Is there a name for something you just can't make better from scratch?

[spifflog]

The wife and I made some baked beans and cornbread from scratch. Love me the Jiffy cornbread but our recipe kicked butt!!

However, the bakes beans took a ton of work and time. And while they were great, they just weren't that any better than B&M baked beans which we love.

So . . . is there a term for a food that you just really can't make much is any better than you can buy off the shelf??

[Chefguy]

Failure.

[WordMan]

An Oreo.

[chacoguy]

Bubble Gum

[Ulfreida]

Is the OP wondering whether there is a word that means "foods which taste the same whether made via giant industrial processes or in a small pot at home" (i.e. baked beans) or whether there is a word that means "foods which cannot be made from scratch in a home kitchen" (i.e. Lucky Charms cereal)?

Either way, the answer is probably no, there isn't.

[Purd Werfect]

Wok Hei

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Ulfreida

Is the OP wondering whether there is a word that means "foods which taste the same whether made via giant industrial processes or in a small pot at home" (i.e. baked beans) or whether there is a word that means "foods which cannot be made from scratch in a home kitchen" (i.e. Lucky Charms cereal)?

Did you pick Lucky Charms knowing there was an internet recipe for it? If not, I present you homemade Lucky Charms. I ran across that a few months ago in some food message board.

[spifflog]

Originally Posted by Ulfreida

Is the OP wondering whether there is a word that means "foods which taste the same whether made via giant industrial processes or in a small pot at home" (i.e. baked beans) or whether there is a word that means "foods which cannot be made from scratch in a home kitchen" (i.e. Lucky Charms cereal)?

Either way, the answer is probably no, there isn't.

I wanted to know if there was a somewhat recognized, foodie term for a food, dish etc ., where it was recognized that you shouldn't bother spending four hours in the ktichen making it, because the off the shelf version is just as good.

I didn't think it would be in a book but I thought among chefs there might be a phase that described it.

But I can tell from this tread that it's just not the case.

[Chefguy]

Originally Posted by spifflog

I wanted to know if there was a somewhat recognized, foodie term for a food, dish etc ., where it was recognized that you shouldn't bother spending four hours in the ktichen making it, because the off the shelf version is just as good.

I didn't think it would be in a book but I thought among chefs there might be a phase that described it.

But I can tell from this tread that it's just not the case.

And you're angry about that? If you spend four hours on it and it isn't any better than an off-the-shelf product, I'd say "failure" is a pretty accurate term. Or perhaps just "waste of time", if that offends you.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by spifflog

But I can tell from this tread that it's just not the case.

I think your question is perfectly reasonable and to be honest I am a bit surprised there is NOT a specific term for it. Perhaps a sniglet needs to be created here?

[ZipperJJ]

Chemicalaise

WordMan - "Oreo" was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the thread title, too

[Der Trihs]

Originally Posted by billfish678

I think your question is perfectly reasonable and to be honest I am a bit surprised there is NOT a specific term for it. Perhaps a sniglet needs to be created here?

"Professional quality"? Similar to "pharmaceutical quality"* for drugs. Some variation on "pharmaceutical quality" was in fact what popped into my head when I saw the thread title, before I saw that the OP wanted a food term.

*As opposed to "mixed up in a bathtub by Bob the meth head"

[pancakes3]

"everything"

[tomcar]

It's so darn subjective. For example, I love homemade baked beans. I think in general they are better than canned.

[spifflog]

Originally Posted by billfish678

I think your question is perfectly reasonable and to be honest I am a bit surprised there is NOT a specific term for it. Perhaps a sniglet needs to be created here?

Seemed reasonable to me too, but I'm in the minority! Thanks much tho

[sachertorte]

No, but there is a book:
buy the butter make the bread

Note: I own this book and I DON'T recommend it.

[Hershele Ostropoler]

Hapax legmenon?

I guess that's not quite the same thing.

Whatever it is, mozzarella is that for me. I can make it, but there's no benefit to doing so aside from bragging rights.

