# Foods that you found unexpectedly easy to make. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828 "2011-07-13T03:47:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/61 "2011-07-16T02:32:43Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > Also voting for bread. I’ve got through so many different bread recipes over the years, and not one loaf has turned out less than “very good.” Bread is really one of those things that it’s worth to make yourself because the difference between store-bought and home-made is so vast. After my wedding, my wife and I eagerly bought a KitchenAid Pro 6000 with dreams of tasty bread. Her first attempt came out as something that can be best described as a wheat-horror loaf. Impossibly dense, somehow simultaneously gummy and gritty, and a flavor that put one in mind of mud, bran, and salt. We gazed sadly into each others’ eyes for several minutes, ate _the rest_ of the meal, and consigned our poor mixer to cake batter for the better part of a year. After mustering courage, she attempted an herbed baguette recipe. It was _delicious_, and sunlight returned to my world. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/62 "2011-07-16T03:49:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Still, while I like making homemade pizza (am doing so today), most of the time, I prefer pizza from a good restaurant. It’s exceedingly rare I find a homemade pizza as good as from a reasonable take-out place. I agree, years ago I made pizza every Friday night, and it always came out so thick and heavy, no matter HOW hard I tried to stretch the dough thin. It was more like a foccaccia bread, not like pizza. English muffin pizzas were tastier - pizza made with a flour tortilla base were tastier than my doorstop gobstoppers. Cakes made from scratch are ridiculously easy and a hundred times better than any box cake, IMO. Same with chocolate pudding - sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, milk, a pinch of salt, a drop of vanilla extract, there’s no comparison. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/63 "2011-07-16T04:22:07Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Cakes made from scratch are ridiculously easy and a hundred times better than any box cake, IMO. Agreed. Try a trifle too. Everybody will ooh over the presentation and you don’t have to admit how much fun it was to tear up the cake for the result. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/64 "2011-07-16T04:26:25Z")
One more for bread. People don’t understand how easy it is to make something edible – even if it isn’t pretty – just by doing the bare minimum. Cooking dried beans is one that surprises me that some people are scared of. What? Put some water on them and cook until done. Rice is another one – raise your hand if you ever heard anyone say, “I just can’t make good rice, you make it [insert name here]Jack!” The people I’ve heard say these types of things have twenty or thirty years on me, and I have to teach them how to make RICE? Or heat some flour and water and salt and leavener in an oven? Sheesh. ETA FU poached eggs person 🙂 I can’t reliably make a good poached egg without paying a lot of attention and wasting some eggs. I guess our standards differ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/65 "2011-07-16T04:58:22Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > I agree, years ago I made pizza every Friday night, and it always came out so thick and heavy, no matter HOW hard I tried to stretch the dough thin. It was more like a foccaccia bread, not like pizza. English muffin pizzas were tastier - pizza made with a flour tortilla base were tastier than my doorstop gobstoppers. You can get pretty thin by hand, but there’s a certain style of Midwest cracker crust pizza that I can’t roll out thin enough (it’s a dough that takes to rolling out), no matter how hard I try. The pizza joints all use sheeters and run the dough through it a couple of times. I can’t replicate that at home. I’m better at doing the more Neapolitan-type styles at home (and I have my methods for getting around the limitation of not having a wood-fired brick oven.) I agree with _Jadelin_. It surprises me that so many people find rice so difficult (without a rice cooker.) ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/66 "2011-07-17T03:13:55Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Cakes made from scratch are ridiculously easy and a hundred times better than any box cake, IMO. Same with chocolate pudding - sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, milk, a pinch of salt, a drop of vanilla extract, there’s no comparison. And banana pudding! (Two family “secret” recipes: banana pudding is the recipe on the Nabisco Nilla Wafer box. And my grandmother’s locally famous red velvet cake recipe? My husband loves it, so I agreed to try to weasel the recipe from her. I telephoned her, prepared to beg and plead, notebook in hand, ready to write down her arcane secrets… “Oh, it’s the one on the back of the Swansdown flour box.” Of course, “my” pecan pie recipe, which has garnered semi-serious marriage proposals, is from a Junior League cookbook…) ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/67 "2011-07-18T00:10:30Z")
