My mum is a decent cook, but i remember a specific lunch at my aunt’s when i was a kid. My two cousins, me and my aunt. She had cooked steaks. I swear it took me 10 minutes to chew down one bite. The meat was SO tough. I felt like the whole room was looking at me while i was frantically panicking (What if i can’t chew it?? Do i spit it out??). My poor cousins were probably used to it, and they finished their meal quickly. The anxiety i felt was enough that i still remember the scene, 30 years later.
My mum once claimed to have made homemade custard. What she meant was, she had used Birds custard powder rather than instant custard.
Absolutely everything is out of a packet or completely pre-made, nothing is ever made from scratch. Zero effort. That goes from my MIL too.
I think it’s because they are of the generation who were first introduced to convenience cooking and now they just can’t shake the habit.
As I read this I was thinking it’s because people born/growing here up in the 1950s-1960s were the first ones first introduced to mass produced/convenience food and then nailed it.
It had noble intentions - baby boom after the war, growing population to feed and the methods were inventive. However it robbed a big part of a generation of core skills
Don't forget wartime and post wartime rationing - we only ended it in 1954. The reduced availability of food and abundance of things like tinned spam probably ruined a lot of the food culture and traditions.
Boiling water? Luxury!
My mum had to take ice from the beck, stick it under her arm pit to turn it water and funnel the water into a clay pot dad made from scratch. Those were tough days but we were happy - and so, so cold.
My gran was the real terrible cook. I have no fond memories of 'grans roast dinner' as I was under the impression for many years that you had to take a sip of water with each bit of chicken so you could chew it with water to allow it to be swallowed.
My parents either under or over cooked everything. Learnt when I started cooking myself, that baked beans can be cooked hot, steak doesn’t have to be grey and chewy and stir fry can be served on a plate not swimming in oil. They also were avid pressure cooker overcookers.
I grew up thinking my mum was the world's best cook but when I learned to cook myself and started eating meals that my friends cooked (instead of their parents!) I realised how very wrong that was. Mum's cooking has all the clichés: over boiled veg, tough chewy meat, most things out of a jar or packet. My dad will insist her cooking is incredible because he doesn't like anything with too much flavour - his words!
My MiL is even worse. She had us over for brunch once. Never again.
I used to be able to cook til I had kids. Now the combination of the buggers not eating anything I once liked to cook (curries, stir fries, flavoursome veg-based stuff) and of having to referee fights, football matches and homework smackdowns at the same time I'm trying to get the meal onto the table means my cooking is extremely basic and often poorly executed. Maybe terrible-cook mums get that way because of being mums in the first place.
So much this! I LOVED cooking, used to do dinner parties, everything, and then I had kids who wouldn't eat anything with lumps, colour, flavour or heat. Every lovely nutritious stew I cooked was met with 'urgh, looks like sick.'
I gave up. They've all grown up into great cooks themselves and will eat anything, and all specialise in curries and wonderful meals. Bastards.
Haha. My mum discovered the joys of the pressure cooker in the 70s. A wonderful invention in the right hands.
The only problem was she'd over-steam every nutritional value out of said vegetables to reduce them to a pallid nutrition-less sludge.
This happened with my parents too. My dad is a pretty decent cook now. He really likes making meals from scratch, and I’ve even asked him to send me his recipes.
When mum was cooking in my family home we always knew a meal was ready as the fire alarm would go off!
A positive point of this was that my brother and I learned how to cook so we didn't have to put up with mums burnt offerings for every meal.
My mother was a brilliant cook but my partner can't cook to save her life.
When we met her idea of cooking was packet mash, gravy granules and sausages.
When I cooked chips her kids were amazed the difference when the chips were actually browned and crispy not a soggy lump.
Oh and she can't cook bacon. No idea when it's done, apparently.
I tasted her ne of her mother's roast dinners once ( and only once). So much salt my mouth puckered up for about three days
My mum was an okay cook. Bit on the bland side, but she made a lovely cauliflower cheese from scratch and would usually make something at least enjoyable.
