The forgotten kitchen

I've cooked the majority of my own food for years. If nothing else, it's much cheaper than eating out every day.

I think that this is absolutely correct. My wife and I have been trying to figure out why there is not much interest in our pastured poultry eggs and chemical-free vegetables that we grow and offer for sale when we have extra. I even offer to deliver to their door. Last week, five women brought their children for a farm tour. We had a great time with them and we told them that we had eggs and heirloom squash for sale. Out of the group, one woman bought one dozen eggs and three (!) squash! This for a family of five. She remarked that she was the only person in the family who would eat squash. We tried to understand this and finally decided that most folks just don't cook anymore, whether it is lack of time or the attractiveness of convenience foods, I don't know. This is strange to me, who cooks everyday at least one meal, mostly from scratch.

As a point of clarification, what qualifies as a "scratch" item? Even out forebears didn't cook everything from scratch.

Ironic just as many of us are using more fresh produce the prices are rising due to fuel costs,but it is still cheaper than takeout. And nothing beats fresh fruit and vegetables. Rediscovered simple things, like fresh pineapple, red peppers,backyard beefsteak tomatoes. many kinds of mushrooms, sweet potatoes, nuts.

Even those on the road a lot, or lodged otherwise without the usual stovetop, can cook their own meals thanks to the single most versatile and portable kitchen electric yet devised.

I refer to the humble electric skillet or wok. During a recent winter I rented a motel room by the month. Lacking cook's fixtures, I made for the local thrift shops and - hey presto! - for about four dollars, was stoking a cauldron nightly, there to bubble and double with little toil and less trouble.

Earlier this month I scored a terrific coastal-view off-season motel room by the week for apartment-hunting, and raced to the local Goodwill, conveniently cheek by jowl with a Shaw's supermarket. After scoring groceries, I scored a Meyer electric wok with only marginal scratches and chips, lipward., marked $2.99.

Imagine my reaction to being told the wok, which would have run me at least $35 brand new, would run me $1.49 due to a weekly half-off sale on merchandise tagged that week's chosen color.

I've got pork, lentils, barley and tomatoes bubbling away as I type, seasoned with panoramic vistas, off my room's sliding-glass-doored deck, of gulls, sailboats, and the sun-glinted blue waters of Glen Cove, Maine. And thanks to a wine outlet down Route 1 a few miles, I scored some decent Merlot and Cabernet, though I drink but seldom, for just under four dollars a bottle.

Since my monthly food budget runs about ninety dollars, and it is a holiday weekend, I thought I'd go crazy for a change with a stray sip or seventy...

Excellent post. We make our own pizza around here with whole wheat crust, just a whiff of sauce, a wide variety of cheese and whatever meat or sausages are at hand.

Part of cooking (and I think this is one reason busy moderns find it difficult) is managing your kitchen. Unless you plan to eat out of cans all the time, you have to keep careful watch on what you have on hand. Fruits and vegetables especially will rot before your eyes if left to their own devices.

Pulling leftovers together into interesting meals is another "lost art." We got ahold of some old Joy of Cooking editions (1950s-early 1970s), and it's worth noting that the older the cookbook, the more "leftover"-oriented the recipes. Scraps of meat and vegetables; stale bread; spotty fruit - all went into the pot or casserole dish in one way or another.

That's an excellent point, Mdavid. As for the "people can find time to watch television" bit--well, when I can pause dinner hour and play it back later, let me know! That would be an invaluable help, believe me. :)

I do cook most of our meals, but I admit to using some prepared shortcuts now and again (frozen veggies, particularly). One of the frustrating things about keeping enough fresh, from scratch ingredients on hand is the spoilage factor Stefanie mentioned. Many of the "fresh" produce items we buy are already rotting when we purchase them--they just look good, thanks to shipping methods and other means of preservation. If you don't use them right away you will find that an advanced stage of decay seems to happen out of nowhere. Yes, getting all local produce would be ideal, but unless you live somewhere where those items are readily available you have to weigh the "plus" of getting superior produce to the "minus" of $4/gal. gasoline.

I grew up eating out a lot. I learned how to cook very few foods. Now I'm married with two little girls and wish I knew so much more about cooking. Fortunately my husband's mother taught him a great deal so he does a lot of the cooking.

It is such a valuable skill to have and never having been properly taught is crippling. Sewing is similarly useful and another skill rarely properly passed on to young women. How many women know how to clean with vinegar? Lemon Juice? How to bake bread? How to darn socks? How to make clothes or quilts? Cooking is just one of the valuable home skills previous generations felt could fall by the wayside and now homes are paying for it.

