Cooking From Scratch versus Mixes and Premade Food

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I just read through this thread. We recently had Thanksgiving and everything we had was from scratch except pumpkin pie from Costco, Nantucket cranberry pie from Trader Joes, and whipped cream from a can. I did make gluten free sweet potato and pumpkin pie for daughter. I did buy the gluten free stuffing mix from Trader Joes. I have made that from scratch for years, except for last year and this year. I have to search for gf bread.

We have coffee and something simple to eat after church on Sundays. I found sweet potato pie at Walmart and took whipping cream which I whipped once I got there. Well, whipping cream at home is something that many people do not do any more. The children said that it tasted like yogurt. They ate it. I did take a cherry pie as well, and the children all had that.

So, I decided to buy canned whipped cream. It is not like I have never done that before, it is just odd for me. It is a little different, but it is okay. I'm not trying to be judgemental, but times have changed, haven't they?

I asked several people about how their Thanksgiving was, and I heard a few people say that they ordered food premade. There are many places to get a turkey dinner cooked and ready to pick up. I get it. Daughter had a project due at work and stayed up all night the night before Thanksgiving working on that. A prepared meal would have been so much easier, but finding gluten free has been the challenge. Someone did tell me that you can get one from Whole Foods. Maybe we will do that one year, but there were three of us cooking and that really helps, that it is not all on one person. A friend who had dinner with us is a trained chef and he made the gravy, so really there were four of us cooking. With large meals like this, it is a lot of work, and everyone can pitch in, from cooking to cleaning to doing the dishes.
 
I have cooked home grown from scratch for so long that I have built up an intolerance for processed stuff. Processed stuff produces a rude reaction and itching.

You are right about sharing the load. The old tradition of one person slaving away and not enjoying the day is nuts.

My DIL, has taken an interest in cooking and is getting very good at it. I make darn sure she knows it, and let her take lead. At my house, everyone helps with the clean up except the cooks and she has caught on to that as well.
 
Last edited:
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I have cooked home grown from scratch for so long that I have built up an intolerance for processed stuff. Processed stuff produces a rude reaction and itching.
Click to expand...
MSG, soy and all the things we cannot even pronounce are so common in processed foods and so not good for many. Hyper activity in children is sometimes traced to food dyes, sugars and processed foods. There are also so many things that can cause allergic reactions. I have known a few people who have had gluten allergies for years, really, their whole lives and just kept on eating gluten, some knowing they were allergic to it but eating it anyway. For the people I know who are allergic to it and keep eating it, they seem to have less of a reaction than if stopped eat it and then inadvertently eat it. But research shows that people who have a gluten allergy and keep eating it do not have a long life. I recently learned that there are 3 cancers that are linked to people with gluten allergies. A family had a grandmother who died of a particular type of cancer. Doctors told the family that this cancer is found in people with gluten allergies. The whole family got tested and people found out that they have celiac, when they didn't know it previously. I heard my daughter telling someone that she is really sick for 3 days, but doesn't feel better for a few weeks when she get gluten poisoned, because for her, it is poison.
 
I seen a couple of recipes on FB that I wanted to try. (I have got to quit doing that)

First one was a Gingerbread Poke Cake. I had everything on hand except the gingersnaps and buttermilk and as I was getting ready to go the store, I stopped myself and made my own.....well sort of. The gingersnap cookies were actually made from a box cake mix (like the Poke Cake was as well), and added lemon juice to regular milk, but it did save me a trip to the store.

The other recipe is for a Chocolate Lasagna pie that there is nothing homemade about it other than assembly. Holidays can be a dangerous time for health.

About the only real 'homemade from scratch'....or the closest I was willing to do since I didn't make the cheese or the noodles, was mac & cheese for supper. Just cooked elbows with a bit of butter and little bit of milk and lots of shredded cheese. I didn't make the roux to make it saucey, just mixed the elbows with the butter & milk, then layered it into a casserole with the cheese. Turned out different, but still good
 
JustMe said:
I seen a couple of recipes on FB that I wanted to try. (I have got to quit doing that)

First one was a Gingerbread Poke Cake. I had everything on hand except the gingersnaps and buttermilk and as I was getting ready to go the store, I stopped myself and made my own.....well sort of. The gingersnap cookies were actually made from a box cake mix (like the Poke Cake was as well), and added lemon juice to regular milk, but it did save me a trip to the store.

