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What foods do people usually cook at home?
Hello! Thank you for your question about what foods people usually cook at home. The short answer to your question is, for America and the UK, people cook dinners and deserts at home far more than breakfasts and dinners. Americans favor chicken dishes more than other meat while the British top recipes focus more on beef.
Below you will find a deep dive of my methodology and findings.
METHODOLOGY
I began my research by looking for academic papers on home cooking trends. I found papers that helped me establish overall home cooking trends and how they have changed in America. This allowed me to learn general trends about cooking at home.
I then turned to news articles to track what exact types of foods are being cooked and for what meals. I first found the number of meals cooked at home, but I also discovered data on what kinds of foods are cooked.
I found both information on the types of food as ingredients that are being consumed and what recipes are popular. These two sets of data correlate together with chicken being consumed more than any other meat and chicken recipes being more popular dinner choices.
My search for popular foods to cook discovered that the majority of popular dishes are dinner and desert. I wanted to verify this data, so I located a poll on breakfast eating in America. This told me that a significant number of Americans skip breakfast entirely which backs up my findings that dinner is the most popular meal to cook at home.
I also checked UK trends to see where there was overlap or differences in cooking trends. My research is predominately pulled from news articles.
FINDINGS
A study from 2012 compared home cooking trends from 1965 to home cooking trends in 2008. Total consumption from home food sources decreased approximately 23%. Low-income groups had the biggest decline in home cooking from 67% to 56%. This study did discover that there has been little change in patterns since the 1990's which means that trends have become stable.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked food trends in the year 2010 and found that 57% of Americans spend time preparing food at home on any given day. The average time spent in food preparation and clean up is 1.1 hours. This study also found that, the lower a family's income, the less they eat out.
Another study from December 2014, tracked how time was spent preparing food in American homes. Working adults spent the least amount of time preparing food at home. Greater time spent cooking was linked directly to better nutritional content in meals.
In 2015, Google tracked cooking trends among millennials. People over 35 are more likely to print a recipe from the internet while 59% of people under 35 cook with a smartphone or tablet.
The New York Times reported that the typical breakdown of a week included four dinners made from scratch, two made at least in part from packaged foods like boxed macaroni and cheese, or boxed flavored rice, and one fast food dinner. However, the lower a family’s income, the more they cooked from scratch.
The Daily Meal did an in depth survey of recipe sites to find the most popular dishes to cook at home. They found that pumpkin bars, mozzarella cheese sticks, ranch chicken, mini chicken pot pies, baked macaroni and cheese, southern fried chicken, chicken enchiladas, banana bread, pulled pork, chocolate cake, chewy cookies, crock pot roast beef, garlic chicken, zucchini bread, peanut butter chocolate dessert, pancakes, apple pie, pumpkin bread, ham and potato soup, cinnamon buns, banana crumb muffins, full size chicken pot pie, and lasagna were the most popular recipes on cooking sites and social media.
The trend of eating more chicken is documented by Time. Chicken has recently superseded beef as the most pounds per person eaten. Potatoes and tomatoes are the most popular vegetables while oranges and apples are the most popular fruits, but those are mostly consumed as juice.
The Daily Meal tracked the most common food searches via search engine and discovered that ingredients were searched for the most. Searches for egg translated to recipes for deviled eggs being popular. Chicken was one of the most popular search term with baked chicken being one of the most popular recipes.
An ABC News poll found that 40% of US adults skip breakfast entirely and 1/3 have to eat it quickly. Cold cereal is the most popular breakfast food with 31% of those who eat breakfast reporting that it is their choice. Breakfast eating is linked to age, with only 53% of younger Americans eating breakfast. Rates of breakfast eating goes up after age 55 to 71%.
In the UK, tea remains the most popular way to wake up. Most popular foods to cook in England are traditional roast, steak and chips, apple crumble, pizza, lasagna, spaghetti bolognese, chocolate brownies, strawberry cheescake, and Victoria sponge cake. Pub classics were also reported to be popular like bangers and mash. Slightly more than half, 52%, of British respondents said they can cook 10 dishes from scratch and 32% claimed they could cook 20 dishes.
For both countries, popular dishes to cook at home focused on dinners and deserts more than breakfasts and lunches.
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, I have discovered that dinner and desert are the major recipes that are cooked at home in US and Uk households. Many Americans skip breakfast entirely or only eat cold cereal quickly. The average American spend about 1 hour a day on food preparation and most millennials cook with a smartphone or tablet.
Thank you for asking Wonder! Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with!