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
"tinned" aka "canned" is another loaded description.

one can buy DintyMoore Stew in a can . . .
is that the same as using Paul Newman's Own Pasta Sauce?
same with chili - ready made 'in a can' available - heat&eat . . .
is starting with dried beans, that you didn't grow yourself, onions, chili powder, green onions, etc etc etc - is that not 'scratch?'

I make my own tomato 'schufft' for home made pizza, because dang! it's better than any commercial 'sauces'
I didn't grow the wheat, I didn't make the pepperoni, I didn't milk the cows and make the cheese . . .
is it a scratch pizza?
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CookieMonster said:
"tinned" aka "canned" is another loaded description.

one can buy DintyMoore Stew in a can . . .
is that the same as using Paul Newman's Own Pasta Sauce?
same with chili - ready made 'in a can' available - heat&eat . . .
is starting with dried beans, that you didn't grow yourself, onions, chili powder, green onions, etc etc etc - is that not 'scratch?'

I make my own tomato 'schufft' for home made pizza, because dang! it's better than any commercial 'sauces'
I didn't grow the wheat, I didn't make the pepperoni, I didn't milk the cows and make the cheese . . .
is it a scratch pizza?
View attachment 111898
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To me cooking from scratch means using fresh ingredients with no chemical additives. Sometimes ingredients, like the dry beans you mentioned or dry pasta aren't necessarily fresh but they have no chemical additives. Your scratch sauce looks appetizing and I'll venture better than what you can buy in a can. Personally, I don't used canned ingredients unless they are the only option. The exception is my wife's marinara sauce which uses canned tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. When I make marinara sauce I use fresh tomatoes like you and reduce the sauce to thicken it.
 
if I 'reduce' the tomato stuff to a thickened state - tastes just like all the other sauces/marinara on the shelf.
keep cooking, you got ketchup . . .

I cook it to barely 'stewed state' - for final usage I thaw, put it in a strainer to mechanically drain excess moisture.
add back just enough strained liquid to meet the 'consistency of need'

winds up essentially as "fresh tomatoes on a pizza crust"
 
CookieMonster said:
"tinned" aka "canned" is another loaded description.

one can buy DintyMoore Stew in a can . . .
is that the same as using Paul Newman's Own Pasta Sauce?
same with chili - ready made 'in a can' available - heat&eat . . .
is starting with dried beans, that you didn't grow yourself, onions, chili powder, green onions, etc etc etc - is that not 'scratch?'

I make my own tomato 'schufft' for home made pizza, because dang! it's better than any commercial 'sauces'
I didn't grow the wheat, I didn't make the pepperoni, I didn't milk the cows and make the cheese . . .
is it a scratch pizza?
View attachment 111898
Click to expand...
Again, we aren't talking about growing food or raising animals for food. I don't make my own pepperoni or make my own cheese. My husband does make our sausage "from scratch" however.
 
CookieMonster said:
if I 'reduce' the tomato stuff to a thickened state - tastes just like all the other sauces/marinara on the shelf.
keep cooking, you got ketchup . . .

I cook it to barely 'stewed state' - for final usage I thaw, put it in a strainer to mechanically drain excess moisture.
add back just enough strained liquid to meet the 'consistency of need'

winds up essentially as "fresh tomatoes on a pizza crust"
Click to expand...
Well It qualifies for cooking from scratch which was your original topic.
 
CookieMonster said:
"tinned" aka "canned" is another loaded description.

one can buy DintyMoore Stew in a can . . .
is that the same as using Paul Newman's Own Pasta Sauce?
same with chili - ready made 'in a can' available - heat&eat . . .
is starting with dried beans, that you didn't grow yourself, onions, chili powder, green onions, etc etc etc - is that not 'scratch?'