[adhemar]

other than gum, I can't think of anything that can't be made at home better. At home meaning, "small batch cooking with quality ingrediants by someone who knows how to prepare food.

Of course I think Oreo's are nasty and overly sweet without much other taste to them so If you are lookig for that taste then what is the point to making them at home? Now if you want a sandwich cookie filled with vanilla cream (or anything else like that) yes you can make it better at home.

apparerntly you can make bubblegum at home
http://ingoodcents.com/2012/03/sunda...um-recipe.html

I don't like gum so maybe someone else can try it and see.

[Noelq]

Mayonnaise.

Spent about two hours trying to figure that stuff out, making two bad batches from adding the oil too quickly, and making a mess in the kitchen. (yes, I suck as a cook).

Ended up tasting just like Best Foods. Save the effort, just buy it.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Noelq

Mayonnaise.

Spent about two hours trying to figure that stuff out, making two bad batches from adding the oil too quickly, and making a mess in the kitchen. (yes, I suck as a cook).

Ended up tasting just like Best Foods. Save the effort, just buy it.

No way. Homemade mayo tastes different. I'm not going to say "better," because it kind of depends on what you're used to and the application, but with 100% EVOO or 50% EVOO and a neutral oil, it's pretty darned awesome. Homemade mayo and the stuff you get in the jar are about as different as homemade tomato sauce and Ragu or Prego.

[sitchensis]

Canned Tomatos and frozen pie crust

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by Purd Werfect

Wok Hei

"I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the wok hei win."

[FrigidLizard]

I submit that puff pastry dough is not feasible to make in a home kitchen, and that even if it is made with the proper pastry equipment (marble slabs) and time (days) the difference in quality from good ol' Pepperidge Farms frozen dough is negligable at best.

[Ulfreida]

I'd say duplicating Lucky Charms and other such in your kitchen is on another level from "time wasting".

[pulykamell]

You can do puff pastry at home. You don't need marble slabs. The professional kitchen I worked at for a couple of months made fantastic puff pastry from scratch, and they did not use marble slabs--just worked fast. That said, puff pastry is a royal pain-in-the-ass, and I would not want to make it home. It's just not worth the time, in my opinion, when there's reasonable commercial products available.

[Eureka]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

You can do puff pastry at home. You don't need marble slabs. The professional kitchen I worked at for a couple of months made fantastic puff pastry from scratch, and they did not use marble slabs--just worked fast. That said, puff pastry is a royal pain-in-the-ass, and I would not want to make it home. It's just not worth the time, in my opinion, when there's reasonable commercial products available.

I knew a Culinary School Graduate who said that Phylo dough (as in baklava) is one of those things that no one makes from scratch twice.

Many other things are worth it to make from scratch, but not so much phylo dough.

[janis_and_c0]

I dunno that I've ever had stuffing I liked better than Stove Top.

[Taomist]

I will make things USING phyllo dough, but yeah, the dough itself I'd rather buy frozen.
And I have a few things that yep, I can make, but it's not worth it to.

I just call them 'not worth it'. Effort > Result = ? Maybe a financial term? My brain's trying to wriggle something out about financial terminology that but I'm too tired to listen to it, so maybe someone else knows what I'm trying to say. 'Unprofitable' isn't quite it. Effort effectiveness? Oy, I need more coffee.

[FrigidLizard]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

You can do puff pastry at home. You don't need marble slabs. The professional kitchen I worked at for a couple of months made fantastic puff pastry from scratch, and they did not use marble slabs--just worked fast. That said, puff pastry is a royal pain-in-the-ass, and I would not want to make it home. It's just not worth the time, in my opinion, when there's reasonable commercial products available.

Yeah, I didn't mean to say that it couldn't be done in a home kitchen, I just meant that it can be terrifically impractical.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Eureka

I knew a Culinary School Graduate who said that Phylo dough (as in baklava) is one of those things that no one makes from scratch twice.

