My daughter has come home from secondary school with a list of ingredients she needs for next weeks cookery lesson. She is making spaghetti Bolognese. Reading down the list it all seems pretty standard stuff, garlic, onion,mince, JAR OF BOLOGNESE SAUSE…! A jar of sauce.???

Is it me or are the school missing the point of cooking.?

I feel compelled to email the Daily Mail.

send her in with the ingredients to make bolognese (or a ragu) and a note saying that as a family you don’t eat ready meals due to uncrontrolable levels of salt and additives etc and if they wish to discuss it further to contact you

Send her in with a pre-packaged Spag Bol in a packet.

so – we have garlin – we have onion.

wtf is in bolognaise sause except chopped tomatos and some puree ?

JAR OF BOLOGNESE SAUSE <— 😆

The teacher must be clueless about cooking.

Teach her to make fresh ragu sauce and put it in a jar.

Why does it have meat?

Its a bunch of kids trying not to set fire to stuff, not bloody masterchef.

Anyway, no tomatoes in a proper bol.

Not sure what age group (exactly), but the bottle of wine to cook with may be the hard part getting into school 😉

So what’s actually being taught? As a guess, I’d say it’s probably chopping safely (garlic, carrots, onions etc), something about suitable levels of heat for softening onions, browning mince etc.and starting to understand how different ingredients will need different cooking times etc.

Many food teachers would also use the information on the labels of the ‘bolognese sauce’ to prompt a discussion about salt, sugar etc. if they’re present.

Could be a good lesson, I think!

Even the current set up sounds much better than my old home economic lessons (1980’s). If I’d relied on the school I would have gone to uni with the ability to bake a Victoria sponge or a decent loaf of bread but no real knowledge of how to make an actual meal. Let alone an understanding of dietary planning etc..

I’ve taught a bit of food tech- bloomin’ hard work. 30 12yr old novice cooks who might not have ever turned a hob on before who have to be registered, demoed the practical, all cook the practical and then clear up and wash up and put everything away in less than 60mins. Whilst I’ve always started from base ingredients I don’t blame the teacher for speeding up the process a bit to guarantee they all get finished. It could be worse- there are still “home economics” teachers out there who get the kids to cook nothing but cakes and biscuits.

Sounds better than liver stroganoff and pilchard pinwheels (1984)

Ok, so a jar of sauce sounds odd, but how long would it take you to teach a class to make a Spag Bol from basics? It must take me that time at least when on my own.

My thoughts are it’s not as bad as you think. Proper Bolognese sauce takes hours to cook, needs a good simmer and requires wine…. also compare this with how it tells you to cook the a bolognese on the side of a jar of the sauce. Last one I read was brown mince, add sauce, bring sauce to boil, serve….ummm lovely chewy mince

If they teach them to brown the mince and onions then add sauce and maybe add some veg and let it have a half decent 20-30 mins simmer, then that’s going to be pretty reasonable result. Bolognese using a jar sauce was the first thing I learnt to ‘cook’. I now cook pretty much everything from scratch… including doing Bolognese properly

Also the amount of salt in the sauce is stated on the side, along with the rest of the ingredients. I think you can do much worse than pre-made Bolognese sauce

+1 for show them how to make a sauce then stuff it in a jar.
I learnt nothing useful back in the 90’s in Home Ec the rest was self taught. If you want to help her along get a good basics cook book (Jamie Oliver has some good starters) and get her to cook dinner for the family once every couple of weeks.

While I suspect there is more to the lesson that the daily wail screams of the OP, my wife is a Home Ec teacher and she can manage to get a class of 14 year olds to cook spag bol from base ingredients in a double period no problem*

Although of course this won’t be a “proper” bol like we would all make givent a limitless amount of time 😆

*I say no problem, I couldnt do it.

If you want to be really pedantic, tell them Bolognese is not served with spaghetti in Italy.

Surely they won’t be serving it in Italy ?

Perhaps that’s why it’s Spaghetti Bolognese rather than Bolognese.

If they leave school able to make bolognese from a jar they will still be better equipped than many. You don’t say what age the students are, but I could imagine a “comparative lesson” where (1) Make it from a jar – and price it up (2) Make if from scratch and price it up. Compare price, taste, nutrition.

I’m more confused why you are supplying all the ingredients. Is that normal?

All I learned from home ec was how to burn the absolute **** out of just every exposed body part. Oh and not to take anything too rank home, as my mum’d still eat it and pretend to like it.

