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!

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

Don’t be silly.

@RampantIvy

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.

Why are the only options here "cook from scratch" or "ready meal"?

Surely there are tons of in between options like fresh soup and fresh bread (from the shop), posh pizzas cooked in the oven, pre-marinated fish or chicken served with pre-chopped veg and potatoes etc.

None of that is cooking from scratch but it's also a far cry from a plastic tray of Shepherd's Pie from Tesco, surely?

@PurpleDaisies

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.

Yeah, but you're not talking about making your own cheese!

Was it supposed to be sarcastic? I missed that @SarahAndQuack

Crikey, I see by the volume of posts I need to clarify ... the reason I quoted the previous post about lemon tart was to point out that, if you are making your own home-made crackers and cheese but home-made lemon tart is a bridge too far, you are fibbing or being pretentious.

I have no issue with shop-bought puddings and I like them myself. But I doubt I would launch into a speech about how very much I cook from scratch and then claim lemon tart as my Waterloo. Anyone who knows how to make cheese or crackers could make a decent go of that if they wanted to.

@PurpleDaisies

Was it supposed to be sarcastic? I missed that *@SarahAndQuack*

I quoted the post I was responding to! It wasn't me who brought up lemon tart/ making your own cheese.

@icedcoffees

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!

The post I was replying to was about ready meals, do people really call pizzas from the supermarket or pre-marinated fish ready meals?

That's not a definition I've come across, I only know it in the way that you'd find it in the big supermarkets which almost exclusivity involves a tray of some kind, for example

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/ready-meals/all

I know people who think coming from scratch means using a jar of dolmio or whatever, and had no idea you could make these sauces yourself. And there's friends who will always order in which I actually really love going there because a takeaway is a lovely treat when someone else is paying :-)

I don’t but I’m not very good at it, don’t enjoy it and would rather spend the time doing something else and the money paying someone else to bake for me. Also, I can’t be arsed.

I wouldn’t for a second think someone else was pretentious for making everything homemade. I would only think they were pretentious if they sneered at others for not doing it all from scratch.

Cooking

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

Don't is not the same as can't l.

Just one thing if any of you are my friends in disguise: this nation is crammed with phenomenal, expert cheese makers, who pour generations of experience into their craft and whose wares are available from websites and farmers' markets, albeit at a price. Seriously, your "simple homemade cheese" doesn't even come close, even without the added layer of smuggery, so please, please go for the bought option if you are keen to impress us. Thanks.

The post I was replying to was about ready meals, do people really call pizzas from the supermarket or pre-marinated fish ready meals?

Okay, so what would you call it, out of curiosity?

Because I assume the PP talking about cooking from scratch would make their own pizza dough, sauce and toppings, not buy a pre-made pizza and shove it in the oven?

Yep. Cook mostly everything here. It's nicer 🤷🏻‍♀️

I make pretty much everything from scratch. I don't think it's pretentious. I'm anything from posh/ fancy I live on a cattle farm in the middle of nowhere!!

It depends. I can cook from scratch but it would depend on what time I had free etc. Sometimes a decent quiche purchased is not a bad substitute for a homemade one if you choose wisely.

@FreeBritnee

Is this thread a script from a Catherine Tate sketch?

🤣😂🤣

If I have people here for dinner I'll cook from scratch but that's the best part of a week's entertainment. Got lazy though and prefer to go out for dinner much more relaxing!

During the week if adult kids in I will sometimes cook from scratch.

Yes I plan and cook most of our meals. I really enjoy cooking though and find it satisfying and relaxing at the end of a work day/at the weekend (my job is not practical at all, all desk based). My husband also loves home cooked food and my cooking is part of our relationship in that sense, I mean part of how I show love to him and the children. Quite traditional I suppose! We live in France now and I have recently switched to buying a lot of our food from the nearest market rather than in a weekly online order so that's changed the recipes I choose a bit. There's a much wider variety of fresh fish available in the market for instance.

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

I'm sure it is. How about making one gluten free, dairy free, low in sugar and still vaguely edible in single portion size, though? Mixture of health requirements, personal preference and economies of scale (no point making enough for ten when it's a single portion that's required). I think it's easier and more economical to buy a box of vegan Little Moons and take one out if I'm suddenly hit by the urge to have something sweeter than a banana.

Most people I know, including my self do a bit of both. From scratch could be interpreted differently by different people as well

If I invited someone to dinner I would cook from scratch. I live alone so batch cook from scratch and freeze in individual portions. I do keep a few frozen pizzas and a certain pasta ready meal that I can't make as well myself in the freezer.

If I was having a barbeque or something less formal I would probably have a few store bought bits.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

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

I'm sure it is. How about making one gluten free, dairy free, low in sugar and still vaguely edible in single portion size, though? Mixture of health requirements, personal preference and economies of scale (no point making enough for ten when it's a single portion that's required). I think it's easier and more economical to buy a box of vegan Little Moons and take one out if I'm suddenly hit by the urge to have something sweeter than a banana.

How about reading the post I quoted? Pretty please?

I feel like we got given the quotation function for a reason.

@icedcoffees

The post I was replying to was about ready meals, do people really call pizzas from the supermarket or pre-marinated fish ready meals?

Okay, so what would you call it, out of curiosity?

Because I assume the PP talking about cooking from scratch would make their own pizza dough, sauce and toppings, not buy a pre-made pizza and shove it in the oven?

You seem to be suggesting that there are only two categories of food - fully prepared from scratch and ready meals. Those are the two ends of a large spectrum of food.

What I'm saying is that I've never heard any one call anything other than a fully prepared meal on a tray a "ready meal".

Making for example a pasta dish with sauce from a jar is neither fully cooking from scratch nor a reagy meal. In the real world most meals will fall between the two extremes

Not at all pretentious to do it.

Pretentious to start a post boasting about it. I couldn’t care less what my friends choose to eat.