Hi to all

I am a student, currently studying traditional cooking, my aim is to determine whether Traditional Home cooking has been over taken by ready made meals and take aways.
I am going to look at eating habits today, work-life balances, Male/Female devides and school home economic structures.

I would love to recieve comments from fellow food lovers to use as part of my research.

Hope to chat with people soon.

Vicky

I am not sure how representative of the population at large I am, but I would be happy to help if I can, Vicky.

I'd be happy to help too Vicky - food is my hobby/passion and I generally cook a main meal from scratch every day - as well as holding down a full time job.

Be glad to help.
Because of work patterns half the week is ready meals and the other half is traditional, using fresh and seasonal ingrediants.

Barry

Me too Vicky, I've got teenage kids and have come to the conclusion that I'm one of a few mums that does actually ever cook from scratch.
We don't always as sometimes their schedules are so tight that it's just not possible to do it. However I pride myself that they only have a convenience meal about twice a month when push has finally come to shove.

Many thanks for all your responses.

I have also set this up on BBC Food, many good conversations although a few telling me I`m in the wrong place.
I would like to hear comments about home cooking vs bought ready made meals.
The factors that affect home cooking - Regional variations - money based, work commitments, Male/Female divide in the kitchen, eating out with friends, Home economics at school - Back to basics, Generation changes and health issues.
I know this covers alot but many of you will be in these situations and I would love to know how you deal with them.

I am a full time mature student with a family to feed.
I do cook every day but confess to buying a chinese/indian once a month usually on a saturday, but I do prefer to cook my own.
I look forward to recieving your comments and once again many thanks for your help.

Vicky

Well Vicky, I have bought up five children and they are all in the 30s bracket now. I will say that if good basic ready meals had been available and not too expensive when my children were young, I would have bought the main part of the meal ready made and added the 'bits' So, what I do about meals now is sometimes get the basic meal ie: Meat Pie, Beef Casserole, Steak in Peppercorn sauce, so many to choose from, at Sainsbury's or Marks and Spencer. Then I add my own potatoes and veg. I know it is lovely to eat all home made but a good store will use good ingredients and Marks use good Angus Steak in their pies and not a lot of additives. I used to feel guilty, even though I have only done this since my husband and myself have been on our own, but I don't feel guilty anymore because I was making too large a meal (after being used to cook for 7!) and wasting it.
So really you don't have to only have chinese or Indian for a nice wholesome quick meal.
Hope you do try my way.
regards

Many thanks for your responses, you are helping me a lot with my research.

This entry relates to Cookery at school and types of ready made meals.

I am 26yrs old and at my school our Home Economics classes alternated between Cookery and Craft Design.
I can remember making a cake, biscuits, snack bars and sandwiches - and I now wonder What was the point?
Luckily I had a fantastic grandmother who helped bring me up (Mam & Dad divorced), she loved cooking - cooked lunch every day, leftovers for tea and baked every day. This tradition has rubbed off onto me and now I cook every day, whether it be a traditional classic meal (stew, toad in the hole etc) or a simple bolognaise/pasta dish.
I`m not quite sure today what cookery they teach at school but I know it hasn`t got any better - Has anyone got children at school, If yes what do they do?
Does a child leaving school at 16 know how to boil an egg or cook a roast dinner? Somehow I don`t think so.
Ready made meals - For the people who do buy ready made meals, what type of things do you buy and why do you buy these?
Does anyone buy frozen veg? I buy peas for ease, what is other veg like?

Look forward to recieving some responses and I will reply as soon as I can.

Once again many thanks for your help

Vicky

Well i'm 19 and i've just left home. I cook 6 days a week, from scratch and I have a take away once a week.

I cook for myself and my boyfriend and i make a mean curry [esp red/green thai!!! From scratch, i even make my own paste from fresh ingredients!], stews, italian food, mexican food,a really great roast dinner [or so im told] with fresh vege and alternating between beef, pork and chicken.

I work full time from 9 until 5:30. I alternate between getting my Tesco shopping delivered and doing it in store.

I was taught nothing about cooking in school [well nothing worth remembering] didnt really learn too much from Mum, just had a passion for the beginning I suppose.

I also bake cakes and cheese cakes and pies... so do give some of us young'uns a chance! And yes... i can boil an egg, hehe.

Hope this helps!

Feel free to ask questions.

Me.

