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!

In terms of friends then I’d say yes it seems important

IMO Cook ready meals are excellent. DH and I have them occasionally.

I think people are answering different questions here.

There seem to be some people who have some weird perception that you are eating ready meals all the time if you don't say you always cook from scratch.
Right through to someone who wouldn't dream of serving a cheese she hasn't made herself, which obviously is not very common.

I suspect there are quite a few of us that will generally make our main meal each day, from ingredients they put together to create the dish, rather than getting a ready made dish and microwaving it, but wouldn't make our own cheese, or wouldn't make our own pasta, or (usually) bread.
As with most things it doesn't have to be fully one thing or fully another.

Then, when you are preparing a buffet for 30 people or more, it is very different from inviting one other couple round for a dinner party. If I invite people for a meal, then I think there is a level of expectation that it will be a home cooked meal. If I am catering in bulk, I would buy in things like quiche and sausage rolls due to logistics.

I mostly cook from scratch, would definitely cook from scratch if I had guests. Things like Yorkshire and roast potatoes taste awful in comparison to homemade

@DickMabutt73962

I wouldn't insult my friends by inviting them round to dinner then giving them a ready meal.

My friends wouldn't be insulted 🤷🏽‍♀️

Sorry, my 'people'

I don't know about insulted but if I invited friends round and gave them a ready meal they would certainly think it was a bit weird. What exactly would you do, put the various plastic trays in the oven or microwave then tip them onto a plate?

DH and I cook from scratch for our family all the time and I bake bread a couple of times a week. Sometimes I make yoghurt from scratch.

If I have people coming over to something informal though, then I will often just throw a few pizzas in the oven and get a bunch of prepared nibbles out on the table. I'm inviting friends around and I like their company - I'm not looking to crowbar nutritional value into the mix.

I think it’s interesting what constitutes “from scratch”. Most people, for example, making burritos would buy wraps, not make their own and most people don’t make their own pasta but ready made pastry is seen as a convenience food. Someone gave eggs on toast as an example as a quick home made meal. Beans in toast takes about the same amount of cooking but that isn’t home made. There’s a spectrum in making a curry from grinding and roasting whole spices through to using a ready made paste, a full sauce jar through to a microwave curry. Which of those count as “cooking”? Is a meal not cooked from scratch if it involves frozen peas? It’s possible to have a “scratch” cooked main composed of a meal but a ready made, frozen or packet side.

I have to say I wouldn’t often make a sausage roll and I think generally buffet and party food tends to involve a lot of processes and a wide selection is offered so it lends itself well to buying ready made. I’ve done entirely home made buffets before but there’s not as much variety as if I’d bought it.

In reality I think extremes aren’t that common, don’t most people do a bit of both?

I cook meat and vegetables. Is that it?

I live in a very leafy area though.

Yes, I cook everything. I struggled a bit with it , as I work full-time, but since I got a slow cooker and WFH it's much easier. I find my degree of domesticity a bit depressing. Before kids my meal plans were restaurant choices.

I can cook from scratch, I have been told I am good at cooking. I just hate it and to be honest I am in no way a ‘foodie’.

To be food is just fuel and I eat food because not doing so will mean I die.

I’m not saying there isn’t food that I don’t enjoy eating. I just don’t understand how enthusiastic some people get about food and/ or cooking.

I would much rather spend my time doing something else.

@Parker231

We have friends around for dinner about once a fortnight. They know it won’t be cooked from scratch. Have had lots of positive comments about the meal so can’t be doing much wrong. COOK is my best friend - the lasagna which serves eight with a salad is perfect. No stress and time efficient.

We really like these as well.

I’d also happily serve pizzas from the freezer with garlic bread and some nice salads.

My mum never cooked from scratch. Everything from a packet, and not the nice stuff either. A lot of stuff deep fried. Her buffets were always closer to inedible, and I know packet stuff doesn’t have to be this bad, but that’s how mums was. I always cook everything from scratch and would spend hours making a buffet. My friends are a mix of the two.

I don't know about insulted but if I invited friends round and gave them a ready meal they would certainly think it was a bit weird.

