# PSA: you can't make it better and cheaper at home. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2020, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148 "2020-02-19T03:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/121 "2020-02-24T18:57:50Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > I was just thinking (and I apologize if this has already been covered) but while I can make better dishes at home I can’t make better pre-made ingredients. Like peanut butter or ketchup. > Now I suppose it’s possible but for the convenience of just picking some up I’m not about to make my own tomato paste or miso. OTOH, most restaurants use the same prepackaged ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, hot sauce, and jelly that you would at home. Some places do make their own - I know one bar that has a horseradish mustard for their pretzels that will clear your sinuses if you treat it like regular mustard, and I know another place that does specialty fries with custom dipping sauces, but if you go to a diner you’re likely to see the same ketchup and mustard bottles you can get at a store, and jelly packets of the same brand as store bought jelly. A good number of backend sauces are bought pre-made, and not just ones that you’d consider an ‘ingredient’ like worchestershie sauce or tomato paste, but things like alfredo sauce or marinara sauce. This is especially true at chain restaurants, where a ton of meals are actually cooked and assembled in a factory, then frozen. That does remind me of another point: If you’re looking at chain restaurants, a lot of times you can buy the exact frozen meals that they use from the same manufacturer and heat them at home yourself, which is going to give literally exactly what they have in the restaurant. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/122 "2020-02-24T18:58:50Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Re: ketchup, I’ve heard multiple chefs note that they aren’t going to make a better product than Heinz. I’ve had some pretty good housemade ketchups here at some restaurants. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. Then again, I prefer Hunt’s to Heinz, so I hardly think Heinz is the pinnacle of ketchupdom. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/123 "2020-02-24T19:04:55Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Buying “shredded” Parmesan is a big mistake IMO. Buy instead a small piece of Parm and maybe another piece of Asiago. Grate the cheese as needed, I think you can tell the difference. I despise most kitchen accoutrements for being silly time wasting clutter that takes more time to wash than it ever saves. After just one meal my wife convinced me a small wheel Parmesan cheese grater is worth it and that little guy has pride of place in the top utensil drawer. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/124 "2020-02-24T19:10:41Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > …I prefer Hunt’s to Heinz, so I hardly think Heinz is the pinnacle of ketchupdom. Heathen! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/125 "2020-02-24T20:29:06Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Lemons are hellishly expensive here, so I buy one at a time. But I find equal parts hot water, Dawn dish detergent and lemon juice (or vinegar) sprayed on a soap scummy bathtub clean it like magic. Better than any scrubbing bubbles or magic erasers. I’m going to have to try that. My kids, who now live in non-lemon growing places, text each other all the time complaining about having to buy lemons and how expensive they are. If I don’t use mine they fall off the tree and go into the compost bin. Which has no soap scum on it. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/126 "2020-02-24T20:29:42Z")
My grandmother made her own ketchup. From her own tomatoes. I didn’t like it. At all. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/127 "2020-02-24T20:31:46Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Heathen! The New Yorker once ran an article about ketchup. It seems that person after person has tried to make boutique ketchups, and they all failed because they were not as good as Heinz. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/128 "2020-02-24T21:01:39Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > This was exactly my first thought. I’ll even put my burgers up against Five Guys or In-and-Out or whatever famous burger chain you choose. I’d say a better contest is whether you make a better Five Guys burger than Five Guys. Or better Whopper than BK, better Big Mac than McD’s, etc. While these are all hamburgers, they’re not the same. If I want a Baconator, your burger (excellent, I’m sure) probably won’t be close. And your fries and Coke Zero from the fountain (including the ice machine ice) will probably miss, too. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/129 "2020-02-24T21:31:25Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I’d say a better contest is whether you make a better Five Guys burger than Five Guys. Or better Whopper than BK, better Big Mac than McD’s, etc. While these are all hamburgers, they’re not the same. If I want a Baconator, your burger (excellent, I’m sure) probably won’t be close. And your fries and Coke Zero from the fountain (including the ice machine ice) will probably miss, too. You must like fast food burgers a lot more than I do. Five guys is okay, but not as good as what I can make. I’m not willing to eat a whopper or a big mac, so I had about zero interest in trying to reproduce them. And I think there’s an excellent chance that I would like Projammer’s burgers better than five guy’s burgers. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/130 "2020-02-24T22:29:16Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > I’d say a better contest is whether you make a better Five Guys burger than Five Guys. Or better Whopper than BK, better Big Mac than McD’s, etc. While these are all hamburgers, they’re not the same. If I want a Baconator, your burger (excellent, I’m sure) probably won’t be close. And your fries and Coke Zero from the fountain (including the ice machine ice) will probably miss, too. Yeah, sometimes you just get a taste for a particular burger or particular pizza or whatnot. I make great burgers at home, but, sometimes, I just want a taste of an In N Out Double Double (doesn’t even have to be “animal style”) or a McDonald’s QP with cheese or White Castle slider or a sloppy Big Baby (a double cheeseburger with deeply browned onions, mustard, ketchup, pickle) from the local hamburger joint. (I’ll pass on the Whopper, though.) My burgers don’t exactly taste like those, and sometimes I want burgers that taste _exactly_ like those. (Plus, yeah, I don’t have to mess up and stink up the house cooking them.) And, lord knows, I’ve tried a number of iterations of making my own White Castle burgers at home and, while fun to make and tasty, they just don’t taste like a real White Castle hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/131 "2020-02-24T22:45:43Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > My grandmother made her own ketchup. From her own tomatoes. > > I didn’t like it. At all. > ~VOW She probably didn’t put enough sugar in it. Store-bought ketchups contain an astonishing amount of sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/132 "2020-02-24T22:58:01Z")
The idea that eating out is cheaper is crazy. Any time a family is trying to reduce their budget, the first item on it is generally ‘don’t eat out so much’. A box of Kraft dinner is .99. A box of spaghetti is two or three bucks. Spaghetti sauce from a jar is only $3-4. I can make spaghetti and meat sauce for four for $10. We have an instant pot, and one of our favorite dishes is a chicken and rice medley. I buy large bags of rice for $15 that last us months. The rice for the dish is maybe fifty cents. A package of chicken thighs is another $5 or so. The rest is veggies, garlic, etc. Add another $3 for all those ingredients. For less than $10 I get a dinner for the three of us, with enough leftovers for lunch. A similar dish in a restaurant around here would be roughly $12-$15 per person. Taste is subjective, so I won’t say which is ‘better’. But financially there is no comparison. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/133 "2020-02-24T22:58:29Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Heathen! It’s too concentrated and sweet tasting for me. I like the vinegary and fruity bite of Hunt’s. Out of curiosity, I googled blind ketchup taste tests, and it’s all over the map with who comes out as the best. And it’s not even consistent. Back in 2006, Cooks Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen tasters named Hunts the best ketchup, and Heinz among the bottom of the brands they tasted. In 2018, it appears one of the Heinz ketchups is number one (though I can’t get to the original article.) I personally thought I was a Heinz guy until I tried them side by side, and, given my preference for tang, it’s unsurprising in retrospect I actually found I preferred Hunt’s. And, bonus, it’s usually half the price of Heinz at my supermarket. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/134 "2020-02-24T22:59:04Z")
Well i know I couldn’r replicate Pringles, or taki’s, or oreo cookies or corndogs or tator tots. could you? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/135 "2020-02-24T23:08:04Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > You must like fast food burgers a lot more than I do. Five guys is okay, but not as good as what I can make. I’m not willing to eat a whopper or a big mac, so I had about zero interest in trying to reproduce them. And I think there’s an excellent chance that I would like Projammer’s burgers better than five guy’s burgers. I didn’t say I like any of them, either. The particular product isn’t the point. That people crave these things and that most cooks can’t make a close facsimile at home is the point. Cookies from Subway, sliders from White Castle (highfives Puly on preview), McNuggets from the Arches, Meximelt with Fire sauce from Taco Bell, Arby’s beef with Horsey sauce, Papa John’s so and so with garlic parm shortening dip. And it’s not just nationally advertized fast food. I’ve never been able to successfully recreate salsa from the taquiera. The sauce on the jerk chicken is devilishly complex. High heat stir fry or egg foo yung is simple for the cheap Chinese place up the street but difficult to perfect at home. Even something as simple as diner-style hashbrowns takes more than initially apparent. Others mentioned homemade ketchup. If one expects Heinz or Hunts, the homemade isn’t going to work. Try making a passable Tater Tot or Tostino pizza roll or Cool Ranch Dorito from scratch. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/136 "2020-02-24T23:20:16Z")
