Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable?

631 replies

AlternativePerspective · 31/05/2022 11:14

I have always cooked from scratch, and I will be the first to admit that cooking from scratch has always been more expensive than buying e.g. jar sauces etc. However as things currently stand food prices are going up so much that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.

And in an era where we’re being told to live healthily, to cut out additives where possible, and to use the healthiest ingredients, while this has always been hard to sustain, right now for many it’s unsustainable from a financial perspective, and people are going to be forced to eat jar sauces, ready meals and various other foods with additives they didn’t want or need.

I’ve just cancelled my milkman because I can no longer justify spending the money, and it’s going to take a lot before I will ever eat ready meals or cook from a jar. But compromises are going to have to be made, and in many instances for some people, it’s not going to be possible to compromise.

OP posts:
emuloc · 31/05/2022 15:39

PurpleButterflyWings · 31/05/2022 13:00

YANBU. Apart from the odd spag bol and chilli con carne (made with quorn mince as me and DH don't eat red meat,) and omelettes, stir fries, pasta, and pancakes (and obviously easy things like beans on toast, jacket potatoes, salads, and sandwiches etc, ) I don't 'do' cook from scratch.

I CBA. Most stuff already made (ready meals/microwave meals/oven chips/frozen pies/frozen veg etc,) are just so much easier to do/prepare, and are often as good as cook-from-scratch. Morrisons do a lovely Indian takeaway AND a Chinese takeaway for 2 people, for £6-7. (Costs £15-17 for the equivalent from the takeaway.) Also, it would cost a LOT more to do from scratch, AND would take a lot more time!!!

If people want to cook everything from scratch, then good for them! But I don't like people 'looking down their nose' at people who don't. I also don't believe most people DO cook from scratch most of the time. Many claim they do, on these kind of threads, but I don't believe them. They probably do the easy stuff I mentioned, but rarely do most stuff from scratch. I mean, why on earth WOULD you? As has been said, it's more expensive, it's time-consuming, AND most 'shop-prepared stuff' tastes just as good - (and sometimes even better!)

Also, why the fuck would you spend so much time, energy, money, and gas/electric on making your own cake? You can buy one for pennies!

Then again, I am an outside person, and not someone who chooses to spend half my waking hours in the kitchen. I would rather spend 6 hours in the garden, (pottering about/weeding/planting flowers/trimming the bushes and trees etc,) or going for a walk along the canal or through the woods. Life's too short to spend half of it bloody cooking!

Meh, each to their own!!! But I do find the 'I'm better than you, a higher social class, and clearly better educated - because I cook from scratch' brigade quite hilarious and farcical.

Have you quite finished? How and what you cook is your affair. I cook most of my food from scratch, because that was how I was raised, and imo most ready meals are pap. They are full of additives and cheap ingredients mostly. I happen to care about what I put in my body. You are what you eat and all that. I do not look down my nose at people who use a lot of ready meals in their diet. I know there are numerous reasons why some people may choose or have no choice but to rely on ready meals. While I have a choice, I choose to eat what I cook myself. I do not understand why some people find it so hard to believe that some people do actually cook.

Katypp · 31/05/2022 15:40

@smartsub, with respect, I think you are being a bit silly to prove your point here. You could not make the exact replica to the bought sauce at home, so I replicated a realistic equivalent that someone cooking from scratch would make. We all know that bought food contains a lot of fillers, many of which are not available to the home cook, which is why home-cooked food is more expensive.

Smartsub · 31/05/2022 15:41

Katypp · 31/05/2022 15:40

@smartsub, with respect, I think you are being a bit silly to prove your point here. You could not make the exact replica to the bought sauce at home, so I replicated a realistic equivalent that someone cooking from scratch would make. We all know that bought food contains a lot of fillers, many of which are not available to the home cook, which is why home-cooked food is more expensive.

You mean I'm right? 😆

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 31/05/2022 15:42

If I wanted a "simple" pasta sauce, I'd use a tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic, olive oil and some salt and pepper.

I'd rather buy a jar than eat that. It sounds very bland.

Carrotten · 31/05/2022 15:42

@Katypp but the homemade macaroni cheese could be made cheaper with penne not macaroni, with spread instead of butter and without the parmesan. Plus it's got veg in it which the ready meal one doesn't have so you might want to add some veg on the side or take the 70p of peas out

You could take £3 (£2 parmesan, 70p peas and 44p of macaroni) out of xiaoxiongs recipe and it's still using butter and still nicer than a tesco ready meal

Carrotten · 31/05/2022 15:45

@starlingdarling yes but if you wanted to save money you could cut out the pancetta and nutmeg, bulk out with more veg or lentils. It wouldn't be quite as tasty as your DHs, but it would be tastier than the equivalent costing readymeal and healthier

Hrpuffnstuff1 · 31/05/2022 15:47

Mushrooms in Ragu.

