blames the shift in part on the food industry and in part on the Food Network. Even the Food Network doesn't really teach people how to cook the way Julia Child did but is crammed with a bunch of culinary competition shows in the evening and "dump and stir" shows durring the day. The food industry he blames for making it look like it is too complicated to cook from scratch without the aid of their products (How much time would it really take out of your busy schedule to measure five ingredients?).
When I cook, I do almost everything from scratch except pasta. It just takes too long and I can get decent fresh pasta from the supermarket.
Yes, that too! I don't like eating out and not knowing what i'm putting in my body...i do eat out maybe one or two times a week, usually on a Friday or Saturday.
Moussaka, yum! I haven't made that in ages! And I'm the one who makes pasta from scratch. But feel free to fill in whatever other food you would make from scratch that others might not (sausage, bread, wonton wrappers, etc.) Pasta doesn't really need to rest an hour before cooking so over all it doesn't take that long to whip up a quick batch and fresh pasta cooks in less than a minute.
Pasta is not that long to cook...pasta sauce takes about a hour to cook. It is way better than packaged sauces.
Fatty, I know someone, a friend of mine... who owns a pasta thingiemajig to make his own pasta... his LASAGNA is the most awesomest pasta I've tasted... after my wife's, of course.
I cook a LOT. Sometimes I cook using semi-prepared stuff. Sometimes I cook everything from scratch. It usually depends on how much time and budget I have for the meal. So, I'd vote for the last two poll options. Data warehousing
My wife and I cook Monday-Thursday, then usually eat out on weekends. No pasta from scratch, but we grill a lot and eat a lot of steamed veggies
In a rush I'll make an Alfredo or pesto sauce but a traditional tomato sauce made from scratch makes all those jars look like a waste of two to seven dollars.
