Are we that small a demographic?

[dickens]

As you may be aware, I'm in the habit of reading practically anything that Michael Pollan writes.

But I have to admit, I bounced off his latest essay in the NY Times Magazine. On page 3, someone who studies people's eating habits says that 'scratch cooking' is so rare that they don't even ask about it in surveys, they consider 'cooking' anything that requires the assembly of ingredients (so lettuce w/ dressing or a sandwich count) and that cooking is vanishing from American life because "no one would know how to do it anymore".

I think both of them have been stuck in some sort of restaurant dominated twilight zone.

On my live journal, most weeks I read about something that one of you all is cooking, and it all sounds good.
Heck, how do kitchen stores stay in business if no one cooks?
Why were the last few cooking classes I took full?
Do the produce and meat sections of grocery stores occupy the same mental space as gym memberships (something people pay for but never use?)
How come I can still buy canning supplies if no one else uses them?
Why do I have to make sure to get fresh cranberries days before Thanksgiving if no one besides me makes their own sauce?

Or are we all just weirdos? (Okay, I suppose we are, but in this particular sense?)

Comments

[talkswithwind]

Very strange. Perhaps the daily habit is going by the way-side, but occasional cooking is very much on the increase. Slightly supported by this:

At least by Balzer’s none-too-exacting standard, Americans are still cooking up a storm — 58 percent of our evening meals qualify, though even that figure has been falling steadily since the 1980s.

I have to cringe a bit at Pollan's "real cooking" remark, because even I don't know what that is. In my head, 'real cooking', is cooking that takes either more than 30 minutes of constant attention, or significant amounts of planning and forethought to perform (such as an overnight soak/marinate, buying certain ingredients within 36 hours of usage). That said, "using the stove for more than boiling water," may qualify as 'real' for most people.

The survey I want to see is one that focuses on such 'real cooking' frequency. Commissioning such a survey will take money, but the results would be interesting. Especially for FoodNetwork execs, and disparing foodies.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I used to think of my spaghetti w/ meat sauce recipe as 'not real cooking' because I start with canned tomato sauce and canned diced tomatoes. I 'just; add meat and all the spices. :)

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

thank you. that means that i know how to cook something. :) (and dreamcat has eaten it and lived. :)

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Pollan's "real cooking" remark is..MEH. I think filled with obnoxiousness.

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

"Real cooking" involves assembly and modification of ingredients.

Do you season your condensed soup? You're cooking.
Do you modify that instant pizza with some add'l ingredients? You're cooking.
Are you adding something to that premade mix while you make it? You're cooking.
Do you grow your own veggies and make homemade soup? You're cooking.

Prepared ingredients are one of the best legacies of the 19th/20th centuries. If Alton Brown can use shortcuts, so can I!

Shoot, half my "cooking" is done in the microwave, because I like the heat control. The other half's grilling to satiate my caveman sensibilities. I leave the intricacies of stove and oven to Da Wife, who's *much* better with them than I am.