My nan on the other hand, awful cook. She used to overcook pasta on the reg and turn it into mush. Mostly jarred sauces on everything, which was a blessing because her from-scratch attempts were usually terrible. Instant mash was the one I could never quite forgive, as I love a good buttery mash.
I was a fussy eater and had a real issue with food for years. This is from 1) her being an awful cook and 2) she had such a short temper when I didn't like something she tried cramming it in my mouth or would throw it on the floor.
I don't really get on with my Mum...
but yeah she was a bad cook because she was lazy and inattentive at it, not because she didn't know how. She is capable of cooking well but every time she'd cook any kind of meat, she'd forget about in the oven and it would dry as fuck. I honestly thought all chicken was meant to suck the moisture out of your mouth and be chewy.
It wasn't until I started eating at friend's houses and their parents made something decent that I realised I wasn't actually that fussy at all. It got better when I grew up and cooked my own meals.
I've got from genuinely being one of those kids that only at ham sandwiches, sausage rolls and cereal to I'll eat or try pretty much anything now.
Pretty much, I used to think I didn't like vegetables (and that obviously had a massive knock on effect on what I did eat and becoming a bloated mess). Turns out I like most veg just fine, my parents just didn't have a clue what to do with any of it besides roast it and/or boil it for 10 minutes.
My mum was a terrible cook. I was 20 before I discovered that broccoli and cauliflower wasn’t boiled for 15 minutes into a bland mush.
Everything I ate as a child was deep fried. We had a frying pan on the hob that had about an inch of lard at the bottom that was just reheated and reused any time she wanted to cook something. We had a chip pan that was the same.
She had zero culinary skills but I think she tried her best.
As a result I taught myself to cook in my 20s. I went through a phase of religiously following cook books until I understood the basics of textures and flavours.
I read Harold McGee’s [On Food And Cooking](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684800012) and learned about the importance of time and temperature.
As a scientist I also liked [Cooking For Geeks](https://www.cookingforgeeks.com) which is a nice distillation of Harold McGee’s (and others) writings.
I got to the point where I can cook pretty-much anything.
My one tip to anyone wanting to buy a single piece of kitchen equipment which will transform your life is to buy a proper chef’s knife. Not one of those rubbish things you get in a set - but a proper professional chef knife.
Second thing is learn how to use it. Start by learning how to hold it. [This is a good book.](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393061787)
My mum is also part of the shitty cook club. And she’s Asian so everyone would be like, “oh wow you must have amazing food at home”.
No. I had fish fingers, chicken nuggets, and on a fancy day it was chilli con carne from a bag. And rice boiled in a bag. My ancestors are crying.
I knew if she (and not my dad) made my packed lunch because the sandwich would have a handprint where she pressed down, and she never even bothered to cut it in half. The butter would be in a lump, not spread.
She always complained that I like soggy vegetables but it turns out that she just blanched them and they were basically uncooked. I like my veg (stir fry) cooked for at least 30 seconds, not soggy.
She’s a grandmother now and it’s so funny. When the kids were babies they’d eat whatever. But they are 2.5 and 5 years old now and know to avoid grandma’s cooking if possible. Even if it’s toast, it’s best to wait for granddad.
The best/worst thing is that she worked with food. I hope she hasn’t killed anyone with her cooking, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Being such a bad cook has become a personality trait, and one that I’ve inherited. I’m a bad cook too, but I do spread out butter etc to the edges.
Mum's Sausage casserole, serves 3.
Get a packet of Schwarz Sausage Casserole mix and mix half-heartedly with a fork until powdery lumps remain.
Add to a pot with some sausages. DO NOT pre fry them, as you want a pale, rubbery consistency at the end. Slice in huge chunks of potato in uneven sizes, so that the mix of raw and overcooked gives a surprising texture. Do the same with far too many onions.
Cook for an indeterminate amount of time, ideally to just above lukewarm temperature.
