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

[AlternativePerspective]

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.

No I'm not assuming they're "free" at all. What I am assuming is that there's no need to throw away leftover ingredients because you haven't used them in a particular recipe.

I think this is a very good point. If you can't drive for example or walk or get on a bus to a local shop, or lift or carry heavy bags. If you are elderly and on your own and can't really justify the cost of an online delivery, or you live somewhere rural where they don't deliver. If you can't stand or don't have the wrist strength to chop veg or move full pans about or lift them in and out of the oven. And if you have allergies or are on special diets for medical reasons you end up paying far more for your groceries. The elderly and people with disabilities definitely get overlooked (as they are in relation to most things with this government) when it comes to help with food costs and preparation.

I think cooking from scratch and eating healthily is going to be more challenging for people especially those who have not been in the habit.

But it can be done - using beans/pulses to replace or supplement meat and cooking surplus to one meal so that you can have enough for one or more meals (cooking for one meal often is a waste of time when doubling up, at least, will take similar time/effort).
Bulk purchase things like canned tomatoes, chick peas, beans when on offer.

Feeding a family on ready meals I would think would be more expensive than cooking from scratch.

I have no idea why half my post was crossed out. Weird formatting is weird and makes my intent look very different!

I'm on a low budget at the mo:

Macaroni cheese pancakes toast and marmite tinned tomatoes bananas apples Victoria sponge cheaper for me to cook from scratch ... Also I think healthier but wouldn't judge tbh having been on a seriously low budget some people don't know what it's like
Also got three kids!

Plus lentils spices garlic !!

@BarbaraofSeville , I am a keen home cook and have in the past published recipes, so I absolutely do know what you mean.
I am arguing that people often underestimate the cost of home cooking and I think this thread proves that.
By the way, you can get 12 iced fairy cakes for £1.15 in Asda, so 10p of flour would work out approx. 10% of the cost of the cakes.
'It might as well be free', it costs next to nothing', 'already in my cupboards', 'practically free', 'costs pennies' are all thrown about in this thread, when the fact is it's not free, nor costs pennies nor is free because you already have the ingredient in stock.
As I have said, I am not advocating shop-bought or ready-made, far from it. But I am saying that people who genuinely think that it is a lot cheaper to make than buy are fooling themselves, disregarding quality, health etc, which is not what this post was about.

It's energy cost as much as ingredients that's a problem for many. It's right at the other end of the scale to a conversation about whether to bake or buy readymade cakes and whether you have a stocked pantry or not but through a recent survey at a school in a deprived area close to me, parents main method of cooking was revealed to be a kettle. A bloody kettle.

Nah, would prefer that puddle of tomatoes any day to the jar stuff.

Think the problem in many cases is that people don't know how to cook from scratch and don't know the beauty in simplicity. Reaching for the jar is so much easier.

We just made a lemon cake.
We used 1 lemon, 3 eggs, 180g of flour and butter and 120g of sugar.
I'm not going to kid myself that it's healthy as it does have fat and sugar but it does have fresh lemon in it, so a bit of vitamin c and maybe eggs provide a bit of nutrition. It's all natural ingredients.

This is the ingredient list in a supermarket lemon cake

Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Pasteurised Egg, Humectant (Glycerine), Pasteurised Egg White, Glucose Syrup, Butter (Milk), Lemon Juice (2%), Dried Skimmed Milk, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Potassium Bicarbonate), Lemon Zest, Flavouring, Orange Cells, Emulsifier (Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Salt, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Maize Starch, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acidity Regulator (Sodium Hydroxide).

I know which one I prefer my dcs to eat.

Think the problem in many cases is that people don't know how to cook from scratch and don't know the beauty in simplicity. Reaching for the jar is so much easier.

I think the jars exist because some people would serve up a "sauce" of barely-seasoned tinned tomatoes. If you don't know how to make something better than that, you need the jars.