The other recipe is for a Chocolate Lasagna pie that there is nothing homemade about it other than assembly. Holidays can be a dangerous time for health.

About the only real 'homemade from scratch'....or the closest I was willing to do since I didn't make the cheese or the noodles, was mac & cheese for supper. Just cooked elbows with a bit of butter and little bit of milk and lots of shredded cheese. I didn't make the roux to make it saucey, just mixed the elbows with the butter & milk, then layered it into a casserole with the cheese. Turned out different, but still good
Click to expand...
I think with enough cooking experience, you can adjust and be creative when you cook. Sometimes not having the ingredients that a recipe calls for, but having something similar that can work is an option. Sometimes it turns out great, other times, at least for me, not so much. I have dehydrated powdered cheeses, shredded cheese, cheese wedges and blocks, Velveeta (fairly good for food storage), and various canned and jarred cheese sauces. These can be used for mac and cheese and do change the flavor and texture a little, but fill in the gap. A mac and cheese can also have other ingredients added, such as tuna, veggies, onions, etc., whatever a person has on hand and wants to experiment with.
 
Weedygarden said:
I think with enough cooking experience, you can adjust and be creative when you cook. Sometimes not having the ingredients that a recipe calls for, but having something similar that can work is an option. Sometimes it turns out great, other times, at least for me, not so much. I have dehydrated powdered cheeses, shredded cheese, cheese wedges and blocks, Velveeta (fairly good for food storage), and various canned and jarred cheese sauces. These can be used for mac and cheese and do change the flavor and texture a little, but fill in the gap. A mac and cheese can also have other ingredients added, such as tuna, veggies, onions, etc., whatever a person has on hand and wants to experiment with.
Click to expand...


Yep, in the past I've used different cheeses like Swiss,, Mozzerrella, cream cheese and even nacho cheese, along with the cheddar. All depends on what I have on hand and needs used up, or how I feel to get too experimental.
 
This is a great thread.
I make a lot of stuff from scratch, have canned pre-made meals for when I'm not home and the kids/hubs can eat well.
This last thanksgiving, I was not planning on having a get together (and now I will totally be done- haha!)
I bought a turkey, and made canned sweet potatoes, boxed stuffing, mashed potatoes from a bag, canned green bean casserole - I don't think anything I had was technically from scratch except my turkey and the gravy. It was still good, and everyone loved it! Even our bread was just some Hawaiian rolls my dad brought.

Usually I bake all my bread from scratch and don't buy any at the store. My family definitely likes it that way :)
 
I much prefer cooking from scratch. No help for me as I am cooking for DH and his friend. Thanksgiving, the only thing processed was the cranberry sauce in a can. Christmas will probably be the same way. As long as I have time, I'll do it. Oh, and having Christmas dinner on Sunday, the 26th.
 
We cook from packaged ingredients. Looking at our thanksgiving:

Turkey - Bough frozen at the grocery, we thawed and cooked
Roasted potato wedges - from scratch
Stuffing - Boxed, add boiling water and butter
Gravy - from scratch (well, the cornstarch used to thicken it came out of a box)
Green bean casserole - frozen beans, can of cream of mushroom soup - yeah, we technically "cooked" it, but all ingredients were packaged
Frog's Eye Salad - Packaged Acini de Pepe (spelling? it's a pasta), canned mandarin oranges and pineapple, Cool-Whip
Rolls - Those raw dough, refrigerated pop-open biscuits
Pumpkin pie - We cooked it, but ingredients were a store-bought can of pumpkin, a can of evaporated milk, frozen pie crust, a tub of Cool-Whip

In summary, we cook things using packaged ingredients. We don't shoot our own turkey, plant our own potatoes, or grow our own pumpkins. Some things are totally packaged (like the rolls, although we do have to throw the dough in the oven). But it's not like we order a complete pre-made dinner delivered, ready for the table when it hits the front door. I'm guessing that 90% of the people fixing a Thanksgiving meal are like us. I envy the ones who really do it from scratch, and wish I had the kind of money it must take for the ones who have it all delivered. Although under some circumstances, pre-made and delivered is exactly the best thing to do. That is much better than not having a family meal at all. There are a lot of people who don't get holidays off work. Cooking a turkey is not something you're going to be successful at if you don't even get to start until after you get off work for the day.

