Cooking Process Question

[SarahLee]

In your opinion, what do you find to be the most time consuming out of the entire cooking/baking process? 

 

 

I’m working on designing a product that can help streamline this process and hopefully make some of these tasks easier and quicker. I would love to hear your opinion so I know some of the key areas I should focus on that affects a large part of my target audience. This is for a class I am taking at Western Washington University. The ultimate goal is to design a product that would help cut down the time of the cooking process enough that it would encourage more people to switch from choosing fast food restaurants to cooking from scratch.

 

 

If you have time, here is a link to a quick 10 question survey with similar questions about your cooking process: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJSRG5C  It would be a big help if you are able to answer some of these.  I’d be happy to post the results that I find later in this thread for anyone who is curious.

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by SarahLee (log)

[gfweb]

Just took the survey.  Can't see how it could possibly help you with your task.

 

good luck.

[Deryn]

I have a question (or two) for you, SarahLee. Do you cook or bake at all? If so, for how long and how good at it would you say you are? You are vague about what kind of 'product' (virtual app? a physical machine? a better mousetrap? a microwave dinner?) you intend to 'design' - so which way are you going with this?

 

I am sorry but I looked at your survey and I can't even answer the questions (or most of them). I agree with gfweb - I can't see how the few and very vague questions asked would help with the task you seemed to have outlined. And for someone like me, I don't think the questions are well worded to solicit the type of information you may need to design a product that I would guess is geared towards very young people primarily.

 

I will tell you that I am 66 years old, female, and raised 3 children and more than 1 husband - all of whom I cooked for daily for many, many years. After all these years in the kitchen, I own way too many kitchen 'gadgets', many of them exorbitantly expensive, and absolutely need none of them but some are fun and timesaving from time to time. I read cookbooks for fun but rarely use recipes. I measure only when absolutely critical (more likely in baking - can't recall the last time I measured much of anything while cooking otherwise). Many years of experience mean that I can gauge quantities pretty well and I use a lot of kitchen science by intuition now. Of course, if I were to haul out my modernist cuisine ingredients (haven't for a while now), I would be using very precise measurements for those minute quantities.

 

I eat at fast food restaurants perhaps once every few years and then only if travelling and there are no other options. I was raised in the day they didn't exist - ALL meals were at home.. The way to get kids to stop eating at fast food restaurants is to close them all and force people to eat at home again but what is the chance that is going to happen these days?

 

I know there are younger people here on the board but many of us are 'old hands' in the kitchen. We regularly discuss (as I am sure you know since I am certain that you spent a lot of time reading to determine that this was a good place to post your survey request ... right?) new gadgets and techniques here. Have you tried the Instant Pot? Do you have a Searzall, a Thermomix, or a combi oven or do you have a freeze dryer? Have you checked out many of the newest gadgets that people are promoting on crowdsourcing sites - we do! We discuss mis en place and basic cooking techniques as well as complicated techniques and avant-garde cuisines (from all over the world). People talk about gadgets with apps that control them - and those who like those chime in and others say how little those would work in their world. We even talk about ready to eat foods and potato chip flavours, and the price of cauliflower, not to mention fast food restaurants (which is not a forum I am a major participant in but it is interesting at times).

 

You can learn a lot here but you would have to stay a while and read ... and participate. And then spread the word that we are here and your target audience can come and ask questions about how to cook ... and perhaps they will get excited enough to try it. We would be happy to help them and answer their questions about cooking and all things culinary. That may be just the ticket to get them to stay home and cook!    

Edited February 3, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Alex]

Hello, SL. Please also see the PM I sent you. I've designed many a survey in my time, and I have to echo Deryn's and gfweb's sentiment: it's indeed a poorly designed questionnaire. I don't see how it could possibly help your end product. What sort of product did you have in mind? What class is this for? Did your professor review the survey before you posted it? Without knowing anything more, my advice would be to go and talk (or re-talk) this whole thing over with your prof.

[huiray]

I just took the survey too. I agree with gfweb's and Deryn's sentiment, regretfully. I selected "other" in many of your survey questions, in fact, so I could say "all of the above, depends on the circumstance and what I'm cooking" and variations thereof.

 

But to answer your question above in your OP - in a nutshell, in my case I find it is the preparation of ingredients that is the most time consuming more often than not. In many cases the actual cooking is done very quickly. (and even with stews or braises the "active time" often still is the larger chunk of time taken; the time the dish takes to cook is very largely "unattended" time)

 

I am not counting the time I spend on going around and buying groceries, true - that varies depending on how fancy I want my shopping trip to be. Depending on your target audience that may be a BIG factor for some folks.

