12 Boomer Cooking Habits People Are Ready To Ditch, According To Reddit

It's no seismic revelation to say that older generations do things differently in the kitchen. This is undoubtedly true for most of human history. Babylonian teens probably complained about how many leeks their parents would put in the gazelle stew; a Medieval peasant may have griped to his wife about his mother-in-law's under-seasoned gruel. Generational habits are ripe for mockery, confusion, and even contempt from the younger side, and Baby-Boomer cooks are certainly not exempt from the crosshairs of their descendants.

For those who need a reminder, Boomers are the demographic that emerged out of the post-World War II push towards fecundity; specifically those born between 1946 and 1964. The average American family grew along with the country itself, into a new age of industrialization and domestic technology. This formed certain kitchen-centric behaviors for millions of people coming of age during that period, for better or, yep, worse.

Meals were often canned, boiled, jellied, and cooked to death, while tolerance for spice began and ended with some crushed black pepper (if even that). Needless to say, this approach to cooking doesn't exactly jive with many Millennial and Gen Z palates, which have a desire for global flavors, serious heat, fresh produce, and meat that hasn't been incinerated like it was in a Looney Tunes explosion. Here are a dozen Boomer cooking habits people are ready to relegate to the past for good. Just break it easy to Ma and Pop.

They'll tell you it was out of precaution. That it was out of safety. That they are the President of the United States and they don't want to be poisoned. Whatever the reason, many Boomers cook their meat to death. Possibly because they're not sure if the animal is dead already and want to guarantee it is not returning to this mortal coil once dinner is served. Burning it like a witch at the stake is one way to ensure that.

Regardless of whether anyone's skirt steak ever returned to life on the plate in the 1970s or 80s, the generational predilection for overcooking meat was pervasive. Pork chops were the texture of shoes, meat loaf was the consistency of a throw pillow, and God knows what was done to a poor fish. 

This is exemplified by one, straightforward subreddit heading in particular: "Ever Notice Boomers Overcook Everything?" The poster's follow-up self-response: "That is all." Many chimed in out of solidarity with this sentiment. "I hated steak for the first 25 years of my life," began another Redditor with Boomer parents. "Made my jaw hurt because it was so tough." Even people whose dad was a butcher would watch him "take a frozen steak, plop it in a skillet, cover it with water and turn it on high until the water evaporated." What came out was meat that was a "hideous grey." Next time that happens, use a BBQ trick to fix that steak.

Canning food came about as a World War II necessity, with the country attempting to send preserved food overseas to troops. After the war ended, manufacturers had to pivot to peacetime profits, so canned food began crowding shelves at average American's grocery stores. It certainly offered convenience, cost-effectiveness, and a certain degree of peace-of-mind to homemakers.

But, it also took away from the purchase of fresh food, and therefore its preponderance in any given home. This is something that baffles newer generations, who have no idea why you would buy, say, canned veggies instead of fresh ones. One Redditor claims that "80%" of the meals their parents make come out of a can. Yeesh. Boomers don't seem to pay any heed to the canned foods you should avoid at all costs. In their eyes, there are none.

This reliance on canned goods has scarred some folks. "When I was a kid I thought I didn't like peas, broccoli, cauliflower, turkey, and so many other things," bewailed a Redditor. When they realized they could actually eat these items un-canned, perception shifted. "Now when I visit home I try to take over the kitchen as much as possible."

It seems that, for many Boomers, the spice rack is seen, not used. It's almost like a piece of furniture, akin to an end table ... except you get way more use out of an end table than a lot of Boomers get out of their spices.

"Last time I visited my boomer parents, I found bottles of oregano and cinnamon dating back to 1994," admitted one Redditor, whose existence is alarmingly recent. Another commenter followed up with their own spice rack horror story: "I have found a block of onion powder in my parents' spice cabinet. And when I say block I mean a large jar of it where the powder has fully ossified into a solid."

Boomers might argue that this harkens back to a simpler time with cooking. Few ingredients, fewer spices, everybody's fed, we're good, we're safe. (And, it won't help that Andrew Zimmern contracted something called burning-mouth-syndrome from bad cumin.) But, now that entire generations have ignored these instincts and survived wholly intact, it's fair to say these approaches can be put to rest.

