What is cooking from scratch?

[ChockysChimichanga]

I see this phrase a lot on MN, but what do you actually consider ‘cooking from scratch’?

Are tinned tomatoes cheating and you crush your own tomatoes? Fresh herbs instead of dried? Dried beans/pulses instead of tinned?

Personally, I think life is too short to crush a tomato and tinned beans save a lot of time.

It means not relying on Uncle Ben or Maggi.

Personally I’m pro anything that makes life easier. But many people find cooking relaxing.

I take it to mean not a ready meal, jar of sauce or frozen food basically. So you combine the flavours yourself but it doesn’t mean you grow all your ingredients etc!

Making your own food rather than having a ready meal or using a jar of sauce.

Using largely non-processed ingredients - fresh meat and fish, fresh vegetables and fruit, other basic ingredients like flour, dried lentils/other pulses, milk, butter and cheese, fresh or dried herbs, and I’d include e.g. tinned tomatoes, kidney and butter beans, etc.

Sorry, so dried pulses are better than tinned?

I'd include the same and ground spices, including dry mixes like curry powder or garam masala but not a jarred paste.

I always wonder this. Does using dried pasta count or do you have to make your own pasta with flour and eggs for it to be considered cooked from scratch

Canned tomatoes, dried pasta and dried herbs etc are fine but no ultra processed foods. It means making sauces rather than jars, chopping veg not using a kit

Personally, yes, I make my own pasta. I use fresh eggs laid by my (organic, free range) chickens, and flour made from wheat I grow in my garden and harvest by hand. I the. grind this using my own teeth. Yes, it takes longer, but in my view it’s worth the extra effort.

Lol

It's such a relief to know that I'm not alone in this - someone actually had the nerve to ask me if I used a pasta machine to roll my pasta. Honestly, the sheer cheek of it.

Not to mention treading grapes for wine, having your own rice paddy field in your children’s paddling pool, bacon from the resident porker, milk from Daisy the cow, and of course pasta from your own spaghetti tree!

There is no difference. Dried would be cheaper, but you have to factor in the cost of additional cooking. In fact, with red kidney beans it is far better to buy tinned, as they can be toxic if you don't cook them properly.

You are seriously over-thinking this.

Cooking from scratch means that you buy the ingredients and cook them, you don't buy ready meals, or frozen chips or jars of pasta sauce. You don't have to go to the lengths of making your own tomato puree from fresh tomatoes!

😅

From scratch - feels like a relative term... for me -aunt bessy, uncle ben and Fry Bentos were regular dinner guests when I was a child.

My version of cooking from scratch is to cut the veggies, use a sauce or powder mix and sometimes go fresh herb solo. I can make a pie on single ingredients - but I do not make the pastry - I buy rolled filo for instance.

Most of my tins are kidney/check peas.
Everything else is fresh (except for frozen peas).

Peeling and chopping raw veg
raw meat
adding things that have no crazy preservative ingredients? UPF

tinned tomatoes-fine
tinned lentils- fine

dry ingredients-herbs spices no matter how many

I consider myself to cook pretty much everything from scratch with the aim of avoiding UPF.

I use the vague rule of "was this in my great grandmothers kitchen" and if yes then im ok with it.

I use dried pasta, and rice and tinned tomatoes / tuna / sweetcorn / beans / chickpeas.
I consider making custard with custard powder, milk and sugar to be cooking from scratch, while i understand it should be egg yolk / sugar / milk and cream.

We grow a LOT of fruit and veg in our garden which we use when in season, and freeze what I can, and I have a full herb garden, but also a cupboard full of dried herbs / spices / curry powder / soy sauce / selection of vinegars.
I absolutely buy whatever fresh fruit / veg / meat / fish I need in additon to whats growing.
In September my glut of tomatoes makes quite a few batches of "tinned tomatoe" equivilent, but probably only 8 tins worth.

I basically buy dairy products (mainly organic, as contain less rubbish), fruit, veg, meat, fish, basic tins (as above) flour, sugar, cocoa, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, less processed cereals (oats / weetabix), pasta, rice, cous cous, sharing packs of "quality" crisps with ingrediants i have in my kitchen, "good" chocolate.
I buys jars of pickles (beetroot, onions etc) and also things like "quality jam", "local honey", and pickles and chutneys. (about once a year i might make my own jam / chutney).

