"I'll settle (begrudgingly or not) for most store-brought foods...but THIS food MUST be homemade."

Apple pie. I like my apple pie quite tart, and all store- and restaurant varieties I’ve had have been so sweet they might as well have been filled with Mott’s applesauce.

I’ll admit I buy pre-made shortcrust dough and roll it out (I’ve never been able to get it quite right from scratch) but the rest of the pie I make myself.

And mostly eat by myself too.

Because, dammit, get your own pie

I once taught the hash slinger in chief at the Duck Inn in Va Beach how to make hollandaise. Went there for dinner fairly regularly for a few years, and my favorite side was always the cauliflower and broccoli with hollandaise sauce. Went for about a year without going, then my parents and I went, and it had a fairly nasty cheese sauce on it and the guy when asked said it was too difficult to make so after about 5 minutes of argument I went in and popped off the classic 5 minute lemon juice version. I also pointed out that there were several perfectly decent bottled versions [ok for restaurants, not for me at home :p] that they could also use.

[I refuse to call the guy a chef or even a cook, all he wanted to do was microwave, steam and fry stuff. I swear, I hate most corporate chefs - they seem to be trained in microwaving frozen crap instead of even basic hot line cooking.]

[QUOTE=Novelty Bobble;16897174.]

Yorkshire puddings - kill them…kill them all.

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Lawry’s does it flawlessly.

There’s hardly anything where I would simply reject the store-bought variety, though homemade versions may be preferable for various reasons. But beyond issues of quality, some things are way over-priced for the convenience of not having to do it yourself.

Hummus
Tamales
Cinnamon Rolls
Gravy
Barbecue Ribs
Pita

There are probably others worth mentioning. I find out with surprising frequency that something I’m accustomed to thinking is not worth the trouble to make myself is actually not that inconvenient, if you’re accustomed to cooking anyway.

Virtually everything. I checked in my pantry and refrigerator and freezer and the closest I could get to pre-made was peanut butter, and some frozen pizzas my husband keeps in stock for emergency food.

We just don’t eat that way. In the freezer: frozen goat’s cream waiting to be butter, a turkey my rancher friend butchered for me, homemade turkey stock and chicken stock, and cheese cultures. In the fridge: the cheddar we just took out of the aging box, several days worth of milkings, beer, fresh noodles from the farmer’s market (okay, that is one, I find making noodles too fiddly), vegetables, the remains of a storebought ham (don’t keep pigs), and a basket of eggs from the hens. On the shelves: dry legumes and grains and flours, nuts, seeds, sugar, salt, spices.

Do some restaurants outcook me? You betcha. But I can’t afford those except on anniversaries.

Probably tonight I’ll thaw some stock and make beet borscht with homemade yogurt (at 6+% butterfat our yogurt does a good fake sour cream), and a whole wheat bannock to go with. Fast and simple.

After all these years of eating this way I don’t even know how to cook with that newfangled supermarket food.

Not possible, the whole point of Yorkshire pudding is that it is made fresh. Just like the roast potatoes, you can’t re-heat a shop-bought version and have it work.

Just can’t happen.

Yes it can. Lawry’s is a restaurant in Chicago.

In what way is it a “shop-bought” item then? or relevant to this thread?

No idea, to be honest.

You’re the one who can answer that, since you’re the one who brought them up initially… I thought we were talking about any non-homemade food not exclusively store-bought food. Where have you ever seen Yorkshire pudding in a “store-bought” version?

I have yet to find a store bought tortilla that tastes as good as a homemade one. Sorry.

They’re certainly for sale in UK supermarkets.

They look good… More like popovers, though.

A Yorkshire pudding is a type of popover.

And, as I believe I had made clear, they are the devils work.

Yeah, I’m confused, too. They’re pretty much the same thing.

Egg salad.

I make it with jarred mayonnaise so to some of you it might not count.

There are a lot of things that have been mentioned that I prefer to have homemade, but will endure store bought versions. But I don’t eat egg salad that I didn’t make or see being made.

That would eliminate pumpkin and cherry pies for me. Not acceptable.

Pure pumpkin in a can with freshly added spices is easy and tastier.

Are you saying canned pumpkin isn’t worth it? I’ve done my fair share of fresh pumpkin pie and, honestly, it’s waste of time. If you’re going to go the “from scratch” pumpkin pie route, do sweet potato.