Who taught you how to cook?

[scra]

I learned some from my mother, who is an excellent cook - my matzoh balls will never hold a candle to hers! But mostly I learned out of necessity when I did my study abroad and had to cook for myself for the first time. Most of what I learned was from Allrecipes, the Williams-Sonoma website, the Food Network website, and a woman who lived down the street and ran cooking lessons out of her house.

 

[kkandaj]

I would say self-taught. I was really involved in extra-curricular activities, so wasn't home when my mom/dad was cooking. We did make cookies once in awhile, but that's about all I knew how to do.

Got married and my DH is southern and cooked 90% of our food--until DS came along. He has life threatening food allergies, so I HAD to learn to cook. I make 98% of all our meals now, and they are from scratch. Food allergies effect the entire family, not just a child.

I will say, I feel blessed to have our son. I know that I wouldn't have learned to cook if I wasn't forced to. God knew what he was doing. Though his allergists honestly don't think he will ever grow out of his allergies, and we will have a long road ahead with school and such, I am so thankful that I know every ingredient that goes in my families mouth now and that we eat so much healthier. Cooking, especially from scratch, is so time consuming--I just wish I could be a stay-at-home mom now.

 

[budafam]

My mom. Even though she didn't teach me too much while she was alive, I have her recipe box and I can make all of the stuff I remember eating when I was a kid I miss her so much.

 

[HALEYSMOMMOM]

Me, myself, and I. I'm pretty good, though,lol.

I was too stubborn to learn from my mom, who is a wonderful cook, but an"I can do it easier and faster myself" kind of teacher

 

[scbelleatheart]

I learned everything I know from my dear grandmother while I lived with her every summer to keep her company. She cooked, she canned, had a root cellar for all the things she stored from the garden. She had about a hundred chickens and milking cows so we had eggs, chicken, milk, butter and cream I can make kick a** homemade noodles and pasta and can can everything.
My mother cannot cook and neither can my two younger sisters. When grandma died I was in charge of all the recipes and had to translate them into measurements. I cooked for my parents all the way through highschool and still cook for my 81 yo dad & mom when I visit because it's just like his Mom's cooking.
I don't can much anymore and haven't had a garden for a few years but I plan on changing that soon. I do collect cookbooks and have about 150 of them.
The cooking shows kill me. They take perfectly good recipe and then add something weird to it. I guess I'd be in the Paula Deene category.
Sorry to be so long but you brought up some of my fondest memories.

 

[DisneyLoverUSA]

Every main food dish I know how to make is because I watched my mom when she cooked. She never taught me like let me stand there and gave me instruction but I would watch her cook every day and I would ask her questions about what she was doing, until I asked too many and got on her nerves =)

Most everything else I know how to cook came by me just trying to make something and if it turned out good, well YAY ME and if it didn't I would cook it a different way next time.

My mom taught me how to make Spaghetti, Chicken & Dumplins, Yankee Chili, Enchiladas, Fried Chicken, Meatloaf, Turkey and a few other main dish items.

I have watched cooking shows but I have never tried to make anything I have seen on TV.

One thing nobody ever taught me was how to make homemade Biscuits. I still just buy GRANDS Biscuits and go on with my life.

I make homemade pancakes but not homemade Biscuits.

My mom also taught me how to make amazing, lump free, tasty gravy; Brown and White. I now NEVER make grease gravy like she taught me. I make greaseless gravy now. Much healthier.

 

[powellrj]

My mom is more of a baker than a cook. We grew up with casseroles and a chopped head lettuce salad with every meal. The kids laugh that grandma still has a head lettuce salad every night!

I learned to cook when I first got married watching shows like The Frugal Gourmet, Nathalie Dupree and Marsha Adams on PBS. I still have all the cookbooks and refer to them often. I love my cookbooks and still read the old ones as often as the new ones!

 

[pixiewings71]

Every main food dish I know how to make is because I watched my mom when she cooked. She never taught me like let me stand there and gave me instruction but I would watch her cook every day and I would ask her questions about what she was doing, until I asked too many and got on her nerves =)

Most everything else I know how to cook came by me just trying to make something and if it turned out good, well YAY ME and if it didn't I would cook it a different way next time.

My mom taught me how to make Spaghetti, Chicken & Dumplins, Yankee Chili, Enchiladas, Fried Chicken, Meatloaf, Turkey and a few other main dish items.

I have watched cooking shows but I have never tried to make anything I have seen on TV.

One thing nobody ever taught me was how to make homemade Biscuits. I still just buy GRANDS Biscuits and go on with my life.

I make homemade pancakes but not homemade Biscuits.

My mom also taught me how to make amazing, lump free, tasty gravy; Brown and White. I now NEVER make grease gravy like she taught me. I make greaseless gravy now. Much healthier.

If you would care to share your gravy recipe I would be happy to receive it from you.

 

[canopynut66]

Budget cause you are cooking at home

My x-MIL taught me how to make chicken cutlets (fried) and sauce.
ex-H taught me how to fry an egg LOL

MIL & FIL taught me how to make chicken marsala, chicken in wine sauce,
DH taught me how to make meatballs.

All the rest I learned from a cookbook, online recipe sites and Rachael Ray (yay for teaching me how to shred chicken)

My Mother and was in 4-H

 

[North of Mouse]

I am self taught, just love to play around with ingredients, marinades, herbs, etc. until my husband says that is just right. Then, I have to try to remember what I did because I never measure He would rather eat at home than out, so I guess I am doing something right .

 

[momof2gr8kids]

My mom. Mostly from her giving me guidance and letting me (ahem making me!) cook things on my own.

