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

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

I just...wut?

Then again, some people who I know cook are impressed by the fact that I make my own salad dressing and simple syrup which are STUPIDLY EASY.

I was going to say that for certain demographics prepared foods are quick to make, which is a bonus if you're working 2 jobs. But then again, the range of people I see reheating lunches at work cuts across class barriers.

I would say some of the cooking class/canning stuff is very regional. Finding canning supplies when I visit my parents in the burbs is a PITA. It's weird.

[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.

[laffingbuddha.livejournal.com]

Hrmmmm, I started reading his essay and then got distracted with other things. I cook because it is something that I enjoy and it's cheaper and probably better for me in the long run. I have to admit it DOES take effort. I probably spend several hours in a given week planning my menus, shopping and preparing. Sometimes I do cut corners and rely more on pantry type things like jar sauces and dry pasta but that is usually the exception and not the rule. Food is so integral to our lives we HAVE to eat. I make a conscious choise to eat well and to eat creatively. That's why I love Mark Bittman, he helps me to think with a mindset. I love canning too but sometimes that's a bunch of effort too. The benefits do outweigh the costs. Mostly.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

I actually avoided saying that 'maybe it's a midwest thing' because I know you're on a coast and cook a bunch. (I know how to make stock from chicken feet because of one of your posts; I always used a carcass before.)

Canning - Now that I think of it, I think I heard a piece on public radio a couple months ago that said canning was 'coming back' since the start the recession. Maybe finding supplies will get easier?

[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. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am probably far out on the bell curve, given that we cook for our dog here. (Ground meat, brown rice, mixed veg, etc.: she is happy, our house doesn't stink like dog food, hurrah.)

But whenever people are contrasting the Good Old Days When Women Used To _____ with Now When They Don't, I break out in mental hives and start taking everything they say with a huge grain of salt.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

See I was going to mentally blame mid-westerners for *not* cooking. SUCKAH!!

My local hardware store always has a good amount of canning supplies this time of year which is awesome. I'm not really sure who to blame for that.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

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

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Heh.

Maybe the same people who repair their own stuff are more likely to do their own canning too? A do-it-yourself thing?

I have started seeing coupons for canning supplies in the Sunday newspaper which I don't remember seeing before.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Re: Mental Hives - I didn't have that particular reaction (Kate Harding did over on Salon's Broadsheet) because, well... I don't know exactly why not.

Maybe I was just too flabbergasted by the rest of the premise.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if this is the fella who wants us to eat food our great-grandmothers would have recognized as food.

My great-grandmothers--I knew them well--recognized Cheetos as food and would have been fairly sure bok choi was a decorative plant. So I think this is maybe not the metric for me.

Dewey Defeats Truman!

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

Their sampling techniques don't accurately reflect the general population.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's him. From Defense of Food came the mantra 'Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants.' or something like that.

Re: Dewey Defeats Truman!

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

That or they just aren't asking the right questions.

[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.

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

Huh. In the midwest, canning supplies are available at most major supermarkets, regardless of location. Granted, there are *more* of them recently, but they've never really disappeared.

Canning supplies are one of those things I keep track off, like gas and milk prices, for an economic health indicator.

Re: Dewey Defeats Truman!

[thorr-kan.livejournal.com]

Basic statistics. I remember *that* much from college.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And that mantra is fine with me, as long as you're not trying to claim that it's what my great-grandmothers did, when in fact they were not sure something really qualified as a meal if it didn't have whole milk/cream gravy on it.

[rmnilsson.livejournal.com]

I skimmed it, didn't read it in detail, but...

I think his numbers - that about 58% of the population cooks at least somewhat, at least sometimes, feels about right to me. I know plenty of people both in the midwest and on the coasts who absolutely do not cook, but also plenty of people who do. But since he doesn't define scratch cooking, I don't know how to evaluate his claim that it's so rare.

I think that Ben and I are unusual, but not freakish, in the degree to which we cook for ourselves. But I don't know how often we would meet his qualifications for scratch cooking.

I think this article has a lot of "get off my lawn" about it. It starts with a pretty obvious premise, which is that most FoodTV shows are less about teaching people how to cook than about watching people cook and/or eat. But then he applies an unhelpful layer of nostalgia to the issue, consults with another crank, and ends up asserting that if his readers aren't making Chicken Kiev or boeuf bourguignon from scratch, they may as well be eating dog poo and styrofoam.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

...and ends up asserting that if his readers aren't making Chicken Kiev or boeuf bourguignon from scratch, they may as well be eating dog poo and styrofoam.

Yeah. And I expect better than that from him, thus the bounce.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

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

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

where do you take cooking classes? i keep looking at the cooks ones, but so many of those are "watch someone else cook" things, rather than "you will saute something and i will keep you from screwing it up", which is what i need.

[hypatia-j.livejournal.com]

Kitchen Window in Uptown... I can't remember the instructor I had (manic pixie overachiever), but I liked him.