It sometimes feels like a vast majority of Americans didn't start eating actual spicy food until the late 1980s. This doesn't, of course, include people from cultural backgrounds where heat in the cuisine is the norm. Those folks aside, however, many in the Boomer demographic either have an aversion to real-deal spice or have a warped sense of what spicy actually is. Bless their hearts.

"I can't help but recall asking my mom if there was anything spicy in the house," chronicled one Redditor. "She offered me 10-year-old cumin and said just a little of that should do." Another remains amused to this day about the time their mother-in-law thought the Thanksgiving stuffing was too spicy. The reason: There was onions in it. "It was just a step above tasteless," the commenter lamented.

Boomer parents seem to have no problem sending the "spicy" likes of basic paprika home with visiting children either –  being "miffed," according to a Redditor, that her husband had to buy it at the store after barely finding seasonings in the house that weren't a decade old. After all, paprika is so spicy they'd never use it. Ah, Boomers are adorable.

Why do Boomers often have a problem with thinking about things? Whether it's dwelling on feelings, figuring out what to do with one's life, or focusing on our mental health, the older set doesn't always like to waste time using up too much brain. After all, did Teddy Roosevelt stop to "think" before storming up San Juan Hill? Did Evel Knievel "think" before leaping over 14 Greyhound buses? Is there any need to "think" too much about how Boomer these references actually are? No, no, and no.

This staunch un-cognition definitely applies to the way many Boomers approach eating. One Redditor was yelled at by her mother for sautéing onion and garlic. "I would never go through all that trouble for dinner," scolded mom. Poor kid. Another equally poor kid followed that post up by saying they were reprimanded by the parents for making a bouquet garni with a Bolognese sauce. "They would never do that," according to the cook who made too much of an effort.

Some of the reasoning behind Boomer's adversarial approach to considered meal prep is just as entertaining-slash-baffling, especially as relayed by a Redditor's anti-seasoning mom: "There is no reason to add more flavor, that's what they do at restaurants to trick your brain into eating low quality food." Gold. Pure gold.

One of the more idiosyncratic phenomena associated with Boomer kitchen life is that generation's obsession with all things gelatinous. Gelatins and jellies were weirdly common in cooking back in the day. This was a carryover from the lean interwar years, where sugary preserves and Jell-O (which were cheap, tasty, and available) became a major component of full meals. Parents of Boomers that grew up on this passed the habit on to their children.

The subreddit "What are some common culinary boomer*isms that you've abandoned?" has a few gems in this regard. "At every meal we always had white bread with margarine and jelly," reports a commenter. "My Dad eats a piece at every meal." Another: "My grandma's (Jello Salad) recipe was shredded carrots, raisins, celery, and walnuts tossed with orange Jell-O and topped with Cool Whip." You mean someone asked for this? There's a reason there are many types of Jell-O salads and no one eats any of them anymore.

Even chicken wasn't spared this baffling approach, as per another Redditor. "My Boomer mom would bake chicken with no salt or pepper or anything, and then five seconds before it hit the table, she would spoon apricot jelly onto it. My spouse still thinks I made that up." So does the person writing this article.

Boomers had access to all kinds of cookware. In fact, many grew up in an age that saw lots of advancements when it came to kitchen appliances. Still, there was one, olden method of cooking that many of them just stuck to. It only required a pot, water, heat, time, and a complete disregard for culinary nuance.

"If my mom had a cooking show," a Redditor conjectured, "it would be called let's boil everything." And, can we take a minute to recognize the plight of greens in the hands of Boomer cooks, specifically. "Boiling vegetables," was one Redditor's succinct nomination for Boomer-isms that should be dumped by the wayside (following it up with a vomit emoji for emphasis).

There were respondents to this post that empathized. "My mom used to dump a can of veggies in a pot and have them boil however long dinner took to cook," relayed a commentor. "I thought my whole life I hated vegetables." Another had a Boomer mother-in-law who would "boil vegetables until they were gray." Because it's always good when something green becomes gray. Hey, if you're going to do it, you might as well learn how to boil veggies right. Otherwise, don't ever do it.

This habit probably shouldn't be as lampooned as it inevitably will be here. Having a set cycle of meals is a very good way to stick to a budget and keep grocery costs down. But, even the most sensible of approaches can be criticized, especially when it becomes militantly followed by an entire generation of human cooks — namely those from Boomtown.