> [@chela](#): > > Well i know I couldn’r replicate Pringles, or taki’s, or oreo cookies or corndogs or tator tots. could you? [This is the channel you want to watch if you want to try Oreos and the such.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pAOuR8s03Q) (But, yeah, we make corn dogs at home here. Not hard. I wouldn’t want to try Oreos or Pringles, though.) ETA: Oh, wow. Claire also did try to do [Pringles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3xLG-whfFk). Oh, holy crap, and [Takis, too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrRzZXuE9qA)!!! (Note, for educational purposes only. No sane person is gonna want to do those.) ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/137 "2020-02-24T23:22:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > [This is the channel you want to watch if you want to try Oreos and the such.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pAOuR8s03Q) > > (But, yeah, we make corn dogs at home here. Not hard. I wouldn’t want to try Oreos or Pringles, though.) > > ETA: Oh, wow. Claire also did try to do [Pringles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3xLG-whfFk). Oh, holy crap, and [Takis, too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrRzZXuE9qA)!!! > > (Note, for educational purposes only. No sane person is gonna want to do those.) I LOVE Claire! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2020, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/138 "2020-02-24T23:31:23Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The New Yorker once ran an article about ketchup. It seems that person after person has tried to make boutique ketchups, and they all failed because they were not as good as Heinz. I read an article some time back that the word ‘ketchup’ meant a wide gambit of sauces until Heinz went into the market, their innovation was in the preserving aspect, which is why it has a sharp vinegar taste. For them, early on, it was popular because it was a consistent reliable flavor that didn’t make people sick. I guess it’s kinda like why pork is always salted now. It’s doesn’t need to be, there are flavorless preservatives, it just is because that is what we’re used too. And yeah, Hunts is served to old people and children in cafeterias because they have no tastebuds. Fun fact, McDonalds served Hunts in all locations except Minnesota and Pittsburgh until lately. In a move toward uniformity they changed it to all Hunts. That’s ok, I didn’t need more fast food in my life anyway. ---
**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:** [February 25, 2020, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/139 "2020-02-25T00:14:37Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I read an article some time back that the word ‘ketchup’ meant a wide gambit of sauces until Heinz went into the market, their innovation was in the preserving aspect, which is why it has a sharp vinegar taste. Yes. Ketchup ultimately owes its history to a Chinese fish sauce. Up through about the 1700s, there were a bunch of varieties. If you look through old cookbooks, mushroom and walnut ketchups seemed to be very popular. See [here, for instance](https://books.google.com/books?id=vtoNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA148&dq=mushroom+ketchup&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7na-ctOvnAhXyB50JHY5XCLYQ6AEwB3oECAkQAg#v=onepage&q=mushroom%20ketchup&f=false) > [@](#): > > Ketchup - A sauce or flavouring, prepared from vinegar and mushrooms, walnuts &c. The sort usually asked for as Ketchup, is the mushroom ketchup, but there are several varieties. (_The Hand-book of Pracetical Receipts, of Every-Day Use…_) Published 1847 in Philadelphia. You’ll find various other ketchups there, some made with anchovies, some with cockles, cucumbers, oysters, walnuts, and, of course, tomato. My recollection is that it was somewhere around that time (mid-1800s) that tomato ketchup starting becoming the most popular. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148/140 "2020-02-25T00:25:25Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > You’ll find various other ketchups there, some made with anchovies, some with cockles, cucumbers, oysters, walnuts, and, of course, tomato. Banana Ketchup is a very popular Filipino condiment, and I always keep some around, along with calamansi juice (at least until our calamansi plant grows more an ramps up production), for my _inasal_ dishes. (Another SE Asian condiment you’ll always find in my house during grilling season is _kecap manis_. Great stuff!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-you-cant-make-it-better-and-cheaper-at-home/848148.md?page=8)