Is your family is snobby when it comes to homemade dishes

'snobby' 'compulsive desire for homemade food' 'They all get VERY excited'

What is this ignorant, ill-mannered fuckery?
Your posts reveal far more about you than them, OP.

Your in-laws sound lovely, like they value the right things, and are willing to put effort into what matters most.

(Apparently they also keep their own counsel on their sons' choice of wives :)

Not snobby. They know their food. We’re the same. And we favour buying from small, specialist shops including butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers and cheesemongers.

I don't really get why someone preferring homecooked food is amusing or fascinating.

Homecooked food is undoubtedly nicer, and healthier than shop bought, especially things like deserts/bread. Homemade birthday cakes/deserts is a completely normal thing? And if someone has gone to the effort of baking something its again normal to show interest/ask the recipe.

It just sounds like they enjoy food, and cooking/baking is a hobby for them. Again making chutney is normal, growing your own vegetables is normal, not everyone does it but its hardly symbolic of a hilarious/snobby attitude to food. All of these things are just normal ways of eating and enjoying food.

I must be snobby too. I spend spare time cooking (and I work) happily and far prefer simple home cooked to ready meals / Waitrose Indian starter selections. I am always interested in other people’s home cooking too. Your attitude OP strikes me as really odd, I had thought from the thread title that your ILs were being rude, intolerant about eating shop bought, but this doesn’t seem to be what you mean. I’d love to meet your ILs, I think we’d have plenty to chat about.

Once I started making almost everything from scratch I really couldn't go back 🙊

Shop stuff now just tastes like flavoured sugar or underspiced.

Rather a strange way of looking at things OP. I was raised on a lot of processed food but I wouldn’t call home cooked food snobby, surely it is normal - can you not see this?!

As someone said earlier, 100 years ago you couldn’t just go to Waitrose and grab an Indian snack selection and a Cecil caterpillar cake.

In my house we kind of do the same and honestly I never really thought about it before reading your post. But yes, we get excited when we bake a new cake or bread, we do take homemade food when we visit others, we rarely eat ready meals and the occasional shop-bought cake sits in the fridge until time to join the bin.
Are snob? We don't do it to prove any point, so I don't know....

I don’t think it’s snobby either, they just appreciate decent food. I wouldn’t look down upon someone buying a shop bought cake or a microwave meal but you can’t say those taste better than homemade because it’s bullshit. Shop bought cakes are way too sweet, extremely sickly and almost chemically? And there’s no way a microwave lasagne tastes anything like a decent homemade one.

Sure, making three restaurant-style meals at home every day requires more time, space and materials than most people have.

But simply cooking at home and giving your food some love and attention... it's been an accessible option for people who aren't "rich" for literally as long as there have been humans.

The idea that lower-income people are too helpless and unresourceful to cook anything decent at home is offensive on so many levels.

Homemade food is nicer, better quality, cheaper, not stuffed full of chemical preservatives, shows intelligence and care. We do it, as do our children, as did our parents, as do our friends and community. It's not posh. It's constantly evolving- for instance I have learnt vegan cookery in the last few years. My DIL is a wonderful, self taught bread maker.
What's the matter with you? Why are you sneering? You could learn to cook if you wanted to.

As you can tell most people think that there is only one snob on this thread....
Cooking from scratch (especially if you are lucky enough to grow your own food) virus ultra processed, mass produced food is like comparing night and day. There is no great mystery in being able to cook, it shouldn't be considered an unusual and weird thing to do. My sil buys enormous cakes from Costco for every occasion and they are grim, just nasty and artificial tasing. But making a cake is a very easy process and actually edible.

I am on the opposite side of this situation. My ILs are happy with shop-bought food, I much prefer homemade. If I go to theirs for a roast, it’s Aunt Bessie’s yorkshires and roast spuds from a bag in the freezer. Tesco cheesecake for dessert. I eat them and of course say thank you (and yes, I always offer to bring a contribution to the meal). But I don’t enjoy the meal as much as I would if it had been made by the person cooking. When they come to ours, everything is homemade. I hope they don’t think I’m a snob 😬

From your description, it does sound like they are protesting too much. I would say this is a peculiarly British problem. Unfortunately, the class system applies to food as well, and quite strictly too. It might even be one of the last factors (with education) that is heavily class weighted (whatever the correct words are, am not a sociologist). So it's probably correct to say their slightly extreme approach comes from a place of insecurity. On the plus side, it doesn't sound like they have tried to reeducate or shame you for thinking this is daft, OP, so I would say, just enjoy the home made goods!

I've only ever known a couple of people like this. And they talked the talk, but didnt walk the walk IYKWIM.

One was my ex sister in law who refused to believe that I (very rarely) made my own bread. Apparently this was impossible as i didnt have a bread maker. She, on the other hand, made everything herself. The only time I ever had dinner at her house we were served turkey dinosaurs and chips!

The other is also a SIL. She constantly talks about everything hand made, doesnt understand why anyone wouldn't cook from scratch. I have dinner at hers most months. I've never had a meal cooked from scratch. Everything is from a packet or jar of sauce. And theres nothing wrong with that. But at least own it!

Cake doesn’t belong in a fridge <misses point>

YABU. The fact that this is seen as 'snobby' makes me weep. No wonder that we're the fat man of Europe. Perhaps you should take a leaf from their book.

Even a solitary vegetarian deserves a nice home-cooked Christmas dinner!

I did make a lot of family food ( own pastry, cakes, main meals ) from scratch, when a SAHM, but now there’s just me and DP, I don’t bother tbh.
The rise in the cost of ingredients for even basic & simple baking is ludicrous, likewise meat for pies, stews etc. For just us 2, it ends up cheaper to buy it! It saddens me, as I was brought up totally the opposite of how we are now.
Also, recently, I had to buy a cooker real quick, and the oven on this new one is unreliable and too small and
frankly shite so I’m not risking a wad of cash on ingredients only to watch it be a disaster.
I do miss cooking and baking though.

Well, homemade food is generally much nicer.

You specified they would judge, they just get excited about home made stuff. Sounds fabulous. Id probs have bought the marksies vege option but if theyre happy cooking it...

Id love tea at your MILs

They must be youngish with time on their hands. I used to do this, and this year I've realised it's about being together, laughing and living, not being the frazzled cook showing off my culinary skills. So a mixture of homemade [in the freezer now] and bought, and cheers to all enjoying a unfussy Christmas day.

I grew up in a family like this - and it is still how I prefer to eat

In some ways it's annoying TBH - I would love to use more convenience food with a full time job and two young children but I just hate the way it tastes.

When our kitchen was being redone, I lost loads of weight because I couldn't stand ready meals and we couldn't cook properly.

I would much rather not have cake than shop bought cake.

I don’t think it’s snobby. Prepackaged food is not great, especially if entertaining.

i’d be mortified to serve up processed food to anyone I’d invited to my home for a meal.

Even if it tastes nice it won't be as good for you because it will have artificial ingredients in it and it will be more expensive.
Personally I hate eating out and I only eat my own homemade food. I don't give a damn what other people eat, their health and their budget are not my problem!

It's snobby if they judge other people for not cooking everything from scratch, as I believe the OP suggests they do when she says they would understand a single mother buying pre-made stuff but no one else.

Maybe not snobby - judgy.

I like making stuff from scratch but do not have the time in the week. I judge no one for what they eat - it's none of my business. It's rude of anyone to judge anyone else who's doing the best they possibly can with the resources they have available - be those resources time, money or ability.