eBay Australia has introduced the eBay Kitchen 101 hub designed for people lacking basic cooking skills.
Search data has revealed that hundreds-of-thousands of people turn to Google for answers on simple cooking queries from boiling eggs to storing chicken in the fridge. eBay has commissioned its own research into culinary skills and revealed the key findings.
The most searched for cooking skill is ‘how to boil and egg’ with almost 400,000 people seeking the answer each year. While nearly everybody (98%) said they know how long to boil an egg, when put to the test, just over one in 10 (14%) could accurately pick the right amount of time of four minutes, based on a picture reference with one in 10 over-estimating by at least double.
Despite 100,000 Australians searching for the answer to ‘how to cook pasta’ each year, 98% say they know how to cook pasta but only 36% accurately estimate it takes between nine and 12 minutes to cook dried pasta until it’s ‘al dente’. Interestingly, not everybody cooks their pasta on the stove with one million people saying they use their microwave to make pasta.
Almost 320,000 need Google’s help with ‘how to cook rice’ each year despite 98% claiming they know how to make rice on the stovetop. In reality, only one in three (32%) Australians actually got it right (12-15 minutes) when asked.
Further, 57,000 people search for ‘how long chicken lasts in the fridge’ each year and 2.3 million think cooked chicken stays good in the fridge for five days or more, while 142,000 say it lasts eight days or longer – more than twice the recommended length.
eBay Australia’s Sophie Onikul said, “We know Australians love their food but it’s clear that many can’t handle the heat in the kitchen. eBay is stepping in as sous-chef to help aspiring home cooks gain more confidence, whipping up a dedicated ebay.com.au hub, Kitchen 101. We’ve mixed in every basic ‘how-to’ based on the nation’s top Google search queries and topped it off with the latest kitchen gadgets so clueless cooks can master the basics.”