The first time I ever ate at a Denny’s, with my mother and sister in the 1970s, my mom ordered the “Homemade Beef Stew.” We then watched (our booth had a view of the kitchen) as a cook opened up a can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew, emptied it into a bowl, and put it into a microwave oven. 
So as I understand it that is what Ramen means period. Its not some ancient technique that was traditionally carefully made by hand in peasant’s huts in medieval japan. Ramen was invented post WW2 as an easy way to industrially manufacturer long-lasting high calorie foods during the post war food shortages (when there was a relative abundance of wheat imported from the US).
So what impoverished western College students eat is authentic Ramen (by some definition of authentic, I seem to remember putting baked beans in mine which probably is not)
The thing that really interests me in threads like this is the difference between the stuff that people “should” make at home, because it’s cheaper or higher quality than baseline store bought, versus the stuff that it’s possible to make at home, sometimes easily, but the effort or expenditure isn’t worth the difference in quality. There’s already been sorting so far, but which foods fall into which categories is always interesting to me.
Mac and cheese is one thing I’d add to the list. I’m totally fine buying something pre-made off the shelf that tastes pretty much the same as something that takes loads of time to make from scratch and isn’t that much tastier (hummus is in that category IMO, but others may disagree). But making a cheese sauce for mac and cheese is pretty straight forward, and a million times better than anything that comes in a packet.
This may be a US vs UK thing as I guess school kids in the US were fed Kraft mac and cheese a lot, so its now a “comfort food”? (Or could be just my family? My mum made a mean mac and cheese, so the first time I ate one out of a packet I was like “WTF is this crap?”)
My mother is a quite good cook, but I still prefer box-type mac & cheese (brand usually doesn’t make a huge difference). Her homemade involves much sharper cheese and a lot more mustard than I care for.
Heh. Good one.
Unless one has highly specific dietary needs (or equivalently, high dietary fussiness), I’m not sure how large the former category would be in principal. At least assuming all store-bought, as opposed to home-grown, ingredients.
Buying all the ingredients at retail, unlike the major manufacturers, I think I’d be hard pressed to make, e.g. mayo for less than it sells for. I’d suggest most all the condiments fall into that category. Even more so for condiments with limited refrigerated lives; I can leave an open jar of factory mayo in the fridge for 6 months without concern. My homemade stuff? To the degree I have to pitch my aging homemade, e.g. mayo, after 2 weeks despite using only half of the 6 oz I made, doubles the effective dollar cost and also doubles the “effort per oz consumed” cost.
Even if mayo specifically isn’t that way, plenty of other homemade products aren’t.
OTOH, homemade bread, at least the basic sorts, is definitely cheaper than store bought and of higher quality (or at least freshness) than the main national brands.
An interesting take on the topic to be sure.
Mustard and mac-and-cheese don’t belong in the same kitchen, much less in the same bowl. No disrespect to your saintly Mom, but WTF was she thinking??? 
Powdered mustard, not the kind you put on sandwiches, should have been clearer. Still didn’t like it.
This may also be a US-vs-UK thing (is your mum British Seanette?) I’ve has this sadly misguided reaction a lot in the US when explaining the the correct amount of mustard to put in a mac cheese sauce 
(the correct answer is quite a lot)
This is what my mum used, but I can’t be bothered to track it down (its hard to find in the supermarkets in the US) so I just use the kind that goes on sandwiches
It’s been touched on by several other posters (@Leaper most recently, but not the only one), but it’s interesting to see that Venn diagram of Quality / Cost / Time required, and other categories. In general, the premade or purchased stuff by definition wins the time category, quality is a toss up depending on the cook, leaving cost the biggest unknown.
For a lot of foods though, it is normally argued that as time = money, if the difference in cost and quality isn’t significant, pre-made is a good idea, such as @SmartAleq pointed out regarding most Mexican food. One they didn’t mention is refritos (refried beans) which I can and have made, but at or around $1 for a decent quality can, just don’t ever bother anymore. Sure, the ones from scratch are better, and ever so slightly cheaper (if I make a decent sized batch), but I’d have to use it up reasonably quickly, as opposed to having a half dozen cans for whenever I might like some (yes, you can freeze it, but at loss of quality).