Silly article. How can someone write an entire page and avoid the primary factor of the decline of cooking? Ideology? Stupidity? Both?

The main reason we don't cook and aren't going to anytime soon is blatantly obvious: 70% of women are working outside the home. They are exhausted, and do most of the cleaning/childcare as well. QED.

Well if he were to address the article only to women, imagine what the outcry would be like. I do think he intends the article to be read by both men and women.

Hungry as we may be for change, we're still juggling work, family and errands. But let's be honest. We may be a busy nation, but the same "average" American who has just 30 minutes for the kitchen is somehow finding 240 minutes each day to watch TV.

From what I've read, before more women entered the workforce, pre-made meals were having an impact upon suburban household in the 50s. Hence the impact of Julia Child. But apparently even she wasn't enough. Plus home ec classes have been dropped. So I think his point still stands--the domestic art of cooking has been lost since it hasn't been transmitted.

Don, Part of the problem with arguing from impending catastrophe is that it often relies on experts, when we have all become a little wary of them and their predictions.

I don't think one needs to be an expert to understand peak oil. It's as simple as the glass of beer being half empty. The data is sitting right there for anyone to look at.

Likewise, our cultural catastrophe is all around us; personally, I can't understand how folks can miss it. Heck, we need experts these days to whisper softly in our ears about how it's gonna be fine...the kids really are alright, they aren't really obese, diabetic, drugged up, and cutting on themselves. No, really, it's fine. Divorce? Cool. Bad diet? No prob. Record prison populations? Safer. Free love? Yeah! Smoking? Oops, now that's evil!

pb, Well if he were to address the article only to women, imagine what the outcry would be like. I do think he intends the article to be read by both men and women.

Who said anything about the article not being addressed to men? My point is that there is zero mystery as to why we don't seem to cook at home, and why we won't be doing so in the future. That is, how can any fool person write an entire article about this issue and yet avoid the obvious?

I'm in the real world here: men have never cooked much, and they aren't going to do so anytime soon. We can safely say the bulk of the nation will not be eating home cooked meals from scratch unless the woman of the house does it. And we can safely say that won't happen unless she is home. She ain't home. This is a no-brainer.

Yes, there are execptions, some men cook for the family. They are exceptions. Look to the data, not ideology.

"...and women actually see it as a post feminist pride to not know HOW to cook."

While that does not apply to everyone of course, it isn't an exaggeration. I once attended a PC(USA) church in which the female minister was quite proud that she did not know how to cook, sew, or play piano.

Gerry, ugh, getting one's hair hut is not a necessity. In fact technically someone can go a lifetime w/o doing it. Eating is as fundamental, as I said above, as breathing. Or at least going to the bathroom. Anyone turning that over to 'experts' (at least as a normal course of their lives) surrendered a basic life line in the name of convenience.

Trust me, it'll come back to bite you if you cannot feed yourself....whether or not you do so, you must know how to do it from the standpoint of fiscal prudence and healthy satisfying options. To do otherwise because 'experts do it better' is to allow yourself wide open ultimately to the exact vulnerability of a pet dog.

If a dog could go out to eat one night and prepare a dinner at home the next, why would they need humans?

How many exceptions does it take before a rule becomes inoperative? I'm only asking because Mr. Sig is currently out in the kitchen preparing one of his delicious stir-frys. In this case, I think it's mushrooms, green onions, bok choy and peapods, all bought at the farmers market on Saturday. We'll also have a salad of greens we bought at the market and I washed and put away. And a cherry pie that I baked in honor of the holiday. Cooking is cooperative around here. We just filled up a square foot garden with dirt and will plant it out after dinner. Then I called my aged parents--which is why I was sitting down when Mr. Sig forced a vodka martini with two olives upon me. I'd told him I really could not talk to my parents through a vodka martiini--I have to be at the peak of my form and using all my wits--so he bestowed it on me the instant they hung up. : D

Yep, admittedly I cooked most of the time when the kids were living here, because schedules did not permit waiting until Mr. Sig got home from work. I cooked even when I was working full-time--though I often traded off with the guy next door, a dear friend who was in real estate and thus had flexible hours. We took turns cooking for each other's families. During the period that is cheerily referred to as Mom's Reign of Terror, all the kids (except the youngest) learned to cook a few simple meals and to clean. The Nipper learned later, and won much renown in high school for cooking Valentine's Day meals for his girlfriends. Rawlins is right--being able to take care of your own needs is a very important power. Own it! Cooperation requires capability. I now return to my martini . . . .

