Forget snail caviar and crocodile steaks, we're getting less - rather than more - imaginative in the kitchen.
New research from Oxo shows that today's typical meal uses seven ingredients - half of what went into a 1950s offering.
The average number of ingredients in a meal rose from 14 in the 1950s to 18 in the 1960s, before dropping to three or four in the 1970s and 1980s in the drive for convenience.
The rise to fame of TV chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gary Rhodes in the 1990s took the average number of ingredients up to 10.
But now, it seems, we're too busy to grapple with complicated cooking and favour time-saving, ready-prepared ingredients and traditional recipes.
"While cooks in the 1960s prepared complicated dishes using long and drawnout techniques, in 2008 we use convenient ingredients that sometimes do more than one job at a time," said Sue Brennan from Oxo.
"In the 1950s a dish like Lancashire hotpot or sausage stew would simmer away for several hours, but in 2008 one of our favourite dishes is chicken stir-fry, made in minutes with pre-chopped veg."