This^^

I should have maybe not said insulted, but my friends, knowing that I like to cook, would certainly think it very odd if I invited them round for a meal then served them a ready meal.

Yes, my mum (who did the cooking when I was little) did, and so did my first husband and then my partner. Mum always made her own bread but not pasta; DP always makes pasta but sometimes buys in bread, but basically everyone cooks. In the summer we grow most of the veg we eat. But I think home-cooked food is only nice if you also get enough time to enjoy the company of the people you're cooking for. If I'm cooking for someone who won't know me well enough to feel comfortable sitting in the kitchen chatting, or who wants to do something else then come back for a quick meal, I'd usually get a load of pizzas in.

I cook mostly from scratch. I bloody hate cooking though.

When all dc have gone, I’m eating m & S ready meals every day.

Hate prepping, hate the mess, hate the massive clearing up. Can’t wait to be shit of it.

Shut! Although it is shit!

@Newfrontdoor

Cooking from scratch is really important in my circle. Even if it is just nibbles. eg crackers (possibly) and cheese may be bought, but it is genuinely not unusual to find someone putting a (simple) home made cheese on the table with (home made) dips and home made bread. All quite high flying, full time working people, so not loads of time on their hands, but fairly foodie. Hosting a full meal would involve lots of prep. It's isn't snobbery or showing off though, just that they all enjoy food and hosting. Quite often there will be a bought in desert like a lemon tart or something, just because they've found somewhere that makes an amazing one.

So, no. In my experience it is your friends who are odd, and you are completely normal!

If you can't or don't make your own lemon tart, you can't cook. It is extremely easy.

I make nearly everything from scratch as do my parents, siblings.

My in laws don't and are the complete opposite. It's taken years to retrain my husband but he now quite enjoys cooking.

I will ensure my kids know how to cook.

If you can't or don't make your own lemon tart, you can't cook. It is extremely easy.

I’m a great cook. I don’t always make my own lemon tart because life is busy.

@MajorCarolDanvers

I make nearly everything from scratch as do my parents, siblings.

My in laws don't and are the complete opposite. It's taken years to retrain my husband but he now quite enjoys cooking.

I will ensure my kids know how to cook.

Here too. Ds (16) is in to it and gets tips from cooking shows to create his own stuff. Lots of strong tastes. In laws do cook a lot but I did suggest that Ds / dh would also do Christmas dinner when asked if I was in the kitchen all day. I like passing down cooking but not just to dd / female side.

Everything, or perhaps that would be 99 percent of everything we eat is booked from scratch. And it’s not quick meals either. I enjoy cooking and I’m able to get a lot of enjoyment out of preparing our meals. I also grow a lot of what we eat in the winter months.

One of the joys in life is going home from even a weekend away and preparing a home cooked meal, eaten in the comfort of your own home, even if you’ve been away and eaten at a Michelin started Restaurant.

I don't know about insulted but if I invited friends round and gave them a ready meal they would certainly think it was a bit weird. What exactly would you do, put the various plastic trays in the oven or microwave then tip them onto a plate?

Well, that's a very, very one-dimensional of what "not cooking from scratch is", IMO.

In my mind, not cooking from scratch is making things like:

Pre-made filled pasta - tortellini, etc.
Pre-made pizzas that just need to be cooked in the oven.
Fresh soups served with those rolls that just need to be finished off int the oven, or fresh bread from the bakery like ciabatta or sourdough rolls.
Pre-marinated fish or chicken that just needs to be popped on an oven tray or fried off in a pan, with pre-chopped veg and frozen mash.
Stir-fry kits that are made up of chopped veg and sauce - you just add the protein.

Yes, it can be "plastic trays from the microwave" but there are so many other options out there!

Lemon tart? I cook every single day or DH does. Neither of us make any desserts. Never made a lemon tart in my life. But I did cook a 12 course Indian meal for my colleagues which even if I say so myself was pretty good. But I can’t make lemon tart and I have never tried to. How is this the marker of being able to cook????

Cooked not booked

If you can't or don't make your own lemon tart, you can't cook. It is extremely easy.

Or, more likely, you just can't be arsed and would rather spend a fiver in the supermarket and put your feet up