 

I think it would be helpful if you delineated better what your target audience is and what sort of "cooking" you have in mind. (presumably general Western-type/European cooking? And not other cuisines?)^¶¶  What sort of kitchen/basic utensils do you expect your target audience to have? 

 

Many people "out there" eat fast food. Some more than others.  Most folks here on eGullet tend not to do so, but (following on from Deryn's comments above) I imagine you must have realized that from browsing around here. (You have, right?) Are you targeting the proverbial "lower poorer working classes in urban USAmerican cities"? Living in areas characterized by some studies as those with no full-service groceries around? Or maybe not? Also, what do you mean by "fast food"^¶¶? Folks with more disposable income also might eat a lot of "fast food", just maybe more pricey than simply McD's or Wendy's etc - like takeout from a gourmet store, or very fresh sushi-to-go (yes, there is such a thing) from various places, and so on.  The choices available would also vary by urban/suburban/rural locale I would imagine.)

 

^¶¶ ETA: Here's a useful quick reminder of your needing to specify what you mean by "fast food" and where and which cuisine. :-)

Edited February 3, 2016 by huiray (log)

[gfweb]

My sense is that  fast food people don't understand cooking. They were brought -up eating fast food and doritos and nobody in the household had any idea of how to make scrambled eggs or mac and cheese or beanie-weenie.

 

Their problem isn't convenience, it's education.

 

These folk do not need a gadget they need experience.

 

And this is a valuable engineering point...design cannot overcome ignorance.

 

 

[gfweb]

Having said all this...you have selected a worthy task.  Most would be better off financially and nutritionally if they learned how to cook

[huiray]

1 hour ago, huiray said:

ETA: Here's a useful quick reminder of your needing to specify what you mean by "fast food" and where and which cuisine. :-)

 

...and "Street Food" would also be "fast food" in many places, especially outside of the USA - and lots of very tasty food to be had too, and often cheaper than what it would cost if one were to make it at home. And they could be pretty nutritious too. :-)  Lots of eG folks would seek out this type of "fast food" in, say, SE Asia. ;-)  Even in the USA - what about Food Trucks? Taco trucks or carts? (Hot dog carts certainly are fast food vendors too) The abuelita selling wonderful cubanos or medianoches, say, from her cart? They all qualify as "fast food" too, even if they may not be quite "restaurants".  Chinese Takeout places would qualify as "fast food restaurants", I would say.

Edited February 3, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Okanagancook]

I think another factor is how darn cheap it is to eat at fast food establishments!  Groceries don't go rotten and the investment of equipment and ingredients isn't necessary.  We need to tax fast food and those dollars go directly into the healthcare budget to fund education programs amoungst other diet-health related diseases issues.

 

I agree with the comments regarding the survey.

[blue_dolphin]

@SarahLee, I answered the survey but am not sure the answers address the questions posed in your original post so I offer two observations.

 

Many of my work colleagues who are parents of young children have good intentions of planning, shopping and prepping  or even cooking meals in advance but often find themselves resorting to a fast food drive-thru dinner when a late meeting, sick kid or other unexpected event comes up and they are in the car with overtired or sick kids collected late from school or daycare.  They often find shopping time most difficult to carve out and many of them appreciate the time savings that services like Blue Apron provide, knowing that they have all the ingredients ready to cook a nice meal at home.  I think the proliferation of such services suggests that this is a common block to cooking meals at home.

 

My second comment is that I think there is a pretty big gulf between "fast food" and  what I consider "cooking from scratch" with products that span the gamut from gourmet frozen entrees and side dishes to boxed Mac n cheese,  ready to cook pre-marinated poultry, beef and fish, prepared salads and hot entrees from stores like Whole Foods.  I wouldn't call any of them cooking from scratch but many are a far cry from fast food.

 

[SarahLee]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to make comments and take the survey. I appreciate the input and am excited to see some interesting points being raised. I wish I didn’t need to be so vague but it’s important I don’t accidently influence the answers and allow the conversation go in ways I might not expect. I just wanted to let you know that even though this is still in the early stages the data is looking to be quite helpful in answering some of the questions I was looking to find. So thank you again and I’m looking forward to reading any more comments. 

