Is it worth making it from scratch?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

Obsessive cook
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Are there food items you usually buy ready-made? A good example might be mayonnaise which I think most people buy 'off the shelf'. Is it worth making your own when its so easy to grab a bottle from the supermarket?

For me its often bread that I buy ready-made, though I'm very capable of making it from scratch. But, of course its worth making bread from scratch when I have the time and inclination. Other items I generally buy ready-made are things like tomato ketchup, and mustard. I could go on...

Things I never buy ready-made are curry pastes or sauces or any ready-made sauce, really.
 
I'll have to go through my pantry, because there's probably more than I realize, but definitely condiments, though I just finished my last jar of mayonnaise, and I'm planning on making my own going forward. Bread occasionally, especially if it's a specialty bread. I do make probably 70% of our everyday sandwich bread.

Pasta, definitely dried box pasta. I do have "emergency" tinned pizza sauce, though I don't use it very often. Most sauces of any type, I generally try and make, because they're usually just a few ingredients.

I used to buy spice blends (fajita seasoning, lemon-pepper seasoning, pumpkin pie/mixed spice, garlic salt, etc), but since I nearly always have the base herbs and spices on hand, I just blend my own as needed. I just made some poultry seasoning, for example.

I don't really buy any ready-made meals any longer, unless something is new and really catches my eye, like that Chicago-style deep dish frozen pizza we had a couple of weeks ago. Bought once to try, probably won't ever by it again.
 
I don't make beef stock. I've done it a few times in the past but it's not really worth it IMHO. It takes ages for a normal household to gather enough bones unless you are beef mad and they aren't cheap to buy - not round here anyway - almost as much as the meat.

Chicken stock is slightly different I'm half/half. I have ready-mades (I like Heinz made in France one) but when I collect enough bones I also make a real one. I supplement it by buying a couple of pounds of feet to make it nice and gelatinous.

I'm not much of a baker so I always buy bread.

I've made mayonnaise just to see how it's done, but will usually just use Hellmans or Heinz.
 
That's another one, stock/broth. I've made veggie and chicken broths before, but I prefer to use store-bought, either "Better Than Boullion," which is like a paste, or getting it from the gourmet shop, where it's made in-store.
 
My home made mayo is by far the best, with condensed milk. Bread here is like $2 a loaf. We had a bread maker and I loved that bread. I like home made as much as possible but time sometimes dictates things around here.

Russ
 
I make all my sauces, but none of my condiments. I usually make stocks from a stock paste (Better Than Bouillon). I don't make my own breads. I use rolls more than sliced bread, and I can buy them at the grocery-store bakery a few at a time, so they are fresh when I use them. If I were to bake a dozen rolls, or a loaf of bread, it would go stale (or green) before I could eat it all.

I have several recommended spice blends in my pantry, but usually use my own blends. Same with spice rubs for BBQ. I bought some competition winning BBQ rubs, but like my own better. My rubs are simpler -- I use a lot fewer ingredients.

I also have a pasta roller/cutter, and a KA stand mixer, so I could make my own pasta, but dried pasta is so easy, and there are plenty of good dried pastas available.

CD
 
I try to make most things but it's not practical all the time. A few examples: I make my own pasta but sometimes I want bucatini. I make focaccia regularly but not sandwich bread. I make and freeze all my stocks. I always make my own mayo and all salad dressings. i make my own spice mixes and make my own curries. I make my own teriyaki sauce. Smoke regularly, make my own bacon and smoked meat......but not all charcuterie. I do make a few cheeses but of course buy imported because I'm a cheese idiot. Basically I'm generally going to try and do it myself but I don't beat myself up when I don't.
 
Pie crusts, I make one from scratch maybe once every 10 pies, just to keep a hand in. I use a boxed cake mix probably 90% of the time because I just can't crack the code on stellar cakes.

Salad dressing...I haven't bought salad dressing in years, and if there's one thing I'd tell a home cook just starting out, it'd be, "Make your own salad dressings!" - that said, I've bought two bottles of salad dressing in the last two weeks! One was blue cheese, because I don't make that and MrsT requested it, and I just bought a bottle of a local restaurant chain's creamy garlic because I've been busier than a fly on fresh crap today, and left MrsT to put together salad tonight while I mowed the grass (going on vacation starting tomorrow), so now I have two bottles of store-bought salad dressing.
 
Mayonnaise, brown sauce, goodbye sauce, gravy granules, gravy cubes, ketchup, oyster sauce, soy sauce, piccalilli, meat pies, beef burgers, bread, sausages and probably a few other items are generally all store bought. Curry, chilli and pepper sauces are all made from scratch (although we do have bottled red Tabasco sauce).
 
I do have jarred pickle relishes (both sweet and dill), Branston pickle, and Bisto gravy granules. Forgot about those. I also have a tin of baked beans up there somewhere, and while I've made granola several times in the past, I just buy it (I actually prefer it).

I do make my own creme fraiche, though.
 
I also use canned beans more often than starting from dry beans.

I bought some Bisto gravy granules just for grins, but haven't used any, yet. I generally make gravies from scratch, as with other sauces.

CD
 
While I usually buy mayonnaise, it's so easy to make with a stick blender that sometimes it's less effort to do that than to run to the store. Stock I buy pretty much constantly as I use it multiple times a week - I do make my own when I've accumulated enough scraps through.

General rule - if it takes as much effort to make as a full meal, but its only one small component of a meal, I'll usually buy it. And perhaps make it from scratch once in a while just for fun.
 
I don´t make my own mayonnaise. I occasionally make my own pasta, but getting the machine out, running the pasta through 5 times, working out where I can dry it, etc, etc, is a faff - so I buy it, mostly.I often make veg stock and coconut milk ( from fresh coconuts). I never buy ready-made pasta sauces or salsas; they´re so easy to make at home and so much tastier. And I certainly don´t buy chutneys, piccalilli, jams, marmalades, curry powder or any other spice mixes - I make them myself. I prefer to make authentic (well, as close as I can get) Indian food rather than stuff with curry powder in it.
As for hot sauce - am I the only person who thinks that Tabasco tastes sour, like rotten veg? It´s not even hot. I make my own hot sauces - C4, Caribbean, sambal, Indian achars, Mexican salsas picantes - all from scratch.
If I´m making chile con carne, I cook the beans from scratch; same goes for falafel, hummus, frijoles refritos, dal, canelli beans, etc. Never buy them in tins EXCEPT baked beans - which are not available over here😥😥
I buy puff pastry when I need it, but mostly I make my own pastry.
Still, if you got a glimpse into a local supermarket here, you´d understand why!
 
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