Am I "cooking from scratch".....

[Janeymoo50]

or not...

Curry - brown onion, garlic, chicken, add jar of paste/sauce?

Shep pie - brown mince, onions, carrots, add tomato paste, stock, flour, marmite, seasoning, herbs, etc

Fish pie - put frozen salmon and cod fillets (Iceland bargains) in bit of milk, butter and dried herbs, then make proper roux with the liquid, top with frozen mash (with added butter and good shake of black pepper)

My DP says I cheat, I might concur on the frozen mash (but it works better on fish pie).... But I've always thought this was ok....am I really cheating???

It also worth pointing out that not everyone has masses of space in a huge freezer for multiple portions. So ok stuff like mash will take up similar freezer room, but a curry using a sauce is quick, and not everyone can make 4 batches in one big pot and freeze three.

It doesn't matter how much I make of things, the entire lot is finished at a sitting

Really? They must have enormous appetites. I have teenagers too who eat a lot, but they couldn't eat the amounts I cook.

I bulk cook, my bolognese sauce starts with 4Kg of mince and 15 cans of tomatoes. I doubt even your teenagers could eat all that in one sitting.

4Kg of mince and 15 cans of tomatoes.

Do you have industrial kitchen equipment?! How big a pan do you need for that?!

It sounds like you're a good cook. I don't like mixed up foods - sauces etc so for me my normal cooking would be something like chicken, veg rather than a bought sauce which also usually have additives, sugars and other junk in them, but you need to cook what suits your own family and I would not worry about what other people think.

Does anyone remember the programmer Butterflies?

Well that's my style of cooking, I slap something on the table and they poke and prod trying to identify it....unless it's from Marks

Programme!

shock Do you have industrial kitchen equipment?! How big a pan do you need for that?!

It's a huge pan, the size of a bucket.

Christina I model my HW skills on Rhia from Butterflies

I have a machine for Tomatos as I hate with a passion peeling and chopping the fuckers after you've blanched them.

So you blanche a load, then chuck them in the mystical not actually a grinder thing, and it poops skin and seed out one end and lovely pulled tomato flesh out the other. Ready to cook with or freeze.

I make my own mash then freeze it i do batch cooking so 2 big pans on hob at once when mashed i let it cool then divde into freezer bags it lasts a month as only my myself and dh here

i like mashing potatos it was my "job" as a child most nights and on sundays i got to batter the yorkshire pudding batter

A tomato machine?! Tell me more!!

Hours of my life have I wasted with sieves!

This it's still messy, I just don't like the chopping bit. I think mine was about a fiver though.

Thank you!! This is clearly what has been missing from my life all these years!

Life is too short to remove the skin from tomatoes...

There speaks someone who doesn't cringe when a rolled-up tomato skin stabs them in the uvula

I mostly wouldn't class anything that's been sweetened or seasoned or added to by anyone else as "cooking from scratch". There are some exceptions, such as curry pastes. I tend to avoid jarred sauces, but have been pleasantly surprised by some that we've bought on holiday for convenience. However, they're over-priced for what you get and usually more calorific that your own sauces would be.

I would say only the shepherd's pie is cooking from scratch. But both the frozen mash (who knew!) and the curry sauce (although as others say a curry paste is probably 'better' because it won't have the same fillers as those jars of sauce do) are acceptable 'cheats'.

However if DH told me I was cheating at cooking he'd get a right bollocking. And he does half the cooking. So YANBU but your DH is BVVU and needs to cook you a very nice meal from scratch to apologise. I'd ask for freshly made egg pasta (homemade sauce of your own choice)followed by souffle and homemade icecream.

There speaks someone who doesn't cringe when a rolled-up tomato skin stabs them in the uvula

I am with you on this one realhuman.
I actually enjoy skinning tomatoes. Huge pot, bring up to the boil and leave to cool. Drain, then the fun begins. I love messy jobs, hands in, all the squidging and squeezing, quite delightful.
I also like the inclusion of the seeds in tomato sauce, I think that part is the most flavoursome.

Got me a tomato machine, Honey

These marketing guys most love you.

I read uvula as vulva and wondered why you would shove a tomato in your fanjo

Well I'd skin it first, obviously.

Well, no. You aren't cooking from scratch. But does it matter? The meals you prepare sound fine to me.

As an aside, whenever I read a thread on MN that has anything to do with cooking or packed lunches I make a little bet with myself about how long it will take before the words "homemade" or "from scratch" appear. Usually doesn't take long.