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?

If it grows on a plant eat it, if it was made in a plant, don't!

I like this quote from this article in the Sunday Times. It should be compulsory reading.

Personally I always cook from scratch, but I don't enjoy cooking that much and over the years I have accumulated a dazzling array of simple recipies that don't involve a lot of faffing around in the kitchen. I do use tinned and frozen vegetables, but only those that have had nothing added. I also used frozen puff pastry (very occasionally)and Nigel Slater says that's OK!

I'm afraid that I am very (inwardly only)judgey of my dear friend who feeds her kids entirely on a diet of processed food. She thinks it's OK because it's all from M&S and Tescos Finest.

I make my own bread (in a breadmaker) because the shop made stuff has so many things added to make them look nicer and to stay moist etc.

I hate those pesky additives...

That link doesn't work Jeff - all of the Times is now hidden away behind a paywall

Oh, I'm sorry I forgot! I think that he's plugging a new book (called Food Rules) so he may have articles in other papers. It's the usual stuff though, fresh and whole is good, processed is bad.

Eleanor (ps, that's my name too), I had supper at my father's the other day- sausages that he made by hand. Granted, he bought the meat and gut from a butcher, but still handmade. I know loads of people round here with their own pig(s), so not that unusual, although they tend to delegate the killing and sausage-making to the abattoir (comes as part of the slaughter service, seems a shame not to...). Also know people who grind their own wheat for bread.

Just saying it does happen.

I cook from scratch but it IS a faff, sometimes I just want a ready meal! But they taste like shit and are full of shit, and DP gets a bad tummy if he eats anything other than home cooked!!!!

i yearn to have a repetoire of fast-easy-cook healthy recipes.

agree RAGU is a pile of shit and no Italian would piss on it if it were on fire!

OP - you are not a freak!

I cook from scratch 99% of the time. And most other people in my circle are the same TBH. Food gets discussed around friends in so much that we switch tips/ recipes. How it can be seen as pretentious is beyond me.

I couldnt give two hoots as to what anyone else does in their home. I love cooking, love seeing my family eat the food I have made and hope to teach both DS's how to be a whizz in the kitchen. It is how I learnt.

I cook from scratch, apart from the odd take away and ready made stuffed pasta (oh and soup while my blender is broken).

Mainly because ready meals, ready made pasta sauce etc, taste crap. If they were delicious I'd probably be a lot lazier.

Not sure if that makes me a food snob... probably!

i wonder what most people's, and also on this thread, what their definition of 'from scratch' actually is.
i cook from scratch alot. not all the time. we also have fish fingers,chips, frozen pies from costco . buy quiche. buy a teco's 2 for £1 apple struddle. i couldn't make / couldn't be bothered to make it for 50p.
if you oppose frozen peas or a tin of baked beans - which incidentally is one of the most nutritious, low fat, high fibre, high carb, best things you can eat.
if you say you don't eat those. other than if you don't like them, then i think you may be a bit odd.

It's not pretentious but some people become smug about it.

You are not a freak OP.

We cook using fresh/real ingredients most days - no ready made sauces or things in packets because we can cook things that taste nicer and with DDs allergies I just can't be bothered scrutinising long lists of ingredients.

But my mum always goes on about how 17 month old DD eats 'gourmet' food every day, and isn't she lucky when all I've done is batch cook a load of cottage pie or thai curry

Oblomov - I don't think using frozen peas rather than fresh isn't cooking "from scratch". They're still just peas.

Baked beans on the other hand are processed. Doesn't necessarily make them "bad" (though they are very high in salt and sugar) but they are processed.

So, does anyone out there make their own baked beans?? Or not buy baked beans because they are processed?

Yeah...cooking from scratch doesn't have to take ages, and you don't need every night to be a huge production! Most of the stuff I make is 30 minutes...from beginning to setting it on the table. My DCs (and DH) have pretty simple tastes, so really, meat and veg, casseroles and stuff go down a treat. On weekends, I tend to do things that take a bit longer; curry, for example. But even still, it's not a huge production. The pay off is great...we have fresh healthy meals with known ingredients, and it doesn't really take a whole lot of time. And, for the record, I have been terminally against cooking for most of my adult life...I've always been a quick and easy 'chef'...until I had DCs...

Am laffign at all you home cooks. like BackOffMarge, when i maks lasagne it takes friggin hours. mice, chop onions, mush, tomatoes splattered up the wall, add mustard, lea and perrins etc etc. flour and butter , add milk, grate cheese. takes friggin ages. i make 2 or 3 huge trays. and whn i've finished it looks liek that tomato festical in spain , all over my cooker walls.
dh would die, if i didn't clean it all up mid afternoon, before he got home.

curry, whata mess. shephers pie. i cook enough mash to make 3 huge trays. using a potato siever thing. takes friggin ages.

and you recon this all takes 10 minutes ?
rock on.

YANBU

The main thing that sticks out from OP to me is you say "I ENJOY COOKING"!!!!