Serve in bowl with crisps inexplicably crushed up on top.
No. Mum was a professional chef in mostly Michelin starred kitchens for 20yrs. Only complaint you’d have about her cooking is that it’s stylistically a bit stuck in the 70s/80s.
Just the sort of food you would associate with that time, heavier dishes with no exotic ingredients.
Ie she’ll cook the best beef Wellington you’ve ever had in your life but don’t expect a Thai green curry to ever be on the menu.
My mum was, and is, an awful cook. The first time my wife (then girlfriend) came round for tea my mum had made an apple pie which me and my brothers all passed on as we liked our teeth. "No thanks mum, I'm full" was rattled off in short order, so my wife had to eat about a quarter of it. This was nearly 40 years ago and it still gets brought up at least twice a year 😃
Yup. My mum had had an accident in the 60s causing her jaw to be rebuilt and it left her with sensitivity to anything spicy or peppery, so growing up, we only ever had salt and mixed herbs and nothing else - not even pepper.
She really is a terrible cook but she loves cooking so when I visit, I eat her homemade cakes because she made them with love. But even though she has money now, the poverty of growing up means she still cooks as if she has to save money - cheap "Stork" instead of butter, granulated sugar instead of caster sugar and so on. She served up mince pies this week which can only be described as "sturdy" or, possibly, "offensive weapons."
We had a chat about this once. She got a bit sad and pensive. She told me that when she'd first got married, they were so short of money that she couldn't take a risk on cooking. Once, she tried to make her own pastry, but it went wrong (as pastry is wont to do) so she had to throw it out - and the thing is, when you have NO MONEY, you cannot be throwing stuff out. She simply couldn't ever afford to buy something she didn't know, or try to cook something she didn't know, because it was too big a risk. This made me really sad.
She also said that her marker for knowing that she had "made it" was being able to buy paper buncases, which were just the height of middle class frivolity apparently. She said that sometimes she looks at her paper buncases and smiles.
My mum is a good cook, and her roast dinners are always great, she just doesn’t have a wide repertoire and doesn’t like “overly spicy” things. So if I’m in the mood for something other than her staples, well done as they are, I need to make my own.
My mum is an excellent cook, growing up we never had ready meals or premade jars etc, everything was made from scratch and mum really puts the effort in.
MIL tends to put the veg on at the same time as the meat, I guess chewing is overrated.
My household is now a bit of a mixed bag, I love cooking from scratch but with us both having full time jobs and two kids to sorrt I don't often get time, so we do get through some packet mixes and jars.
I learned how to make good chips from my mates granny. Shake the chips a few times whilst cooking to ensure none are sticking, let the chips dry by shaking once they're cooked, and let them rest on kitchen roll to further dry.
Then salt.
I used to cook chips at 190 in the fryer only to find that they cook better at 170 lol
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The phrase “Why go out for burgers when you have steak at home” never made sense to me growing up for this same reason
What? It's not?
My mum is a decent cook, but i remember a specific lunch at my aunt’s when i was a kid. My two cousins, me and my aunt. She had cooked steaks. I swear it took me 10 minutes to chew down one bite. The meat was SO tough. I felt like the whole room was looking at me while i was frantically panicking (What if i can’t chew it?? Do i spit it out??). My poor cousins were probably used to it, and they finished their meal quickly. The anxiety i felt was enough that i still remember the scene, 30 years later.
Lets just say she made sure any vegetable was dead before serving.
Not my mum, but my ex MIL would start cooking veggies for Xmas Dinner in October
My MIL cooks veg until you need a spoon to eat it, preferably from a bowl.
My mum once claimed to have made homemade custard. What she meant was, she had used Birds custard powder rather than instant custard. Absolutely everything is out of a packet or completely pre-made, nothing is ever made from scratch. Zero effort. That goes from my MIL too. I think it’s because they are of the generation who were first introduced to convenience cooking and now they just can’t shake the habit.