[Deryn]

I was at the grocery store today and a young lady (I estimate she was first year college age) was down one of the aisles (with mostly 'asian' sauces, etc.) trying to figure out 'ingredients' to buy so she could 'learn to cook'. She had absolutely NO idea what she was looking for - she just simply had decided it was time to learn to make something. All she seemed to know is that she didn't like anything spicy, but I gathered she liked Chinese food (though I doubt she has ever had any that in any way resembled an 'authentic' version of same). I noticed her looking at the prepared 'sauces' but she didn't even bother to read the labels - she just wanted to know what she should buy with some vague idea that she was going to 'cook' something. It was obvious that she was overwhelmed. I am not sure she had ever been in a grocery store before (at least since she was small enough to fit in the cart).

 

Another shopper stopped by and began trying to tell the young lady about the sauces but I could see it was not helping much. The potential novice cook looked as though she was about ready to just forget the whole thing, and order take out. It really bothered me that she was so confused that she might never get beyond thinking about learning to cook. I told her, in passing, that she should just take a chance - buy something and try it out ... and TASTE, TASTE, TASTE as she went along. I wish I could have offered to spend a few hours with her and teach her how to put together a simple Chinese or other Asian type dish - but I would not have begun with the prepared sauce aisle - I would have started in the produce section.

 

This anecdote is just to illustrate what is severely missing in the lives of many young people these days - basic 'home economics' lessons. Many didn't get those at home and the schools have opted out on that score as well it seems. So, yes, there is a need for something to help them out in that area I would say - since shopping appeared to be this youngster's (first) dilemma/area of most difficulty when it came to actually cooking 'something'. She frankly didn't have a clue, even where to start (other than she got herself to the store - which is laudable).

 

I could have begun with my own shopping cart since I had just picked up some fresh lemongrass, limes, bok choy, king and shitaki mushrooms, yu choy, green onions, shallots, and several other Asian ingredients.

 

The fact that many of the cashiers at the grocery stores don't even have any idea either about many of the produce items they shove through their automated checkout stands every day has long been something that I have noticed. I have often commented that cashiers should be given a short course in the produce section - and have to learn the names, best uses and tastes of every item sold there.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[huiray]

40 minutes ago, SarahLee said:

Thank you everyone for taking the time to make comments and take the survey. I appreciate the input and am excited to see some interesting points being raised. I wish I didn’t need to be so vague but it’s important I don’t accidently influence the answers and allow the conversation go in ways I might not expect. I just wanted to let you know that even though this is still in the early stages the data is looking to be quite helpful in answering some of the questions I was looking to find. So thank you again and I’m looking forward to reading any more comments. 

 

 

 

In other words, you're playing games.

 

Sorry, but your response sounds to me like you are "going fishing" and "baiting folks" here on eG - precisely because you are being so vague and cagey.  I no longer know what it is that you are looking for, if it is in fact truly an authentic university project, or if you are maybe even someone (a marketer?) looking for a group of guinea pigs to flesh out some nebulous "marketing notion" or other "concept" of some sector or other of some yet-unknown demographic that may or may not involve people who cook or people who eat in whatever you call "fast food" places.  IMO you do need to be more forthright about what it is you are trying to do.

 

Are you a McDonald's person looking to see what sort of "new gourmet foodstuff" might appeal to an eG-like crowd in the US?

Edited February 3, 2016 by huiray (log)

[Tere]

Hi,

 

Also hi eGullet, first time posting!

 

I've completed the survey but there are two things I'd like to point out. 1. There doesn't seem to be any way to note locale. Are you assuming everyone is from the US? I am very much not! I might skew your data. There seems to be no way to note what your food culture is. Also food traditions and culture I am sure differ enormously within the US also :). Also, I was unclear what you meant in the question 6 about regular usage. I listed dry or tinned store cupboard stuff I use regularly but my fridge groans with additions I use that have long keep by dates e.g. anchoiade, miso, home made pesto, cheats garlic and chilli, ginger paste, galangal paste, lemon juice, lime juice, tahini etc. without getting into condiments you might blob in a meal just to finish it off.  I'm not sure if that hurts your outcomes but I thought it fair to point it out.

[AlaMoi]

2 hours ago, SarahLee said:

reading any more comments. 

if one designs some method / means of cooking food fast, does that not make it by definition "fast food?"

 

are you in fact not intending to create non-fast food in 2 minutes or less?

