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!

@HaveringWavering, maybe rather than saying people are endangering themselves by eating ready meals, we should be asking why ready meals are not healthier than they are.
Why they are often full of trans fats, sugar and with not a vegetable in sight. (I’m talking about ready MEALS here, not already peeled vegs for example).
We should be asking why it’s ok for manufacturers to add products that make you want to eat more and more of that product (Im thinking Pringles there)
We should be asking why people don’t feel full after a ready meal and just crave more food - like a McDonald..

Thé issue as such isn’t that it’s bad to eat a ready meal. Because yes some people don’t feel confident enough. They don’t have time, it’s easier etc etc
Thé issue is that the quality of ready meals is crap. And that’s why the overall health of the population is going down in countries where people use more and more of those ready meals (see the standard American diet etc…).

And the reality is that our diet DOES influence our health. And It’s not just eat your 5 a day. It’s eating enough proteins, enough omega 3, minerals and vitamins etc etc…
My stance is that manufacturing companies who produce ready meals should have tight rules to follow so they meet some minimum requirements diet wise. Atm we only have “low fat” which then means it’s full of sugar. “Low sugar’ which means it’s full of aspartame (which is still just as bad for blood sugar regulation and weight control). And added vitamins /minerals that are cited in a cheap form the body can’t absorb.

[quote Hrpuffnstuff1]@JohnSmithDrive
Weekend, more like a weekday.
Bechamel doesn't take that long.
The meat sauce can be slow-cooked.
I can't remember the last time I ate a Mrs bar or had half a bottle of red wine.
People just like cooking, I don't understand the vehement protection of a Tescos lasagne.[/quote]
So your 4 pleasures include drink but you've not had a half bottle of wine recently?

If you're an evening shift worker I can see how you'd have all weekday for cooking with no wine though, it must be quite boring when so many of us are out at the City during the day. My office day rarely finishes before 8 so a quick dinner leaves me far more time for my preferred morning and evening sessions

@RampantIvy

I'm sorry but what exactly is cooking from scratch if not 'assembling a few ingredients'? hmm Just more examples of snobbery on this thread and people using language to make themselves seem superior.

I'm sensing a little inverse snobbery here.
I'm comparing my 2 hour home economics lessons to the one hour food tech lessons that DD did at school, and they bear no comparison.

We do eat ready meals now and again, but I just wouldn't serve a ready meal at a dinner party. I don't understand why that is so difficult to comprehend. A dinner party is aboout the food and wine and friends equally.

No inverse snobbery. If you read my posts on this thread you'll see I do cook ' from scratch' plenty. Although not by some posters standards who can't believe anyone would ever buy pasta/wraps/cheese rather than make their own.

But the ridiculous faux horror that some people might invite friends over for frozen pizza, or that a posh ready made lasagne might be decent, is most definitely snobbery.

A meal doesn't need to take 2 hours to cook to be from scratch. Time does not equal quality. I can quite easily make many meals from scratch in much shorter times, doesn't make them and less worthy.

I don't look down on people who cook from scratch or those who use ready meals/pre prepped food either. The only people I look down on are the ones who get snobby about it and think they're so much better and more virtuous than others for it.

Honestly this thread is hilarious

A lasagne is 30 min prep for me, and then it’s in the oven, so not loads of time. It probably would have taken me half a day the first time I made one but it gets easier with practice. Cooking is a skill like any other. You don’t have to like it or do it, but if you have this skill it brings flexibility and options. I was suddenly thrown from a well paid career into being an unpaid carer, and it was invaluable because we could still eat reasonably well on a low budget.

As for lasagne, I would make one at the weekend for friends to share for under a tenner. I always cook for friends because I can’t afford to regularly lash out £60-£100 for takeaway lasagne for the same number of people from the local italian restaurant. One of my friends does because she is time poor and can afford it, we equally enjoy it. It’s mainly about the company, I agree. And appreciating that your friend has taken the trouble to provide food, either through cooking it themselves, or indirectly through earning the money to buy the food in.

@HaveringWavering

It would be like saying ‘smoking is unhealthy’ is judgemental rather than a fact.

What? If you say TO A SMOKER that smoking is unhealthy then of course you are judging their behaviour!

God, there must be many GPs and HCP that are very judgemental then.

You should be able to say that smoking is unhealthy to ANYONE because that’s a truth.

