"crocobaura;c-17746117" wrote:
"Movotti;c-17745950" wrote:
"crocobaura;c-17745608" wrote:
"SERVERFRA;c-17745465" wrote:
I have a question about children. How come they can knit but not being able to make a basic salad?
Kids don't make salads, as they don't usually cook. Some may make a peanut butter or jam sandwich, or stick to fruits and snacks if hungry. I think it would be nice if kids could cook by joining an adult in the kitchen, they could help with baking cookies or decorating them. Or wash and dice vegetables.
Speak for yourself!
I was certainly skilled in the kitchen as a child, to the point were I was able to cook a fancy dinner for extended family by the time I was 12.
By the time I was 10, a basic recipe could be put in front of me, and I could follow it without assistance.
At 5 I could mix bikkies under instruction, roll them out, and cut them out, and put them on the tray ready to be baked, I wasn't 'helping' I was doing.
And then there's the kids who attend forest kindergartens, they use knives to whittle wood, and cut fruit, they cook over campfires, all at age 4.
Children are far more capable than most adults realise.
I guess it depends on what you call fancy dinner. I might have roasted some bacon on a campfire once, but I wouldn't really call that cooking. I wasn't allowed to use the stove as a child, in fact until about 14 or 15 I only used the kitchen to eat.
It was roasted duck, grilled pork ribs, roasted veggies, steamed veggies, gravy, and I think I did something with custard for desert. It was for 20 people. My mum had to go to work, so I was put in charge of getting dinner ready before everyone arrived. Gravy and custard were things I was put in charge of from when I was tall enough to not need a chair to stand on to see in the pot.
I wasn't allowed to use the stove on my own when I was under 10, because the stove we had then was wood fueled, and tricky to get the heat right, plus the entire thing heated up, making it a bit more dangerous that the usual sort of stove people have.
When I was 14 or 15 I worked in the kitchen of the local truck-stop. I was the only jr staff member who could run the kitchen on their own within a few weeks of starting work there.
My mum was working as a shearers cook at that age, she'd be driven to a farm, put in the kitchen, and expected to produce lunch, and morning and afternoon tea for the workers, using whatever was available. She learned to cook from an early age too. It's a life-skill that too few have from an early age.
EA Staff (Retired)
