Have you ever toiled in the kitchen to make something lovingly from scratch, only to find the pay-off was not worth the effort? Not that it didn’t taste better, but the improvement in taste was not worth the time and work put into it. Chicken stock and broth, pasta sauce, mac 'n cheese, gravy-- all things always worth the extra effort of making it from scratch, but the following? Not so much.
I give an honorable mention to pie crust. Firstly, for me, it is a crap shoot as to whether my crust will come out better than store bought. I’m sure there are those of you who make flaky, layered and buttery delicious pie crust every time. Me, only 2/3rds of the time. And, boy, is that a lot of effort for the maybe payoff. Store bought crust is good enough.
But the winner, for me at least, is cornbread. Jiffy beats my homemade hands down. With add-ins I can make it fluffier or cornier or jalapeno-ier. It’s never dry or tough or flat or many of the other ways my cornbread fails. And it is a hundred times easier.
So foodies. Where do you cut corners and buy ready made?
Tomato sauce/paste. Even many of the TV chefs use canned instead of scratch.
An aside: The Nabisco banana pudding is the ne plus ultra of BP, but a hell of a lot of extra work for not much extra pay-off. Tweaking the Keebler elves version slightly gives a just as good end result without as much work.
I must disagree. Cornbread is super-easy to make, and mine always turns out great. And I always have cornmeal on hand, in case I want to make more – unlike a box of mix.
I used to try making my own gravy, spaghetti sauce, cake, etc. My efforts were for naught as the dullard here can’t get past a list of about 12 things he will eat from his childhood. Everything has to be a name brand - canned gravy, Ragu sauce, Duncan Hines cake, Kraft macaroni and cheese. NO. SUBSTITUTIONS. I am not cooking for a goor-may here, so I gave it up. (Though he has loosened up a bit later in life and likes to pitch in and ‘help’ make ice cream or real macaroni and cheese.)…I do make a pretty good pie crust, if I say so myself. I suppose a boughten crust is easier and if you pour a glop of canned filling into it, it will be eagerly consumed by whoever - after all, it’s a home-made pie!
For me, it’s cupcakes. I set out one time to be supermom and make homemade chocolate cupcakes for one of my daughter’s school parties. They didn’t turn out badly, but they tasted pretty much exactly like they would have if it’s used a Betty Crocker mix.
Well, I think the point of this thread is what is eaiser to make for the individual. I don’t think you can disagree with someone’s personal experience…
Pasta sauce. I know how easy it can be, but I buy Rao’s or Newman’s and for my purposes it works great.
It’s just that cornbread is so easy to make, it doesn’t make sense to me to use a mix. But as you say, YMMV.
Yeah, I go to a jarred sauce (or sometimes canned), and ‘doctor it up’. Spaghetti-and-sauce is a convenience food for me, and not worth the effort to make from scratch. Although I do want to try The Godfather’s recipe, and I do make my meatballs from scratch when I want meatballs.
Muffins. I’ve made muffins from scratch and from mixes and they’ve been good. But the ones from the store are at least as good as the ones I’ve made (and I’ll admit sometimes they’re better). But homemade muffins do have a cost advantage.
This is easy. Pumpkin pie. Waste of time to go the old fashioned, roast the damn thing to make a puree part. A couple cans of Libby’s does just fine. I’ve made it with roasted pumpkin (or similar squash) several times when I was places were canned pumpkin puree was not available. They all came out fine, but not worth the fuss and mess.
Also, tamales. I live in spitting distance of a tamaleria, and there’s always random people on the corners selling their tamales. Not worth the effort, given my circumstances. Hell, pierogi or any stuffed dumpling, like manti. The frozen pierogi I can get here from Alexandra’s or even Kasia’s are nearly as good as the homemade ones my aunt used to make. Hell, my mom cooks Polish daily, and even she can’t be arsed to make pierogi when there’s good frozen ones available.
Even my own grandmother, an absolute kitchen goddess, stopped making her own pie crusts, and started just buying the pre-made ones from the store. Though in her case, that was also influenced by the change in formulation of Crisco, which she said didn’t work as well in her recipes.
Given the timing, I suspect that the change in question was the one from saturated to trans; now that it’s changed back, I’d sort of like to try her old recipe, but alas, don’t have it.
I definitely do my own cornbread and pie crust and think they taste better than storebought. For me, however, fries and most other deep-fried foods are better left to a professional.
Just about the ONLY time I’ve had pumpkin pie that was amazing was when I made it from an actual pumpkin–stick the thing in the oven and bake it, then scrape the meat from the inside. No need to puree. The difference between that and using canned pumpkin was like two totally different pies. Of course, I eat pumpkin pie so infrequently that I’ve not made it since. Oh, well.
I’d like to say pie crust, but honestly, the stuff from the store is so easy…and tastes comparable to what I’d make.
For me, it’s fries–gimme the frozen in a bag fries, thankyouverymuch. I eat potatoes so infrequently, they’re more likely to sprout or liquify than me use them. And to actually peel, slice and fry in hot grease? Ugh, nope, I’ll dump the contents from the bag onto a sheet and throw them in the oven.
Ive always wondered how the h ell they make Chili that tastes like the ordinary stuff that restaurants serve. It tastes nothing like the standard Chile Powder in the spice aisle.