Cooking from scratch - do most families still do it?

[Snog]

My friend was very surprised to hear that I cook from scratch.

I used to rely 80% on convenience meals until about ten years ago when I decided (aged 40!!!) to learn to cook so I have been on both sides of the fence.

I'm curious as to whether working families mostly cook from scratch still or whether convenience food is the new norm.
It certainly seems to me that the average family is more time pressured than ever before. For me the main reason I didn't cook was firstly lack of skills and also I always had things I would prefer to do with my time than cook.

I think from a quick google uk adults eat takeaway once a fortnight and a ready meal 3 times a fortnight.

Older people on average eat less than this and young adults eat more. I'm curious as to whether this is typical for families or not.

I cook / prepare food from scratch every day, all meals. Work pt but currently on mat leave. It's the same when working though. 2dc.

We occasionally eat out or have a takeaway but ready meals / pre prepared foods don't feature on our menu.

I should add that i don't consider this to be anything special or unusual! Its the norm in our circle.

I cook from scratch most days but occasionally you've gotta make life easy for yourself and cook fish fingers and chips.

I / we cook from scratch every day, with the exception of using seasoning sachets like the spag Bol power from Colman’s etc. if i don’t have time to do it completely from scratch. I will also buy things like fish cakes or sometimes burgers that are pre-made.

We have takeaway sometimes once a fortnight, sometimes not for months. It’s uauy wagamamas or fish and chips though. I prefer making my own curry from scratch.

I maybe buy a ready meal once every couple of months. Usually a Charlie Bigham pie or similar.

My mum didn’t cook much from scratch, mostly oven cook things like chips, fish fingers, baked potatoes etc although she didn’t make a roast once a week. So, for me, it feels important to cook nutritious home cooked meals most days, and to make sure that they get their 5 fruit and veg, as there is a strong history of cancer in my family. Personally I find it much easier to get the 5 in by cooking.

We generally cook from scratch however pre made items such as meatballs, burgers or fish cakes to feature

I cook from scratch most days with the occasional oven food meal (chicken chargrills, fish, bought pie etc) maybe once or twice a week depending on what we are doing. We tend to have a takeaway on a Saturday (Just me and hubby dd doesn't have takeaway unless it's pizza) I'm on mat leave with ds atm and don't mind cooking but when I work part time I rely on slow cooker most days!

Cook from scratch most days. We're vegetarian and convenience food for veggies is even worse than the stuff made from factory farmed meat! Like £4 for some macaroni cheese, you can do one! You get less nutrition and flavour for more money with convenience food.

We eat a bit of freezer food though like veggie sausages and oven chips.

95% from scratch and always have done. have the very very occassional dirty curry

I cook everything from scratch when on maternity leave (including cakes, biscuits etc), when at work it's semi-scratch as a few times a week I might use things like a pre-made curry sauce or chilli con carne seasoning, or have eggs and oven chips for a quick supper.
We rarely have takeaway as it's expensive for a family of 6 and I can cook better at home, while ready meals are also expensive and such a faff with lots of us.

I always cook from scratch and always have, even when I was a single parent of two kids and working as a hospital doctor.
It just requires planning ahead.
It helped that I lived 10 miles from the nearest supermarket and could only food shop once a week - I made a meal plan and bought all the ingredients at once, and there was no easy access to convenience foods or restaurants!
I’m sure it’s much more nutritious than all the salt, sugar and additives in ready meals, and I always served a good helping of veg with each meal. Having a freezer and microwave meant I could store portions and reheat easily as needed.

90% of the time I do.

Mostly... The odd freezer pizza and filled pasta gets used when cantbearseditis hits. Takeaways are rubbish and too far for most of them to deliver in under 90 minutes so the food is cold. It is easier and quicker to cook from scratch.

Older people on average eat less than this and young adults eat more. I'm curious as to whether this is typical for families or not.

I'm actually quite surprised by this - in my incredibly anecdotal experience people of my parents age (50s-60s) seem to buy a lot more convenience food than my peers (30s). Though younger people do buy a lot more takeaway food in my - again, v anecdotal - experience.

I hate the phrase 'cooking from scratch' it means different things to different people. - I cook a lot, but I also use a lot of convenience foods like frozen chopped onion and garlic. I use stock cubes instead of my own - although I do have batches of frozen stock and gravies for special occasions. I thicken sauces with cornflour when I can rather than messing up another pan for a roux, or chuck bisto granules in if time is too short for the sauce to cook down.

We have takeaways, but don't typically have food that is bought prepared as a full meal like chiller/frozen meals or processed stuff. However that's another thing - processed foods makes you think of chicken nuggets etc, but where do you draw the line? Bread? Coffee?

I very very rarely cook from scratch

I do, But might buy the occasional pie or something.
I get readymade felafel for lunchboxes, but most things I do myself.

Once a fortnight we have fish fingers and once every six weeks ready made pizza and snacks are sometimes bought biscuits but otherwise it's all from scratch including veg stock and sauces (except ketchup and 60% of bread we eat).

Agreed, popcorn. I'd say we cook from scratch apart from our fortnightly oven pizzas and monthly payday takeaway, but it's not like we're making our own bread - we used tinned tomatoes, stock cubes, curry paste (but not full ready made curry sauce) etc.

Am older, dont like ready meals or take away, so cook but nothing elaborate as dont like cooking either. So pasta, potatoes or rice, meat or fish, with variety of veg. Ready prepared stuff as much as possible, just put it together and cook.

Cook from scratch most of the time. So if i'm making a spaghetti bolognese, I get my mince onions peppers and mushrooms, fry them all off, add a full tin of chopped tomatoes and then 250ml beef stock, leave to simmer down and add generous lashings of Worcestershire(sp?) sauce. I don't mind the pasta/spaghetti from scratch though ahaha

Have a takeaway once a month ish, usually on pay day.
Tonight I can't be bothered and we haven't been shopping, so getting a cooked chicken, salad and crusty bread from morrisons.

Will occasionally shove pre pared chicken in the oven and make some proper chips and chop up a salad.

I forgot biscuits - yes, always buy biscuits, homemade just don't dunk the way that a McVitaes does.

I cook most from scratch but I do buy pre packaged things like beef burnt ends from Sainsbury's, meatballs I get them from there too, but I do love a take away so we tend to eat takeaways once or twice a week

And bags of frozen stir fry mix, so if you're in a rush you can put the kettle on for the noodles, chuck the veg straight in the wok, add a bag of frozen prawns a bit of soy sauce and can pretty much be eating within 10 minutes.