Turkey is a bit overrated anyway. I do like it for an occasional diversion, but I'll take a ribeye over a dry slice of turkey breast or a tendon-infested leg any day. I actually like chicken better.

My daughter is just the opposite. She grows her own spices, vegetables and fruit (she grows more spices and veges, then trades with neighbors who grow more fruit - it's a good arrangement). Hunts and butchers her own meat (some of it, but not all). Catches her own fish and lobsters. Grinds her own wheat and rice into flour (but she does buy the raw wheat and rice rather than growing that). Trades her excess fish at farmer's markets for additional foods she doesn't grow herself. Her meals are much better than mine, that's for sure. This is also how she manages to live on a budget in Hawaii, which is normally very expensive.
 
It is nice to share in the cooking. We do that on Sunday evenings at my cousin's place. She will typically do a main dish and let me know by Saturday what it is. Then I do the sides to it and take requests, too. Her daughter in law doesn't cook much but we can count on her bringing a green salad or a fruit bowl, and that's fine. My husband swears the pumpkin pie from our own grown pumpkins are the best in the world, and is spoiled now from the canned stuff. I've always done my own whipped cream, too, but my cousin knows I don't add any sugar to it (husband is diabetic) and I'm used to eating it that way, so she'll add sugar to her own serving. I do have alot of canned and prepacked in food storage, but when fresh is available, we eat that.
 
Haertig said:
Turkey is a bit overrated anyway. I do like it for an occasional diversion, but I'll take a ribeye over a dry slice of turkey breast or a tendon-infested leg any day. I actually like chicken better.
Click to expand...
I agree. Daughter loves turkey. There is something about turkey that changes taste wise for me after the first day. It tastes odd to me. I am not alone. A few people in my family want no part of turkey leftovers. I'm not sure why. We also have a similar thing about chicken as well. Great on the first day, but after that, not so much. The stuffing is just as good to me with left over gravy. Leftover potatoes are still good with leftover gravy as well.

Since my family raised beef, we have had roast beef for Thanksgiving. I would be very happy to have nicely browned roast beef with brown gravy and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving or anytime. A side of buttered corn and I'm good.
 
Weedygarden said:
I ....

Since my family raised beef, we have had roast beef for Thanksgiving. I would be very happy to have nicely browned roast beef with brown gravy and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving or anytime. A side of buttered corn and I'm good.
Click to expand...
Why does that sound like what I had last night?
😐

Ben
 
Amish Heart said:
I love leftover turkey. I prefer real turkey sandwiches with mayo over lunchmeat turkey. Turkey tacos...turkey enchiladas...turkey noodle soup....
Click to expand...
I wish I could love it. I have tried. When I have bought those roasted chickens in the store that I could eat from and cook from for a few days, it is the same. Something is just off in the taste. I have tried. Maybe it is similar to what happens to people who think cilantro tastes like soap.
 
Amish Heart said:
Could be. I don't like those roasted chickens in the store. Don't like their over salty seasoning. You know those chickens are injected with junk to make them look plump before they're sold. That's probably why they taste nasty.
Click to expand...
I have wondered if the problem has to do with what poultry is fed these days. I don't remember this when I was a kid from any family member, just as we got older. An uncle would not go to the senior center for lunch if they were serving chicken. A few others are the same.
 
Amish Heart said:
The old guys around here won't go to chinese food. They believe all the meat is cat. One of my 80 yr old cousins seriously told me he looked behind the chinese building into the dumpster and found cat skin.
Click to expand...
This has been a story for so long, because in some Asian countries they do eat cat and dog. I remember when someone wanted to go eat Vietnamese decades ago. Unfortunately, someone joked about eating dog there, and that was it for me. It took me decades before I could even consider eating it. I have heard a few people say the same for Chinese. The problem is that it takes time to butcher and prepare small animals like cats to cook. It may be true in China, Vietnam, or Korea, or other countries, but I think that Asian restaurants are too busy to serve cat or dog.

