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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Nov 23.
Published in final edited form as: Appetite. 2021 Jan 19;161:105125. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105125

Table 4.

Proposed evidence-based age-appropriate cooking skills recommendations for children.

No. Age Cooking Skill Expert Considerations
1 2–3 years Washing Fruit and Vegetables
2 Kneading and Mixing with Hands More for tactile experience, quality questionable, possibly practice with a utensil
3 Tearing
4 Using a Rolling Pin
5 Rolling Mixtures into Balls
6 Breaking Vegetables into Pieces
7
8
9 		3–5 years Using a Cookie Cutter
Stirring and Mixinga
Mashing
10 Spooning
11 Cutting, Chopping and Slicingb Extremely close supervision and dependant on what is being chopped, begin with child safe knives/plastic/ butter knives and easier food such as chopping herbs or bananas. With practice and increased age and strength, sharper knives can be introduced and food more difficult to chop such as carrots.
12 Spreading and
13 Buttering
Using Scissorsb
14 Brushing Oil on with a Pastry Brush
15 Sieving
16 Squeezing
17 5–7 years Sprinkling and Rubbing In
18 Breading, Flouring and Dipping
19 Picking and Podding
20 Greasing
21
22 		Peeling with Fingers Skeweringb
23 Pouring from a container
24 Crushing and Pounding
25 Shaking Liquids in a Sealed Container
26
27 		7–9 years Weighing and Measuringd
Using a Graterb
28 Using an Oven or Microwavead
29
30 		Draining
Using a Hand Mixerc
31
32 		9þ
years 		Using a Peeler
Using a Can Opener Stirring and Mixing over Heat		 Child and prior cooking experience dependent
Using Sharp Scissors Child and prior cooking experience dependent
Skewering
Unsupervised
Weighing and Measuring
Unsupervised
Using a Grater
Unsupervised
Using an Oven or Microwave
Unsupervised		 Child and prior cooking experience dependent, perhaps at older ages
Using a Hand Mixer Unsupervised Child and prior cooking experience dependent, perhaps at older ages

Superscript letters represent cooking skills that may need to be considered in an older age range due to additional developmental requirements:

a

– safety risk, potential for burns

b

– safety risk, sharp instruments or blades

c

– safety risk, other

d

– requirement of numeracy/literacy skills.