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!

Total mixture in our house, some stuff bought some stuff made from scratch and not necessarily consistently either! So yesterday breakfast was homemade Christmas fruit bread but frozen pain au chocolate. Nut roast was made from scratch but yorkies were frozen! If i did not have three kids I would probably do more cooking. I'm veggie and cook a lot of veggie dishes from the basics, which they refuse to eat, sigh.

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

I can cook but fgs a bloody lemon tart. Faffing making pastry, cooking it blind, filling it, who can be bothered when M and S do a perefect one?

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

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

I can cook but fgs a bloody lemon tart. Faffing making pastry, cooking it blind, filling it, who can be bothered when M and S do a perefect one?

And ... in the context of making your own cheese? Like, you know, in the post I was responding to?

Lemon tart??
I can cook, but I will never ever cook a lemon tart. Hate the things!

It really depends, a hectic few days before and it was tesco party food bunged in the oven when my cousin and family (11 of us in total)popped over. A bit of prep time was available and we had homemade gyros when my friend and family came over (8 of us)

we cook from scratch, so do our kids and friends.

We cook from scratch 90% of the time but enjoy some pre-made just heat up food and takeaways too. If I were hosting, I'd cook.

I like to cook from scratch when I have time and the energy and think it's really good for the old mental health too to concentrate on something different for a while.

I realise I don't really know what my friends do. One friend is veggie and I think they have processed sausages etc but also cook from scratch. I kinda assume people cook from scratch but perhaps they don't.

I cook from scratch a lot. My sister is an amazing cook so I learnt a lot from her. But to be honest sometimes I just want something easy and get a ready meal but it is usually not great. Some are good though. To be honest if you don't enjoy cooking I don't think there is much point putting pressure on yourself.

I cook from scratch. I'm not a particularly fancy cook, but I'm mid 50s and have cooked family meals for 30 odd years now. I would certainly cook a home made meal if I'd invited people over for dinner.

I'd be surprised/taken aback if someone invited us for dinner and dished up a ready meal, to be honest. Maybe it's a generational thing? I don't mind a take away - but if you don't cook/can't cook why would you invite people over for a meal? Meet them in a pub/restaurant instead if you want it to involve food.

I don't really know what 'cooking from scratch' means, it seems to mean different things to different people. Who genuinely makes their own stock (all different, veggie, chicken, beef) every single time, their own fresh pasta, their own cheese (sounds awful!), their own bread. You could churn your own butter if you felt so inclined, use your own starter with milk and make yogurt and so on. But very very few people really do these things, they mean I had a few basic ingredients, combined them with some other pre-made things which we take for granted, and then ate it.

'Cooking from scratch' is not healthier unless you put healthy ingredients into the food; if there's a lot of cheese/butter (a bit fine), or cheap processed meat (oh, of course, you make your own sausages) in it, then it's not necessarily 'healthy' as such, if you cook a lovely sausage casserole with cheap sausages then they are still cheap sausages even if you arrange them in a pot with some veggies....

@MadMadMadamMim

I cook from scratch. I'm not a particularly fancy cook, but I'm mid 50s and have cooked family meals for 30 odd years now. I would certainly cook a home made meal if I'd invited people over for dinner.

I'd be surprised/taken aback if someone invited us for dinner and dished up a ready meal, to be honest. Maybe it's a generational thing? I don't mind a take away - but if you don't cook/can't cook why would you invite people over for a meal? Meet them in a pub/restaurant instead if you want it to involve food.

Isn't the obvious answer to that because pubs and restaurants are expensive, and buying pre-made pizzas at home is not?

The things you list are ready meals essentially. They are fully prepared and only need to be heated up. It might make you feel better not to call them ready meals but they still are.

It's nothing to do with making me feel better, lol. I really don't care what people think about the food I cook.

But there's clearly (IMO) a difference between a frozen Tesco lasagne that just needs heating in a microwave for five minutes, and fresh, filled pasta that gets cooked and has sauce etc. added to it.

The former is what I would call a ready meal, the latter is more convenience food or pre-prepared food. As in, you still have to do some of the prep yourself to an extent, but you're not making the pasta and filling it from scratch.

'Cooking from scratch' is not healthier unless you put healthy ingredients into the food
I agree but at least you’re actually aware of how much salt/sugar etc is in your dinner because you put it there yourself.

Isn't the obvious answer to that because pubs and restaurants are expensive, and buying pre-made pizzas at home is not?

As I say, perhaps it's a generational thing. As a student, I'd have gone over to a mate's house and had a frozen pizza shoved in the oven. As a 56 year old I'd be taken aback if a friend invited us over for dinner and then did this.

I have an adult DSS and sDIL in their 20s with two DC who cannot cook anything except for eggs in a microwave and chips & nuggets in the oven. They order in every single day*. McDonalds, Dominos, kebabs, KFC. It's ridiculous.

Even the baby gets those sachets of purée because they can't be arsed to mash a banana or make anything else.

They are always in debt and moaning about it, are frequent fliers with the GP and hospital, and one them is very overweight and often moaning about that.

DP and I have tried and tried to show them how to cook simple, easy, cheap meals, but they just want ultra-processed foods. It's like a horrible addiction.

*How I know this = whole other thread.

Everyone in my family cooks from scratch and so do I. I really like cooking and it would feel really weird to me to buy pre-prepared food.

As I say, perhaps it's a generational thing. As a student, I'd have gone over to a mate's house and had a frozen pizza shoved in the oven. As a 56 year old I'd be taken aback if a friend invited us over for dinner and then did this.

I’ve served friends frozen pizza and had pizza at theirs. It’s been a nice meal whoever has done it. It doesn’t just have to be crappy cheapo pizza. Lots of sides, garlic bread, salad etc. A good pudding. Catching up is more important than spending ages in the kitchen.

a frozen Tesco lasagne that just needs heating in a microwave for five minutes

No pre-prepared lasagnes are intended to be microwaveable. I mean, they’d be edible if cooked that way, but they will all say “for best results, oven cook”. Most of the chilled ones come in foil trays and are not microwaveable.

'Cooking from scratch' is not healthier unless you put healthy ingredients into the food

Yes sure you can cook unhealthy food. But ultra-processed ready meals are not good for you. There's a very clear correlation between the amount of processed food eaten in a country and obesity rates - even if the ready meals are relatively 'healthy'. www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/household-availability-of-ultraprocessed-foods-and-obesity-in-nineteen-european-countries/D63EF7095E8EFE72BD825AFC2F331149

[quote HeavyHeidi]'Cooking from scratch' is not healthier unless you put healthy ingredients into the food

Yes sure you can cook unhealthy food. But ultra-processed ready meals are not good for you. There's a very clear correlation between the amount of processed food eaten in a country and obesity rates - even if the ready meals are relatively 'healthy'. www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/household-availability-of-ultraprocessed-foods-and-obesity-in-nineteen-european-countries/D63EF7095E8EFE72BD825AFC2F331149[/quote]
Not all pre-prepared supermarket food is ultra-processed though.

@taybert

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 don't think buying ready made wraps, pasta, pastry, bread or pizza bases is remotely close to 'cooking from scratch' but is absolutely fine for busy people.