50yrs in a gulag.😂

Forinara · 31/05/2022 15:50

You need a good skills set and good cooking knowledge to begin with. Otherwise, I can see how it would not work out for you. Unfortunately, if you never learned from a very young age (whether at home, school or self taught) then it may be hard to learn once you have the added pressure of hungry kids.

Katypp · 31/05/2022 15:50

@Smartsub What's 3% red pepper in home-cook's terms? Can you work that out and I will recost for you. Because, of course, home cooks would definitely make sure they didn't use 4%. You're splitting hairs to prove your (rather unrealistic) point.

gumballbarry · 31/05/2022 15:52

Hrpuffnstuff1 · 31/05/2022 15:47

Mushrooms in Ragu.

50yrs in a gulag.😂

Cooking time seems excessive, and where do you buy this Gulag?

Maverick101 · 31/05/2022 15:52

drspouse · 31/05/2022 14:00

To the poster saying I was being too fancy cooking with butter with DD:
12 Sainsbury's fairy cakes: 85p, Aldi price match: £1.70 for 24
In this recipe I'm assuming small pack sizes (if you have nothing in, and need not to spend much):
Glace icing fairy cake recipe, also Sainsbury's products (makes 24 but they'd be tiny)
125g self raising flour: 10p
125g soft butter (Sainsbury's soft baking spread) 25p
125g caster sugar (this is a 500g non fair trade bag) 30p
2 eggs medium or large 34p
1 tsp vanilla extract (this is £1.50 for a bottle, OK let's say 10p for a tsp as the bottle is 60ml)
24 x bun papers 12p
200g Icing sugar 40p

Total: £1.60 for ingredients assuming you'd use the vanilla (in particular) again (the others are more usable in different recipes). Then you have to bake them. This is about 20p - the electricity cap i.e. if you are on a prepayment/non direct debit meter.

So if you are DEFINITELY going to use up all of the rest of the ingredients (and use them exactly - the flour, marge and caster sugar use 1/4 of the packet, the icing sugar uses 2/5 of the packet and the vanilla and cake cases use about 1/10 of the packet, and if you don't use them you'd have to throw them away hence wasting money)... it is almost exactly the same to make 24 very small fairy cakes at home.
If there is any wastage (I assume most of us have tried cooking with DCs!) and if you don't use up the ingredients before they go off (you could bake more fairy cakes every week of course) then it's not bad as an activity but hopelessly time wasting as a way to get fairy cakes!

Sorry but this is just weird why would you throw out the paper cases if you hadn't used them at that point? They go in the cupboard for the next time you bake fairy cakes. Along with the sugar which isn't going to go off. In a sealed container it'll last years. And you'll get a good twelve months out of the flour if it's not left in an open packet. You can also use that flour in a whole range of other dishes. Also, I can't imagine you'd buy eggs, butter and milk just to bake they're pantry staples that go into lots of meals.

I grew up with economical cake recipes -- way less sugar and fat than many modern versions. Healthier and cheaper too.

Katypp · 31/05/2022 15:57

@Maverick101 , looks like a fairly typical Victoria sponge recipe to me, as seen in my grandmother's ancient Bero book (although it was 4oz of everything then).

emuloc · 31/05/2022 15:57

Why on earth would you throw what you have not used away?

Boymumsoymum · 31/05/2022 15:57

AlternativePerspective · 31/05/2022 12:10

Not sure why people are fixating on flour when it’s the other ingredients which cost the money.

So if you’re making a cake which contains, as a rule, 8 oz butter, then the butter alone is going to cost you somewhere in the range of £1.70 (assuming you can get it on offer.) the eggs are around £1.40 for 6, so approx 90P for the eggs. So even if your 1kg bag of flour makes 4 cakes, add in the butter and eggs, and those 4 cakes have already cost you over £10, without factoring the sugar, vanilla extract, gas etc into the cost, and assuming you’re only making a plain cake with no filling or icing.

The point is OP you could replicate the shop type cake for cheaper than it costs in the shop, if you opted to make a oil or margarine based cake with fewer eggs. I use an old wartime recipe which only uses one egg and contains cheaper ingredients like marg instead of butter and the result is a cake as cheap, if not cheaper than a shop bought one but definitely still tastes nicer and homemade. Total cost about £2 and I'm sorry but you'd struggle to buy a whole decent size cake for that cost. Could go even cheaper using oil instead of some of the margarine.

