Millions can only cook a handful of dishes without a recipe


Updated on 22 July 2015 | 0 Comments

A new survey says over half of us can't cook more than five dishes from memory.

Over half of us can only cook up to five dishes without the aid of a recipe, a new survey claims.

Stir fry tops the list of dishes we can cook without instructions, with 81% of us able to cook one without resorting to a recipe, Tesco research found.

Spaghetti Bolognese came in a close second place, with 80% of people not needing a recipe to make the classic Italian dish. A traditional roast was third, with 77%.

Yet one in eight of us wouldn’t be confident cooking an omelette without a recipe to hand.

Around half of those who can cook five dishes or fewer without a recipe say they serve up one or more of those dishes every week.

And nearly a third of us only cook one new recipe a year.

Teaching in the home

Over half of the women surveyed said they’d learned the recipes they do know off by heart from their mums.

Encouragingly, a quarter of parents with children aged 6-10 said they cook with them all the time and half say they do occasionally.

The Government wants schoolchildren to have learned to cook 20 dishes by the time they’re 14.

How many can you cook?

We last wrote about this subject in February 2013, where I confessed that I could probably scrape together a list of 20 dishes. I reckon I’ve added a couple more in the last couple of years, but it’s another reminder that I need to get back to my recipe books.

How many dishes can you cook without a recipe? Is the number increasing or decreasing? Let us know in the Comments below.

Looking for recipe inspiration? Browse our collection and sign up to save recipes to your profile

You might also enjoy:

Which cookbooks do you never use?

The cookery books chefs reach for

Top 10 recipes to make with children

Comments


View Comments

Share the love