AIBU a generation that can’t be bothered.

Callistemon21

I've got a shelf full of cookery books but half the time I Google a recipe!

Me too.
I do use my Mary Berry book for a couple of cake recipes though.
I don’t cook anymore, my husband does it. I do bake though.
I got a top grade Cookery O level when I was at school, although it wasn’t called Cookery, far too common, it was called Domestic Science.

Parsley3

I am not ashamed to admit to having a tin of Smash in my cupboard when I was a working mum. Why condemn a whole generation because of one journalist's ( age unknown) idea of a shopping basket? That would be illogical, would it not?

Exactly!

I forgot. I also grow my own fruit and veg in the garden.

I always think this looking at other people's trolleys and making judgments is a silly game. How do you know that the contents reflect all the food the trolley-pusher buys, or even if it is all for them?

Anyone looking at my trolley would note that it was devoid of any fruit and veg, contains no meat or fish, fresh or processed and rarely any bread either. Family eating habits would look very unhealthy.

This is because I buy all my meat at a local farm shop, bread comes from the village bakery and fruit and veg from the fruit and veg stall in the local market.

Callistemon21

I've got a shelf full of cookery books but half the time I Google a recipe!

...

That's exactly what I do. And the books gather dust...

I've got a shelf full of cookery books but half the time I Google a recipe!

We have a shelf full of cook books, many of them picked up 3 for £1 at our local charity shop. DH uses them, particularly Gino’s and the Hairy Bikers, and follows the recipes to the last letter. On the rare occasions I cook, I just google what I want (the BBC Good Food site is particularly useful) or reach for one of my Delia Smiths. Now if I ever see the Complete Illustrated Cookery Course in our hospice shop I’ll snap it up - mine is held together with tape, some pages are actually stuck together and the family’s favourite recipes have notes scribbled on and are blotched with unidentifiable ingredients. It reminds me of my mum’s old Oxo cook book.

Some charity shops don't want books of any kind, but I've never heard of the ones who don't turning away cookbooks. Getting a bookful of recipes for a couple of quid is a bargain.

Having said that, I have far too many of them, as I enjoy flicking through them, but my children have none, as they just look things up on the internet. They don't have many books (they use kindles), CDs (they use Spotify and Apple Music) or DVDs (Netflix etc) either, and I doubt they are unusual in their generation. Maybe that means that they are hard for charity shops to shift?

I didn't learn to cook at school either - for some reason it was assumed that you didn't need to if you were doing O levels ? - and my mum hated anyone in her kitchen, so I taught myself when I got married. Like many, I started by using jars of sauces and other convenience food, and progressed to making my own as I got more confident. I also bought the pasta 'n' sauce packets when my children were old enough to make them up if they had friends round. They are cheap, quick, and virtually impossible to get wrong, so ideal for Playstation-playing teenagers with hollow legs.

If people judged my trolley when I was young and buying Dolmio, or older and buying dehydrated pasta in sauce, so be it - I make no apology to them, and don't expect one back for their being smug and self-important.

Oh, and one year there was a craze for making Skittles vodka, and my daughter wanted to make if for her friends (they were in their early 20s - not children?. She asked me to get the ingredients for her, so I wandered around the supermarket with four bottles of cheap vodka, four giant bags of Skittles and a loaf of bread. The judgers were out in force that day?

It was our local Red X shop - I've seen a van outside with huge bags of books in the back - probably going to be pulped

Calistemon I have yet to go into a charity shop that did not have some cookery books.

Anyway, it is all on the internet.

We had spaghetti from tins too (horrible stuff). I remember encountering plain yoghurt, olives peppers long after I'd left home - they're on my "staples" list now

growstuff I worked with a woman who told us she ate yogurt - we'd never heard of the stuff. It tasted very sour in those days.
I eat it most days now.

You were posh! We had dripping on our toast

Ooh, dripping on toast (with a sprinkle of salt to make it worse!)
Delicious.

Hithere

Why were there cooking classes in the 50s?
Couldn't parents be bothered to teach their kids to cook, why did it have to be done in school?

In the 50s, it was assumed women would become housewives. In the same way it was assumed men would work in industry - hence they were taught metal-work, carpentry, etc.

So Domestic Science and Technical / Engineering stuff were part of the Curriculum.

I doubt it had anything at all to do with lazy parenting.

My own school had a Domestic Science block with a one-bedroom flat attached in which we learned how to set table, clean and maintain a home... and in which we were allowed to eat what we'd cooked, and invite the teachers to join us.

As this was a woman's expected role, I can't see why it was such a bad idea to make it part of the Curriculum.. Not every child came from a home with a mother who was a good cook.

Im amazed that people just love to judge other people by what they have in their shopping trolly. Gives people something to gossip about, I suppose.

For me time spent in the kitchen is time wasted. I did the full gambit when the family were in residence. None of them seem to have suffered. Tonight was a delicious pie. I did turn on the oven!

Hands up! I hate cooking. Love baking, but really dislike cooking dinner. If I lived alone I would eat easy things like hummus, salads, cheese and crackers with apple etc
The only thing I happily make is soup. So shoot me!!

growstuff

I've never been so glad that I do all my food shopping online, so nobody can look in my trolley.

No but the neighbours can hear the clink of the gin bottles........

Callistemon21

I used to have to help my Mum but didnt do domestic science lessons at school.
So I could cook what Mum cooked but the first time I ate spaghetti bolognese was when I was 18.

Spaghetti came in tins and was served on toast.

You were posh! We had dripping on our toast.

We had spaghetti from tins too (horrible stuff). I remember encountering plain yoghurt, olives peppers long after I'd left home - they're on my "staples" list now.

PS. I didn't learn anything about cooking at school either. My secret was Delia. I worked at the Evening Standard when she produced a recipe a day, which were ideal for commuters, but seemed quite exotic at the time.

I should have said, it’s not that I can’t cook, I just don’t enjoy it at all. When my husband was alive it was role reversal in our house, he cooked and I gardened and did the DIY.

Girls in the fifties were expected to be housewives, the boys learned metalwork and woodwork, the girls cookery and needlework. Times have moved on. Both my children learned to cook at school, they are now in their twenties and early thirties and are better cooks than me as I always hated both cooking and sewing. We are all different, some like and want to cook, others don’t.

I've never been so glad that I do all my food shopping online, so nobody can look in my trolley.

I used to have to help my Mum but didnt do domestic science lessons at school.
So I could cook what Mum cooked but the first time I ate spaghetti bolognese was when I was 18.

Spaghetti came in tins and was served on toast.

Hithere

Why were there cooking classes in the 50s?
Couldn't parents be bothered to teach their kids to cook, why did it have to be done in school?

This.

M0nica

I assume said children can read. All they need to do is get a cheap cookery book from a charity shop.

Our local charity shop said 'No cookery books'!
They just bin them.

People have tried this welbeck
One poor woman got arrested for delving in the skips at Tesco and passing perfectly ok food on to her friends.
In another case three men were charged but not prosecuted after protests.
Others have done this on a legitimate basis since, I think.