Hey Zach.... along with the Foreman Grill which also saved my sister's you know what because she is the world's worst cook.... get a wok. You will be amazed what a wok can do and so easity...suddenly you are a wizard. As the Sig post indicates. Seriously, get (probably best an electric) wok and the world also will become your other oyster. They almost always come with easy recipes. Fully balanced meals in one easy to clean 'pot'.

Don't buy processed foods. Any processed food, including ready-baked bread. Bake your own bread. Don't complain to me that you don't have the time unless you are prepared to explain why I had the time to bake all our own bread when I was working full time and had four kids at home. Baking bread is not rocket science.

Buy veggies in the produce aisle. Buy meat at the meat counter. NEVER buy anything that comes in a box unless it is detergent, and even then, be suspicious. NEVER buy frozen or canned anything. If it isn't in season, eat what is in season and wait. Be suspicious even of ready-made pasta: you can make your own, you know. You can make yogurt too. Don't buy yogurt, make yogurt. Don't buy tomato sauce, buy tomatoes and make sauces.

I mean, this is elementary Hippie 101. Anything that has been processed in any way, including ready-baked bread, has a high processing cost built in. You're paying for convenience. If all you want is food, don't.

At the risk of going off topic, if men are not cooking enough, why don't moms make sure all their kids know how to cook? Do people still teach just the girls to cook? My son and I do most of the cooking at our house. Fire, knives, I mean there is a lot to attract boys if you do it right. Or, you can just do it the old fashioned way and tell them to do it (gasp!).

My parents are both decent cooks (although Mom does more of it), but besides what my brother (who's still at home) and I learned from simple observation, they never actively taught us. My sister, though, has to cook dinner at least a few times a month. Call this sexist, but at least my sister will able to fend for herself food-wise later in life. And I still call Mom once or twice a week to ask cooking advice. Maybe it's because she was always a stay-at-home mom, and thus had time to prepare a meal, but we rarely ate out growing up. And she has a cabinet full of recipe books, many passed down from her mom (which I frequently borrow, BTW). My dad basically learned to cook the same way I have- he moved out and was on a tight budget.

And thanks for the info on dry rubs, Steve!

“Jack gets takeout and pines for the good old days"

.......after he was divorced by a woman unprepared to live in a cave and beat the clothes on a river rock (and have 7 kids without an epidural.)

Told ya, I was raised by an activist feminist Mama Mia..........

I do most of the [real] cooking in our house. My mom is an excellent improviser and believes that real food is ultimately as easy as convenience food and not as limiting. She learned from her mom and grandma, who is/was Italian [well, ethnically Italian, technically Austrian] and this comes out a lot in her cooking and I try to draw on it as much as possible.

What I learned most from Mom is that cookbooks may provide the inspiration, but once you know techniques [if you can saute, you can sear; if you can sear, you can roast; how to make a perfect scrambled egg; chopping, sharpening knives, maintaining cookware, etc] you can shuttle ingredients in and out. She taught me how to make one basic soup [rice soup: one med. onion chopped and sauteed in about a stick of butter, to which add a peeled and diced potato, two peeled and diced carrots, two ribs of chopped celery, and 1/3 cup of rice. Cover w/ a quart of water or veg. or chicken stock, salt to taste and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer @ 20 minutes or until everything is tender and serve w/ crusty bread and butter. Proportions can be adjusted and/or multiplied at will] from which I've figured out a bunch more. She taught me to make a white sauce, from which I've made everything from white ravioli "lasagna" to biscuits and gravy. She expected us to make our own cookies when we were teenagers, which took away my fear of baking. She taught me to braise, which works on chicken, pork, and tougher cuts of beef. In other words, if you know techniques, you can be your own cookbooks.

Cooking is easy, keeping food in the pantry is harder all the time.

It's partly not knowing how to cook, but I think Stefaine is onto something about managing the kitchen (and the rest of the home). Cooking from scratch takes planning and forethought, even more than time. The lack of "time" is really a lack of space to think more than 10 minutes into the future. Even as a stay-at-home mom I fall into this trap sometimes. The computer is my enemy in this regard. Speaking of which, I have to go get breakfast for myself and for the little boy who is at my elbow wondering when I'm getting off the internet!