 

more salt, more fat, microwave power 70, it'll work, and taste good too.  trust me.

[SLB]

I took the survey and for most questions had more than one answer.  I would not have thought the queries to be productively vague, but rather got the feeling that the author wasn't totally familiar with the range of real-life answers.  It might make more sense to ask people what they think they need in order to cook more often, or to try to ask a question that relates in some specific way to how your product would advance the project of getting meals on the table.

[ChocoMom]

I completed the survey as well, but was perplexed by the vague questions. I had to choose "other" repeatedly and provide explanations. Not sure how helpful that was to the OP.   And equally bothersome was seeing "cooking/baking" in many of the questions-as if they are terms that can be used interchangeably. They are two different things in my world. I don't prep, measure, and work the same way when baking as I do when cooking.   Like Deryn carefully explained above, there is a lack of basic food prep skill and home economics knowledge amongst many of the younger folks in our society. They need to know that there is difference between those two terms, and learn what those differences are. I'm not trying to be nit-picky, but it really made me wonder as to the OP's level of understanding regarding these things.   (As a parent, I refused to let my kids grow up without learning basic cooking skills.   I'm their Mother, not their maid. My job is to take care of them when they are young, and teach them how to take of themselves when they get older.  At 18, 17 and 10, they can all cook quite well, and bake to greater or lesser degrees.) 

 

Reading the survey, I wondered where the OP falls, with regard to really understanding these things, also.  The only idea that crossed my mind regarding her goal/tool is perhaps something in the form of a "meal-prep app"  where a user could choose their desired meal and recipe, transmit that data to their grocer, pay electronically, and have all their ingredients ready to pick up at the checkout. Seems a little reminiscent of The Jetson's.  Personally, I couldn't trust something like that only because many of the clerks and cashier's haven't a clue about produce, so, if their selections are incorrect.... one can only imagine the culinary disasters that await. 

[weinoo]

I don't take surveys.

 

The thing that takes me the most time is reading eGullet before going into my kitchen.

[gfweb]

9 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I don't take surveys.

 

 

 

My new rule.  Good thinking Weinoo.

[liuzhou]

I looked at the survey but apart from the questions about my age and gender my answer was always "it depends". I'm really struggling to find what you want. Sorry.

[Lisa Shock]

I have to agree with most of what's been already said here.

 

IMO, people who cook and enjoy it tend to have gotten some experience with cooking when they were children. They may have spread their wings and taken on more later, but, a foundation was built when the brain had super-plasticity. That said, many of us had parents who did not like to cook, or were not good at it. But, they allowed us to experiment in the kitchen. Once people are adults and don't cook, I'm not certain that much can be done to persuade them to start cooking beyond, say, a physician ordering them to adopt a special diet. I have tried to convert people, I taught public classes for a while and people would bring reluctant spouses to class and most of them just never 'got it'. They just weren't thrilled with the potential for customization the way food enthusiasts are.

 

So many cookbooks have basic cooking lessons in them, honestly, it's not that difficult to learn to cook if a person gets ahold of a good all-around cookbook. I don't really know what motivates some of us to scour cookbooks and the web for something new to cook for tonight's dinner.

 

I agree that Home Ec should be taught in schools and most do not anymore. That said, many students in past HE classes hated them. I suspect that the availability of so many meal options, fast/frozen/deli, serves people who in past eras would have grudgingly cooked due to necessity. I don't see there being a switch to locate to turn the kitchen-adverse into foodies.

[SarahLee]

Hi everyone,

Thank you again for your participation. I am sorry this thread ended up being so negative. I didn’t intend to frustrate or offend anyone with my post and survey.  I definitely didn’t mean for my survey to be such a negative experience for you all. This is my first project were I have needed to get public input so I wasn’t quite prepared for that. But it was a great learning experience for me and I felt some good points were brought up. 

I especially found the point interesting that people who choose to regularly eat at fast food places (ex. McDonald’s) probably do so because they don’t have cooking experience or background rather than it being that they don’t have the time. I will look into changing my focus for my product; maybe it would be more useful for busy parents or business people who enjoy cooking but are lacking on time. Definitely something I will be thinking about. I personally would love to tackle the task of finding an effective way of getting education about cooking to those who don’t have the experience and would benefit from a healthier life. But as a student I’m limited on time and solving the problem of the growing obesity rate in just a few months probably isn’t realistic :-) 

When I asked for permission to post my survey it was recommended that I also share some of my results. Now this was before this all went downhill but I thought I would still share in case anyone was interested. A lot of these results may seem like common sense but I always feel that it is better to have proof than to just assume. Since I don’t hang out much in other people’s kitchens, I really only know how the cooking process is for my family and myself.  There are things that I needed to check and some questions I have in trying to see if of my product ideas would actually be solving a need.

