What have you tried making yourself when the store bought would've been just as good if not better?

[buddhasbelly]

For me baking. Every time I think "oh yes I shall make a beautiful lemon drizzle cake, some ginger snaps" I remember all the 'incidents' .

The incidents of burned cake on top that's not set in the middle; the £ in ingredients, the time spent. And then go and buy something ready made.

Buying the butter alone for any baking makes me think christ this isnt some great money saving hack.

Yes I know it's supposed to taste better homemade. I know a lot of folk find baking a great hobby/stress relief. For me it just works out an expensive, time consuming thing.

What other things have you made yourself where you've realised you'd have been better off just getting it from the shops?

(I know my baking could rectified by going on some cookery course or other... I'm beyond help, I've made my peace with it).

homemade failures
hummus (bitter and oily)
toffee (what are those black bits? dont remember putting raisins in....! plus ruined favourite pan)
mushy peas (the smell! -gipping!)

prefer homemade
daal
cakes
ratatouille

I can't make houmous either!

There is no difference in pastry home made or shop.

Ice lollys. I've tried to make those orange juice ice lollys that you can buy that say their only ingredient is 100% orange juice. I dont believe it, i couldn't make them. Coconut water in ice lolly moulds make bloody lovely homemade ice lollies if anyone is interested!

Hummus. Kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it and I still have a tahini jar somewhere.

Foolishly once tried to make oat milk. Why?!!!

Ooh no I much prefer home baking to shop bought.

Unpopular opinion maybe -but lasagne. I've made it at home and it took forever dirtied so many pots and wasn't that nice. I'm not the world's biggest fan of ready made but it wasn't that much worse than the one I did that it's worth making all that work for.

Humous

Cakes
Pies - sweet and savoury. It's the pastry
Lasagne
Pizza

Christmas pudding. And oat milk, dear god. I mean, you can, but there's no reason you should.

Crumpets
Gnocchi
Hot cross buns
Ravioli
Puff pastry

All things I thought "oh, that would be fun and rewarding to make by hand". I was wrong on all counts.

Chips. Not difficult to do by hand but never as good as slinging a bag of oven chips into the air fryer.

Oddly, I can make better hummous than what I can buy in the shops. I say odd, because it's mentioned several times here and is not something I would have thought is particularly tricky. And I am by no means a talented cook.

I think half the secret to houmous is that the shop bought versions contain far more salt than you'd imagine. Also, as PP suggests, nice soft chickpeas- softer than British supermarkets'. The ones from Asian shops are often better. And blend for longer than you'd think.

Homemade pizza is ok, I followed the Pizza Express recipe for Leggera Padana (without the hole in the middle) but bought their own salad dressing.
I say homemade, but I bought a jar of passata, and a jar of red onion chutney, so not completely homemade.

Homemade curry in my house involves a jar of sauce to which I add chicken or prawns and veg. I did the whole from scratch thing one....awful and not worth the effort.
Neither can I make hummus, mayonnaise, crumpets, hot crossed buns, mashed potatoes. I buy them all after many failed attempts.
I can make a good cake, bread and lasagnas.

DH seems to make hummous with little issue but he uses tinned chickpeas so perphaps there softer - and we aren't big on salt/processed food so do seem to taste it more when it's present - certainly some products do seem to taste overly salty to us.

Oh I love my home made curries, they're really good and much nicer than bog standard curry houses. I dislike jar curries, my mum makes those and I think they are bland. But the Mint rooms and their street food offshoot restaurant Bandook are hands down the best curries ever. If you ever eat one you'll never go back to a standard curry house again.

Absolutely everything other than Christmas cake.
Shop bought is always too dark and heavy.
Not made one for a few years now, but if I ever want one mine would be better.
Any other cake is always over/under done, I just cannot do it (crap oven) and all my confidence in the kitchen vanished in Home Ec lessons in the 80s.
It didn't help that my mum chucked everything I made chilli con carne, shepherds pie, scones, vic sponge, casseroles in the bin/down the loo, and wouldn't let me in HER kitchen, so now I have a kitchen and not a clue (aged 50) so I don't bother. 🤷‍♀️
I can cook a salad. 🤯

Houmous. Waste of my energy.

Profiteroles
Beef wellington
Burgers

By the time I've assembled any of the above I am
And they don't taste as good as they should for the effort.

M&S exists for a reason.

@guffaux I've never put extra oil in my hummus, drained tin of chickpeas, water, well mixed tahini, cumin, salt, lemon juice. BBC recipe Quick Hummus.

And garlic

My mash is absolutely disgusting, even Smash is better.

I do lovely cakes, but my son has sensory issues and won't eat them and my mum rarely eats sweets so pointless making them.

I think pastry is better homemade, but unless you have a proper pizza oven, then a woodfired takeaway is immensely better. Possibly because we don’t have it that often, so when I fancy it, I want it that evening so no time to do the proper dough etc, and we don’t have a woodfired oven. Also lucky enough to live very close many great pizza places!

For everyone commenting about Hommus, not sure if you've tried it, but when you prepare the chickpeas, tin wise, steam then slightly, and peel off the outside. I spent months making hommus that resembled exfoliator until I saw this tip from a Greek chef. Game changer, tastes so much better than shop bought.

@Gwenhwyfar no need to buy a lemon squeezer. Cut them in half, fish out any pips, then just hold them over a bowl in both hands, push your thumbs into the squishy bit and squidge them round until they stop dripping. Sieve if you don’t want the pulp.

Pesto and pizza. For the price of ingredients (pine nuts and parmesan especially) and the time spent waiting for dough to rise, it's just not worth it.

Crumpets, hot cross buns and all the bread. Massive load of faff and they don’t really taste any better.

I have made pesto a few times and it’s either incredible or horrible and I can’t work out why.

I don’t like baking much so I don’t get the enjoyment of the process. Just hours of planning, shopping, prepping, baking and cleaning up for something that’s just ok.

I do like HM pizza though.

Elderflower champagne - I love the idea of wandering through the countryside collecting the flowers, then making delicious wine but to be honest, it's very hit and miss, even following Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe. Last time it didn't ferment at all, possibly due to my overzealous bottle sterlisation with Milton!

I enjoy making wine generally but only once has it been anything like as drinkable as supermarket stuff.

I also make yoghurt with mixed results, though I convince myself it's healthier home made.