Do your "people" cook from scratch?

[JohnSmithDrive]

My mum did and I do mostly. If I have people round for a buffet, things like quiche and sausage rolls, cake are homemade. If it's for dinner it won't be particularly exciting, but I'd do a homemade chilli or lasagne, something easy to prep ahead and feed lots of people..

Among my friends no one cooks, to the extent that it feels pretentious to do so. They are all generous hosts, but everything will be from a packet or they'll suggest takeaway pizza or similar.

I worry that my cooking seems like showing off and also (sometimes) wonder why I bother!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

My homemade lasagne is sloppy. We prefer it like that.

@LostForIdeas we very rarely eat ready meals, but the ones I have been most impressed with are from the Cook range.

We had a couple of curries the other week, and they tasted just like the ones I make from scratch (yes I roast and grind my own spices )

My circle of friends certainly don't cook from scratch. I would be gobsmacked if anyone served home made cheese!

My family (siblings) do make most things from scratch, and seem to think I'm some sort of low life for serving my DC packet quiche or opening a har of pesto rather than taking a pestle and miter on holiday to grind my own basil. I like cooking, but working full time I just don't have the time and energy to cook everything from scratch. I'll make my own lasagne, but buy the pasta and sauces and the meat/quorn/veg and assemble it.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

My homemade lasagne is sloppy. We prefer it like that.

Same. Lasagne you can slice neatly is just wrong.

People are either food enthusiasts or not

I would agree with this, which is why when we invite people round for dinner the food and wine are as important as the company.

Of course there's a difference between prepared/cleaned/de-boned etc ingredients and packet food. When I say I cook salmon, I don't mean that I go catch and gut the fish necessarily, but I do mean buying a piece of actual salmon, and not tesco microwaveable salmon meal.

@HeavyHeidi

Sure, a ready made dish from a plastic packaging can often taste even better than home made. Because it's full of sugar and trans fats. I cook at home not because I'm a snob, but because it is unarguably much better for your health to start with actual ingredients, like vegetables, meat and fish - instead of reaching for a dish where they have industrially processed with the aim of making them as sugar and fat laden to appeal to the many people, with the longest possible shelf life.

This is an important point - an advantage of cooking from scratch is having control over what you eat. Good ready made food exists - Cook frozen meals for example, contain the same ingredients you’d have in a home kitchen, and they look and taste more or less home made. There are also some supermarket ready meals that are ok, but many that are not. Reading the labels is important if you want to stay healthy and eat mostly pre prepared food.

Whereas if you pick up something ready made that’s cheaper than these expensive meals, including from supermarket finest ranges, they can have all sorts of additives and processing ingredients that you’d never find in a home kitchen. If you eat a lot of food with these in, known as ultra processed food, it is bad for your health.

I bought a finest range cake from a supermarket a few months ago because I had no time to bake and had someone coming around. It tasted nice (after I got over my shock at the tiny size once out of the packet ). It contained palm oil, corn syrup, emulsifiers, preservatives and artificial flavorings. As an occasional thing it’s fine but not as a routine part of the diet for people who care about their health.

I think theres a real and unnecessary snobbery about home cooked food. Very often people criticise the poor for using ready meals and takeaways and attribute this to lack of skills and knowledge. Personally, I don't believe it. Cooking is easy, anyone with a few basic tools can do it watching YouTube tutorials. People don't cook because they don't want to, and that's fine, people shouldn't be made to feel lazy or ashamed to admit it. I don't know why cooking from scratch is seen as some sort of virtue. I bet the queen never cooks. I don't think the argument that cooking from scratch is cheaper either holds water. Basic ready meals, frozen pizza etc are very cheap. I agree that they're probably not anywhere near as healthy as home cooking though.

On a different note, why do some people in a debate focus on extremes. It’s ridiculous. I know foodie people and I am confident that none of them make their own cheese, and the vast majority buy in sourdough rather than making all their own bread, buy in pasta, use tinned tomatoes. My chinese friend buys in noodles rather than making her own and buys in soy sauce rather than fermenting her own. It’s very normal to use some processed ingredients when cooking from scratch and there’s little material difference between those prepared ingredients and what you’d make yourself.

Very often people criticise the poor for using ready meals and takeaways and attribute this to lack of skills and knowledge. Personally, I don't believe it.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with you. Yes, cooking is easy for us who know how to cook, but there are loads of people who don't know how to cook because they never learned at school or at home.

Because of this they won't have fostered an interest in cooking and will see food as fuel rather than something to be enjoyed.

I went to school in the 1970s, and we learned how to cook properly from scratch, not just to assemble a few ingredients. I did home economics at O level and A level. I love watching cookery shows and have brought up DD to have the same interest in food as I do.

My interest in food was handed down to me and my sister by my Cordon Bleu qualified mother who was an excellent cook.

I feel that if you model good home cooked food in the home it does encourage the interest in the next generation.

YouTube tutorials and various Facebook feeds are brilliant, but the interest has to be there in the first place.

We cook all our main meals and desserts from scratch but buy party food in packaging! I don’t fancy spending all my Xmas making canapés and dips! M&S (and all supermarkets) do it better..

They had the 'Cook' frozen meals in the farm shop, the process for preparing isn't the same, even those premium meals taste nothing like a day prepped and made food.

