Is your family is snobby when it comes to homemade dishes

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My in laws are very snobby when it comes to homemade food.

When I say snobby they wouldn’t judge a single mum relying on something pre made for example but when it comes to the stuff they eat they massively favour homemade stuff. I just find it amusing tbh! They all get VERY excited when someone brings over homemade bread and desserts. Wanting to know what recipe/method you chose. All birthday cakes are homemade. I swear a cake from Tesco would sit completely unopened in the fridge.

There is one vegetarian family member and my sister in law is going to make an entire veggie wellington just for him. I suggested just getting something from M&S and she completely baulked at the very idea. Tbf everyone is a good cook.

It definitely stems from MIL. Who grows her own food, makes chutneys etc. They would never dream of shoving in an Indian selection from Waitrose as starters like my family doesx

I just find it fascinating tbh.

Anyone else have family like this? Even croissants are homemade!

I wouldn’t say it’s snobby. I think they probably enjoy cooking and probably realise all the additives and emulsifiers and unhealthy things that go into mass produced food. An example is bread. If you look at the ingredients list of a typical white sandwich loaf, say Warburtons toastie, the ingredients list is as long as your arm and no clue what some of them are. On the other hand I make a lovely rustic cob loaf with just four ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and water. And don’t get me started on the amount of food that now contains palm oil. Would you believe that most supermarket baguettes now contain this. Absolutely disgusting. Cheap ingredient that maximises profits

If you have the time and skill homemade is definitely better. When I worked part time we didn’t have a lot of shop bought meals. Now I’m full time I do use some shop bought stuff for convenience.

My Mum used to make lots herself when we were small as she was a SAHM so had the time to do it.

Appreciating good ingredients isn’t snobby - being able to make good food from scratch is very cost effective and cheaper - hardly something a snob would care about!

To be honest op, I think you sound insecure...

My mams house was like greggs on a saurday she loved cooking and baking

Wow. Insecurity? We also always do homemade because it tastes better and is healthier. I like cooking. Shop bought cakes are grim. Even nice ready meals don’t actually taste of much besides salt if you really taste them.

It's funny, in my family we make everything from scratch and it's not because we're snobby, it's just because we're poor and we can make meals stretch a lot further when we are frugal and cautious home cooks. Whereas purchasing pre-made / store made / ready made food is a lot more expensive. I wouldn't say that we would be preferring something that was store made but to us it would be a bit of a novelty and we would enjoy it, although we enjoy our homemade food as well, we are grateful regardless of where or who made it

Homemade has the potential to be a million times better than shop bought- if your relatives are good cooks I don't blame them preferring it- the only stumbling block is if you can't cook worth a damn.

Anything that I do right as a hostess I learned from my mil.
I miss her.

Insecurity? Snobby? The two of you are putting an awful lot of thought and prejudice into this. Have you ever considered that homemade food is are just, you know, more delicious?

And actually all taste very similar , it’s only when I properly cooked again that I realised this -

I do think there is a lot of truth in this- in theory I love home made-in practice i can honestly say via various in laws and friends the quality can be ‘mixed’ - my fILs partner (RIP) used to comment on her home made famous xyz- All bloody horrible in my opinion - not a patch on M&S or Waitrose - so I really don’t think we should fetishise ‘home made’ - I’ve also seen people bringing in to work stuff that’s no doubt from home made leftovers and looks and smells exceedingly unappeatising .

“Compulsive desire”?!?!?!?!!!!!!

just because they have a different perspective to you doesn’t make them freaks!

home cooked food is cheaper, healthier, fun, engaging and tasty.

yes, I buy the odd ready meal from a farm shop, yes I buy bread from the bakers because I don’t have the time to make it every week.

am I criticising you for enjoying a Tesco meal deal? No, that’s your choice. No snobbery involved just a different decision on many levels.

Yes it's basically just a different way of heating food and won't alter the taste.

Are they a bit smug about their high standards?

You are an inverted snob, OP!

Some ready meals are just the same as can be cooked in a domestic kitchen. But agree on the salt.

They’re not ‘snobby’ they’re just conscientious about what they eat. My father in law was the opposite of this. Couldn’t understand why we made a beeline for his wife’s divine Victoria sponge when there was a hideous Sainsbury ‘luxury’ chocolate cake. If he wants to eat that slurry he can crack on. The rest of us have higher standards.

Discerning. Not snobby. Discerning is the word you’re looking for OP.

They don’t sound snobby, they sound like they enjoy cooking. I don’t really do much pre-made stuff as I enjoy cooking things from scratch. I don’t make my own bread, but I would definitely make meals from scratch. My family is all very similar. I understand that people who don’t enjoy cooking or prefer to prioritise other things in their lives will use a lot more pre made items.

It tastes about a million times better than shop bought processed food and is way better for you without all the additives and sugar. It’s not snobby to prefer the taste of a home baked cake to a processed one. You mentioned Indian food and as someone of Indian heritage who cooks, the difference between home made Indian food and the M&S equivalent is vast. If you could eat a home made, authentic curry or samosa, why would you choose a processed one which tastes nothing like the real deal?

for the vegetarian at Christmas I made a homemade pumpkin Gorgonzola and pine nut tart, froze it and took it to Europe with me for family Christmas at sils 😆 who is definitely even more like this than me, and no one is as like this as my aunt. We are all like this. A shop bought cake is just no. I do get stopped on the way into my kids parties to ask where I bought the cake 😁 sorry op!

I think I know what you mean. I love cooking and am a really good baker. My family and my in laws all cook really well and take pride in providing very nice food for guests.

My DC are adopted and came to us after some years in foster care where birthdays were celebrated with a shop bought cake. The foster carers didn’t cook from scratch and certainly weren’t for baking cakes. So my two came to me thinking a cake comes out of a box. My DDs birthday fell around the time of a family gathering and my lovely in laws invited me to bring a birthday cake to sing happy birthday. Instead of making one, I bought a supermarket cake because for my DD part of the excitement of her birthday was going to choose a cake. When I got to my in laws I could feel the judgement - it wasn’t the time or place to explain why I’d bought one and frankly as a new mum to a 4 year old and 6 year old I had neither time nor inclination.

It’s still referred to as “the time Jelly brought a plastic cake”.

Many years down the line my kids bake with me and would rather I cooked than buy anything. I love my in laws but will always remember the judgement and lack of thought and consideration at that time. It was both snobby and ignorant and certainly influenced my view of them.

Oooooo homemade Christmas pudding is one of the must haves for Christmas in my household!!

This thread could run and run…. I don’t think it’s snobby to cook from scratch. We eat much better on our budget because we mostly do it. We use frozen chips for fish and chips but make home made potato wedges.
Overall more flavour less salt and sugar and extra effort for Christmas is a nice thing to do surely.

They don't sound snobby. It'd be weird to invite people for dinner and to give them a ready meal from M&S.

Home made croissants is impressive. They’re quite the faff. I made home made crumpets once, never again.

I do though, make home made bread.