Well I'm sitting here now instead of in the kitchen getting dinner cos my 17 year old is cooking. She's making a sort of bolognese sauce with mince, onions tomatoes and oregano and going to serve it with baked potatoes and cabbage. Her menu - we went shopping for ingredients this morning and she having a bit of an experiment so that she won't starve at uni next year. I'm here if it starts to go wrong!!!

Thanks for the comments

CuddlyWuddly - I`m glad to hear that you do have a passion for cookery. I`ve just learnt that Home Economics is not even in the National Curriculum now and I wonder what my son who is currently 3.5yrs old would know about food at 16 - he`s lucky as I love cooking and he actually helps in the kitchen - more than his dad does. Can your boyf cook?

Fudge`s mum - How did it go? I would love to hear. As your daughter is young I would like to hear what type of cooking she did at school, if any?

Once again many thanks for your help.

Vicky

I think we're all agreed that Home Ecnomics lessons are pretty much a waste of time. I'm 32 and I can remember doing this subject for one year only at High School and not learning very much - in fact, a lot of our lessons concentrated on the technical stuff rather than the actual cooking. I'm lucky in that my Mother is a good cook and taught me the basics. She believed in healthy eating and a balanced diet and cooked everything from scratch so I tend to do the same, apart from the occasional shop-bought pizza, which I'm very partial to! I never buy jars of sauces, I always make my own and certainly would never buy those bags of roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings etc. I think that's convenience food gone too far. I think if you have parents with a passion for food then you're likely to grow up with a similar passion. Saying that, I did have to learn most of my cooking skills once I left home and this was done simply by trial and error I suppose. I followed recipes and watched cookery programmes and now I like to think I'm pretty good at it and even make all my own jams. I'm vegetarian and my partner is an omnivore so I have become quite adept at cooking both types of meal.

I always go to the supermarket to choose my own products so that I can ensure they are fresh and have a decent use-by date, I don't think I would feel happy having my shopping delivered.

I'm not working at the moment so I have plenty of time on my hands to do the cooking, and we are a 2-person household, however I do understand that those busy parents who work full-time probably have to make some compromises with food choices, choosing ready-meals on occasions simply because of lack of time. I always tried to cook a meal from scratch when I was at work full-time but sometimes you are just so tired from your day that you can't be bothered! With a partner who doesn't really know how to cook and isn't really interested in cooking, it's quite a pressure having to do the shopping, cooking etc. on your own.

the only thing i remember doing in home ec was chocolate eclairs, I'm a 24 year old house wife who lives in the north, I have one child age 5, a hubby who's lactose intolerent and 3 lodgers, each with their own preferences and allergies, so ready meals aren't really an option in our house, I do use frozen veg, and the closest we get to frozen meals is a stunning selection of "extra plates" in the deepfreeze, we occasionaly have chinese food delivered once every 6 months or so, but we do eat out a couple of times a month.
as for convieniance food I suppose it depends what you count, as I've said I make an extra plate of every meal for the deep-freeze, so no-one starves if they get in late and miss a meal, or have a friend over and don't want to eat with the family, i use canned pulses and only make stock once a month for the deep freeze, so i don't have to make fresh every day, and use the bread machine instead of making by hand.
I shop mostly on the market, but have bulky things delivered once a month from the supermarket.
so i guess I'm a bit lazy.
hope that helps

hi everyone i am a student also who is doin a coursework project on home made meals vs ready made meals.My aim is to make people see that traditional cooking is a lot better than ready made meals. i was wonderin whether any of u could tell me which one you prefer. I can then use the results in my questionnaire as evidence.
Any help is greatly appeciated.
thank you

Now come on you students, this is like walking into a church and asking the congregation what they think the future of religion is!

If you have anyone supervising your research, then you need to ask them about the sourcing of information.

Home cooking is no longer the norm for most people, but the members of this board are an exception to the rule.

A walk around the major supermarkets will give you a very good idea of the balance between ready meals and pre-prepared foods – if you want to get some valid data, then create a questionnaire and interview shoppers leaving the supermarkets.

Check out the turnover and profits of the major players in the provision of food, and offer up some sampling of how people spend their money, and on what.

This is the subject of the Slow Food Movement which originated in Italy and has "convivia" throughout Europe, the UK and America.

I agree with gastrosurf, this perhaps isnt the most objective forum for the debate but perhaps a good place to hear about the positive effects of home cooking on one's lifestyle.

I'm cohosting a global teleseminar on the issue with a key member of the UK Slow Food movement Lyndon Gee. If you are interested then here's the link: [link]