Butter is ridiculously easy to make at home. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/68 "2011-07-18T00:43:40Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > French Onion Soup. Seemed like it must be a royal pain to get that much flavor into such a simple set of ingredients but it’s surprisingly easy. Indeed. I was just watching re-runs of the Fat Ladies last night and they made it outside over a gas ring at a Boy Scout cookout. Being who they are, they cooked crumbled Stilton into the soup. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/69 "2011-07-18T00:50:53Z")
If you’re willing to ignore my recent post on some of the technical glitches I still have to iron out, I’ll go with preparing bacon. Everybody seems impressed but it amounts to rubbing salt and brown sugar slurry over good pork bellies, turning over in the fridge for a few days, and then smoking for an afternoon while you sip beer, watch golf, and tend the fire once every hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/70 "2011-07-18T01:42:44Z")
Canning tomatoes. This isn’t exactly making food but why buy those cans of tomatoes in the store when you can put up your own so easily for awesome soups and stews over the winter? ---
**Author:** ![cuberdon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@cuberdon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuberdon)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/71 "2011-07-19T20:01:08Z")
Meringue. Whipped cream. Make some by hand. It’s really easy, I promise, and you don’t even need an electric mixer. Everyone will look at you like you just cured cancer. ---
**Author:** ![NoLAFIN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9bcb4/32.png) [@NoLAFIN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoLAFIN)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/72 "2011-07-19T21:52:30Z")
Grav lax: see Huerta’s bacon-making post above, swap white sugar for brown, add dill and just skip the smoking part. Done! Heads will turn at every party. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/73 "2011-07-19T22:19:22Z")
Paella, the _other_ risotto. Granted, it’s harder to make correctly than risotto, particularly knowing when you’ve got a nice crust on the bottom, but haven’t burned the rice. Shrimp Creole: Making the roux is the only iffy part of this, but it ain’t difficult. Gravy: the bane of most cooks, but a piece of cake, really. Again with the roux, already. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/74 "2011-07-19T22:19:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Depends on the style you’re aiming for. But, yeah, for those wood- and coal-fired styles, you’re looking at 800+F to get the crust right. The trick to doing it at home is to roll the dough very thin, pre-bake the dough briefly by itself _on a preheated sheet_ until you get a crust forming, then rapidly put on the toppings and finish it back in the oven. Think of it like pre-searing a rare steak. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/75 "2011-07-19T22:35:03Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > The trick to doing it at home is to roll the dough very thin, pre-bake the dough briefly by itself _on a preheated sheet_ until you get a crust forming, then rapidly put on the toppings and finish it back in the oven. Think of it like pre-searing a rare steak. The still doesn’t give an Italian style crust. Doesn’t get nearly hot enough and comes out too dry and crispy for the style I’m aiming for. (Also, Italian-style pizza is not generally rolled.) I have a technique I prefer for that hand-formed style. I have a cast-iron pizza pan which I heat over medium high heat for about 10 minutes. I form my pizza on the peel, slide it over to the pan, cook for about 2-3 minutes, then finish in a preheated oven, under the broiler. That’s the closest I’ve come to doing Naples-style pies at home without hacking my oven. (There’s a hack where you can cut the safety latch in the oven and cook the pizza on the “Oven Clean” setting, which gets to 900+ degrees.) My technique gives you the flavorful black flecking/char on the bottom of your pie (which to me is one of the most important features of the style), but it’s not quite the same results as if you were cooking in an environment where all sides are getting hit by blazing heat all at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/76 "2011-07-19T22:54:13Z")
This year for the first time ever, I decided I’d venture into the mysterious and scary world of making preserves. First, with fresh strawberries, and then with fresh peaches. I don’t know if I can ever buy preserves ever again. My mother never made it, nor did I have friends who did. It sounded so complicated. But it’s not. The worst part is the prep and cleanup, and even that’s not hard, just time consuming. My next batch (peach again) will be made with proper staging - I’ll have everything ready to go so I can pay attention to my stirring and boiling. Silly me - I assumed there was some sort of trick involved, something learned only after many failures. Nah - read the directions, do what it says, enjoy! I also, for the first time, made tomato sauce from tomatoes grown in my own garden. I’m turning into an earth mother! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828/77 "2011-07-19T23:24:13Z")
Chicken Cordon Bleu. Chicken, ham, swiss cheese, cream, and white wine. As long as the measurements are followed correctly it comes out perfect every time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-that-you-found-unexpectedly-easy-to-make/588828.md?page=3)