These results are from a pool of 30; both from eGullet and other places because I wanted a poll from both the highly experienced and from others with less experience in the kitchen.

 First, it was found that 78% of the people who took the survey cook meals more often than bake desserts. I know this seems obvious but now I have proof that if I do something related to the cooking process vs. the baking process I could have an effect on a larger group.

 Second for the question about gathering ingredients the majority, at 62%, said they gather all of their ingredients first.  21% chose the selection “grab ingredients as you go and put them away after use”.

This next one I found interesting. Of the 45% that chose the options of planning out their shopping list and writing things down as they run out, the majority where from the older demographic while of the 32% that chose the options that didn’t require pre planning, the majority where from the younger demographic.

When asking what you find to be the most time consuming when cooking, I was prepared for most the answers to be clean up but the majority answered that it was food prep. Clean up came in second, planning also came up a few times. The planning wasn’t something that I had considered much yet so I’ll definitely focus some on that as well.

I know that the question regarding what common staple ingredients you keep in your pantry seemed odd, but I wanted to make sure that if my products ends up needing to interact with these ingredients, my perception of the types of food in a pantry wouldn’t just limited to what I keep in my own.

I apologize for the long post and thank you to all of you. I know this didn’t seem to go well but I really do appreciate your help with my project, this was a great learning experience for me. I promise I am not a marketer and really did not intend to play games or to bait folks. I’m extremely sorry that I made you feel this way. I’m taking this all as a lesson so that I can improve in the future. I hope you all have a great day!

[Lisa Shock]

I should have also mentioned (food history is my favorite class to teach) that others who have tried to streamline cooking have run into counter-intuitive results.

 

When boxed cake mix was first introduced in the early 1950s, it contained powdered eggs and powdered shortening. They did not sell well, housewives told researchers that they felt the process was too easy and the cake was therefore not as wholesome and home-made -it was clearly a factory product. So, they reformulated the mixes so that consumers had to add eggs and butter or oil, and they became incredibly popular. Ironically, the improved product saves a total of 13 minutes over making a scratch cake, most of that time savings is from not having to sift or weigh the dry ingredients. And, despite being full of low quality ingredients, fillers, binders, colors, artificial flavors, etc. people feel that these cakes are on equal footing with scratch cakes -just because they lifted a hand to crack an egg and measure 3/4 cup of oil.

 

Right now, there are a lot of meal options out there, from refrigerated heat-n-eat food from the supermarket deli, to frozen meals delivered to your doorstep, retail meals you heat up are everywhere at all sorts of price points and quality levels. Yet, Blue Apron and its competitors seem to be doing well, and they leave the most time consuming part of cooking (prep) to the buyer.

 

I have also noticed a recent trend where some people feel like they 'cook' when in fact all they do is follow instructions for heating frozen meals. I know someone who will actually say 'dinner is ready, I cooked tonight' and you'll find tv dinners in their trays on the table. People who grew up with processed foods often do not recognize them as created products instead of real ingredients. To me, eat out is only part of the problem. One can eat just as badly from a supermarket, depending upon the choices they make.

[gfweb]

SarahLee, I don't think the process has gone downhill. It just didn't go where you expected. Your assumptions were questioned...but that's how science goes.

 

Poll results were interesting. A problem with the questions were that they were "either or". Either you shop with a list or you don't.  I do both. When I know wha I'm cooking I use a list when I don't I go to the store and see what moves me.

[Deryn]

I suppose one could see cleanup after cooking as part of the cooking process (and had I been offered a list of 'process' elements that included clean up, I probably would have picked that) but honestly it never occurred to me (even though it is necessary) because I consider that as a 'cleaning' task, not a 'cooking' task I guess. I hate cleaning. I love cooking. Even shopping for ingredients is, to my mind, a bit out of the scope of the actual cooking process, but, due to my location and the difficulty in obtaining ingredients quickly, I did mentally include that task as part of the cooking process and it is the most time consuming as a result. Since the question was deliberately vague, the answers may not be reliable.