How did you learn to cook?

candygirl

I learned baking off my Nana, and everything else by trial n error! I amveggie, so experiment a lot with my own concoctions

jackel

School cookery(well all the lessons realy) were a waste of space in the late 1950's. Mother was too busy to be bothered.
Mrs Beeton(the book) taught me how to cook - but Deilia taught me how to do it properly- my pastry no longer could be used to pave the drive. Wonderful woman. jac.xx

katkin

My mum was a profession cook so not only did I learn from her at home, but I used to hang about her restaurant kitchen helping out at weekends and picking up loads of tips.

Add to that my gran who used to live with us was a housekeeper and cook. I helped out a lot too. Nothing at home was not homecooked from fresh. I grew up never having tasted tinned baked beans and craved angel delight which was a complete no-no at home.

Dad also grew loads of fruit, veg and herbs. Manufactured ready meal things were an oddity for me. I tried most once and hated them.

I owe so much to my mum and gran - never any formal lessons just living around integrating it into every day life.

These days I'll tackle anything cookery / baking wise!

PasturesNew

Our kitchen was tiny and freezing and mum wasn't an adventurous cook. Due to space, getting in the way, we were banned from the kitchen while cooking was going on.

I just learnt by piecing what I'd seen together. e.g. I knew what potatoes looked like from the ground, I knew how they were peeled, I knew how large they looked in the saucepan, I saw that water was boiled, I knew how boiled potatoes should look when they're ready.

You can pick up a lot if you love filling your belly and get to see all the stages over the years. Keeping things simple, there's little to "learn", it's only when people try to get a bit fancy, or use gadgets, that things might be harder I guess.

I think most people's two main mistakes are: cooking at too high a temperature, believing the recipe for how long it will take.

My mum very rarely made pastry - it wasn't good. Now I realise she was adding too much water. She didn't bake - we did make some packet mix buns over the years, with the little green/red glace cherries on top.

Mum grew up in a house without any oven. They had a range and cooking pots, so you could only make stews. If you wanted to bake anything you had to take it over the road to the bakehouse.

We did have a HUGE garden, filled with every type of fresh vegetable (and lots of fruit) imaginable, so I was used to where food came from and a big variety of veggies on tap.

LameWolf

Self-taught, basically trial and error - get a recipe (either from a book or the internet), read it through at least three times to see if it a) makes sense and b) looks to be do-able, and just give it a go. Having managed a measure of success, thereafter, "tweak" it to suit DH's and my taste.
I didn't do "domestic science" as it was termed at school, and my mother was the sort of cook who could burn water, so no lessons to be had there!:D
I was good at chemistry at school, so I suppose I started out by just thinking of a recipe like a chemistry experiment.:eek::D

psso

Traditional Scottish recipes learned by watching/helping mum, then at school, mostly baking. Other stuff, from recipe books.
Had a large garden when young so lots of home grown veg, tatties,peas, carrots,cabbage etc strawbs and rasps, crab apple tree so plenty variety and opportunity to cook.

Alphamare

Self taught via books internet and TV. We had home economics a at school but that was only actual cooking once every two weeks or so. I don't even remember the lessons now but I guess they must have helped because I'm pretty good! I do make things as I go along and have only made one in edible meal to date. I have a handful of time underestimated a pork joint, and had to delay supper!

I love cooking so I'm quite adventurous and I'm really lucky as I have a knack for mixing herbs and spices.

ciderwithrosie_2

Got taught by my mum by helping out from a young age. Started off with simple things like weighing/measuring and mixing batter for Yorkshire puddings (that took care of pancakes too). Picking mint from the garden and making mint sauce, stringing runner beans etc. I read recipe books and enjoyed experimenting and by the time I was a young teen I could cook most family meals and would take over looking after my dad and brothers if my mum was away.


I think it's a parental responsibility to teach your children some cooking skills, get them involved in shopping and preparing - it's usually a good time to have nice chats too (find out what's going on in their lives) mine can all feed themselves reasonably well and will never starve.

Lizling

I learnt the absolute basics from my mum, but only things like omelettes or a pasta sauce. My fault for not showing much interest because my sister learnt lots and was considered a fairly competent cook by the time we left home. At least I was better than my dad. School cookery was pretty useless and mainly seemed to be about scones - cheesey scones, scone-based pizza and so on.

I left for university barely able to feed myself, put on weight from having a pretty awful diet of things on toast, but gradually learnt to cook from trial and error. There were a lot of Ready Steady Cook style challenges where I had to feed myself from whatever few items were on my half of a shelf in the cupboard and nothing else, which I think made me quite creative at times!

These days, a few years of trial and error has left me a pretty confident cook as long as it's vegetarian. I think it's fair to say I'm better than my mum as long as it isn't traditional English food, but if it is, she still beats me hands down.

meritaten

Mainly my nan until I was 10 and we moved into our own home, then it was 'Cookery' at school. and I don't mean 'Domestic Science' either. We spent either all morning or all afternoon actually cooking in Miss James' class. we covered everything from making proper cocoa to making and icing Christmas cakes. we made all kinds of pastry (even puff - just to show us how hard it was! I remember her ending the lesson with 'and that's 18 good reasons' (18 girls in the class) why you should BUY ready made puff pastry!!!!!!!!!!!
My Aunt was a professional cook and she was always willing to show me techniques and give me her favourite recipes.
and then of course - when I got married she gave me 'The good housekeeping book' - which has become my bible. I still go to it now if I want a basic recipe (I tend to forget quantities).