Food

If Cooking Is So Easy, Why Not Do It? 
By Janet Peterson

Cooking is so much easier today than in any other time in culinary history. 

“The quality of cookware, equipment and food has improved over the years, making it easier than ever to cook at home,” said Christopher Kimball, editor of Cook*s Illustrated. “It*s easier to produce a good meal in an hour or 45 minutes than it was 20 years ago.”¹ 

And not just 20 years ago but generations ago, women, by necessity, spent hours in the kitchen cooking dinner for their families. My two grandmothers would have given their best aprons to prepare dinner in a 2004 kitchen with its numerous time-saving devices, gadget wizardry, professional quality equipment, and abundance of readily available and easy-to-prepare foods.  

For my Grandmother Fischer, chicken did not come boneless and skinless and frozen in plastic-wrapped foam packages. Rather, my grandfather would present my grandmother with a very fresh chicken—which had taken its last breath just moments before in the back yard. She then had to clean and pluck the chicken before she could begin cooking it on her wood stove. She had to cook chicken fresh because she had no way to freeze it; her icebox did not have a freezer compartment. 

My Grandmother Matheson baked bread several times a week for her large family and canned hundreds of quarts of fruits and vegetables each fall. I*m sure every now and then she would have loved to be able to send her five hungry sons to a fast food place for supper*only there weren*t any in town. 

The home where I grew up did not have a dishwasher. Every pot, pan, and bowl as well as dinnerware had to be handwashed, extending the time and effort meal preparation took. My two sisters and I took turns washing and drying the dishes every night. Microwave ovens had not yet been invented during my childhood days of the 1950s and early 1960s, so getting meat out of the freezer hours ahead of dinner was an important task. And if food processors were around, we certainly didn*t know about them. 

My own kitchen, spanning 37 years of marriage, has undergone many changes and improvements. As young married students, we thought we were pretty lucky to own a colorful set of pans, an electric skillet, and even a portable dishwasher. Now my cupboards overflow with amazing pieces of specialized tools-*bread mixer, electric rice cooker, electric fondue pot, wok, pricy cutlery, and the latest cookware. Cooking is definitely easier for me now than it was in the early 1970s. 

Kitchens today, for the most part, are spacious, visually appealing, and filled with myriad cooking tools that were not even imagined a generation or two ago.  

* food processors, choppers, blenders
* microwaves
* convection ovens
* slow cookers
* gas cooktops and indoor grills
* subzero refrigerators
* warming ovens
* hot water on demand taps
* high quality cutlery and nonstick, even-heat pans
* solid surface countertops
* multiple ovens, sinks, prep areas
* dishwashers
* small appliances that perform specific tasks*crepe maker, countertop ice cream freezer, grilled sandwich maker, tortilla warmer, asparagus cooker, vegetable steamer 

Designer kitchens are sometimes built for looks only. One woman, who proclaims she never cooks, said her state-of-the-art kitchen was for “resale value.” Another woman spent a fortune remodeling her kitchen but never spends any time actually working in it. She told her husband that when the last child went out the door, she was through cooking. And she*s kept her word. 

Not only is the modern kitchen a cook*s dream, the availability and variety of food are amazing. Just walk through any supermarket and the world*s food is at your fingertips: oranges from Australia, grapes from Chile, bananas from Honduras, halibut from Alaska. Most grocery stores stock a large variety of ethnic foods so that if Thai, Italian, or Japanese food sounds tasty to you tonight, you can cook authentic fare.  

You don*t even have to leave home to grocery shop. Many stores offer online or phone shopping with home delivery for a small fee. 

Looking for a recipe? Thousands of cookbooks abound, providing an enormous resource of recipes, from general and basic to very specialized, such as a mango cookbook, what to do with a cake mix, or Caribbean fare. Numerous Internet sites put recipes at your fingertips. Not only do these sites provide endless recipes, they generate menus, shopping lists, and adjust a recipe for any given number of servings. 

So what*s the big excuse? Since cooking today is so easy, why not cook dinner for your family? And while your electric can opener is zipping open a can of black beans or Mexican-flavored tomatoes and your food processor is slicing yellow peppers or chopping cilantro, think of your ancestors who cooked in kitchens not quite as well equipped as yours and rejoice that you are privileged to live in this marvelous era of culinary devices.

1. Valerie Phillips, “This Is Only A Test. . . ,” Deseret News, Jan. 14, 2004.