Can't decide what to eat for dinner? Make it a smaller question
Swap the open question for three small ones and you can settle dinner in about five minutes.
By The Scullery team · Written
Updated
If you can't decide what to eat for dinner, the question is usually too big. "What do you fancy?" asks everyone to come up with an answer from nothing. Swap it for three smaller questions: what's out, which of these three, and who chooses. Together they take about five minutes.
What's out tonight?
Start by ruling things out, because people find that easier than choosing. Thirty seconds each:
- What have you already eaten today? Pasta at lunch takes pasta off the table.
- How long has the cook got? If it's half an hour, anything that needs an hour in the oven waits for the weekend.
- Does anyone want to go to the shop? If not, it has to come from what's in.
Write the answers down if there are more than two of you. They are the brief for the next step.
Which of these three?
Now find three meals that survive the brief. Three is enough to make a real choice and few enough that nobody needs to scroll.
Start with recipes you've cooked before; they're quick to judge. If none fit, see what to cook when you don't know what to cook for a way to find new ones from a single ingredient.
Then ask a smaller question again. Not "which do you want most?" but "which would you eat?" Each person can say yes to more than one. A yes costs nothing, and it shows where the overlap is.
Who chooses?
One person picks from the yeses, usually whoever is cooking. If two meals tie, the cook takes the easier one and the other goes on the list for later in the week.
That's the part people skip, and it's why the conversation loops. Without someone to make the call, a shortlist is just a longer list.
Where Scullery helps
We make Scullery, and its Library opens with Not sure what to make?: a row of suggestions that starts with your own recipes, each with a short reason such as A household favourite or Not cooked before. The Quick, One pot and Something new chips narrow the row to match tonight's brief. If too few of your recipes fit, recipes from the public catalogue fill the gap.
When the household is choosing together, put the candidates on the shared shortlist for tonight and agree at the table, as described in how to decide what to cook for dinner. Once someone has chosen, Make this next on the recipe page makes it your upcoming meal in the Library, with Start cooking ready.
Common questions
What should I eat when nothing sounds good?
Rule things out first: what you've already eaten today, anything that takes too long, anything you'd need to shop for. Then look at three meals that are left and ask which one you would eat, not which one you want most.
Why is it so hard to decide what to have for dinner?
Usually because the question is too open. "What do you fancy?" asks everyone to invent an answer. "Which of these three?" only asks them to react.
Who should make the final choice?
The person cooking, unless you've agreed otherwise. Everyone else gets a say before the choice, not a veto after it.
Can Scullery suggest what to cook from my own recipes?
Yes. The Library opens with Not sure what to make?, a row of suggestions that starts with your household's recipes. Quick, One pot and Something new narrow it, and when too few of your recipes fit, recipes from the public catalogue fill the gap.
Start from the recipes you already cook
Scullery is free. Save the recipes your household likes, and the Library suggests a few for tonight when nobody can decide.