Many other things are worth it to make from scratch, but not so much phylo dough.

It's incredible to watch the old women (sorry, that's usually, in my experience, who makes them) make phyllo/strudel dough from scratch. When I lived in Hungary, the equivalent was something called rétes. It was said (in an old cookbook) that a housewife knew her strudel dough was good enough when she could take a mound of dough the size of a bread roll and stretch it out thin enough to encompass a Hussar (a cavalryman) and his horse in the dough. Here's a video of it being made. She makes it look so easy. It's not. It really isn't. The dough is stretched so impossibly thin--you can read a newspaper through it.

[salinqmind]

Lordy, I heard stretching it to cover a kitchen table was sufficient! Why bother a Hussar and his horse?

this thread reminds me of a baking experiment where I bought something called Vanilla-Butternut flavoring (not plain Butternut, that is something entirely different). 'gives your baked goods added flavor', it promised. It did! It made delicious home-baked cake, made from scratch, taste exactly like any 99 cent box cake mix. Gave it that nice 'artificial and natural flavors added' chemical funk. Ick.

[Grumman]

Originally Posted by Taomist

I just call them 'not worth it'. Effort > Result = ? Maybe a financial term? My brain's trying to wriggle something out about financial terminology that but I'm too tired to listen to it, so maybe someone else knows what I'm trying to say. 'Unprofitable' isn't quite it. Effort effectiveness? Oy, I need more coffee.

"Comparative [dis]advantage".

[Telperion]

Originally Posted by Taomist

I just call them 'not worth it'. Effort > Result = ? Maybe a financial term? My brain's trying to wriggle something out about financial terminology that but I'm too tired to listen to it, so maybe someone else knows what I'm trying to say. 'Unprofitable' isn't quite it. Effort effectiveness? Oy, I need more coffee.

Opportunity cost is the term I was taught. The opportunity cost of making your own food as opposed to buying it ready-made is mainly that you lose time you could have used on something else.

[Pitchmeister]

This one is probably particularly German, but red cabbage from a jar is very delicious, and I have yet to eat some home made stuff that comes close. The combination of shredding, cooking and spices are apparently very hard to get precisely right. Not worth it - just dump the contents of a jar in a pot and enjoy!

[Becky2844]

How about Money-Munchie?
Take-home (or Take-Out) Treat
mmm mmm Roam Cookin' (instead of "home")

[Bryan Ekers]

Economies of fail.

[Krokodil]

How about "resignation casserole"? As in, I've resigned myself to the canned stuff because I can't improve on it from scratch.

Or "ointment food," as an alternative to scratching.

Not an existing phrase, but let's add to the language one hole at a time.

[StarvingButStrong]

How about "Don't Bothers"?

[Zsofia]

Like growing your own potatoes. Tomatoes are worth it because home-grown tomatoes are so much better tasting than store-bought. Store bought potatoes are cheap and I've never heard anybody particularly raving about their home-grown potatoes.

[drbhoneydew]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

Like growing your own potatoes. Tomatoes are worth it because home-grown tomatoes are so much better tasting than store-bought. Store bought potatoes are cheap and I've never heard anybody particularly raving about their home-grown potatoes.

My parents do, and, for earlies simply boiled straight from the garden, I'd agree with them.

Gnocchi is on my personal not worth the faff list.
It will take a few hundred more failures transferring into the oven for pizza to join it. I'm not even in double digits on this score yet; flavour is easily ahead of frustration thus far.

[Teacake]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

Like growing your own potatoes. Tomatoes are worth it because home-grown tomatoes are so much better tasting than store-bought. Store bought potatoes are cheap and I've never heard anybody particularly raving about their home-grown potatoes.

