School cooking lessons

My first lesson was Cheese and Potato Pie. Basically mashed potato, grated cheese mixed in. Then more cheese on top and put under the grill. I remember carrying it home from school and using my finger to eat it! I also remember toffee apples when the toffee spilled on my friend's hand and she was badly burned. We made buns called Red Caps, rock cakes, and if we brought the ingredients into school we could make a Christmas Cake. None of it was healthy and if it wasn't for my husband I'd have a very poor diet.

Home Economics lessons were the highlight of my week!! I did it to ‘o’ level and did really well, just as well as it was my chosen profession!!! We were certainly taught about healthy eating, having to cook things containing certain vitamins etc. I left school in 1979 . When my own children went lessons had gone really downhill! I was not impressed and it’s a bit of a soapbox thing for me. I think it’s should be taught properly in schools.

I had no cookery lessons in school, because the" brainy" girls did Latin, while the others had cookery!

I opted to go to a domestic science school after leaving school and there we were taught to eat healthily and to make food that was good for you, plan well-balanced diets for adults and children, all of which has been useful.

Now-a-days cookery is rarely taught in schools, partly due to the lack of discipline making it dangerous, more due to the fact that all skills like sewing, household management and carpentry are out of fashion, educationally speaking.

A stupid, short-sighted policy, as we all have to eat, after all, children who are not academically gifted are deprived the chance of being brilliant and the more "hands-on" skills, and the horrifying number of adults and children who are either obese or develop diabetes might just be reduced if everyone was taught to cook healthy food.

At my school we all did domestic science and Latin for the first 2 years. First year DS was making the cookery apron for cooking in year 2.

I don't recall making much that was useful - rock cakes, and cheese and potato pie - never nearly enough for our family of 6 anyway.

About 40 years after I made my cookery apron, dd had to make exactly the same thing at her school. Since she loathed sewing, and TBH never really bothered to try, I ended up doing most of it. My sewing skills had come on a lot since I was 11, so I was equally peeved and amused to get, 'C+ - neatness and accuracy are 2 skills which you must practice.'

I was very sorely tempted to point out that the verb is 'practise'! (But I didn't. )

My mother died when I was small, so I had to learn to cook - fast - for my father and self. Trouble was, we lived in Greece, so everything was labelled in Greek. Once I learned the alphabet, things improved! But then sent to boarding school at 13 I was thrown out of cookery for daring to suggest that we learned to make something we could actually live on, rather than fairy cakes.

In my secondary school we did 4 years of domestic science. We learnt how to make cakes, pastry, cook 3 course dinners. We also learnt how to do washing and ironing, clean ovens etc. In our last year we had to cook a 3 course meal and invite the teachers to dinner. My grandchildren had one term of cookery and made a fruit salad and pizza. No wonder nobody cooks today. They don’t know how so have takeaways or microwave dinners. Is it any wonder we are a nation of obese people!

I too had cookery lessons, but didn't seem to learn much from them. When I got married I could barely boil an egg. I seem to remember having to scrub the white wood tables after cooking until there was no surface left on them. We were given a large bar of green fairy soap and a scrubbing brush. So although I still couldn't cook, I did know how to clean a table.

Our first 'dish' was salad too. I dropped it on the bus on the way home but darling dad still ate it- grit & all -& proclaimed it delicious!
Our cookery lessons were the best part of the week! I adored the teachers who was the only people to have a good word to say for me at parent's evening. They got it that I was miserable at a school I had not wanted to go to & as I was already a very good cook (thanks Mum!!) I still think of them every time I bake a cake.
It was the only subject I got an A for in my O levels & to this day I love cooking ( & taught it myself at adult education)
A good teacher can change your life!

My cookery teacher was the vicar's wife and she was a terrifying Gorgon but if I met her now (long gone alas) I'd thank her for the basic skills she taught me.

We made:-
white bread, brown bread, fruit loaf,
sponge cake, fruit cake, scones, ginger cake, rock cakes, Christmas cake (with home made marzipan and royal icing),
Bakewell tart and crumble,
rough, puff, flaky , rough-puff, choux and short pastrty,
roux, bechamel, brown and white sauce,
lemon curd,
meringue,
and many other things of which I imbibed the technique but forget the details.

She made me into a confident cook and I have added to her repertoire considerably over the years. What pleasures in cooking, eating and entertaining she gave in those far off lessons.

Rock cakes, then raspberry buns and on from there. the most useless thing was whipping an egg white on a dinner plate with a flat bladed knife - woe betide you if it fell off the plate when the teacher turned it upside down. Went on to do 'O' Level, one of the tasks being to make 4 dishes out of 6 eggs. I enjoy cooking now and my waistline is testimony to the eating thereof!

