Housewives - how much time do you spend cooking?

[Waldorf and Sauron]

I just came across this wild statistic in Time from 1959, talking about the rise of processed and frozen food.

"A few years ago it took the housewife 5 1/2 hours to prepare daily meals for a family of four; today she can do it in 90 minutes or less." ("Modern Living: Just Heat and Serve," Time, Dec 7, 1959, 92.)

So, how long does it take to cook dinner today?

[Marduk]

Do I have to be a housewife to answer?

[Unit of Energy]

Well, I'm not a housewife, but I do cook dinner weekly for five. The longest I spent was overnight, but that was making my own refried beans and most of that time was the beans soaking. The longest I spend actively cooking is about 20-30 minutes. Some of my meals do take longer, but it is mostly cooking time, and I don't actually need to be there for that. present and aware, but not focused.

[Waldorf and Sauron]

Nope, you just have to cook for more than yourself. The "housewives" call was just for fun.

[Marduk]

I'd say the average meal takes about 45 minutes prep time, up to 90 minutes cook time, unless I'm doing a roast or something like that. Of course, often when I cook it is for 20+ people, so I don't know how that factors into it.

[TheAnswerIs42]

I think those estimates seem fair for me too. Usually I spend a half an hour to an hour or so actually working on it, with perhaps some cooking time thrown in extra. Occasionally we end up with the time crunch meals that take even less - frozen pizza or other meals - but I can't even imagine why you would spend 5.5 hours. Were they talking about pioneers cooking over a fire? Ooooh - or maybe the 5.5 hours was all three meals all day combined? The way it was phrased, that could be what they meant.

[Waldorf and Sauron]

It wasn't talking about pioneer times; it was talking about mid-50s. Here's a link to the article (sadly without images). Remember that the microwave oven wasn't introduced until 1967, so that's not a factor. The difference in time is attributed to the rise of pre-packaged processed foods.

[Dragon Lady]

I think it is talking about all three meals. Which doesn't add much more time to mine, since breakfast is often cold cereal and lunch is leftovers. But let's pretend that I make german pancakes for breakfast (since that's the one that takes me the longest without it including overnight). I'd say…

Breakfast: 35 mins
Lunch: 10 mins
Dinner: 1.5 hours

That all includes cooking. And is totally a guesstimate. So… 2-3 hours per day. When I'm cooking real meals. (And although I'm only cooking for two and a toddler, I cook enough for 4-6, which fills Yellow (whose stomach extends into his legs) and gives us lunch the next day.

[Tao]

I read it as implying all three combined as well. I'd say breakfast takes me anywhere from an half an hour to an hour to prepare, and dinners range from an hour to two. Some of the sundries are hard to call; making bread takes a significant portion of your day, yet not much of that time is actively making the bread.

[Unit of Energy]

Including breakfast and lunch. Yeah, I still spend about the same amount of time. The only time this changes is when I make my traditional Sunday breakfast for conference.

[Whistler]

I make my husband cook... and then I help him. Usually our meals dinners take ~1 hour to make (we're so hungry by the time we get home!).

[Emiliana]

I'm not a housewife, but I'm the main food maker of my four-person household. Dinner typically takes 30-45 minutes of hands-on time since I have to do most things from scratch. Less if one of the others is chopping things for me, or more if we're having company, because I'll probably do a couple of courses and a dessert. But I typically make a full dinner only about three days a week and the rest of the time we eat leftovers, quick meals like egg salad, or the occasional pre-packaged meal from the US.

[thebigcheese]

I try to avoid cooking as much as possible. Breakfast takes about 1 minute (cereal), lunch takes about 2 minutes (heating up leftovers), and dinner usually takes about 30-40 minutes. But it all depends on the dish.