Cooking confidence is strongest for familiar basics and weaker when cooks must work from fresh ingredients without instructions. UK survey data from 2008-09 and a local Hull and East Riding panel survey from December 2024-January 2025 show how confidence changes by technique, food, age, gender, and cooking situation.
Contents
- What UK adults felt confident doing
- Confidence by cooking technique
- Gender differences in technique confidence
- How younger adults compared
- Confidence with different foods
- Preparing meals without help
- Recipe-free cooking and cooking frequency
What UK adults felt confident doing
The most detailed national figures come from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey. They are weighted self-reports from 509 adults collected in 2008-09, so they describe perceived confidence or ability rather than observed performance. The study found high confidence for several everyday methods, but the results were not equally high across all techniques.
Boiling was the most widely reported confident technique: 93.1% of UK adults said they were confident using it, with a 95% confidence interval of 90.0% to 95.2%. Confidence was also high for grilling at 90.6% (95% CI 87.3%-93.1%) and oven-baking or roasting at 90.0% (95% CI 86.4%-92.7%). Frying reached 88.2% (95% CI 84.8%-90.9%), while microwaving reached 83.1% (95% CI 79.3%-86.4%).
The less familiar or more technique-specific methods had lower reported confidence. Stewing, braising or casseroling was reported by 76.0% (95% CI 71.4%-80.1%), and steaming or poaching by 75.0% (95% CI 70.4%-79.0%). Stir-frying was reported by 74.4% (95% CI 70.0%-78.4%), the lowest of the eight techniques measured in this set. These figures come from Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of cooking skills in UK adults and should be read as historical UK survey estimates, not current national measurements.
Confidence by cooking technique
The pattern is useful for home cooking because it separates broad familiarity from confidence with a specific method. A cook may feel comfortable preparing food generally while feeling less certain about steaming, poaching, or combining high heat with quick timing in a stir-fry.
| Technique | UK adults confident, 2008-09 | 95% confidence interval |
|---|---|---|
| Boiling | 93.1% | 90.0%-95.2% |
| Grilling | 90.6% | 87.3%-93.1% |
| Oven-baking or roasting | 90.0% | 86.4%-92.7% |
| Frying | 88.2% | 84.8%-90.9% |
| Microwaving | 83.1% | 79.3%-86.4% |
| Stewing, braising or casseroling | 76.0% | 71.4%-80.1% |
| Steaming or poaching | 75.0% | 70.4%-79.0% |
| Stir-frying | 74.4% | 70.0%-78.4% |
The confidence intervals show the uncertainty around each estimate. They are not a measure of how difficult a recipe is, and the survey did not observe participants cooking. Still, the spread from 93.1% for boiling to 74.4% for stir-frying indicates that perceived competence was noticeably more common for some methods than others.
Gender differences in technique confidence
The same 2008-09 UK data reported differences between men and women. Women reported higher confidence for boiling, steaming or poaching, stir-frying, grilling, oven-baking or roasting, stewing, braising or casseroling, and microwaving. Men reported slightly higher confidence for frying. These are self-reported group estimates; they do not establish why the differences appeared or whether they represent cooking performance.
For boiling, confidence was 89.7% among men (95% CI 84.2%-93.4%) and 96.3% among women (92.6%-98.2%). Steaming or poaching showed a larger gap: 67.3% for men (60.0%-73.9%) compared with 82.3% for women (76.9%-86.7%). Stir-frying was reported by 69.7% of men (62.6%-75.9%) and 79.0% of women (73.4%-83.7%).
Women also reported higher confidence with grilling, at 93.4% (89.4%-96.0%), compared with 87.7% among men (82.1%-91.8%). For oven-baking or roasting, the reported figures were 97.7% for women (95.1%-98.9%) and 81.9% for men (75.3%-87.0%). The gender difference was much smaller for stewing, braising or casseroling: 84.2% for women (79.2%-88.2%) and 81.9% for men (75.8%-86.8%).
Microwaving had the same reported values in the supplied survey results: 84.2% for women (79.2%-88.2%) and 81.9% for men (75.8%-86.8%). Frying was the exception to the general direction, with 90.0% of men (84.2%-93.2%) reporting confidence compared with 86.8% of women (82.1%-90.4%).
How younger adults compared
Among UK adults aged 19-34 in 2008-09, confidence remained high for several basic and familiar methods. Boiling was reported by 92.2% (95% CI 85.7%-95.9%), frying by 89.0% (82.1%-93.4%), microwaving by 89.4% (82.0%-94.0%), and oven-baking or roasting by 88.8% (80.5%-93.8%). Grilling reached 87.1% (79.1%-92.3%), while stir-frying reached 72.5% (63.1%-80.3%).
The lowest confidence levels for this age group were again associated with steaming or poaching and with longer, slower combination methods. Steaming or poaching was reported by 59.6% (49.3%-69.0%), and stewing, braising or casseroling by 59.8% (49.6%-69.3%). The intervals are relatively wide, which matters when interpreting estimates for this subgroup.
The age-specific results do not mean that every younger adult has less confidence. They show the percentage reporting confidence in this particular sample and period. They also cannot be treated as a current picture of adults aged 19-34, because the measurements were collected in 2008-09.
Confidence with different foods
Confidence also varied by ingredient. In the 2008-09 UK survey, potatoes other than chips had the highest reported confidence among the listed foods: 94.3% (95% CI 91.2%-96.4%). Fresh green vegetables such as cabbage, spinach or broccoli followed at 92.7% (89.4%-95.1%), while root vegetables such as carrots or parsnips reached 89.6% (86.1%-92.3%).
Chicken was reported at 91.3% (88.1%-93.8%), and red meat at 87.7% (84.2%-90.5%). Confidence cooking savoury rice was 87.8% (84.1%-90.7%), and dry pasta was 84.9% (80.9%-88.1%). White fish such as cod, haddock or plaice was lower at 79.7% (75.4%-83.5%), while oily fish such as herring, mackerel or salmon was reported by 69.9% (65.2%-74.1%).
Pulses such as split peas and lentils had the lowest reported confidence in this food comparison, at 60.4% (55.5%-65.1%). This does not measure taste, nutritional value, or actual success with an ingredient. It measures whether respondents considered themselves confident cooking it.
Preparing meals without help
The survey also asked whether adults could prepare different kinds of food without help. Convenience foods or ready meals were the most widely reported ability: 97.6% said they could prepare them without help (95% CI 95.3%-98.7%). A complete meal from ready-made ingredients was reported by 93.1% (90.1%-95.3%).
The figure fell to 89.2% for preparing a main dish from basic ingredients without help (85.5%-92.1%). Baking from basic ingredients was less widely reported: 69.0% said they could prepare a cake or biscuits without help (64.2%-73.4%). The contrast suggests that confidence depended partly on the level of transformation and precision perceived in the task.
These results describe perceived independence, not whether respondents cooked alone every time. They also do not show how often each task was attempted or how respondents defined “without help.”
Recipe-free cooking and cooking frequency
More recent results are available from the People’s Panel VOX POP December 2024 Analysis Report. This survey covered Hull and East Riding respondents during December 2024-January 2025. It is a local panel survey, not a national UK estimate. In this report, “confident” means ratings 4 or 5 on a five-point scale, while “not confident” means ratings 1 or 2. Percentages may not sum to 100% because of rounding and omitted middle categories.
Confidence was 94% for cooking a ready meal, with 3% not confident. It was 90% for cooking a meal using pre-prepared foods such as jarred sauces or frozen foods, with 4% not confident. When fresh ingredients were used with a recipe or instructions, 82% were confident and 10% were not confident.
Recipe-free cooking produced a sharper split. Sixty percent were confident cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients without a recipe or instructions, while 23% were not confident. Even so, 93% said they could cook at least one meal from scratch with fresh ingredients without a recipe or instructions. Within that group, 29% said they could cook 1-5 such meals, 23% said 6-10, and 42% said 11 or more.
Self-ratings broadly matched this gradient. Sixty percent rated themselves good or very good at cooking, combining 35% good and 25% very good. Thirty-five percent rated themselves average, while 7% rated themselves bad or very bad, combining 5% bad and 2% very bad. One percent said they never cook.
The older UK survey also measured how often respondents prepared a main meal for themselves or others. Overall, 63.1% did so at least five days per week (95% CI 58.1%-67.8%), while 83.9% said the main food provider in their household did so at least five days per week (80.0%-87.2%). The individual figures were 43.5% for men (36.5%-50.8%) and 81.9% for women (76.0%-86.6%). Among adults aged 19-34, 53.3% prepared a main meal at least five days per week (43.1%-63.2%), compared with 67.8% of adults aged 35-49 (59.0%-75.4%). These frequency figures come from 2008-09 and should not be combined with the later Hull and East Riding results as if they were one survey.