At my first secondary school we did have structured cooking lessons. I can rememeber we made soup in the first lesson. This was a revelation to me, although my DM was an excellent cook we rarely had soup and it came in cans. We made other things that I really enjoyed.

After a year I moved schools and for the next year, after which lessons, for me, stopped, all we did was make rock cakes to be sold in the tuck shop at break.

I did 'O' level Domestic Science as well -no one was more surprised than me when I actually got it! I remember making white vegetable soup (llooked like sick!). I found it very stressful because you had to stick to a timetable and finish on time. My cooking tends to be ready when I feel like it!

Good grounding in basic cookery, cooked every two weeks. Learned all about keeping house, very useful as mam was not exactly a good house keeper but swapped to needlework after two years and learned all there was to know at the time. Benefit of both worlds, pity we couldnt do both at same time and had to opt for one

My Dad used to get cross that we had cookery lessons - he used to say that I have been taught to read, so get a cookery book! He thought it took up time that should be spent on "real" subjects.

I used to get fed up with DD's cookery lessons Instead of teaching them to cook nourishing food for themselves and future families, it came under "design technology" and it was all about marketing. For about 6 weeks running they had to take a ready-made pizza base + different toppings, stick the topping on, bung it in oven; then the rest of the lesson was spent designing packaging and marketing strategies - what a load of bollocks! Pardon me; but it really was truly ridiculous. It is a wonder she can cook anything at all!

I remember making fudge at school. Mine separated and became fat on the top and a sort of golden syrup on the bottom layer. The DS teacher couldn't understand it...me neither.

My school apron took seven years to complete, from first year to sixth.

Enough said, I think!

Grandchildren have had the Healthy Eating cookery lesson it seems to be vegetarian, their mother was not pleased or father (a Catering Lecturer). The household all cook from scratch. Beware the translation: Kipling's - My words on the lips of fools. I am stunned at many people's non-knowledge of the food groups and the necessity of balance however.

I should add to my last comment that the courses I did weren't anything to do with domestic science. Computing studies also creative arts, and the kids were brilliant at them

One term, my brither, who went to a boy's grammar school had "Survival Cookery" in his timetable. We presumed it would be fending for yourself in the wild, edible mushrooms and starting fires etc.
But no it turned out to be how to make beans on toast and scrambled eggs if there isn't a woman around to cook for you!

Did very little of it at school but do think something along the lines of a “basic survival course” would be good for all children. Recently went back to college as a mature student and was amazed at the amount (not all) of both adults and kids that couldn’t cook a basic meal from scratch. If it didn’t come out of a tin or packet they hadn’t a clue.

The Domestic Science lessons that I had at school were, in hindsight, very good indeed. Like other posters, we were taught to make every type of pastry; bake biscuits; cakes and different types of breads. We learnt how to cook different cuts of meat and so did a roast chicken, casserole, scotch eggs etc. Only in the final year were we let loose on Christmas cakes, a Christmas Pudding and brandy snaps.

Those cookery lessons stood me in very good stead because my mother wasn't an enthusiastic cook to say the least. I still make apple snow and vegetable flan, using the same recipe that I was taught over 50 years ago. Thank you Mrs Johnson, your efforts weren't wasted!

I did Cookery for an O Level so as part of that also had to learn about nutrition, meal planning etc and had to cook a complete meal of 3 courses for my practical exam.
I don't know if any of it improved my cooking (though did pass the O level) , I can remember struggling to and from school on 2 buses each way, carrying the food I had cooked on the way home, trying not to tip the dish out of the tin(square biscuit tin with a round/oval dish doesn't really work well!) . I also remember the astounding info that the calorific value of a Mars bar is equal to a 3 course meal! ( probably 2 course now they are smaller!!!)

We had to choose between Latin and Domestic Science (as it was called then). I chose Latin - my OH may have regretted my choice, but I certainly didn't!

However on a more serious note, I do think that healthy eating, cooking on a budget, domestic budget management etc. should be a compulsory subject in schools.

I made a Christmas cake. It had to cook for a long time and the teacher was responsible for taking them out of the oven. Mine was burnt. I also remember making soused herrings. Horrible

No cookery lessons in my school except for girls considered not clever enough to do Latin. My cookery was based on what I saw my mother do and what I learnt from books. It seemed to work, though I only ever cooked because I had to.

Remember having to make a gingham apron and cap in needlework first, decorated with ric-rac braid.
Our first cookery lesson was toast and milky coffee. Can't remember anything remotely healthy; rock buns, jam buns, puff pastry is all I can think of.
So I'm a mostly self taught cook! Which is just as well as DM never let me cook.