Thanks to Lifehacker, I tried my hand at making homemade Ginger Ale. It didn’t turn out perfect. Should have used a 1/8 tsp of yeast instead, because it tasted beery (?). Definitely some potential there.
But I got to thinking, what other things should I be making at home, because it’s cheap, easy and far better tasting than anything at the supermarket?
I already make my own salsa fresca. What else?
Bread. There is nothing like homemade bread.
And jam. I love homemade jam.
And cookies. You have to have homemade cookies.
Oh, and macaroni and cheese. I can’t imagine it any other way.
I could list a whole bunch of things that are better homemade. I was lucky to grow up with a mom who believed in making everything herself. We had no convenience foods growing up. And I rarely buy them now. I love to make things from scratch.
I love homemade pizza and calzones.
My grandma makes homemade ravioli and pasta that is absolutely heavenly.
Do you ever eat a spoonful of storebought chocolate syrup plain?
And then eat another spoonful, because it’s so damn good?
Probably not.
But bad things happen when I get out a bottle of homemade cocoa syrup in the throes of a chocolate jones. Bad, bad things, man.
Homemade cheesecake is always preferrable to store bought!
I second others’ ideas: bread, pizzas, jams, syrups
And I have been wanting to try the homemade marshmallows. This thread may give me an excuse to do it!
But of course.
When it comes to homemade, anything chocolate seems to taste better. I baked a homemade chocolate cake last week and used up an entire tin of unsweetened cocoa.
I also always make my own pesto and many other Italian and Mexican dishes.
To be honest, I just find it soothing to do these things myself, and sometimes I think that’s why it tastes so good.
The grocery store clerk always looks at me funny when I ask what aisle the Scratch is in.
Damn. Now I want some homemade cocoa with a block of homemade marshmallow on top.
Soup. Store bought soup is horrid compared to the fresh stuff…
Agree with pasta and bread, also:
Lemon curd - great on toast, in cakes or by itself…
Custard - easy to make with just milk, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar.
Indian curries - knocks the socks off store bought sauces
Ice cream. Chocolate ice cream made with lots of Scharffenberger bittersweet chocolate. The whole batch of that stuff never makes it from the ice cream churn into the freezer, because it tastes too good licked right off the dasher.
In addition to many of the other things that have been mentioned:
Whipped cream. How anyone can eat that disgusting chemical-flavored crap called Cool Whip, I have no idea.
Just about anything, really. For me it’s not only the taste, but the pride in making it.
I haven’t had huge success with homemade yogurt - it’s a little runny for my taste. And I’m still working on my bread technique.
Susan
lasagna
Beer. I brew better than any pro I know.
The Joy of Cooking has a caramel sauce recipe that is phenomenally good; I’ve never had any caramel that approaches its sublimity anywhere else. I keep a jar in the fridge and eat it by the spoonful.
Daniel
My mother makes the only acceptable yoghurt to put on my rice…just watery and slippery and tart enough. I hate that thick store-bought stuff for putting on rice although it’s good with some fresh fruit cut up into it.
I’m completely spoiled…I grew up with one parent or the other in the home and even for the three years they were both working out of the house they still managed to make us everything from scratch. My parents don’t understand convenience food…for them convenience is no longer having to sit on a coconut grinding school or grind their own chapati atta. I am addicted to homemade chapatis…sadly it’s too long a distance to Fedex cheaply so I now have to resign myself to makign my own. Yesterday my mother sourly muttered that it’s a good thing young Indian ladies are no longer expected to make round chapatis because I would never be getting married (I’m on rolling duty to hone my rounding skills).
It’s been said already, but I think pasta is the king of these things.
It’s really so easy and it always turns out great if your ingredients are halfway fresh.
And if you use semolina flour (when making the long noodle kind of pasta), it acquires that delicately rubbery quality that dried pasta never has.
This thread inspires me. I haven’t made homemade pasta for months and I think this weekend calls for some fettucine in garlic cream sauce with scallops.
Ooooooooo, I second the homemade ice cream! It’s not really cheaper than storebought but the taste is just no comparison. I made some vanilla the other day and it was simply heaven!