"My mom cooked the same five to ten dishes on constant repeat growing up," a Redditor said. Many Boomers' kids can relate, including this one: "We ate a lot of hamburger helper and mac and cheese." They added that the rotation included meatloaf that was "basically a brick of ground meat seasoned with crackers and ketchup" along with "dry, unseasoned pork chops."

But, Boomer parents make a fair argument for it. According to one Redditor, their mom told them, "Not having consistency and having to plan constantly would have been suicidal with 3 kids." Another, non-Boomer, agreed. "As a parent that's the one home evenings, I also have the same 5-10 dishes on rotate because they're easy to prep" and "I know my kids will eat them." Touché.

The margarine that was first created by a French chemist in the 1860s is very different from its modern iteration. That original version was made with beef tallow (RFK, Jr. would be proud), whereas the one we know now (and which Boomers loved to use) is made from vegetable oils, usually palm or soybean. This is obviously very different from butter, an opponent that the margarine industry waged war against throughout the 20th century by claiming it was a healthier alternative. Even Eleanor Roosevelt got involved in the cause.

It was eventually revealed that, despite deceptive marketing tactics, margarine wasn't all that healthy. This realization may have come too late for many a Boomer, however. They were even complicit in margarine's insidious spread, as one Redditor said about her Boomer mom: "She always called margarine 'butter' as well, so it took me a while as a kid to pick up on why butter tasted so much better outside the home." It would, wouldn't it.

Another Redditor said that a healthy dollop of margarine would often get dumped on their "clumpy white rice," for some reason. Yet another included margarine in their Holy Boomer Trinity, along with Miracle Whip and Folger's. Old habits die hard, it seems. And, habits of the old die even harder.

This is one of the more unsavory disinclinations of Boomers, even if many didn't realize how problematic it really was. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is a flavor enhancer and umami bringer throughout Asian cuisine, along with many others worldwide. It has long been considered a safe ingredient that's much healthier than alternatives, including salt. Yet, for an entire generation, bad science and xenophobia caused this key component of food to be deemed, not just bad for you, but dangerous.

And the notion has, sadly, stuck. "My mother SWEARS she's VIOLENTLY allergic to MSG," a Redditor bemoans. "She is not. She eats things with MSG all the time." They went so far as to even call their mom "kinda racist."

A concordant commenter on this post claimed to get their own mother good when she was on her "Chinese restaurant msg bad kick" by telling her that Cool Ranch Doritos — presumably a favorite snack — had plenty of MSG in there. With all that said, it feels like the real villains here are the bygone gatekeepers of the scientific community that let this damaging bit of misinformation become gospel.

It feels like many of us with Boomer parents were told growing up that we had to finish everything on our plate. Ostensibly, this was because some children somewhere in the world were starving and, by stuffing our entire meals down our gullet, we would show appreciation for their plight. How overeating actually conveys sympathy for those without food can only be boiled down to warped Boomer reasoning.

"Feeling obligated to finish my plate," is a Boomerism that at least one Redditor thinks should be done away with. Another agreed, while also getting into another side of this attitude that's had lasting, negative repercussions: "It took me until adulthood and getting into a weight loss research study to unlearn that."

"Clean plate club," as a Redditor termed it, "created so many unhealthy relationships with food." There are even Boomers who have recognized the errors of these ways in retrospect, at least according to one Redditor, skeptical of their parent: "My mom recently denied ever being a pusher of the 'clean your plate because there are starving children in Africa.'" Well, if you can't reconcile bad habits, do the next best thing: Just deny you ever had them.

Despite what many Boomer parents believe, or at least aren't bothered to pay any mind to, expiration dates are placed on products for a damn good reason: They expire. Even if you need a little help decoding food expiration dates on some items, it's probably well worth it. On account of the health of you and your loved ones.

This has caused a Boomer-reared Redditor to openly rue his folks' "collections of dusty-ass spices they use like once every other year." A different Redditor recounted a story about cleaning out their in-law's home after a power outage, only to find some pretty antiquated edibles. "We threw out containers dated in the 80s. It was 2007."

Similar stories come full and fast on Boomer-bashing Reddit: "My folks have a bottle of Worcestershire sauce in their fridge from 1988 that they won't get rid of." Damn, Boomers. We get that you miss the '80s, but there are other ways to commemorate the decade. Ever heard of just listening to Van Halen?