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I’ve been married for just 3 years; we both were in our 30′s. One of the things my wife always wanted was a husband that could cook, and I tell her she just had to wait for me to learn! I learned mostly from my mother and watching PBS shows in the 80′s. We’re starting a dinner club with some friends, beginning this Saturday, and it’s interesting to me to see the differences in cooking, and who cooks, with each couple. One point of interest is that the man is the primary cook in three out of four of the couples. I’m not saying the man cooks the most, but that the man is considered the better cook, more likely to make fancy stuff, I guess. So I got to thinking, is this common or not? Hence, my first blog poll! |
I’ve been reading stuff on the internet, trying to find articles on men vs. women cooking. Some of the articles are just funny to read. A British site has an article about survey results that don’t seem very scientific, but that’s cool… it’s the internet. The article is here. The article seems happy to leave some male bashing in it, stating that most women think men like to take over on the grill just to be the centre (British, remember!) of attention; fortunately, the article does continue to state that there may be a more basic reason. Unfortunately, they continue on to say the women do all the prep, the "really hard" work.
A better article talking about the differences in cooking approaches between the sexes is on Columbus Wired. The article says that more men cook as a hobby, while women tend to feel they want to cook for their families. More men are also likely to consider themselves gourmet cooks’, though this is, of course, subjective. Personally, I hate the use (or overuse) of the word ‘gourmet’… It’s lost all meaning in practical terms, and just sounds snobby. The article also points that that most (71%) said they learned to cook from their mothers; I’d like to see that same poll taken in another 20 years to see if that shifts at all.
A site I just spent some time on recently, and added a link on the blog for, is Men In Aprons. Adam has some really great articles on all kinds of cooking topics, and he’s a recently-joined member of the BBQ Brethren! He’s got an article on the same basic topic that I found while looking for articles on the same basic topic! Reading some of his stuff, he and I seem to agree on a lot of things, so he must be a great cook! (just kidding… he’s probably a great cook despite any similarities we share!)
In my household, we both can cook. My wife doesn’t like to cook all that much, but she does a great job when she does. The main difference, as I see it, between our styles of cooking is that she likes to have a recipe to follow, and she does it to a ‘T’. On the other side of things, I prefer to either completely invent a recipe, or just use one as a very basic guideline. If I can’t make it my own, I don’t really care to make it.
Ok, another difference is that I make a huge mess, while she’s very neat… but that’s a different post! Please respond to the survey… I’m looking forward to seeing how all of you approach cooking at home!
Hi Curt,
Good poll, mine is mostley that she cooks inside I cook outside.
I think it is mostly how are schedules are.
I wish I could cook more if time would allow
BBQ does help with that sometimes… If you cook a bunch on a weekend and vacuum seal it all up to throw in the freezer, it makes weekday meals easier all month long. Just pop the bag in boiling water, or cut it up and nuke it, and you’ve got a meal! (ok, part of a meal)
My wife is a good cook but I was thrown into it when she had some serious medical problems a few years ago. The more I did it the more I liked it and now I do most of it by choice rather then being more skilled. Wife has her dishes she insists on preparing herself and I do the rest. I’m definitely the one to try new recipes or experiment though. And she loves nothing better then to ask if I feel like smoking something over the weekend when we prepare the weekly menu.:-)