I personally don’t really see the point of cooking lessons in school, apart from to force kids to try it. I was never taught how to cook specifically but I can read instructions and there are literally thousands of books full of instructions for cooking lovely meals that are healthy, unhealthy, full of flavour, fast, slow, vegetarian etc. I believe they are called reci…. Recip…. If only googling for cooking instructions was easier.

Anyone can cook from a recipe, anyone. They just haver to want to and be bothered to instead of playing on the I cant cook bandwagon.

I personally don’t really see the point of cooking lessons in school, apart from to force kids to try it. I was never taught how to cook specifically but I can read instructions and there are literally thousands of books full of instructions for cooking lovely meals that are healthy, unhealthy, full of flavour, fast, slow, vegetarian etc. I believe they are called reci…. Recip…. If only googling for cooking instructions was easier.

It’s a good point but the biggest barrier seems to be giving people confidence and some demystification of cooking. If you can prove that it’s easy, simple and just a case of following (approximately) some instructions then you are half way there. throw in some basic hygiene and some might not get food poisoning.
Perhaps scheduling the pracs for before lunch would be good so they can cook and eat what they have prepared.

coffeeking – Member

Anyone can cook from a recipe, anyone.

Mmm. Depends on the recipe, this. Some are full of assumptions and jargon that make sense if you can cook and might as well be in martian if you can’t. “at a low heat” was basically my kryptonite, any menu with that in ended up with something burnt or raw. Talking about large or small without any real guidance. All that bobbins.

I like my recipes to be written like a haynes manual- I want times, temperatures, proper amounts, info on what to do if it goes wrong (or in fact just info on what it looks like if it goes wrong). If I need torques, something’s probably gone wrong though.

or in fact just info on what it looks like if it goes wrong

Thats the best bit, I have the best bread book in the world that tells you what it should look/feel/behave like and to start with exact amounts but vary depending on how it’s going. It’s great.

I’ve come across this by accident. seems brilliant to me!

Thats the best bit, I have the best bread book in the world that tells you what it should look/feel/behave like and to start with exact amounts but vary depending on how it’s going. It’s great.

Which book out of curiosity?

Mmm. Depends on the recipe, this. Some are full of assumptions and jargon that make sense if you can cook and might as well be in martian if you can’t. “at a low heat” was basically my kryptonite, any menu with that in ended up with something burnt or raw. Talking about large or small without any real guidance. All that bobbins.

I like my recipes to be written like a haynes manual- I want times, temperatures, proper amounts, info on what to do if it goes wrong (or in fact just info on what it looks like if it goes wrong). If I need torques, something’s probably gone wrong though.

Plus one to all of this.

Bread Bakers Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart

Anyway, no tomatoes in a proper bol.

No such thing… Proper ragu ingredients vary a lot too!

My ragu –

Pancetta
Carrot
Celery
Onion
Mince
Red wine
Tomato purée
Stock cube
Hot water

Best eaten 2-3 days after cooking for optimum flavour 8)

Anyway, no tomatoes in a proper bol.

No such thing… Proper ragu ingredients vary a lot too!

No tomatoes? Are you sure?

Telegraph Article

when people start saying things “no XXX in a ragu, and no spaghetti with a particular sauce…you can almost always guarantee the smell of bullshit.

Is it me or are the school missing the point of cooking

It’s probably not a cookery class as such. It’s likely to be a life skills thing and the intention is probably to teach kids to prepare a handful of simple, relatively healthy meals. For some this will be a revelation.

No such thing… Proper ragu ingredients vary a lot too!

That’s certainly true. The recipe I use has chicken livers, milk and nutmeg in it.

As for the school in the OPs question, it would seem like a sensible compromise to enable a bunch of kids to learn to cook a meal in a limited period of time.

I like my recipes to be written like a haynes manual- I want times, temperatures, proper amounts, info on what to do if it goes wrong (or in fact just info on what it looks like if it goes wrong).

Sadly recipes are only and can only ever be a guide. Food isn’t consistant in the way that a car engine is so detailed instructions don’t actually work very well; you have to rely on your own knowledge skill, and palate.

It’s home economics, not master chef.

my son started these classes some of the kids he was with had never touched raw vegetables that weren’t frozen and didn’t realise some had to be peeled.

view is that it’s about introducing kids to the process of cookery as much as the recipe that they follow our whether they use a jar or not.

The Silver Spoon is the Italian Cookery bible. Haven’t made a bad meal yet from it. Their take on bolognese:
Tagliatelle bolognese
Much nicer experience to use fresh ingredients in cooking and the finished product tastes much better.
It’s great getting our daughter (6) involved cutting and mixing too.

Ah, home economics..

I put an eraser in the oven once and turned it on to see what would happen..

Not every family cooks like STW ponces, you know 😉