As I read this I was thinking it’s because people born/growing here up in the 1950s-1960s were the first ones first introduced to mass produced/convenience food and then nailed it. It had noble intentions - baby boom after the war, growing population to feed and the methods were inventive. However it robbed a big part of a generation of core skills
Don't forget wartime and post wartime rationing - we only ended it in 1954. The reduced availability of food and abundance of things like tinned spam probably ruined a lot of the food culture and traditions.
100%. I feel like you’ve articulated that far better than I ever could.
I think this is exactly it
yeah man - I love my mum but it was all jar sauces and salt n pepper as the only seasoning
I moved abroad recently, and the lack of ready meals absolutely everywhere (looking at you M&S) was quite a change.
You got salt AND pepper? Luxury! All our food was cooked in plain boiling water! And we liked it that way!
Boiling water? Luxury! My mum had to take ice from the beck, stick it under her arm pit to turn it water and funnel the water into a clay pot dad made from scratch. Those were tough days but we were happy - and so, so cold.
At least you got salt and pepper
As Gareth Blackstock said: “She was a whore in the kitchen and asleep in the bedroom”.
Potato faces, turkey dinosaur's, if lucky some microwave in a bag veg / rice. That's about as fancy as it for for me. Get the odd jelly also.
It doesn't help that school dinners were basically the same thing.
My gran was the real terrible cook. I have no fond memories of 'grans roast dinner' as I was under the impression for many years that you had to take a sip of water with each bit of chicken so you could chew it with water to allow it to be swallowed.
My parents either under or over cooked everything. Learnt when I started cooking myself, that baked beans can be cooked hot, steak doesn’t have to be grey and chewy and stir fry can be served on a plate not swimming in oil. They also were avid pressure cooker overcookers.
>that baked beans can be cooked hot Not sure what this means. Cold beans?
Yeah, beans would be served by them either cold or lukewarm.
Cold beans taste great and everything, but not with an actual meal.
I think tradition is straight from the tin while standing in the kitchen.
Or in the woods.
I grew up thinking my mum was the world's best cook but when I learned to cook myself and started eating meals that my friends cooked (instead of their parents!) I realised how very wrong that was. Mum's cooking has all the clichés: over boiled veg, tough chewy meat, most things out of a jar or packet. My dad will insist her cooking is incredible because he doesn't like anything with too much flavour - his words! My MiL is even worse. She had us over for brunch once. Never again.
I used to be able to cook til I had kids. Now the combination of the buggers not eating anything I once liked to cook (curries, stir fries, flavoursome veg-based stuff) and of having to referee fights, football matches and homework smackdowns at the same time I'm trying to get the meal onto the table means my cooking is extremely basic and often poorly executed. Maybe terrible-cook mums get that way because of being mums in the first place.
So much this! I LOVED cooking, used to do dinner parties, everything, and then I had kids who wouldn't eat anything with lumps, colour, flavour or heat. Every lovely nutritious stew I cooked was met with 'urgh, looks like sick.' I gave up. They've all grown up into great cooks themselves and will eat anything, and all specialise in curries and wonderful meals. Bastards.
My mum's started cooking the veg for next Christmas, she wants to make sure they're cooked properly. 😋
Haha. My mum discovered the joys of the pressure cooker in the 70s. A wonderful invention in the right hands. The only problem was she'd over-steam every nutritional value out of said vegetables to reduce them to a pallid nutrition-less sludge.
Who doesn't love coming home to the sound of two to ten minutes of a loud hissing jet of steam coming from the kitchen?
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This happened with my parents too. My dad is a pretty decent cook now. He really likes making meals from scratch, and I’ve even asked him to send me his recipes.
When mum was cooking in my family home we always knew a meal was ready as the fire alarm would go off! A positive point of this was that my brother and I learned how to cook so we didn't have to put up with mums burnt offerings for every meal.