I read labels and have, for example cadburys drinking chocolate powder, hellmans (full fat) mayo and heinz ketchup, colemans mustard etc in my fridge (which contain far less rubbish UPF ingrediants than own brands, and which my great grandmother WOULD have had in her kitchen)

I use freshly ground pepper and sea salt, and olive oil in cooking

I buy large gammon joints which I slice myself instead of packs of ham and would always make my own egg mayo / tuna mayo sandwich filler. (eggs mainly from chickens kept by my family)

I also buy bread products (which I know are really bad for UPF) but i do make my own bread and pizza bases, and foccacia, as well. I buy the odd pack of biscuits and cereal bars, but i make the vast majority of cakes / biscuits / flap jack etc from scratch (with real, unprocessed ingrediants, not low fat spread and chemical sweeteners)
I have crackers and savory biscuits available to go with cheese in my fridge.
I buy organic ice cream which has far less rubbish in then cheap ice cream. I buy very little frozen food beyond peas and frozen spinach, but my freezer is full of fresh meat and fish that I have frozen myself (as I buy in bulk) and portions of home made meals, and also things like home made stock.
I sometimes buy high quality farm shop sausages
I have a few jars of pesto for a super quick tuna pasta pesto
I would NEVER buy breaded products or nuggets, or potatoe based things such as waffles or frozen chips (I make my own by slicing potatoes), or ready meals

I absolutely consider myself to cook from scratch.... because I use real ingrediants to create real delicous food.

Typical breakfast is home made porridge or eggs with toast (sometimes homemade bread but sometimes shop)

Lunches will have home made sandwich fillers, often home made bread, decent crisps, fruit, salad etc

Dinners are ALWAYS home made cooked from scratch, and i make a couple of "puddings" a week (served with cream, custard made with custard powder or organic ice cream [I do have an ice cream machine and occaisonally make it from scratch]. Or yoghurt and fruit, and we normally have some sort of home made cake or biscuit in the tin, as well as a full fruit bowl for the odd snack.

I make my own fizzy water with a soda stream which I may (or may not) add to organic cordial (not home made by me), and my children mainly drink water.
I do buy tea bags and coffee pods and cafetier coffee too

We have one of these threads about once a month, and it always draws out the anti-UPF loonies who claim you're poisoning your kids if you let them have ketchup on their (home cooked from scratch, natch) chicken goujons . My personal fav was the poster who vociferously claimed that you can't call yourself a 'from scratch cook' if you buy cheese from the supermarkets and that 'everyone I know makes their own cheese, its not hard'

The only real answer is it's not a phrase with a tightly defined meaning, there's too many grey areas, stock cubes, condiments, pickles, jam, table sauces, bread, pasta, ham, bacon, cured meats and fish, yogurt, cheese, butter - all things you can make from raw ingredients at home but realistically most people don't - does that mean they are or aren't a scratch cook. And is there any particular virtue in 'scratch' cooking - it does seem better to avoid too much UPF but it has to be moderated. Take my friend who isn't a particularly enthusiastic cook. She invited me over for supper and was proud to have made a lasagne herself at home rather than buying one ready made, it was lovely and much less greasy and salty than a shop bought one so undoubtedly healthier (although shop bought lasagnes are also nice from time to time IMO). Thing is she'd used dolmio from the jar rather than simmer her own ragu and the bechamel was from a jar too. So not 'from scratch' as most people would define it, but does that mean she should have bothered at all? If I made a lasagne from home I'd probably avoid UPF jarred sauces but would still use processed ingredients (the lasagne sheets, maybe a stock cube, the cheese), again does that make me not a 'scratch' cook, does anyone care? Personally I think we should all enjoy tasty food with as many plants and protein in it as possible and not stress about scratch/processed or not too much!

In my house cooking from scratch = (I'll take yesterday's meal) burger, chips and salad.

Burger made from bought mince, bought onions and bought herbs/seasoning

Buns made from flour, yeast, water, salt.

Chips made from shop bought potatoes.

Salad made from bought bag of leaves, bought vine in tomatoes, bought cucumber, bought lemon, & seasoning.

Shop bought ketchup but we make burger sauce and mayo.

Cheese is shop bought too.

You actually had me until you mentioned grinding with your teeth 😂.

I think using tinned pulses and tomatoes still counts as cooking from scratch. Those things are minimally processed, so don't count.

Haha, our DCs used to love making fresh pasta!

For me it's cooking (somehow a salad can't be from scratch in my mind, but dressing can), turning ingredients that you can't eat in their own into a meal, so bagged dried pasta would count.

Regarding your examples, dried herbs have a different taste and texture to fresh, they each have their place. Tinned tomatoes that are a nice brand are better than hard, mealy tomatoes you can get in the UK out of season. I do think dried beans are better because they're less mushy and salty but still use tins sometimes.

Edited to add: I don't see it as having much to do with UPF. I would count the lasagna example above as from scratch because you can't drink dolmio bechamel or eat a pasta sheet by themselves.

Tinned, frozen, fresh veg counts as cooking from scratch. Pre-cooked veg from waitrose no.

Bored of lunch is a great easy cookbook I am following

I actually think making Thai curry from shop bought paste and tin of coconut is homemade !!
life is busy enough

I’d count dried pasta in cooking from scratch.