More than half of Americans say their biggest kitchen struggles come from cooking the simplest dishes. A survey of 2,000 adults looked at how much people mess up seemingly easy-to-make foods and found that 56 percent often botch foods that most consider easy to make.
Although seven in 10 respondents confidently consider themselves “natural-born cooks” (71%), 83 percent of those who confess it makes them feel like a failed chef.
The hardest according to the poll, are pancakes — with 38 percent saying they struggle making a good batch of flapjacks.
Meanwhile, a third of respondents struggle to make simple dishes like eggs (36%), pasta (35%), mashed potatoes (30%), or sweet potatoes (30%).
On average, people will attempt to make a dish four times before getting it right or giving up on it entirely.
Messing up a dish can be extremely discouraging, as half of respondents have messed up an “easy” recipe so often that they feel like they’ll never be able to master it.
That may be why three-quarters of respondents are always looking for time-saving shortcuts in the kitchen (74%), and a similar number would purchase a ready-made item to help cook a dish more easily (75%).
If you think your partner wouldn’t welcome your help in the kitchen, think again. Sixty-three percent of those polled agree they’d appreciate some help in the kitchen, especially from their spouse (27%).