I remember when I was in college - 18 yrs old - and my mom told me it was my turn to make the Thanksgiving dinner. She gave me a few weeks notice, told me to let her know what I wanted to cook and she would buy the groceries and tell me how to do it.

Everyone still jokes about how I didn't remove the neck, etc. and stuffed the sides of the legs, but let me tell you, I'm the best Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. cook in our family! LOL

I'm not afraid to experiement and try new things, so I've taught myself a lot as well.

 

[pklein09]

My mom and both of my Nana's - one Irish, one Sicilian. I learned to can jam, pickles, and tomato sauce. I still do jam and tomatoes, and my kids have learned as well. When I can, I still freeze vegetables for the winter. No garden, but I shop the local farmer's market all summer long. My mom and Irish Nana were involved in 4H, so I can bake as well as cook. I've also picked up recipes from various cookbooks and TV: Betty Crocker from 1956....the BEST pie recipes, Patti LaBelle's cookbook, Reader's Digest cookbook, Hershey's Chocolate Lover's cookbook, Alton Brown, and Anne Burrell are among my go-to's. I also use the internet when I'm looking for something new.

As I was reading this thread, DS11 made himself grilled cheese for breakfast all by himself. He's probably been doing that or scrambled eggs for over 3 years. All my kids are involved in the kitchen. We make homemade macaroni and gnocchi, homemade sausage (all day family affair - 3 different kinds, 100 lbs of meat).

I've also taught informal cooking in my kitchen to my girls' friends when they were in 1st/2nd grade. DD16 has a learning disability and had trouble socializing; she also learned better by doing things. I thought a cooking class for her and some of the girls in her Brownie troop would help. We did it for over 3 years. When DD13's friends got to be that age, the parents asked if I would do it for their girls. I did, and then the Mom's asked for their class!!! They were never taught to cook. I was just surprised....everything centered around food growing up. I just taught them basics, liked a baked chicken, Thanksgiving side dishes, basic baking, nothing I considered hard or unusual. I don't think cooking is hard, it's just being shown how to do it. I guess it also helps that I like to eat really good food!!!

 

[Sagginit]

i learned the basics from my parents (how to scramble an egg, how to make hot dogs, how to bake a box cake). i learned a few very specific things from my mother (like how to make a meatloaf or stuffing for a turkey) and a few from my best friends mother (jersey italian- i can make eggplant parm better than anyone i know). i learned a lot from cooking shows and self taught the rest with recipes. i started watching cooking shows as a kid before the food network existed. back then it was me, martha stewart, and this young guy named bobby flay who was so different than martha. my parents were divorced and my mother worked a part time morning job in the summers when i was in elementary school. she would come home at 11 to me saying martha did this and martha did that. i think the phrase "martha stewart doesn't live here" was coined in my house. honestly its hysterical to think that at 9 i was watching martha and bobby and NOT cartoons.

 

[wishesuponastar]

OP here - I am enjoying reading about all your cooking stories. Some of you were very young learning to cook.

 

[dyna]

I can't hardly remember not cooking or baking I was cooking complete meals by age 6 when I was in 1st grade...I cooked whatever momma sat out that morning for supper had it ready when she got home. Nothing was boxed if canned it was home canned. Closest we came to eating from box was macaroni then it was cooked drained an real cheese added to it YUMMY

 

[Gigi22]

One of my first memories is standing on a wooden chair in the kitchen so that I would be tall enough to stir rice pudding on top of the stove. Still have that recipe. I learned a few recipes from my mom, watched my grandma cook -- she only used recipes when she baked. One year of "home ec." classes in grade school. And the rest, on my own. I took several one day classes from an ex-food columnist in our local paper, and a couple of celebrity cooking classes.

 

[skysmom99]

This thread is really interesting. I've enjoyed reading it.

I guess I learned to cook by watching my parents and just being in the kitchen. We helped cook from the time we could reach the stove. Each of my sisters and I became part of the cooking rotation early on.

Since getting married, I've added tons to my cooking know-how, but nothing beats learning the basics. I also love to bake and experiment with dessert recipes. And between me and Food Network, my hubby has become a great cook, too. LOL

 

[KCMiller]

My mom had a whole shelf of cookbooks when I was a kid, and she was a really good cook, but she never actually taught me HOW to cook. I always read the cookbooks, though, and when I got into high school, I would read any book about cooking or food that I ran across - MFK Fisher, the Time Life series of Food of the World, you name it. So when I got my first apartment, I started cooking for myself, and over the years, I've become a pretty good self taught cook - and I have hundreds of cookbooks now.

I always tried to involve my kids in cooking and shopping, and as my children grew up and became high schoolers, I started encouraging them to help in the kitchen more substantially, cooking actual meals. And I would take them grocery shopping, to show them HOW to shop smart. When they went to college, they lived off campus in a house, and they all are good cooks who know how to cook more than ramen <g>.

Passing it on . . .

KC

 

[Melmac]

From about the time I was 9 or 10, I was given a day of the week to cook (it was Wednesday, my sister had Thursday) and this lasted until I went to University. I had to come up with the meal and give my mom the grocery list on the weekend if she needed to pick up anything. Only rules were that we could not make the same meal in a month, it needed to include some sort of vegetable and Kraft Dinner was not a meal. So, I have been cooking from a young age. However, I hate cooking and am glad that my DH doesn't mind it. I would much prefer to bake.

 

[ForAandA]

I grew up on Swanson TV dinners. Remember when they came wrapped in tin foil .

When I was 13 I used to rush home from school to watch "The Frugal Gourmet" on PBS. I would also check out tons of cookbooks from the library. Self taught, wish I had someone to teach me. It is a pleasure teaching my girls .