Scratch Cooking vs. Prepared Ingredients

Do you prefer to cook from scratch or use prepared ingredients?

  • Scratch Always

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • Mostly Scratch

    Votes: 12 85.7%

  • Mostly Prepared

    Votes: 1 7.1%

  • All Prepared

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    14
M

momsrecipe

New Member
Joined
31 Mar 2024
Local time
10:20 PM
Messages
1
Location
india
Website
momsrecipe.org
Cooking question! Do you usually make meals yourself from scratch, like chopping veggies and all that? Or do you use pre-made stuff to save time?

Let's settle this in a poll! Pick one:
 
Depends on your definition of scratch cooking.
If it is just about the veges: I use about 95% fresh. Some home grown, some bought.
But I use bought pasta as well as homemade. Same for bread and wraps etc
 
I a mostly-scratch person, I suppose. I don’t use anything that’s already prepped, unless you count the odd bag of frozen fruit/vegetables.
 
I never buy precut vegetables but I will use dried pastas and bread that I've purchased. I have made my own pasta and bread many times though. I say I'm mostly scratch because of that. To me, totally scratch would be someone who makes their own jams, condiments, salad dressings, bread, pasta, etc. 100% of the time.
 
Depends on how you define prepared. We've been using Tovala meals about a third of the time lately. They are made fresh, but not by me. I like having the fresh ingredients, and I LOVE not having to do all the prep and cooking.

I use dried pasta mostly, purchased bread and canned tomatoes, but other vegetables are fresh or frozen. I don't buy precut vegetables. I do make pasta and bread myself from time to time, depends on how I'm feeling that day.
 
definitions matter . . .

stuff like canned vegetables - homemade available since centuries . . . is using such 'not scratch?'
frozen . . . same issue

using fresh / frozen mashed potato / mac&cheese / etc - definitely not scratch.
I buy/use store made cole slaw - I also do "homemade" - when the needed volume is there.
but for two, you can make a huge batch and throw at least half away, or throw half-head of the unused cabbage away, or buy a pint of ready made....

buying in a bbq/spit roasted/etc chicken . . . is not from scratch

using store bought fresh/dried pasta I don't consider a disqualifying issue as to "from scratch" -
- nor do I keep chickens for scratch eggs, nor a cow for scratch milk , , , etc.
 
CookieMonster said:
using store bought fresh/dried pasta I don't consider a disqualifying issue as to "from scratch" -
- nor do I keep chickens for scratch eggs, nor a cow for scratch milk , , , etc.
Click to expand...
Well, making fresh pasta is not the same thing as having cows for milk and chickens for eggs, since I'm not growing wheat for pasta. We are talking about scratch made foods, not raising animals or growing produce.
 
Mostly scratch, but more along the lines of sauces, veggies, etc. Pre-cut produce at the store is crazy expensive and not economically sensible.
The only thing we'll use store bought in terms of canned/ pre-packaged stuff are things like beans, some veggies like pickled artichokes, beets, etc. and rice/ pasta but I do sometimes make fresh pasta depending on my energy level and mood.
 
If the quality is good and the ingredients list is genuine (ie it doesn’t contain chemicals you wouldn’t put in it if you made it yourself) then I don’t mind.

Even though I love cooking I find one of two things happens, firstly I get crazy busy and the time to cook from scratch isn’t there or secondly I go so deep into it (and this happens alarmingly regularly) that I’m doing nothing but cooking, which I love but there are many other things I’m supposed to pay attention to so a kind of cooking detox happens.

I self impose a ‘low impact cooking’ regime to ease off the peddle a bit and tend to other jobs.
All familiar recipes and no new recipes for a week (ok there will be one or two new recipes), mostly it’s from scratch but it may involve a frozen foods like scampi or a pre-made pizza.
 
well, I buy ingredients, and I cook-the-dish....

about the only 'ready-to-eat/prepared' stuff we consume is Marie Callendar's chicken pot pies.
it's just as good as anything I have made 'from scratch' - which I have done many times . . .
if/when the cook is feeling especially lazy or outside forces dictate an impossible schedule . . .

does applesauce = non-scratch?
stewed tomatoes?
pasta sauce?
condensed soups?
breads - of all sorts...?
a souffle with crushed crackers on top?
omg . . . hotdogs.... bought dogs, bought buns, bought mustard . . .

there's a plethora of things that stretch the definitions and lines . . .
 
Commercially made pasta sauce is NOT from scratch, even if you doctor it up.

Condensed soups are NOT from scratch, even if you doctor them up or use in a casserole dish.

Hot dogs or any sausages, unless you grind the meat and stuff casings, are NOT from scratch, regardless of how you use them.

Marie Calendar chicken pot pies, the larger ones, are great in a pinch, but I can and have done better. They are very nice if you need a decent meal and don't want to cook or order out. We usually have a couple in the freezer. I won't buy the smaller ones anymore though because the pastry/filling ratio is way one-sided, and not in a good way. There are other frozen entrees that are decent as well.

Applesauce, canned tomatoes, breads, crackers are all great convenience but all can be made from scratch if you have the time and desire.

I'll buy pre-cut coleslaw mix when we are just having a meal or 2. If I buy a head of cabbage, it will be used in more than 1 recipe to avoid wasting it, like coleslaw, rhotkol, sauerkraut, dim sum, kimchi, etc.
 
CookieMonster said:
well, I buy ingredients, and I cook-the-dish....

about the only 'ready-to-eat/prepared' stuff we consume is Marie Callendar's chicken pot pies.
it's just as good as anything I have made 'from scratch' - which I have done many times . . .
if/when the cook is feeling especially lazy or outside forces dictate an impossible schedule . . .

does applesauce = non-scratch?
stewed tomatoes?
pasta sauce?
condensed soups?
breads - of all sorts...?
a souffle with crushed crackers on top?
omg . . . hotdogs.... bought dogs, bought buns, bought mustard . . .

there's a plethora of things that stretch the definitions and lines . . .
Click to expand...
There's nothing wrong with buying ready made foods, and I don't make everything from scratch, either. However, if I have time, I prefer my homemade pasta over dried commercial pasta. Sometimes my homemade bread is better or at least as good as store bought. I don't have time or motivation to bake every loaf from scratch.

I like Marie Callender but I like my homemade pot pies better.
 
Like most things in life it’s about balance isn’t it. No-one needs to slavishly impose ‘from scratch’ rules on themselves when there are good things available that make life easier.
Sometimes those are a compromise as in you could do a better job yourself but who doesn’t have other life things to consider?!
 
I voted "always from scratch" because I never buy ready-cooked meals and don't use tinned or frozen vegetables...
but then I thought , tinned sweetcorn (only because the local, fresh sweetcorn is very tough), frozen peas (fresh ones are very hard to find), tinned tomatoes and bottled passata, bread, sausages, pasta and possibly a few other things.
No ready meals in my house and, apart from sweetcorn and peas, all veg are fresh. Pizza dough homemade, pasta sauces homemade, burgers, chicken, pork and fish all made at home, definitely no frozen chips/French fries or packet mash, all beans, lentils,peas etc. prepared from dried.
I should point out, however, that prepared foods are scarce here. You might be able to find a few frozen veg, and things like breaded chicken, but there's no "ready meals"or anything remotely similar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom