Mumsnet Talk

sorry if this has already been asked but another silly article in DM based on a survey said that a high percentage of mothers (not sure if Dads were mentioned) don't cook from scratch as they don't have time. I'm not really interested in the validity of the study etc but I really want to know what 'cook from scratch' means to you.
Is it meat plus a jar of sauce?
Is it hand whittling your own herbs?
I am really curious...

It means fresh ingredients so no jars of pasta sauces but plenty of chopped toms.

That said, I do use pataks curry paste which may be hypocritical.

To me it means turning a whole set of raw ingredients into something cooked. Vegetables, meat, sauce, everything...except pastry, would never waste time on making that from scratch

Putting my ready meal in the oven not micro! ;-)

Good question. To be it means nothing processed I.e. breadcrumb ing your own chicken nuggets, making bolognese with tonnes tomatoes rather than a jar of sauce.

I call it "nothing from a box" food, and yes, it often does mean fresh herbs in our house.

I've just noticed we don't make our own breadcrumbs though. Maybe that's the next step! And no one has time to make their own pasta ...

It means not using the microwave

To me it means taking the listed ingredients and making the food - if the list includes a jar of sauce, then so be it. However, I have come across a thread or two on here where some posters have insisted that it means using your own home-grown, picked by the light of a virgin moon, food.

I think it means different things to different people tbh.

Starting with the basic ingredients for everything.

I think the DM is probably right but being misleading iyswim. Upthread someone said they never make their own pastry, I never make custard from scratch, I use the powder. I don't make my own pasta either.

I very much doubt that technically speaking anyone cooks from scratch ever. And there's nothing wrong with that. There is a world of difference between using dried pasta with a from scratch sauce, and feeding your family microwave pizza.

raw ingredients to start with, then Ta-Daaaaaaa a meal.

Yes, raw ingredients turned into something. But within reason and sanity - doubtless some wouldn't say my lasagnes are cooked from scratch because while I don't buy jars of sauce, I do buy ready made lasagne. The purists would have you getting out the pasta mangle thing.

It means using the ingredients to make the meal, so chopping onions , or using pre-chopped, cooking those before adding the tomatoes - either fresh, canned or passata - and whatever other ingredients you put in your tomatoe sauce for pasta, rather than opening a jar and reheating it's contents.

I know someone who makes her own pasta, she doesn't have DCs but does work very long hours running her own businesses and chooses not buy things like pasta ready made. I CBA at this point in my life

No, it means give yourself a nice long scratch, and then without any hygiene-based intervention, piercing the lid and setting the dial, shorely?

For me cooking from scratch would include:

Dried pasta
Prepared spice mixture (Bought Thai curry paste or Ras an Hanout for example not mixing spcies myself)
Tinned tomatoes

But would not include:

Cook in sauce
prepared foods

Bit of a false division now I think about it though

Meat plus a jar of sauce is not cooking from scratch....

We bread our own turkey/chicken, prep roasts (don't buy in a tin and throw in oven), make stews, pies (sometimes with potato top, sometimes using bought pastry), I roast veg etc and don't buy in a jar. I do use dried pasta (we prefer it!), buy bread from the supermarket and when I use fresh herbs they come from sainsburys . I class this a cooking from scratch.

I grow my own wheat to make my pasta

No packets or jars
Dried pasta & tinned tomato ok though!

To me, that means putting all the ingredients together yourself. This may include a jarred/fresh sauce (but not if its boiled pasta and sauce).

So as many simple ingredients, but the odd shortcut when it makes sense

Similar to dashoflime

I would probably use ready prepared pesto and curry paste and still call it cooking from scratch.

To me cooking from scratch would mean working from a recipe using stuff without resorting to jars of sauce or using ready prepared meals.

I use dried pasta, tinned tomatoes, frozen herbs and spices and bought veg.

I don't have a vegetable garden, a pasta machine or poultry and a pig in the garden to slaughter either. .

Using curry pastes and s pice blends is not cooking from scratch IMO, but using tinned toms/pulses/pasta is.

I would say if you are cooking from a recipe, or in that manner, ie not just heating things up, then that is from scratch. Many recipes state curry paste as an ingredient for example, so that would be OK. I do make pastry (in a food processor) but use curry paste sometimes, also use frozen chopped herbs, stock cubes etc (I do make stock but only when we have roast chicken which is fairly rare). Never make pasta.

I also think reheating frozen stuff that you've cooked from scratch counts.

From scratch to me means raw ingredients, not jars etc. I've never made something like my own pasta though that's chef territory!!

Some people I know cook 'from scratch' meaning a jar of sauce and some meat, maybe a few veg thrown in.

I've never made lasagne from scratch but a school gate mum looks down her nose at me for that because she'd never eat 'shop bought' lasagne.
No, no ,no hers is homemade.
With Ragu and mincemeat!
I think she deserves some kind of award from Jamie Oliver

wombling
Please explain the difference between taking 1/2 teaspoon each of tumeric, cloves, cumin, coriander etc and 2 teaspons of curry powder containing tumeric, cloves, cumin, coriander etc.

take raw(ish) ingrdients and cook something.
raw imo includes frozen veg, tin of toms, dried herbs...