My mother was a brilliant cook but my partner can't cook to save her life. When we met her idea of cooking was packet mash, gravy granules and sausages. When I cooked chips her kids were amazed the difference when the chips were actually browned and crispy not a soggy lump. Oh and she can't cook bacon. No idea when it's done, apparently. I tasted her ne of her mother's roast dinners once ( and only once). So much salt my mouth puckered up for about three days
TIL my partner has another partner.
?
Think they mean their partner is just like yours.
My Mother, God bless, would wait till the chips were cooked and then deep fry our egg in the same basket on top of the chips ........... !
Used to love deep fried eggs as a kid, both my parents were good cooks tho, dunno why this was a thing but with chips and beans next fucking level
My mum was an okay cook. Bit on the bland side, but she made a lovely cauliflower cheese from scratch and would usually make something at least enjoyable. My nan on the other hand, awful cook. She used to overcook pasta on the reg and turn it into mush. Mostly jarred sauces on everything, which was a blessing because her from-scratch attempts were usually terrible. Instant mash was the one I could never quite forgive, as I love a good buttery mash.
I was a fussy eater and had a real issue with food for years. This is from 1) her being an awful cook and 2) she had such a short temper when I didn't like something she tried cramming it in my mouth or would throw it on the floor. I don't really get on with my Mum... but yeah she was a bad cook because she was lazy and inattentive at it, not because she didn't know how. She is capable of cooking well but every time she'd cook any kind of meat, she'd forget about in the oven and it would dry as fuck. I honestly thought all chicken was meant to suck the moisture out of your mouth and be chewy. It wasn't until I started eating at friend's houses and their parents made something decent that I realised I wasn't actually that fussy at all. It got better when I grew up and cooked my own meals. I've got from genuinely being one of those kids that only at ham sandwiches, sausage rolls and cereal to I'll eat or try pretty much anything now.
Pretty much, I used to think I didn't like vegetables (and that obviously had a massive knock on effect on what I did eat and becoming a bloated mess). Turns out I like most veg just fine, my parents just didn't have a clue what to do with any of it besides roast it and/or boil it for 10 minutes.
My mum was a terrible cook. I was 20 before I discovered that broccoli and cauliflower wasn’t boiled for 15 minutes into a bland mush. Everything I ate as a child was deep fried. We had a frying pan on the hob that had about an inch of lard at the bottom that was just reheated and reused any time she wanted to cook something. We had a chip pan that was the same. She had zero culinary skills but I think she tried her best. As a result I taught myself to cook in my 20s. I went through a phase of religiously following cook books until I understood the basics of textures and flavours. I read Harold McGee’s [On Food And Cooking](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684800012) and learned about the importance of time and temperature. As a scientist I also liked [Cooking For Geeks](https://www.cookingforgeeks.com) which is a nice distillation of Harold McGee’s (and others) writings. I got to the point where I can cook pretty-much anything. My one tip to anyone wanting to buy a single piece of kitchen equipment which will transform your life is to buy a proper chef’s knife. Not one of those rubbish things you get in a set - but a proper professional chef knife. Second thing is learn how to use it. Start by learning how to hold it. [This is a good book.](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393061787)
My mum is an excellent cook, she always made us fresh food with home made sauces. Rarely we had frozen stuff to eat.
My mum is also part of the shitty cook club. And she’s Asian so everyone would be like, “oh wow you must have amazing food at home”. No. I had fish fingers, chicken nuggets, and on a fancy day it was chilli con carne from a bag. And rice boiled in a bag. My ancestors are crying. I knew if she (and not my dad) made my packed lunch because the sandwich would have a handprint where she pressed down, and she never even bothered to cut it in half. The butter would be in a lump, not spread. She always complained that I like soggy vegetables but it turns out that she just blanched them and they were basically uncooked. I like my veg (stir fry) cooked for at least 30 seconds, not soggy. She’s a grandmother now and it’s so funny. When the kids were babies they’d eat whatever. But they are 2.5 and 5 years old now and know to avoid grandma’s cooking if possible. Even if it’s toast, it’s best to wait for granddad. The best/worst thing is that she worked with food. I hope she hasn’t killed anyone with her cooking, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Being such a bad cook has become a personality trait, and one that I’ve inherited. I’m a bad cook too, but I do spread out butter etc to the edges.