Saying to a smoker that smoking is unhealthy or how it can be detrimental to them can be said wo judgement.
This is the same with diet and what you are eating. You can have a conversation on how eating 5 portions of vegs a day is important or the fact that ready meals are full of trans fats without it being automatically an attack on the person.

@LostForIdeas have you read any of my posts? I have pointed out numerous times that not all ready meals are as unhealthy as you describe. I don’t disagree that there is a lot of shit, hugely unhealthy convenience food out there. However I think that, in the U.K. in particular (I’m wondering if you are in the US with your references to American studies?) supermarkets and other food producers have actually tried quite hard to improve the quality, but there are people out there whose food snobbery means they automatically condemn all pre-prepared food as unhealthy without being open to considering the idea that it might have moved on.

Any I’m not sure why you feel the need to explain that diet and health are linked, do I come across as an idiot or something?

I cook from scratch but only because I don't eat food other people have touched.

If a friend served me a Tesco lasagne because it’s what their time / budget dictated, I’d eat it with gratitude.

To be fair though a rat burger used to taste quite good at 3 am after a night out.

Now frozen veg, that is a rabbit hole.
Mrs. Hrs mum sends over smoked meat, they do it themselves.

@HaveringWavering Im referencing the Standard American diet because it’s a standard in nutrition research worldwide (not just research in the US iyswim). Not because I live in the USA.

If there are some great ready meals in the U.K., then please share them.

Because I very much doubt that many people have any idea what is and isn’t a great ready meals. Personally I avoid them because they all contain trans fats (which prolong shelf life) and have very few vegs (maybe the reason why I would still feel hungry after eating one).

But if you have great names, then please share with us and where to find them.

It's interesting what each of us see as advantaged @trevorbore - I'm sure a treat for you would be more financial freedom but for some of us its the extra time and energy it takes. I'm perfectly capable of cooking full meals but it's the mental labour after an already 12 hour day .

I see it as the same as some people hiring a cleaner - I take pride in keeping my own house clean and tidy, and not leaving it to someone who earns far less than me to scrub our toilet. I'd rather spend time and effort doing that and save on gym membership when I have no time to go anyway).

[quote LostForIdeas]@HaveringWavering Im referencing the Standard American diet because it’s a standard in nutrition research worldwide (not just research in the US iyswim). Not because I live in the USA.

If there are some great ready meals in the U.K., then please share them.

Because I very much doubt that many people have any idea what is and isn’t a great ready meals. Personally I avoid them because they all contain trans fats (which prolong shelf life) and have very few vegs (maybe the reason why I would still feel hungry after eating one).

But if you have great names, then please share with us and where to find them.[/quote]
I literally already did that upthread and tagged you @LostForIdeas.

I think it depends on priorities, available time and money etc tbh Op. I made the desserts from scratch for Christmas and I will continue to do so until I go back to work because I enjoy it and I enjoy knowing that I've made a considerable effort for my fanily and friends but eurghhhh, it's such a massive chunk of time to do. I would imagine that a homemade sausage roll tastes much better than shop bought though!

I guess a medium amount.
Most main meals are cooked from scratch. I would use herbs/ spices/ passata rather than a jar of sauce.
I wouldn’t make sausage rolls from scratch. I might make my own with bought pastry but would probably buy sausage rolls.
Sometimes we want ease (eg bought mash). Sometimes we make an effort eg make pizza dough and sauce.

@lostforideas have a read if this article

It is from 2011. In the context of making your point (with which I agree) about how so many foods do contain trans fats, it lists a number of supermarkets who had already banned them in their own brand meals:

That idea holds, if the shops that were first to ban trans fats are anything to go by. Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, and the Co-operative are now completely free of trans fats in their own brands, and were so long before the Government initiative. They're undeniably upmarket. And because there isn't an outright ban across the country, it makes sense to conclude that it depends where you shop whether your everyday food will contain trans fats or not.

So I don’t understand how you can make a blanket statement that all ready meals contain trans fats?

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

Actually, no it isn't. It's a 'some people do one or the other and some do both' thing.

Whatever you do, that's the "real world" for you. The real world isn't some badge of honour that only a select few can lay claim to in a bid to decide who has it worse.