Naturalmom, you are clearly a horrible feminist who obviously cares nothing for your son or husband. You put your own gratification above their physical needs. Get to the kitchen now, and don't forget to take your shoes off, or your husband will leave you for someone who fulfills his every need.

Sorry about the triple posts above. I didn't do that!

(Naturalmom, I'm kidding.)

An extremely good book on cooking that has not made it across the Atlantic is Rose Prince's The New English Kitchen. The book emphasizes planning and non-wasteful use of food: for example, how do you make several day's meals out of a roast chicken? At the same time, however, it emphasizes modern techniques in cooking -- fresh vegetables, generous use of peppers and other spices, etc. It preceded Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma but very much shares that sensibility. American readers can order it through Amazon.co.uk and other online booksellers.

(Parenthetically, anyone who thinks that home-cooked food was in some sense generally better before WWII is just wrong. Read Laura Shapiro's Perfection Salad to get an idea of the horrors of pre-war American cooking.)

Steve,
What's the advantage of a wok over a frying pan (other than the fact you can fit more good stuff in it at once)?

Thanks for your thoughts on commercially frozen vegetables Rawlins. I always assumed commercially frozen veggies were the next best thing to fresh, not something to be shunned in the name of not eating processed food. From what you said, sometimes frozen can even be "fresher"... hmmm.

Here's #2 from the NYTimes Most E-Mailed list, last 7 days:

nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/nutrition/20well.html

HEALTH / FITNESS & NUTRITION May 20, 2008
Well: Finding the Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables
By TARA PARKER-POPE

"Are there ways to get more from the vegetables you already eat?"

And in *speaking* of frozen peas, no one did *that* better, and with more R-rated exasperation, than my boyhood hero, and one of America's biggest immortals in part due to his intake of those and much else - eh, Orson?:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Peas

As to Eric's asking why we suggest, should he find himself in dire straits in the kitchen, he do the wok, he do the wok of life - or, per Steve Tyler, Wok this Way - we might mention versatility.

Say you've had a big stew going in a slow-cooker, and someone suggests Buffalo Wings for an appetizer. Easy - with the nimbleness your lightweight Asiatic stirfry bowl affords, you can wok wings around the crock.

As for this recent convert thus, soloing along the nation's northeastern tip, I've become quite the

And I think it's gonna be a short, short time
Till stirfry singes round and green to find
I've not the pan they think I have at home
Oh, no no no
I'm a Wok-it Man
Wok-it Man
Stirrin' frozen peas up here alone...

mdavid- Always got our deer locally and took them to the butcher. I havent gone in 20 years now tbh. Fishing on the other hand. Have you never had trout just out of the water cooked in a little bacon grease? Heck, almost any fish cooked just after being caught is a new experience for most people.

Eric- Rawlins answered it well about the wok. You can also use the wok as in instant steamer by pushing the food up on the sides and having liquid in the well, then putting lid on top. Handy all around tool. Make sure you by a cheap steel one and not some expensive Calphalon or whatever. You want something that heats and cools quickly. BTW, you can just use a regular fry pan, just takes a bit more effort and not as versatile.

Hey Scott- Have a Wok on the fried side!

Steve

Recently, at my womens' Bible study meeting, one woman asked if anyone would like a bag of onions. Seems she had ordered groceries from Peapod, and had meant to purchase one onion; much to her surprise, it turned out that onions came in bags rather than singly. She was completely at a loss as to what to do with the five or six remaining onions.

I eagerly accepted her surplus onions, and then looked around the group and saw blank stares of incomprehension.

"What are you going to do with all those onions?" someone ventured.

"I'm going to eat them, of course!" I responded.

More blank stares -- now looking somewhat alarmed, no doubt envisioning me munching on a raw onion like an apple.

"I mean, I will use them when I cook," I explained patiently.

Still more blank stares. Finally a brave soul asked "What can you cook with onions?"

Now it was my turn to give the blank stare. "What the...? EVERYTHING! Everything delicious has onions in it! Spaghetti sauce, chicken soup, you can caramelize them and put them on top a grilled steak, fajitas, stir-fry, baked beans, split pea soup, put one inside a chicken when you roast it, throw them on the grill with some peppers and sausage, chop them finely and put them in hamburgers with a little Worcestershire sauce, use them in meatballs, etc. etc., and so on and so on!"

Incredulous silence. Then one of the women said "I don't think I've ever bought more than one onion at a time." Vigorous nodding of heads.
"Do you really make all that stuff? Do you cook every night?"