My brother can cook too, we've thought of launching a street food business, but I just feel, large-scale cooking is a different skill set, and sacrifices have to be made.
Mrs. Hr makes some awesome food from her home country, it's so tasty.
If you enjoy cooking, you enjoy it.
Plus, in Mrs hr country, grandmother will prepare a big feast and you must eat it. It's really insulting not to. A lot of effort has gone into prepping.
I think we Brits have lost that familial-farm to fork connection.

For me, life has 4 main pleasurable delights.
Sex
Food
Drink
Excercise

I was a secondary school teacher for 26 years. All students did food tech up to year 9. GCSE and A level were on offer and were very popular. So kids are taught at school.

My mum cooked, but l hate cooking. Just loathe it. So it’s not akways modelling, it’s individual preference. I cook because l have to, l don’t enjoy it.

My 4 main delights are
Reading
Friends
Crafts
Eating cake cooked by other people.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

My 4 main delights are Reading Friends Crafts Eating cake cooked by other people.

I'm no good at crafts, my idea of hell. Reading is ok, but it doesn't release the rush of endorphins like my selection. My runners high, make me feel indestructible. And the salivating ready for food is overpowering, the first bite releases serious chemical effects. Bliss.

@LostForIdeas Here is a good quality ready meal. There is absolutely nothing in the ingredients that you would not include if making it yourself.

I don’t. Lack of time and confidence. Really annoyed by people who had nicer, less deprived childhoods sticking their noses up - surely what matters is whether it bloody tastes nice?

@RobinPenguins

Quite a lot of difference. Is that really hard to understand? I am a pretty good cook. My friends would wonder why I had invited them for a meal and then just heated up a ready meal.

If I invite my friends round or vice versa, it’s because we want to spend time with each other, the food is a supporting role not the main purpose of it. They really, really don’t care if I’ve made the lasagne myself and it comes out of the oven in a glass dish or I’ve bought it from the deli and it’s come out of the oven in a foil tray. If they’d be insulted by me buying something pre-prepared they wouldn’t be my friends.

Oh and I’m disabled and my friends aren’t shitheads.

Dm cooked mostly from scratch, back in the 70s we were having pasta and rice meals a lot even though we lived in "meat, potatoes and 2 veg" land. So sauces tended to start with onion and garlic frying, a tiny of tomatoes for pasta sauce or spices with water for curries (coconut milk was definitely not a thing yet!). She bought bread but tended to bake most sweet things. That sort of house.

DH grew up in the more traditional "meat, potatoes and 2 veg" house, so plenty of stews etc, but DMIL made those herself, not using a packet.

We do a mix, as we work long hours so need convenience. But I try to batch cook and freeze, and make time to cook properly as much as I can. So I have some jars and packets, and a lot of tins and basic ingredients too. I have experimented with baking with yeast, I just don't have time to do it frequently. But we have a very varied diet, lots of different basic ingredients, and using flavours from lots of different countries.

@arcticfoxed

I don’t. Lack of time and confidence. Really annoyed by people who had nicer, less deprived childhoods sticking their noses up - surely what matters is whether it bloody tastes nice?

I don’t even think it’s whether you’ve had a deprived childhood that matters. It’s the situation you’re in now. I can cook, I like cooking. Sometimes life is busy or I just can’t summon up the mental energy for anything other than something from the freezer. Friends have been round for a take away. Friends have been round for frozen pizza. We’ve done pie minster pies with mash and peas for a Sunday lunch with guests. I know these people well enough to know they’ve had a great time.

When we went to dh’s parents for a meet up recently, everything came out of a box or a packet and it was a really nice meal.

Again, this is a real world vs mumsnet land thing.

Yes but this stuff shapes whether it feels easy to do. Some people are just snobs.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I was a secondary school teacher for 26 years. All students did food tech up to year 9. GCSE and A level were on offer and were very popular. So kids are taught at school.

My mum cooked, but l hate cooking. Just loathe it. So it’s not akways modelling, it’s individual preference. I cook because l have to, l don’t enjoy it.

Exactly.

This thread very much smacks of "I enjoy cooking from scratch (and have the time and skills to cook to do so) therefore I'm a better host and a better friend than you".

For most people, food is not the main reason for a gathering. Most people meet their friends to socialise - the food secondary to that. I want to spend time with my friends, I really don't care whether we're eating home cooked lasagne, a ready meal or a takeaway. The company is what's important, not the food.

[quote HaveringWavering]@LostForIdeas Here is a good quality ready meal. There is absolutely nothing in the ingredients that you would not include if making it yourself.[/quote]
Have you read the ingredients.
Potatoes, Milk, Cod (14%) (Fish), Cream (Milk), Salmon (9%) (Fish), Butter (Milk), Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Smoked Haddock (3%) (Fish), Water, Cheddar Cheese (Milk), Spinach, Free-Range Egg Yolk, Salt, Parsley, Fish Stock (Fish, Salt, Dried Potato, Sunflower Oil, Dried Cod (Fish), Lemon Juice Concentrate, Anchovy (Fish), Onion Powder), Lemon Juice, Yeast, White Pepper, Caramelised Sugar, Colours: Paprika Extract, Turmeric Extract

There's hardly any fish in it.
The salt and sugar content is astronomical.

and my friends aren’t shitheads.

Neither are mine. It is all about expectations. There is an obvious divide on here between those who enjoy cooking and entertaining that revolves around food, and those who enjoy entertaining where food is secondary.

Neither are wrong.

In my case some of it is pure vanity. I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy having my cooking appreciated.

Yes I do and lots of my friends do. I wouldn't object to a Waitrose quiche though!