Smartsub · 31/05/2022 15:57

Katypp · 31/05/2022 15:50

@Smartsub What's 3% red pepper in home-cook's terms? Can you work that out and I will recost for you. Because, of course, home cooks would definitely make sure they didn't use 4%. You're splitting hairs to prove your (rather unrealistic) point.

No I'm just saying there's about 35g of pepper and 15g of courgette in your jar, which is a lot less than your estimated half.

SpiderVersed · 31/05/2022 15:58

@Onionpatch - fair enough! I'm in a large multicultural city so tahini was easy to get and cheap at the asian supermarket.

Given how much hummus we go through, it's vastly cheaper for us to make it, and is in larger quantities than the supermarket pots (and tastes nicer).

CupidStunt22 · 31/05/2022 15:59

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 31/05/2022 15:42

If I wanted a "simple" pasta sauce, I'd use a tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic, olive oil and some salt and pepper.

I'd rather buy a jar than eat that. It sounds very bland.

Only when you're used to the nasty jarred sauces laden with sugar and salt. Go to basics and taste real food, it's much better.

Katypp · 31/05/2022 16:00

@Maverick101 You're also falling into the trap of thinking that things already in stock are 'free', which makes you think home cooking is cheaper. It doesn't matter if the the remainder of the flour etc is used for other recipes or not - the fact is, it cost that x pence for this recipe.

BarbaraofSeville · 31/05/2022 16:01

I agree with you @Maverick101 but you only have to look at the availability of things like pancake mix (FFS, the whole point of pancakes is to use up things you have in your cupboard) to know that many people prefer the ease of shit shop bought cake over nice home made ones.

5128gap · 31/05/2022 16:05

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 31/05/2022 15:42

If I wanted a "simple" pasta sauce, I'd use a tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic, olive oil and some salt and pepper.

I'd rather buy a jar than eat that. It sounds very bland.

Yes, that cornstarch and citric acid really make a difference don't they?😂

Hrpuffnstuff1 · 31/05/2022 16:08

gumballbarry · 31/05/2022 15:52

Cooking time seems excessive, and where do you buy this Gulag?

Show quote history

Bastardizing recipes is a sin against humanity.

Another point about homemade cakes is the rich ingredients make the cake more filling. Buying ingredients means cooking can economize for scale.
So one batch of Ragu for instance may do enough for 4 separate meals for a group of people.

As for the time it takes to cook, popping the music on, and cooking can be pretty therapeutic at the end of the working day.
Plus cooking from scratch is cultural for some people. There are no such things as just popping to the co-op to buy a microwave meal.

Crikeyalmighty · 31/05/2022 16:08

A favourite healthy and very cheap recipe I got was from the Hairy bikers diet book called Pan Haggerty. I make it weekly in winter- it's basically carrots, potatoes, onions, bacon bits , parsley and chicken stock. - and a bit of grated cheese if you want on top. It's absolutely delicious and a huge pan full will feed2 adults and a couple of kids (if they eat stew type food) for£4 to £5 tops! It's stove top cook too, I use my wok and foil it over to steam it.

BarbaraofSeville · 31/05/2022 16:10

@Katypp but flour is so cheap that it might as well be free in the average cake recipe.

It's about 50 p a kilo, so 10 p worth of flour in an entire cake.

I think this is one of those arguments that people are never going to agree on, but if you're used to home cooked food, you generally find a lot of shop bought stuff so unappetising, it's like a punishment for not doing it yourself.

@Maverick101 you may joke about people not having flour, butter, eggs and sugar in, but I've been given quite a few eggs by DSis who had to buy them so a child could take one in to school to do egg painting and 'she didn't know what to do with the rest of them' Grin

You wouldn't believe we actually have the same upbringing, our attitudes to food, and a lot of other things, are so different.

BarbaraofSeville · 31/05/2022 16:13

Plus cooking from scratch is cultural for some people. There are no such things as just popping to the co-op to buy a microwave meal

That's one of the things that I find so interesting about this issue. It seems to be a uniquely British attitude to consider home cooking 'aspirational'. In most countries, it seems to be either quite the opposite as in it's a luxury to eat ready made, or it's just something that everyone does, across the income and social spectrums.

ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave · 31/05/2022 16:14

Only when you're used to the nasty jarred sauces laden with sugar and salt. Go to basics and taste real food, it's much better.

I'll stick with my cooking which includes flavour. You stick to your puddle of tomatoes. 😀

Swipe left for the next trending thread