@Charles11 But which one was cheaper? That's the point of this discussion.I don't think anyone would disagree that yours was nicer or more wholesome!

That shop bought one has hydrogenated fats. They killed my husband essentially.

I think it's balancing everything
Money for ingredients
Fuel
Storage/equipment
Time

You can cook well with time and money and equipment but if you lose one of those, it starts getting harder. When I don't have much money I use extra time batch cooking, shopping around for stuff etc. But if I don't have time OR money...

@ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave To be fair, you can make quite a nice pasta sauce with just olive oil, tomatoes and seasoning, but you need to use good olive oil and top-quality tinned toms, which kind of blows the argument out of the water ...

I might take a microwave meal with me when I visit the inlaws. I don't think the Great-Grandma has ever seen one.😂

I think it's strange that cooking from scratch is now posh when most foods from around the world cooked at home were actually peasant foods and ideas. The food was prepped and eaten out of necessity.

@ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave - I've made similar tomato sauce, only added chopped onion (pennies) to the garlic and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and added a sprinkle of sugar to balance the acidity in the tomatoes.

Something that simple to make (and learn if you don't know how) - you don't need the jar of sauce.

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Try it if you ever get the chance.

I'm happy with my recipes, though (on topic) they do cost more.

@Maggiethecat 1 brown onion is 10p at Tesco, so a quantifiable sum to some people, not just 'pennies'

The flour you use is the same.

By statute any white wheat flour that is milled in the UK has to have calcium carbonate, iron, thiamine/Vitamin B1 and Nicotinic acid added. After the war the government decided that white wheat flour needed the same vitamins as wholemeal flour. For over 60 years we have added them to the flour.

The new EU labelling laws over-rode the UK legislation which means we have to put the added nutrients in the ingredients list on our labels.

www.wessexmill.co.uk/acatalog/Fortified-Flour.html

The baking powder/raising agent is very similar to the one that you would use.

You use whole eggs, that ingredient list has Pasteurised Egg and Egg White (heat treated like milk).

That ingredient list has oil and butter, your recipe is just butter.

Lemon juice is stabilised rather than fresh, I should think. A number of food writers recommend the use of an humectant like glycerine to brush over a sponge or pound/Madeira cake.

Yes, there are other ingredients for stabilising and allowing longer storage of a cake that would otherwise stale quite quickly.

I find that ingredient list off-putting for the commercial cake but I know that some recipes with minimally processed ingredients would look the same if we gave them their E numbers or the full description that food manufacturers are obliged to provide.

Ah well, maybe the OP can try it then (on topic).

Completely agree as cooking from scratch is cultural for me. I was born and brought up on a small island where fresh produce was in abundance. Many many miles away from a shop and a food shop was done by my dad once a month for staples like butter, cheese, rice and flour. He will go to the market once a week to buy fresh vegetables and fruits we had freely available in our own yard. We had our own chickens for eggs and meat, our own goats, sheep and cow for meat, a vegetable and herbs garden, we lived by the sea so had access to a huge amount of seafood which we will catch ourselves. We were thoroughly spoilt looking back.

So as an adult I do the same and cook the same way. Very simple food with fresh ingredients.
I honestly think it’s a huge privilege to be cooking from scratch especially using things like fresh tomatoes instead of tinned ones. Using fresh vegetables instead of frozen ones, fresh fish instead of frozen ones, high quality meat from the butcher as opposed to frozen. If people are struggling with paying basic bills, cooking from scratch is the first thing to go as it costs in terms of ingredients and energy bill. Also it needs skills and not many people can cook.

I do think people are missing the point somewhat.

yes we all know that cooking from scratch is healthier blah blah but when you’ve only got 2 quidon the meter and only a couple of pounds to buy a jar it’s a no brainer. Jar all the way, only takes five minutes or less to heat up the jar versus wasting the rest of your electric that has to last you another 2 days I’d be choosing the jar.

that’s the reality now for many people, they can’t afford the fuel to actually cook!