To make cooking from scratch a thing of the past?

[Mumhangingon]

So I'm sat here 1 hour in to cooking a steak pie from scratch. I've totted up how much its cost me in ingredients along with the cost of the oven running for 3 hours and I'm thinking why am I bothering? I know it will be much nicer but is it worth paying 2 or 3 times the cost of a premade pie from the supermarket? Or even a butchers? Same for lasagne, cottage pie etc? I want to do my best for my family but the cost of living is making it too costly.
Is there a secret I'm missing? Or is it just cheaper to buy premade.
I'm grateful to be able to put food on the table of course, I'm just sat here thinking about ways to cut costs where we can.

Just save your time and choose one from the Booths deli counter, I think the Booths ones taste just like homemade and even at their extortionate amount still cheaper than making your own.

I'd buy pre-made pastry (jus roll is pretty decent). I think you could whip up a better than bought filling fairly quickly and inexpensively. Brown off meat, onions and seasonings on the hob for about 10 mins then add the pastry and bung in the oven until pastry is cooked through.

Cook your meat in pressure cooker takes about 20-30 mins. That will cut your oven time down to about 30 minutes

When making a beef, mince beef, or chicken casserole in slow cooker I always do enough for 3 or 4 meals at once, 1 eaten that night, next night some into pastry for a pie, and two separate lots into the freezer, then 1 mornings chopping and cooking does 4 meals. Same when peeling spuds, peel the whole bag boil and mash, then portion up in freezer. Same with carrot and swede mash. Same with soup. Lots of time spent up front, not all on one day, but several days of home cooked dinner with no actual proper work.
My one cheat is pastry, I can cook, I can bake, but my pastry is vile inedible disgusting hard awfulness, so are my scones. Hot hands I think.

Yes buy a ready made pie. All those E numbers, transfatty acids and ultraprocessed ingredients, are just delicious.

Not sure why a steak pie takes 3 hours? However make 3 and freeze 2, that makes it cost effective and not much more work.

On the strength of this I have just totted up the ingredients I bought today to make a lasagne.

£18.05, BUT it is an 8 portion one. Googled 2 person lasagne and the cheapest I came up with was £4.

Added ingredients I have anyway always, which are wine, celery, carrot and onion Will have Parmesan and mozzarella left over so that covers cupboard ingredients. Will freeze half the meat and then just make sauce again the next time so that won’t take long.

Also not cooking something in a plastic container! I could get a Cook one for 8 for £32 which would probably taste the closest to homemade.

Sainsburys own steak and ale, 500g normally £3.95, £3.25 at the moment. They also do a 200g.

It was yummy, only got it because we were ill and I probably won’t make my own ever again.

I few years ago o would have said yabu but actually, surely there has to be something said for the economy of scale of food being mass produced. I don't know . It's sad... it would be nice to think cooking from scratch was normal, cheaper and healthier but with the demands of work and the cost of everything it doesn't seem that way.

If making a cottage pie or lasagna from scratch is taking hours you're doing something wrong, I can bang either out in 40 minutes with no prep.

As for making a fresh pie, just buy one, guarantee it's cheaper than buying the fresh ingredients before you factor in convenience.

Work smart not hard.

I'm with @JonahAndTheSnail make the base, make a lot in slow cooker if you have one and then make a pseudo pie by buying premade puff pastry cook it separately and use that to create a 'lid' ie plonk it on top when dishing it up...that's what pubs and stuff do, best of both worlds and can freeze any leftover base for another time

I cook a lot from scratch but I would always buy a pie from M&S. they are amazing.

It may not be cheaper but i bet it’s far more nutritious and preservatives-free with a higher ratio of filling to pastry.
I know which I would prefer.

I would never spend 3 hours on a stupid meal because I have an actual life. Cooking like that is designed to keep you chained to the kitchen. If it's not doable in under 30 minutes, don't bother. Besides, no one appreciates it.

I use bbc recipes a lot to get an idea of ingredients and proportions but then slow cook whatever - cheapish meat( fat and gristle are transformed into flavour in the slow cooker ) padded out with veg and beans or something that goes well - if a bit bolognaisey/raguey then a lasagne when leftovers are thawed, else pie with either mash or pastry top. From scratch with one meal recipes are usually too much faff per meal unless you are a real masochist enthusiast and you are right about the cost too. So just cheat and take credit.

Always cook from scratch. I think a pie can’t cost that much to make. Cheap bits of beef, veg, stock and then pastry which is pennies with lard/suet. Pop another thing in the oven while it’s cooking so you’ve not wasted the heat. Shop bought stuff is full of sugar and seed oils.

@Beneficialchampion2 you said it better. No pie should take an afternoon to make

How is it taking 3 hours?

I batch cook beef stew, use some with dumplings and make a couple of pies, freeze - they take 45 mins from frozen. The beef stew takes 90 minutes on hob but that's for 5 - 6 meals

Why do people always say that anything shop bought or ready meals contain ingredients you wouldnt want, they dont always and as an example given above, you're not changing any of that if your pie filling is a can of soup!!!

Additionally people here are using the word 'pie' when they mean some filling with pastry on top.

Nope, I just couldn't be arsed after a day at work.

Excuuuse me!! 😂.
A Scottish pie is exactly that - filling with a puff pastry lid, cooked separately on a baking sheet, and laid on top of the filling on the plate.

Well you know the big debates in society are nothing to do with Brexit or the government, its whether you say scone or scone, whether you put cream on the scone before the jam or after and whether a pie is a pie without a bottom.

Just for reference, its scone and you put the jam on the cream and a pie must have a bottom!

<rolls up sleeves>

@bellac11 I think you and I are going to have to step outside and settle this!

Firstly, it's 'scone' to rhyme with 'gone'
Jam first, then cream.
And no pie bases.

😂

Premade meals are full of processed crap.
Eat those for meals regularly and your health WILL suffer long term.
Plus most taste so bland and inferior and the portions are tiny- certainly no left overs for the next day or to freeze.
Homemade lasagne or cottage pie doesn’t take that long and will feed my large family in a big dish with hearty and healthy portions as I know what’s gone into it.
At the very least, rather than making from scratch, buy a sauce or sachet and compile the dinner from there.
For the love of your health, don’t buy those awful crappy readymade ones.

Time is precious - just buy one from COOK. Tastes better than the majority of people can make themselves.

If I'm going to embark on cooking something lengthy and/or complicated I do it for several reasons: 1) health and knowing what the ingredients are 2) I enjoy cooking 3) quality of ingredients. The cost isn't a factor either way. You get what you pay for.