How do you teach cooking?

[Lady Florida.]

The best way is to just have them cook next to you, as a sort of apprentice. It's how I learned, how dh learned and how we taught. 

 

You start out having them do simple things at a young age. They help stir, add ingredients, peel vegetables, eventually chop them when they can use a knife safely. You talk about the process as you cook together. You don't need to make special dishes, just everyday cooking. As they get more proficient, you turn over more of the process and step back. 

 

 

If it's your dd you're asking about, you can obviously start with harder tasks because of her age. I still would just cook with her and talk, especially about any traditional family dishes you make. My niece was never taught to cook and when I realized it she was almost 13, younger than your dd but still older than I would have started her if she was my child. When she came to visit us, I had her help in the kitchen (ds (8 years younger than her) was already my little helper so it made it easy to have them both in the kitchen helping. She picked up on a lot with me and taught herself the rest. 

[bettyandbob]

I think the book I learned with was a Better Homes and Gardens three ring too. I don't remember if it had step by step pictures of techniques. I did a lot of experimenting. When I was 7 and my siblings were 11 and 12 we were in charge of having dinner on the table at 7 pm. We were latchkey kids. Dinner had to have the 4 food groups (early 70s) and we got in trouble if it was burned, late or didn't taste right according to my father. OK so learning was a bit punitive for me. I still liked it. We made fabulous meals. It did take a few tries to learn basic techniques, what steps could and could not be skipped and what ingredients were and were not essential (because when you are a kid without an adult it's not always obvious that you can probably leave out parsley, but not egg).

 

My dc have celiac so I haven't really decided on a good teaching cookbook that would be easy for them to use without another reference. I have a copy of Julia Child's The Way to Cook and it has good illustrations of techniques so I pull it out when dd is doing something that requires a certain technique. I also have the original Julia Child books, which don't have as many pictures and the pictures are smaller and not in color. It helps me to see what something looks like on a particular step, not just read the description.

 

If you want to make a class out of it, I would pick a good comprehensive cookbook and work through it start to finish so you cover all the basic techniques. I would augment that with youtube videos. After you've done that you should be able to apply those techniques to any type of cooking and baking.

[Lady Florida.]

Ha! The plaid BH&G cookbook is the going away gift my parents gave to my sister and I when we left for college. My mom refused to let us take hers. :lol:  If you're starting with an older child, it's pretty darn comprehensive.

 

Haha! My mother gave me that and the orange Better Crocker cookbook when I left home. I still have both but hardly use them anymore because so many recipes are outdated (molded jello salads anyone?  :lol: ) Still, there are a few, plus some tips that you could probably find online at either the BH&G or BC sites.

[Greta]

I think the book I learned with was a Better Homes and Gardens three ring too. I don't remember if it had step by step pictures of techniques. I did a lot of experimenting. When I was 7 and my siblings were 11 and 12 we were in charge of having dinner on the table at 7 pm. We were latchkey kids. Dinner had to have the 4 food groups (early 70s) and we got in trouble if it was burned, late or didn't taste right according to my father. OK so learning was a bit punitive for me. I still liked it. We made fabulous meals. It did take a few tries to learn basic techniques, what steps could and could not be skipped and what ingredients were and were not essential (because when you are a kid without an adult it's not always obvious that you can probably leave out parsley, but not egg).

 

My dc have celiac so I haven't really decided on a good teaching cookbook that would be easy for them to use without another reference. I have a copy of Julia Child's The Way to Cook and it has good illustrations of techniques so I pull it out when dd is doing something that requires a certain technique. I also have the original Julia Child books, which don't have as many pictures and the pictures are smaller and not in color. It helps me to see what something looks like on a particular step, not just read the description.

 

If you want to make a class out of it, I would pick a good comprehensive cookbook and work through it start to finish so you cover all the basic techniques. I would augment that with youtube videos. After you've done that you should be able to apply those techniques to any type of cooking and baking.

Thank you for mentioning Julia Child -- I have been thinking about her! I didn't know if her books might be a bit too advanced for a newbie, but maybe the one you mentioned (The Way to Cook) would be a good place to start? Do you think that one would work well for the approach you mentioned (pick a good cookbook and work through it)?

[HS Mom in NC]

Watching America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country and using their books and magazines.  They explain why recipes work and there is often a science section during the show that explains in greater detail.

[HS Mom in NC]

Thank you for mentioning Julia Child -- I have been thinking about her! I didn't know if her books might be a bit too advanced for a newbie, but maybe the one you mentioned (The Way to Cook) would be a good place to start? Do you think that one would work well for the approach you mentioned (pick a good cookbook and work through it)?

 

On some cases Julia Child goes out of her way to make it unnecessarily complicated in The Way to Cook.  The directions for hard boiling eggs is basically a SNL skit. 

 

[Greta]

On some cases Julia Child goes out of her way to make it unnecessarily complicated in The Way to Cook. The directions for hard boiling eggs is basically a SNL skit.

 

:lol: Ok, maybe not the best book for a true beginner.

[TechWife]

I just bought this book called The Food Lab. What a fun book. It teaches a lot of technique and some basic recipes that are more interesting than the typical basics you find in lots of other cookbooks.

 

I guess it depends on your goals. For basic basics, start with knife skills. Learn how to make soups and sauces. Learn how to read recipes and follow basic techniques such as measuring flour, etc. Learn about temperatures to cook meat. Then basic kitchen safety and sanitation.

 

And you can do all of that by just cooking stuff. It's really not rocket science.

My hasband's copy of Food Lab arrived yesterday!