I make my own tomato 'schufft' for home made pizza, because dang! it's better than any commercial 'sauces'
I didn't grow the wheat, I didn't make the pepperoni, I didn't milk the cows and make the cheese . . .
is it a scratch pizza?
View attachment 111898
Click to expand...
Could you explain the difference (to you) between tinned and canned?
To me they are the same thing. The latter here is the American English for tinned?
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Could you explain the difference (to you) between tinned and canned?
To me they are the same thing. The latter here is the American English for tinned?
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I don’t know if it’s what CookieMonster was thinking of, but “canned” here can also specifically mean home-canned, in glass jars, in a pressure-cooker, that sort of thing.
 
TastyReuben said:
I don’t know if it’s what CookieMonster was thinking of, but “canned” here can also specifically mean home-canned, in glass jars, in a pressure-cooker, that sort of thing.
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Oh ok. Here generally tinned means in a metal can. Canned is American for tinned and jarred means.. do I need to elaborate? 😆

"Home canned" isn't a term here. You'd just say home made blah blah, the type of container isn't mentioned.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
"Home canned" isn't a term here. You'd just say home made blah blah, the type of container isn't mentioned.
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We don’t really say “home-canned,” but we’d say things like this:

“I just canned a bushel of tomatoes from the garden…you want a couple jars?”

“I can’t come over Sunday, I’m canning that day.”
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I love that.
Here cooking is seen as domestic work that should fit around other commitments. Saying I can't come over, I'm caning that day would be viewed like saying "I can't I'm washing my hair" 😆
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Anyone here says they’re “canning that day,” that’s taken with respect and admiration, because it usually means dawn-to-dusk hard work.

I hated canning days growing up, because it was a never-ending job for me, hauling in whatever was being canned, hauling the scraps out (in 5-gallon buckets) to slop the pigs, down to the (spider-infested) root cellar for empty jars to be washed, back down to the root cellar (where the spiders are now agitated and active) with the canned stuff.

Mom and my sister, though, had to wash all the jars and rings, wash the produce, prep it, cook it down, then can it. I can still see both of them, especially my Mom, positively drenched in sweat, like she’d just been for a swim, standing over pots of simmering tomatoes or grapes or green beans. It was one of the few times she’d use the electric range.

My sister still cans and slides me a few things every so often.
 
a "can" is a metal container, in the US. in UK a "tin" is a metal can.
in US, a "tin" of something is typically gum/mint/etc - and the "tin" is not sealed - you pop it open to access the contents, cases the lid is a separate piece from the body of the "tin"
in US, we had - rarely seen anymore - "coffee cans" - not "coffee tins"

for home stuff, one "cans" fruits/vegetables/etc with the process of "canning" - which uses glass jars (Mason, et.al.) . . .
not metal cans - go figger . . .

so, now we should discuss cookies and biscuits . . .

many word, used interchangeably, often confusingly - ala "canning" tomatoes in a glass jar.
staying flexible is a good thing . . .
 
CookieMonster said:
a "can" is a metal container, in the US. in UK a "tin" is a metal can.
in US, a "tin" of something is typically gum/mint/etc - and the "tin" is not sealed - you pop it open to access the contents, cases the lid is a separate piece from the body of the "tin"
in US, we had - rarely seen anymore - "coffee cans" - not "coffee tins"

for home stuff, one "cans" fruits/vegetables/etc with the process of "canning" - which uses glass jars (Mason, et.al.) . . .
not metal cans - go figger . . .

so, now we should discuss cookies and biscuits . . .

many word, used interchangeably, often confusingly - ala "canning" tomatoes in a glass jar.
staying flexible is a good thing . . .
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Of course it's all good.
Just nice (and fun) to discuss the differences, there are no winners.
 
badjak said:
We use the terms here similar to what SandwichShortOfAPicnic describes.
Gravy and biscuits still gets me the wrong way. I keep seeing marie biscuits dunked in jus (you know, the gravy purely made from meat drippings) :)
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Me too but I can confirm the "Upside Down Sausage Cobbler" I served for breakfast went down a storm 😆
 
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