Okay maybe this isnt the best demographics here but like I mean as in if you know someone who’s Gen Z, do they have a “idk how to cook” issue?
(Please don’t be like “omg its easy, how could you not know” in the comments, be nice in the comments okay 🙈)
I eat dirt and drink rainwater.
I’m a single, Gen-x male and I despise cooking. Twenty minutes to prepare something, five minutes to eat it, and then another 20 minutes to clean up afterwards is, IMO, the most insanely inefficient use it my time.
Frankly I have better things to do. when a pill comes out that I can just pop in my mouth a couple of times a day I will be the first person in line.
For now, sadly, the best I can do it keep things as simple and as easy as possible prep wise (or order in… which gets to financially prohibitive sometimes)
Lol. Seeing what people in this thread consider cooking makes me wonder if I should be a chef.
I usually don’t do much in the way of actual cooking. I use a Ninja Grill Airfryer XL - I just throw corndogs, breakfast sandwiches, polish dogs, ect, in there and have an affordable meal. I mostly buy my air fryer grub from Costco. I typically cook Tyson sausage patties alongside the sandwiches, to make it more complete for me.
I also like bowl ramen, Kraft Macaroni, and Bibigo rice bowls. For the ramen, Better than Boullian jars from Costco adds extra chicken or beef flavoring.
Better than Boullian jars from Costco
As a person who cooks, I say you are cooking at this point. Throw some leftover meat in that ramen too, chopped up at the bottom of the bowl, or even lunchmeat in strips. My son’s favorite is mac and cheese with a hotdog chopped up in it. Put some black pepper on it and call it gourmet 😜
I’d probably be the perfect example of that stereotype since the only thing I actually know how to cook from the top of my head is scrambled eggs and ramen (if you can even count that). I always just prepare frozen meals (e.g. breakfast bowls) since I rarely give myself time to actually cook something. Tbf though, I feel like if I was forced to cook something, assuming I had access to the internet to get instructions, I could cook anything basic just fine. Though maybe that’s just cope, lol
I can cook just fine! Now baking, that takes skill and effort and I’d often rather not.
It took me longer to cook the noodles and brussel sprouts last night than it did to prepare the cranberry bread I made this afternoon. Cooking feels like coordinating the landing of a half dozen aircraft on a single runway. “My onions are browning too fast and I don’t have my other reduction ready!”. Baking feels like, “I can calculate the trajectory of this artillery shell, then set it and fire it off when I’m good and ready. I’ll check on the crater in 30 minutes.”
I’ve thought about it a bunch and I think it is art vs science. Cooking requires adjusting constantly to how it is going as you do it, tasting it until it is right. Baking requires precision at every step in most cases and preparation. I’ve rarely met someone that sees themselves as both a baker and a cook. I suck at baking but can cook.
No
Bake
Cookies
I mean I do know gen Z kids who can’t cook at all, but I knew a lot of young men back when I started college who couldn’t cook either and that was way before gen Z was around.
When looking at younger people who don’t know how to cook, it’s not about them being stupid - someone failed them. Yes, to your point, cooking is easy. A rice cooker, a single pan, you can make a great meal…
But no one ever mentioned what temp to cook chicken at. What the hell’s a 4 (out of 10) and how much oil (or how little) should I use? Rice cooker comes with instructions and lines but that just makes plan rice - at least Zatarans has some flavor.
I learned how to cook a grilled cheese as a kid… And I hate cheese.
Then I was working in kitchens for seven years. So, yeah, I’ve got a leg up on people who’ve literally never cooked a meal for one, let alone 1,500 over a lunch period. It’s hard to ‘learn’ to cook entirely by yourself because fucking up your meal means not having anything to eat.
It’s not just Gen Z because no one taught their parents and Gen Z will probably fuck up their kids the same.
fucking up your meal means not having anything to eat.
You gotta fuck up pretty bad to have something literally inedible.
Its been noted in studies that all generations starting from Boomers have had less people who “know how to cook”. With instant meals came less cooking, and less cooking brought less learning how to cook.
I think that isn’t the issue. The problem is that “proper” food costs more than prefabs, and Cost-of-Living keeps growing while worker wages are stagnant. It is harder to afford perishable food that needs to be handcrafted, because that costs time, risks spoilage, and costs more for what it does.
Money is getting tighter, and consequently every loss feels worse.
I think it’s probably a bit of both, skill being lost to parents having less time to cook and everything being more expensive.
The cheapest way I know of one can survive a very long time is rice and beans with any source of fat. I personally like peanut butter, but understand that’s very much a US thing. But prepping beans over night requires having the time and know-how to do it.
Hey, I’m Gen Z. Not everyone here is older. I do cook. Quite well. I can be a bit lazy tho and I’m poor. So it’s simple cheap stuff usually. I like to get chicken or pork, put some chinese chilli sauce on it, and bake it until its crispy. Then maybe some sweet and sour on top. Another good simple sauce is soy sauce mixed with peanut butter and heated and stirred a bit. Rice with some yellow curry powder, msg, and dried onion/carrots while its cooking, then adding the juices from whatever meat you cooked at the end is pretty good. Red Thai Curry powder is also great and can go on almost anything. A lot of my diet is just whatever meat cuts are dirt cheap (usually chicken quarters or pork half loin), rice, potatoes, beans, and other dirt cheap stuff.
Edit: Also, for the time aspect. It’s good to find meals that you can just let cook and don’t need to be watched. Like I can throw chicken thighs in the oven with a potato, leave it at 375F for 1.5 hours then come back and they’re both done and ready to eat. Not need to check on it. I can do other things in the mean time. Like chores. Altho, that specific one only works if you enjoy your chicken cooked to shit which I personally do. I like it cooked so much it falls off the bone.
Go on please with the chicken recipe. I assume you are drenching it in sauce? Recipe pls. It doesn’t have to be specific. I’ll start. I’ve been doing thighs with a gojujang, honey, soy sauce, powdered ginger mixture (eyeball it according to taste, don’t add salt if you have the soy). I use a cast iron pan because you can throw it in the oven, render the fat side in the pan on the stove (cold pan, fat side down in cast iron, turn heat to med, let it sit for 10-12 minutes or more until it is browning noticeably, then flip, hammer them with that sauce, throw it in a 375 oven and let it go 35 minutes (In your case an hour or more, that does seem like a lot). I pull them after about 25 minutes, sauce them again and crank the oven to 450, for the last 10 minutes.
Am gen z, can cook. When I don’t, yup, freezer section.
When I was younger I didn’t know how to plan out meals or grocery shop to do so. As well not a lot of time or money so fast meals such as soups, microwave meals, and simple meals. Though I believe there hasn’t been a lot of recipe reading passed down to younger folks of recent.
im ahhh. not proud but kinda a sterotypical guy in the kitchen and I live large on the largess of my wifes skill. When I was single pizza was a very common meal for dinner and fast food for breakfast and lunch. Freezer filled with microwaveable options and plenty of cereal on hand at all times along with bread, peanut butter, jelly, lunch meat and cheese.
I don’t know if they are worse or not. Every gen has people who get to adulthood completely unprepared. Don’t know what their parents were thinking. I’m early Gen X, and remember first year living in a student house and only about half of us knew how to shop and cook. Thankful for the weekly cleaning service for the common areas because cleaning and laundry were also things that many had no clue about. Quite a few arguments about cleanliness in the common kitchen.
I’m an elder millenial and my parents cooking consisted of 1) BBQ a piece of meat until it’s real dry and 2) microwave a can of veggies.
I moved out early and in a pretty unsupported way, so I had to pretty much immediately figure out how to feed myself. I don’t remember who pointed me to Budget Bytes but I’m pretty certain Beth pretty much taught me how to cook.
This is not paid, I just really love Budget Bytes. The recipes are generally pretty simple and approachable. They are obviously budget friendly. But most of all every single recipe has step by step pictures. if I don’t know what a fine dice vs a mince is – it’s in the pictures. If I don’t understand what spoon coating thick is – also in the pictures. Last benefit: Beth would regularly make suggestions for additions or substitutions. Other commenters would say their favorite changes. There’s a few contributors these days, but they all seem similarly good.