An Asian family might butcher a cat or dog for themselves. A neighbor had two white dogs. One died, and he wanted to give up the other. He took it to a shelter and was talked out of donating it, because he was told that Koreans come in and get them to eat. Maybe, maybe not. Now there are fees for neutering and chipping all animals that are adopted, at least in Colorado.
 
I've also heard those stories about cat or dogs... Asian restaurants are all over small town america. If that kind of thing were happening there'd be arrests everywhere. Haven't heard of a single one... And word would get out! In the little town up the road the only chinese restaurant has a guy named Juan manning the wok. I'm sure he's not keeping any secrets. So no, I don't buy it. I've worked with people from many asian countries, watched them cook and eaten in their homes. Think its just a story that keeps getting retold about restaurants here.

But, scratch! Up until 15yrs ago I was like guys my age. I cooked a good breakfast, better than average on a grill but no serious cooking. Most cooking shows made no sense to me. They were like instructions from Ikea but the box contained all the bits, pieces and parts on the fractory floor at the end of the day. Nothing made sense.

Then I saw a show "Good Eats" with A Brown. I like sciences, several of them in fact. I was that little kid who always had to know how something worked (still am). Brown presented cooking in a way I understood. The proverbial light blub went off! What happens to sugars, proteins or starches when heated is simple science! Now cooking makes sense to me! And since I like to experiment, an liked many different foods...

These days I cook from scratch as much as I can. I do american fare, basic meats and stews like a brunswick or gumbo. I like using simple fresh ingrediants, just a few sauces or spices. Like Burt Gummer says, "Just a few household chemicals in the proper proportions".

These days I think many foods are over spiced. Sometimes all that's needed is a little salt, a dusting of that, a fresh herb. I like doing simple asian at home, even bought a second wok. In summer I do a lot of grilling, smoking with pecan chips. So yes, I like cooking from sctrach but need to up my game to more serious sauces, and bread making.
 
Back in my ambulance days, one of my drivers was also a cop. He told a story of how one time they went to the local Chinese restaurant for some disturbance. They didn't see any cats or dogs, thank goodness. Just chickens. Unfortunately, those chickens were hanging on clotheslines out back. They told the owner that refrigeration is required in the US. I assume the health department made sure he had a refrigerator inside ... (the owner probably just didn't know what it was used for)
 
Weedygarden said:
I agree. Daughter loves turkey. There is something about turkey that changes taste wise for me after the first day. It tastes odd to me. I am not alone. A few people in my family want no part of turkey leftovers. I'm not sure why. We also have a similar thing about chicken as well. Great on the first day, but after that, not so much. The stuffing is just as good to me with left over gravy. Leftover potatoes are still good with leftover gravy as well.

Since my family raised beef, we have had roast beef for Thanksgiving. I would be very happy to have nicely browned roast beef with brown gravy and mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving or anytime. A side of buttered corn and I'm good.
Click to expand...


Yes turkey is edible the first day, but not so much after that. The taste does change. I find the best way of using the leftovers is to use with alot of spices and other ingredients to hide that taste.
 
2 things to contribute about Asians and dogs & cats........


1. Atleast in this area, there is a vet clinic or pet store within a block or two of Asian restuarants, about 90% of the time. I do doubt there is any correlation between the two, as mentioned ^^^ above, they'd be closed down in a New York heartbeat if it were true, but it's just something I've noticed. Find a Chinese (or other Asian restaurant) and there will be either a vet clinic or pet shop right close by.


2. Years ago at an office I worked at, there was a stray cat that would show up often. One of my co-workers who was Vietnamese, said they would eat cats back home. I wasn't shocked at the admission, but I also wasn't sure what to say so I just said 'I guess people eat just about anything if they're hungry enough'...but I was never sure if that was the case, or if they preferred cat or dog, to chicken, beef or pork
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top