Huh? Fresh potatoes are just better, as evidenced by the fact that my own home-growns are sought after by anyone who's had the privilege to taste one! Try making some pierogies, and fill half with bought potatoes and half with fresh ones from the garden. You WILL be able to tell the difference. Also, potatoes are so easy to grow (or even difficult to stop growing) it's no effort.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by Teacake

Huh? Fresh potatoes are just better, as evidenced by the fact that my own home-growns are sought after by anyone who's had the privilege to taste one! Try making some pierogies, and fill half with bought potatoes and half with fresh ones from the garden. You WILL be able to tell the difference. Also, potatoes are so easy to grow (or even difficult to stop growing) it's no effort.

Yeah, my mom swears up and down on garden tomatoes being much better. She is Polish, so I assume she knows what she's talking about. Personally, I do think they do taste a bit better, but I grew up eating a lot of potatoes.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by drbhoneydew

My parents do, and, for earlies simply boiled straight from the garden, I'd agree with them.

Gnocchi is on my personal not worth the faff list.
It will take a few hundred more failures transferring into the oven for pizza to join it. I'm not even in double digits on this score yet; flavour is easily ahead of frustration thus far.

Try parchment paper if you're having trouble getting it from the peel to the oven. It browns just as well on the bottom as if there was no parchment paper there, and it's foolproof.

[WordMan]

Originally Posted by Bryan Ekers

Economies of fail.

I love this and plan to use it, with a byline for you of course, billed as "some guy" as in "some guy on line referred to them as Economies of Fail...."

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

Yeah, my mom swears up and down on garden tomatoes being much better.

That should read "potatoes," of course.

[sitchensis]

Potatoes go for something like $ .50 a pound and they are not that much better out of the garden. Radishes and tomatoes on the other hand are demonstrably better out of the garden and the economics get you a better return on investment.

Canned tomatoes are usually fresh plum style tomatoes when canned and better for making a sauce that just about anything “fresh” you could buy in the grocery store.

[pulykamell]

Yeah, fresh grocery store tomatoes almost invariably suck. Just terrible. Strawberries, too. When I was younger, I used to think that all these tomato sauce recipes sucked, when it was the fact that I was using fresh grocery store tomatoes instead of good canned tomatoes, under the impression that, well, something "fresh" must be better. That's true if you're growing your own tomatoes, or buy tomatoes at a farmer's market. Otherwise, canned tomatoes all the way.

As for the potatoes--yeah, it's not worth it for me. My folks beg to differ, though. I'm not as discerning about my potatoes.

[Bryan Ekers]

Originally Posted by WordMan

I love this and plan to use it, with a byline for you of course, billed as "some guy" as in "some guy on line referred to them as Economies of Fail...."

That's okay. When someone googles the phrase, itll lead back to me.


Well, me and Thomas Bittman.

[Hershele Ostropoler]

Originally Posted by adhemar

other than gum, I can't think of anything that can't be made at home better. At home meaning, "small batch cooking with quality ingrediants by someone who knows how to prepare food.

Is that a philosophical or gustatory claim?

Also, if store-bought is nigh-imperceptably worse but, obviously, less effort -- or less money -- does that enter into the equation? Especially if it's a gustatory claim.

[adhemar]

Originally Posted by Hershele Ostropoler

Is that a philosophical or gustatory claim?

Also, if store-bought is nigh-imperceptably worse but, obviously, less effort -- or less money -- does that enter into the equation? Especially if it's a gustatory claim.

I am not quite sure what the question means but in my opinion whenever I have had something that was made "in small batches with quality ingrediants" the difference was not imperceptable. Yes time and money does enter into the equation but not because I can't tell the difference in quality but because I determined that I need to eat something and store bought soup is quicker and easier than making my own at own at that time even though my soup is way better. And again I don't eat some of the things like Oreos that others are saying can't be made better at home.

I mentioned the gum because I have never heard of anyone making thier own gum since my grandmother's times of chewing on wax or resin. However there are recipes.

homemade food with inferior ingrediants is still inferior food eg sugar cookies made with margerine and vanillin will not taste as good (to me) as the same recipe of cookies made with butter and real vanilla. YMMV