# Is there a name for something you just can't make better from scratch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763 "2012-08-26T23:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/41 "2012-08-28T18:45:23Z")
> [@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. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/42 "2012-08-28T18:49:37Z")
> [@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. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/43 "2012-08-28T18:50:46Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/44 "2012-08-28T20:48:59Z")
> [@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…” 😉 ---
**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:** [August 28, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/45 "2012-08-28T20:50:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, my mom swears up and down on garden tomatoes being much better. That should read “potatoes,” of course. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/46 "2012-08-28T21:08:38Z")
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. ---
**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:** [August 28, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/47 "2012-08-28T21:14:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/48 "2012-08-28T23:31:36Z")
> [@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](http://blogs.gartner.com/thomas_bittman/2010/12/07/economies-of-fail/). ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/49 "2012-08-30T13:18:46Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763/50 "2012-08-30T16:07:48Z")
> [@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 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-something-you-just-cant-make-better-from-scratch/632763.md?page=2)