If you didn't enjoy cooking, you probably wouldn't be so organised and you probably wouldn't cook as much from scratch as you do. It's not just about having the skills, but also having the need and/or desire.

I think it's fantastic, and it's weird that people who cook (most) meals from basic ingredients don't seem to be the norm now. As with everything there these days needs to be a 'movement' or a 'backlash' for change to happen - and it does seem to be more of a movement towards preparing our own meals.

BTW I don't agree that home prepared food is 'healthier' just because it is cooked in our home kitchens. OK you are unlikely to use trans fats at home, but the 'healthiness' of the end product depends entirely on what has gone into it.

In India recently I was astounded when I had the opportunity to go into a family kitchen. Women there are still grinding rice etc in the kitchen even though 'ground rice' is widely available. Puts a can of tomatoes or jar of pesto into perspective.

Right I'm off to buy a the biggest bunch of basil I can find - inspired to make pesto tonight (which I do in food processor and find it neither messy, not time consuming, just a wonderful treat).

Sometimes it's actually better to use tomatoes from tins for a pasta sauce. Tinned tomatoes IME tend to be ripe and tomato tasting, whereas sometimes the ones you buy in the shops are a bit woolly tasting and unripe.

Of course, I am sure that if you buy everything from farmers' markets or grow your own and cook/bottle them when they are ripe you'd get around that, but to me tinned tomatoes are definitely a tame saver worth taking.

Likewise frozen peas - podding the ones from the shops tends to be a bit unrewarding, as unless you take them straight out of the garden and pod them right away (which is what they do with the frozen ones) they won't be as sweet as frozen peas.

OK OK, re my pesto-in-a-jar laziness... I DO occasionally make my own, but it's never been so good as the one made my local deli.

I now have pesto anxiety. Have I damaged my children?

OBLOMOV at mess - cleaning up is by far the worst thing about cooking for me.

We have tiny freezer - but it is an event to make lasagne I agree. Last time I made it was for a friend who had just had a baby. I made up loads of double portions that could be frozen as a gift & had some for my dinner & squeezed one into the freezer. For one big lot of effort you get many 'instant' just add salad, delicious lovely meals. It's the way go.

I made hummus a couple of weeks ago and it was disgusting. So I buy it instead.

Ditto Pesto.

But I have been known to make my own baked beans

washing up: a huge silver pot, full of remains tomato sauce - and we all know what a killer/stainer tom sauce is. white sauce pot. chopping boards, 3 wooden spoons, maybe a sieve, maybe potato ricer, huge big wok thing that doesn't fit in the sink, so thats a pain to wash. the list goes on. yeah like this only takes a few minues.

'From scratch' for me means using some prepared ingredients that have had a minimal amount of processing- ie frozen or tinned in own juices. It's not sensible really to use fresh tomatoes in December for a pasta sauce. Peas and corn go starchy very soon after picking so are almost invariably better used "processed" unless straight from the garden. Freezing is in many cases a much better way of preserving vegetables than tinning as long as they're stored in optimum conditions.

I draw the line at preprepared dishes, extensively processed primary ingredients such as pasta sauce when it takes a matter of moments to knock together a basic tomato sauce with onions and garlic. Why spend so much more and get a load of unwanted crap as well, such as preservatives, sugar, excessive salt, etc...?

The fewer ingredients the better, for me. If it has more than three lines of ingredients, it doesn't go in my trolley. Apart maybe from Angel Delight.

Oblomov

Yeah, I was surprised by the "lasagne in 30 minutes" claim too. Takes bloody ages IME. As does cottage or shepherds pie.

However, there are plenty of scratch meals that don't take that long or produce that much mess. Most pasta sauces are pretty quick and done in one pot.

Likewise any sort of risotto, or lentil or bean stew.

Likewise any meat & two veg type meal - ok more pans needed but not a lot of effort or time in the actual cooking.

Anyway, point is, it doesn't always have to be such a faff.

paella, for me, chopping, chopping. stand stirring, more endless chopping. add stock. add stock. what a ker-fuffle.
even saus casserol. pull them mahoosive slow cooker out cupboard, browm sausages in pan. buy single carrot, swede, turnip, 1/2 bag new pots,etc etc . some times make sauce. sometimes a colmans packet mix. then add couple tins toms etc etc. then come home work. smells lovely. mix up dumpling mix. add that.
but its still not a 5 minuter. is it ?

all tastes lovely, but .......

As a full-time worker with stupid long hours (13 yesterday) cooking from scratch is my salvation. Even if I don't get home till 8pm it still gives me enormous pleasure to create something from scratch. I am really helped by my lovely veggy box every friday which is just waiting for me when I get home.

Obvolov, no wonder your lasagne takes ages if you use 'mice'!! They must takes ages to skin and gut...try mince.

Do you want my super-duper, easy-peasy, no stir, oven baked, done in an hour, yummy paella recipe Oblomov?