I think people who sneer at others - no matter which side they're on - whether they 'cook from scratch' or not or are in-between - are the problem because they turn silly things like cooking styles and choices into a competition when they shouldn't be. Same as those who don't realise there are different ways of doing things or those who automatically think anyone who does something different is turning up their nose at them/being pretentious.

@user290814356289

I cook from scratch but only because I don't eat food other people have touched.

Do you never eat out?

@EatSleepRantRepeat

It's interesting what each of us see as advantaged *@trevorbore* - I'm sure a treat for you would be more financial freedom but for some of us its the extra time and energy it takes. I'm perfectly capable of cooking full meals but it's the mental labour after an already 12 hour day .

I see it as the same as some people hiring a cleaner - I take pride in keeping my own house clean and tidy, and not leaving it to someone who earns far less than me to scrub our toilet. I'd rather spend time and effort doing that and save on gym membership when I have no time to go anyway).

Absolutely, we all have different priorities, and time is very valuable, I would never judge anyone taking shortcuts if it helped their well-being. But it’s interesting that you would assume I don’t have financial freedom. Actually I have consciously chosen to work less rather than spending loads on what for me are pointless things such as food that someone else has made. I enjoy cooking and being with friends a lot more than I enjoy working to earn the money to pay someone else to cook.

I don't cook from scratch very often.

I hate cooking

I don't have a huge amount of time (four kids plus a business)

I'm not a great cook

I use the odd jar for curries, although use tinned toms or passata for Bolognese etc. I use frozen veg, pre chopped salad, microwave sachets of rice. We have the odd ready meal and frozen pizza, oven chips etc (from Iceland, no fancy pants stuff here!)

I totally get that some people hate cooking and some people don't have a lot of time. I don't get why they should then think that people who have the time and the inclination shouldn't enjoy cooking.

I'll be ready to put my hard hat on here, but I don't understand the concept of "no time to cook". The vast majority of homecooked meals can be ready within 30min - the same/ less time than walking to a take-away/ supermarket etc.

It doesn't have to be something complicated.

Take my NYE dinner: a whole, baked salmon, filled with peas and carrots (the former frozen - will be parboiled, the latter chopped in less than 2min), garlic butter (takes less than 2min to prepare) and mash, which takes, maybe, 10min altogether - including peeling and mashing. The rest of the time is spent doing other things while that lot is cooking.

Xmas dinner was similar, took maybe 40min overall in prep/ supervision time to roast a stuffed bird, prepare and cook 2 types of veg and roast potatoes and make gravy; the rest of the time I played Scrabble with my partner.

If it's possible to do that with the fancier meals of the year, it definitely is for the less complicated, weekly variety. There are very, very few people who do not have 30min during the day to prepare food. They choose to spend it on other things, but then it's different priorities, not lack of time. And yes, lack of sweeteners in food alone makes a massive difference to how healthy homecooked food is.

I'll be ready to put my hard hat on here, but I don't understand the concept of "no time to cook". The vast majority of homecooked meals can be ready within 30min - the same/ less time than walking to a take-away/ supermarket etc.

You don’t need to go to the take away/supermarket. You just need to go to the freezer.

I'll be ready to put my hard hat on here, but I don't understand the concept of "no time to cook". The vast majority of homecooked meals can be ready within 30min - the same/ less time than walking to a take-away/ supermarket etc.

But people don't walk to the supermarket every night.

They do a food shop (probably an online one delivered to the door) so all they need to do when they get home is go to the fridge or freezer, grab something out of it, and put it in the oven or microwave.

Likewise with a takeaway, you order it online or on your phone and have it delivered to the door - no effort involved.

If it's possible to do that with the fancier meals of the year, it definitely is for the less complicated, weekly variety. There are very, very few people who do not have 30min during the day to prepare food.

But it's not just time. You're also missing the fact that to cook meals like that in 30-40 minutes takes an element of skill. It also requires the right equipment and the knowledge to put everything together in a way that will taste nice and please the entire family.

Also, not everyone WANTS to spend 30-40 minutes preparing and cooking dinner. They're tired, they have children to put to bed, they have other responsibilities or they just can't be bothered. It's not some kind of moral failing to not want to cook from scratch every night.

@RampantIvy

I totally get that some people hate cooking and some people don't have a lot of time. I don't get why they should then think that people who have the time and the inclination shouldn't enjoy cooking.

I don't think anyone thinks that at all, though?