"Well, of course I do! Except Fridays; that's pizza night. Don't you people eat?"

They all agreed I was some sort of strange throwback to an earlier, more primitive era, when people apparently expected to be served food for dinner.

I was pretty shocked, because it was a MOTHER'S group, so all of these women had families. What the heck are people eating? Why is it so counter-cultural to cook and eat food? Have not people been doing this for thousands of years, without the benefit of Cuisinarts and Viking commercial ranges?

I have said it before and will say it again: PEOPLE, IT IS NOT BRAIN SURGERY. LEARN TO COOK A FEW THINGS. IT IS EASY AND MUCH MORE DELICIOUS THAN EATING CRAP.

The time crunch is largely self-created by people who think they have to do 24-hours worth of activities into 12. I cooked every day while working full time and raising our son. As noted above, it took a few minutes of planning every weekend.

We also eat best when financially stressed! One cup of whole grain or beans is about half a pound and costs maybe 45-60 cents for organic products. A bread machine can pump out whole wheat bread for under a dollar.

Those who are working 3 jobs to make ends meet will do best to get a slow-cooker. Chop food before bed and store in fridge. Toss in cooker before leaving for work. Come home to the smells of all-day cooking. Make breakfast by tossing a cup of whole grain into 3 cups of water before bed. Add cinnamon stick if desired. Go to bed. Wake up and eat.

Elizabeth: Make breakfast by tossing a cup of whole grain into 3 cups of water before bed. Add cinnamon stick if desired. Go to bed. Wake up and eat.

I heartily concur. We started making muesli last summer: easiest thing going. Just add milk (or milk and yogurt) to raw rolled oats; add raisins, almonds, cinnamon if you want - let soak overnight in the fridge, eat the next morning.

LOL, who knew's comments about not wanting to get the kitchen dirty.

god help me, I think I'm falling in love with Scott's wok. Wok with me baby--can something that feels so right be wrong?? (And if you add a little eel to the stir-fry, that's soy moray!)

Knowing sig's recent penchant for a little pre/post-prandial shooter with a License to Refill that has James Bond at once shaken and stirred with more than a Martini bit of envy, I may have to ask her to wok a straight line before allowing her to take the wok-keys as she heads home and into the kitchen...

And before I inform my wok of sig's sighing confession above, I plan to draw Cupid's bow and assist Requited Love's Labours by first cooking tomato soup in it, with a cluster of tofu chunks in the center and sour cream swirls throughout, and my index finger dug inside its lip: its resemblance at that point to a blushing Elmer Fudd, teased beyond bachelor endurance by a ruby-lipped and lash-plucked Bugs, will prove just the persuasion Warner Bros. will need to greenlight my latest cartoon screenplay, "Wok-sig Matilda"...

No, Kevin, I know the difference between garlic and garlic powder. To your point it has it's own profile. I use garlic powder in a thousand things as a nuance...from salad dressings to marinade/rubs. Garlic I use a completely different way. I'm talking cooking with flavor 101 for those timidly looking to feel creative and encouraged. And to add texture to flavors, I find that the garlic and onion powders and basil and olive oil and soy sauce and sea salt and regular and fresh ground black pepper and white pepper and canola oil for saute... are the must-have staples to create instant 5 minute chicken breasts of salads or stir fries. Lately I have used a lot of ginger and curry added subtle bits to many things. There too, ginger powder AND fresh ginger. Two different cats. The latter when you want to feature it. The former when you want lurking mystery.

If I were to give/recommend one general book on food, excepting cookbooks, to those who eat, but in darkness, it would be Wellness Foods A to Z,

tinyurl.com/6q9eyx

the successor, from 2002, to The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition

tinyurl.com/5vp8d6

from ten years prior.

That I haven't dog-eared my copies of both is testament more to their solid hardcover build than to any white-gloved delicacy on my hamhanded part. Produced by the editors of the most sober, balanced and informative general health newsletter, The Wellness Letter (University of California at Berkeley), each book is a veritable Magical Mystery Tour waiting to take you away to Things You Never Knew, nutritional and culinary, about every food in the supermarket from Apples to Zucchini, and chockablock with sidebars jam-seeded with lore and tips for those hot to master and avoid disaster when playin' The Bitchin' Magician in the Kitchen. After sixteen years' of daily discovery, I give both editions two juice-bursting plums up.

Jack Horner, Pie Rustler