in thinking that cooking from scratch isn't that unusual and doesn't make you a pretentious?

[ScentedLovePuff]

I keep encountering more and more people who think its weird that I cook almost everything from scratch. I'm not some earth-mother or housewife with time on my hands, I'm a working single mum on a very tight budget. I get the impression that people think it makes me some kind of snob! Personally I find it cheaper!

I really enjoy cooking, I do it when my daughter is in bed and cook in batches so I can reheat it for her later (she is only 1 so I'm a bit careful about what she eats still) like a homemade ready meal. She does sometimes have fish fingers or fish cakes, I'm not a total food nazi!

Is it so strange? I've encountered people who are shocked and appauled that I do, and I dont just use frozen whatevers or tins.

Just putting this to the mumsnet panel, am I a freak?

No. Not at all.
Wouldn't occur to me not to cook properly.
I enjoy it and it takes very little time.

I'm not averse to tins (sardines, tomatoes) or the odd frozen thing (seafood, soybeans) though. Nowt wrong with that.

my pet hate is ready sauces in jars.
Like sick.
FGS how long does it take to sweat an onion and add some spices or herbs and tomatoes?

Well, yanbu that it isn't that strange in general, but where i live it is.
How does it come up in conversation though? Maybe that's why they react strangely as i don't really discuss my cooking with people.

No, I am the same (working single mum on a budget too) and I find it cheaper and healther. If I had to worry less about money I might use more convenience food. I do a lot of stews and casseroles. I don't really enjoy cooking, but with dc you have to embrace it, don't you? my best friend cooks like I do, her speciality is sausage and lentil bake and I think we recognised our like mindedness at this point.

eleanor

quality it comes up when dc come round for tea and say urrgh have you got any pizza lol

Am wondering if godwins law applies already, hmmm.

to be fair sometimes it is urggh

EleanorHandbasket - hahahaha, I baked some bread to take over to a friends house for dinner once, and the first thing my friend said, was 'wow, did you grow your own yeast', your post reminded me of that.

I agree with QualityTime, I don't know that any of my friends would know whether I was cooking all my dds meals from scratch, or sneakily opening a tin of Princess shaped pasta (ahem).

I think a bit of a mix is good.

Milling your own flour is not cooking from scratch, there is a difference between home made and home reared.

No, you are not snobby or unusual at all cooking from scratch, there's nothing wrong with it, nor is there anything wrong with opening a jar of Dolmio. YANBU.

We'll have a take away Thai or pizza about 3 times a year. Everything else is home cooked. Occasionally this includes bread, cakes, cookies, and ice cream. I always do the cooking (new status = SAHD).

I have no idea why anyone would associate not using ready meals/sauces with being pretentious. So YANBU.

jarred sauces, though, are great for camping. i add in tinned onion, too.

Ninah, your children are older though, mine are just starting playdates.
cannot see any way a motherof a 1yr old would discuss cooking etc without it coming across as smug or judgemental. Not saying thats the intention, but that's possibly why people are 'shocked and appalled'

I cook as much as possible but don't make a big deal of it. Agree with jarsauces. It's one of the rare funny frankie boyle jokes from mock the week.
thingsyou wouldn't hear in advertising...
Ragu-if you gave this to a real italian, they'd punch you in the face.

I am the same...make as much as I can with ingredients rather than packets and tins and stuff. It is cheaper, and the ingredients labels on some pre-packaged food just makes me .

But, we always have stuff like fish fingers in the freezer...nothing wrong with those occassionally, when you need something quick!

Ooh, expat, i do love tinned onions. Ithink camping is excused though.

This is why people think it's pretentious though, you are all being very judgey of non scratch cookers.

"cannot see any way a motherof a 1yr old would discuss cooking etc without it coming across as smug or judgemental."

I guess my friends and I came across as smug and judgemental then, as we would regularly discuss what we were cooking for our 1 year olds and what they liked/disliked. I had no idea the subject was banned for mothers of young children.

No, not odd.

And of course there's nothing "wrong" with food that is canned, frozen or otherwise preserved. Frozen is normally fresher than "fresh", after all.

I use a variety of food. Some nights it's straight from freezer (chips and frozen fish) to the oven ......to the table.

Last night I cooked lasagne 'from scratch'. I often discuss cooking with friends. I don't think it's pretentious and am quite happy to admit to easy cooking and 'proper' cooking.

I think many people have forgotten "basic" cooking. What I have noticed lately is extremes either someone doesn't/can't cook at all and lives on ready meals and junk food. Or they want to go all gourmet and cook interesting dishes every night. The cooking shows on the telly feed into this I think, lots of dicking about with rocket but not a great spag bol recipe to be seen.

I cook most nights but it isn't flash, we do lots of meat and 3 veg, lots of spag bol, curries stuff like that, the same sort of stuff my Mum used to cook. Sometimes I will want to try something new and it will be the flavour of the month but then we tend to go back to the "usual".

We were out all this weekend and ate out for most meals, by the end of it I was done, wasn't junk but just too rich and too many decisions needed to want to do that on a regular basis.

Oh my friends and I always talk about cooking, most of us are foodies and like using fresh ingredients. Its cheaper (day to day although i splash out for special occassions)

I agree that tinned sauces are the work of the devil. I know people who will say they made a lasagne but what they mean is it just wasnt a ready meal and they got a jar of bolognaise sauce and a jar of white sauce and made it with that ... judgey pants on and I dont care

I dont always cook fresh, we occassionally have take away but I am put off by the added little treats in jars and cans/ ready meals etc... plus they taste like nothing.

Im a cooking snob and proud!!!!

(also like to do cats bum mouth when I ask DSD, did you have dinner at muumy's? and she says yes we had maccaroni cheese... out of a can!!!!) (not so she can see of course)

Actually, I do use some things from jars, like pesto, bearnaise sauce, etc. Tinned foods too, mainly tomatoes. And frozen fish fingers, and a few other things like that. Bit difficult not to, surely?

and I agree morloth. There are loads of good wholesome basic meals that people just dont know how to cook.

I agree pesto and bernaise is unavoidable... unless you have hours to make yourself.

It's not unusual unless you're living in Glasgow!

My boyfriend's family are constantly amazed at how we are able to "make our own burgers"!

pesto actually only takes a few minutes in a food processor, less time than it takes for the pasta to cook