I recently dumped the leftovers of a pot of spaghetti with hamburger mixed into it, into a hole next to my garden (that spot will eventually be garden as well). Same with some smelly old feta cheese - into the hole with you. I think the issue with some of the no-no's is the smell, and I believe trench composting solves that issue. Of course, someone could surely correct me here.

The issue for some folks is wildlife which will dig up the spent edibles.

You can compost all of it. If it's raw and goes into the center of a hot pile it is cooked pretty fast.

My bin for potentially icky stuff - food that might attract rodents, dog poop etcetera is a re-purposed municipal garbage can, one of those 90 gallon jobs, with a few hundred 1/8th inch holes drilled in it for good air flow. You can't handle the stuff a foot or two deep til it cools off because it stays so hot.

If it came from a plant or animal it composts, period. If someone is just starting to compost then it is probably a good idea to follow the usual (and incorrect) advice given by cities and the internet to stick with the stuff that won't attract pests or cause an anaerobic mess if mishandled until you get the knack of it and keep a consistently 'hot' pile going and then I bury things with potential pathogens a foot or two deep and put stuff like meat on top because condensation on the lid keeps the top of my compost too wet and I get a thriving colony of soldier fly larvae which can vermicompost a steak, 20 pounds of pumpkins or a horny teenaged boy who brings my daughter home late in no time.

Too much of the advice out there is intended to keep newbies from doing something unwise or to keep the squeamish from freaking out. Have a too-dry pile of mostly 'brown' compostables? Fill a gallon jug with urine, mix in a little molasses and spray on your compost and watch those leaves disintegrate as the pile hits 170 degrees. You don't see that advice because pee makes people squeamish but it's cheap nitrogen for the pile and adds moisture and a plethora of major and minor elements required by healthy plants and unless someone has a bladder infection pee is sterile and wasting 5 gallons of water to flush 8oz of pee into our sewage plants is inefficient and irrational....

I'm betting over the next decade the entire population will get smarter about composting and waste disposal. We don't have the space or the water to keep doing silly stuff.

not many 5-gallon flush toilets left out there, thank goodness. Even 3-gal is a dino. I don't use a toilet, but ours are 1.5 gal. My folks recently put in some .75 gal that work very well.

There is no good reason to not compost foods whether cooked or raw.

Cooked or raw, doesn't matter.

Large amounts of fatty or greasy foods are not a good idea unless you can mix them with something like shredded paper or dry leaves. It goes rancid and stinks.

And, things that might attract your local wildlife need to be buried.

Agreed, put it all in. Use common sense with meat, dairy and large amounts of oil (emptying the Fry Daddy), according to your situation. Nature will break down all this stuff, you just want to be sure you can handle realities of the process for whatever you're puttin' in.