Cookery in schools to be compulsory - recipe challenge

mary43

I was at secondary school in the 50's (oops showing my age........lol) but it was a girls grammar school (don't ask how I scraped through the 11 plus....I'll never know.....lol). The whole school timetable was more geared up to those who were going on to university (like they wouldn't need to know basic cookery??) so I left there not knowing much about anything domestic really..........but I can sew a loop on brilliantly if need be..........lol
Mum taught me the basics of sewing.........she made all our clothes out of necessaty really and I did much the same for mine when they were really small.
The kids we care for are at an age when they're due to leave to live on their own so we always show them basic skills like cooking and sewing then move on to the benefit system (a minefield all of its own).
Martin was on the radio today discussing schools and the fact they teach the kids nothing about finance so they're prepared for the outside world. It's a scary place if you dont know what your up against.
We give our kids £40 a week to feed and clothe themselves on if they're not working (if they were on job seekers that would be about it really) and some have managed really well, others not so well but they get there in the end.
OH is better at it than me mind you...........lol

Triker

Hi thanks for all your replies. We also did Domestic Science in school, in fact we got told off if we called it cookery class .

I am tring to remember what we made, I know there were various disasters, including all cakes and biscuits but my party piece was sausage plait.

Even I couldn't fail at this one.;)

Recipe

1 packet puff pastry (although they did teach us to make pastry)

1 packet of sausages.

Roll the pastry out into one big rectangle shape.

Lightly score it with a knife into thirds.

Squeeze sausage meat (!) from sausage skins and place meat in middle of pastry rectangle.

Then on each remaining side cut diagonally quite thick strips.

Then alternately plait each pasty strip across the sausage meat until you have a plaited parcel shape.

Either eggwash or brush with milk, place in oven gas 4 for about 25 mins and viola, sausage plait.:T

Any more recipe suggestions?

Hardup_Hester

Stef, we had to make an apron & cap first too, ours were yellow gingham. We had 2 cookery lessons, 1st one was tomato soup & 2nd was how to ice a Christmas cake!
I just love that phrase, my Mum was sometimes tired & emotional too, I didn't have any siblings though, so I didn't have to cook.

mary43

I'm the worlds worst cook but here's mine........

Sausages (as many as needed ...........i.e. 2 per person ?)
Medium onion
Small tin of tomatoes
2 oxo cubes
Packet of Mash or 2 largish potatos

Chop onion and fry in small amount of oil
Add sausages and cook until brown
Pour in tinned tomatos and stir
Crumble two beef oxo cubes and stir some more
Turn heat down to simmer and leave for 15 minutes

Serve with mashed potatos.

There..........quick and easy (even I can do it.........lol) and it's cheap !

yorksbabe

When my son started food technology one of his recipes was fruit cocktail. ingredients he had to take was tin of fruit cocktail and an apple! he now does it at gcse stage and they take biscuits to cut in half and analyse! ridiculous

Gingernutmeg

My 'home economics' lessons at school were worse than useless - I thank heaven that my family have all been involved in catering and I was taught to cook at home.

We 'cooked' fruit flan - consisting of a ready made flan base, tinned fruit and quick-gel. Then there was flapjack with a supply teacher who told us to turn the ovens up so it would 'cook faster' - believe me, it did, it was like coal And that's about all I remember cooking, although I was taught how to design ready-meal packaging. I think the most fun we had was when the teacher accidentally set her bri-nylon cardigan on fire

But seriously ... I do think that young people should be taught the basics, like how to prepare fruit and veg (and if necessary, what that is :rolleyes:) how to make things like pastry, bread and desserts like crumble, and staple meals that will stand them in good stead when they go off into the world. They should also be taught how to joint and trim meat, and how to cook cheaper cuts, and later on, how to prepare full meals and how to make things that they can freeze. Good food hygiene is important too, it's shocking the number of people who don't know how to keep a kitchen clean, or how to store food properly.

looby-loo_2

I'm another who made an apron in the first year to use in Home Economics lessons in the second - fifth year. In those days we had the luxury of a whole afternoon for the lesson, porbably two hours. Girls went to cookery and boys went to woodwork so there was only half a class - 16 as I remember.

I trained to be a Home Economics teacher and for the first couple of years it was just as above. Then 'they' had the great idea of calling it design/food technology. Boys and girls came (I agree with that) but class size went up to 24 and lesson times were cut to three single lessons. By the time the class comes into the room and start the lesson is 50 mins max. These two factors vastly cut down on any scope for teaching 'proper' cookery skills. The solution is to spend most of the time 'designing' the meal and making the packaging. Then students only cook once or twice a term usually just assembling ready made ingredients

My head of department was so fed up that when the hearmaster phoned down for 'tea and biscuits' for visitors (as he did frequently) she set the tray and sent up a plate full of pictures of biscuits, cakes, a bottle of milk and a tea plant. She said that was all she had time to do and the real food would only be povided once or twice a term. She left and taught evening classes.

I was lucky enough to have children and not go back - but I wouldn't have stayed. I felt that lessons were so rushed that I was putting children off the subject rather than inspiring them. I changed subject and direction after that.

Will I return - probably not

shazrobo

i left school in the 80's cookery was my fav lessson, and i got an 0 level.

both of my sons love cooking in school, they make allsorts, curries, lasagnes, pizzas, bun, cakes, scones etc. both schools provide all the ingrediants. in ds1 school, they do "life skills", which includes things like housekeeping, hoovering, dusting, ironing etc.

must add, both kids schools have a max class size of 8, but usually only 2-4 does cooking at any one time

looby-loo_2

Triker wrote: »

.... my party piece was sausage plait.

Even I couldn't fail at this one.;)

Recipe

1 packet puff pastry (although they did teach us to make pastry)

1 packet of sausages.

Roll the pastry out into one big rectangle shape.

Lightly score it with a knife into thirds.

Squeeze sausage meat (!) from sausage skins and place meat in middle of pastry rectangle.

Then on each remaining side cut diagonally quite thick strips.

Then alternately plait each pasty strip across the sausage meat until you have a plaited parcel shape.

Either eggwash or brush with milk, place in oven gas 4 for about 25 mins and viola, sausage plait.:T

Any more recipe suggestions?

Sausage plait = thanks for reminding me

Frozen puff pastry is one of the more worthwhile ready made foods. I do something similar using mincemeat (not meat, the mince pie one:rotfl: )

Roll out the pastry and cut into two A4 size pieces. Spread one piece with mincemeat/and cooking apple slices/and other fruit (opptional). Damp round the edge. Fold the other piece in half longways and cut diagonal strips to within 1" of the edge. Open out and lay on top of the other one. There are V shapes. Press round the edges. Bake hot for 12 - 15 mins. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Triker

looby-loo wrote: »

Sausage plait = thanks for reminding me

Frozen puff pastry is one of the more worthwhile ready made foods. I do something similar using mincemeat (not meat, the mince pie one:rotfl: )

Roll out the pastry and cut into two A4 size pieces. Spread one piece with mincemeat/and cooking apple slices/and other fruit (opptional). Damp round the edge. Fold the other piece in half longways and cut diagonal strips to within 1" of the edge. Open out and lay on top of the other one. There are V shapes. Press round the edges. Bake hot for 12 - 15 mins. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

When I said gas 4 for 25 mins I actually guessed that so maybe go with your instructions.

Well you'll either get it right, burn it or get food poisoning from uncooked sausagemeat:o :rolleyes: