Our ancestors did not have all the comforts which we now have but yet they were happy and enjoyed what they ate. Food certainly paid a major part in their lives.

Centuries ago, natives cooked on open fires on hot stones. There were no ovens or any electrical appliances. The cutting, chopping, grinding were all done by hand. They used ceramic ware and cast iron pots and pans. Cooking process was a long and tedious chore. In place of ovens, housewives baked bread from home grown grain ground at a mill and preserved food. It graduated to brick baking ovens equipped with iron doors to do your baking. In the present day, you do not have to go through that process but is able to pick up a load of bread from the store.

By 1960s family habits started changing. College-educated women seized the chance to become a career woman and have a family. Meals were no longer formal as in the past, with the whole family around the table at specific meal times, but became casual and help yourself from the well stocked fridge. When weather permitted meat was often cooked outdoors on a charcoal grill.

Just as much as you are able to appreciate the fact that you do not have to spend so much of time baking bread, the joy and fulfillment of doing it yourself and serving your family bread you baked is no longer there. Family too appreciate what their wives and moms do towards their family if time permitted and such things bind a family together. While understanding that in the present day it is all about how you spend your time.

Time being of essence, modern day cooking was not meal oriented but is more inclined towards cooking for several days of the week. To facilitate a quick hot meal, microwave ovens are affordable. Development of modern kitchens paved the way for modern cooking which was all about not having to spend too much of time in the kitchen making meals, as there were so many equally important things to be done. Due to time constraints ways and means were found to spend less time in the kitchen. Advent of ready to serve meals became the order of the day. Cakes and pastries which were made in abundance at home, were now purchased off the shelf.

Thanksgiving and Christmas lunches and dinners cooked in the traditional ethnic way is something everyone looks forward to. It is understood that food cooked in the ethnic way is not something that can be done in day to day life, but it does become a treat when it is savored now and again.

For certain there are distinct advantages and benefits in both these ways of cooking as modern cooking saves time and the ethnic cooking is the gourmet delight.