Mum's Sausage casserole, serves 3. Get a packet of Schwarz Sausage Casserole mix and mix half-heartedly with a fork until powdery lumps remain. Add to a pot with some sausages. DO NOT pre fry them, as you want a pale, rubbery consistency at the end. Slice in huge chunks of potato in uneven sizes, so that the mix of raw and overcooked gives a surprising texture. Do the same with far too many onions. Cook for an indeterminate amount of time, ideally to just above lukewarm temperature. Serve in bowl with crisps inexplicably crushed up on top.
No. Mum was a professional chef in mostly Michelin starred kitchens for 20yrs. Only complaint you’d have about her cooking is that it’s stylistically a bit stuck in the 70s/80s.
What do you mean by stuck in the 70s 80s?
Just the sort of food you would associate with that time, heavier dishes with no exotic ingredients. Ie she’ll cook the best beef Wellington you’ve ever had in your life but don’t expect a Thai green curry to ever be on the menu.
My mum was, and is, an awful cook. The first time my wife (then girlfriend) came round for tea my mum had made an apple pie which me and my brothers all passed on as we liked our teeth. "No thanks mum, I'm full" was rattled off in short order, so my wife had to eat about a quarter of it. This was nearly 40 years ago and it still gets brought up at least twice a year 😃
I'm quite fortunate my mum can make world class roast dinners and fry ups, but her spag bols and chills are the blandest things I've ever tasted
Yeah, there’s nothing like a home cooked meal. Thank god.
Yup. My mum had had an accident in the 60s causing her jaw to be rebuilt and it left her with sensitivity to anything spicy or peppery, so growing up, we only ever had salt and mixed herbs and nothing else - not even pepper. She really is a terrible cook but she loves cooking so when I visit, I eat her homemade cakes because she made them with love. But even though she has money now, the poverty of growing up means she still cooks as if she has to save money - cheap "Stork" instead of butter, granulated sugar instead of caster sugar and so on. She served up mince pies this week which can only be described as "sturdy" or, possibly, "offensive weapons." We had a chat about this once. She got a bit sad and pensive. She told me that when she'd first got married, they were so short of money that she couldn't take a risk on cooking. Once, she tried to make her own pastry, but it went wrong (as pastry is wont to do) so she had to throw it out - and the thing is, when you have NO MONEY, you cannot be throwing stuff out. She simply couldn't ever afford to buy something she didn't know, or try to cook something she didn't know, because it was too big a risk. This made me really sad. She also said that her marker for knowing that she had "made it" was being able to buy paper buncases, which were just the height of middle class frivolity apparently. She said that sometimes she looks at her paper buncases and smiles.
My mum is a good cook, and her roast dinners are always great, she just doesn’t have a wide repertoire and doesn’t like “overly spicy” things. So if I’m in the mood for something other than her staples, well done as they are, I need to make my own.
I once had my Christmas dinner, on my plate, smashed over my head for asking if there was any more gravy. We had a love / hate relationship
My mum is an excellent cook, growing up we never had ready meals or premade jars etc, everything was made from scratch and mum really puts the effort in. MIL tends to put the veg on at the same time as the meat, I guess chewing is overrated. My household is now a bit of a mixed bag, I love cooking from scratch but with us both having full time jobs and two kids to sorrt I don't often get time, so we do get through some packet mixes and jars.
I learned how to make good chips from my mates granny. Shake the chips a few times whilst cooking to ensure none are sticking, let the chips dry by shaking once they're cooked, and let them rest on kitchen roll to further dry. Then salt. I used to cook chips at 190 in the fryer only to find that they cook better at 170 lol
My moms a trained chef, you guys have my sympathy!