So yeah, I have a ton of foods I can and have made, but just do so far less or not at all because unless you’re cooking for a family (just me and the wife), the economies of scale normally just don’t work out. Unless the premade product’s cost is excessive - my earlier examples of fresh pasta and pasta sauce are my biggest outliers.
In addition to the navel-gazing though, I wanted to add another fun food that is surprisingly easy to make at home but I haven’t ever heard of anyone else making much, and that’s soft pretzels. I mean, between out of hand eating and pretzel buns for sausage and burgers, they are a popular favorite at home, but everyone seems to go for the super expensive specialty stores or crap quality frozen options.
If you can make a basic yeast bread and have a stovetop, they’re stupid easy, fundamentally you make a normal dough, briefly (30 seconds) boil in water with a baking soda, add egg wash, salt and bake. And yet I see people paying $7-8 dollars for a 4 pack of pretzel buns at the store. If anyone wants to make some, I’ll end with Alton Brown’s version:
No, my family’s US for several generations. Most recent immigrant I know about was a German great-grandmother.
I’m still surprised people leave home to buy coffee at Starbucks.
It’s so easy to grind the beans and make a pot at home.
I only buy coffee with meals at a restaurant.
Is say the vast majority of Starbucks customers are not buying simple cups of regular coffee.
Now that I live alone, I rarely make soup, stew or chili because they’re make a big pot of it dishes.
The postwar boom is only part of the story.
What you’re referring to is instant noodles, invented in 1956. Instant noodles are flash fried to preserve and make them quick to prepare
### Origin[edit]
Ramen is a Japanese[6] adaptation of Chinese wheat noodles.[7][8][9][10][11] One theory says that ramen was introduced to Japan during the 1660s by the Chinese neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Shunsui who served as an advisor to Tokugawa Mitsukuni after he became a refugee in Japan to escape Manchu rule and Mitsukuni became the first Japanese person to eat ramen. Most historians reject this theory as a myth created by the Japanese to embellish the origins of ramen.[12]
According to historians, the more plausible theory is that ramen was introduced to Japan in the late 19th[7][13] or early 20th centuries by Chinese immigrants living in the Yokohama Chinatown.[14][15] According to the record of the Yokohama Ramen Museum, ramen originated in China and made its way to Japan in 1859.[13] In 1910, the first ramen shop named Rairaiken [ja] (来々軒) opened in Asakusa, Tokyo, where the Japanese owner employed twelve Cantonese cooks from Yokohama’s Chinatown and served the ramen arranged for Japanese customers.[16][17] Early versions were wheat noodles in broth topped with char siu.[7]
By 1900, restaurants serving Chinese cuisine from Canton and Shanghai offered a simple dish of noodles (cut rather than hand-pulled), a few toppings, and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Many Chinese living in Japan also pulled portable food stalls, selling ramen and gyōza dumplings to workers. By the mid-1900s, these stalls used a type of a musical horn called a charumera (チャルメラ, from the Portuguese charamela) to advertise their presence, a practice some vendors still retain via a loudspeaker and a looped recording. By the early Shōwa period, ramen had become a popular dish when eating out.[citation needed] According to ramen expert Hiroshi Osaki, the first specialized ramen shop opened in Yokohama in 1910.[10][18]
### Postwar popularization[edit]
Ramen stall in Tokyo
After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the American military occupied the country from 1945 to 1952.[7] In December 1945, Japan recorded its worst rice harvest in 42 years,[7][19] which caused food shortages as Japan had drastically reduced rice production during the war as production shifted to colonies in China and Formosa island.[7] The US flooded the market with cheap wheat flour to deal with food shortages.[7] From 1948 to 1951, bread consumption in Japan increased from 262,121 tons to 611,784 tons,[7] but wheat also found its way into ramen, which most Japanese ate at black market food vendors to survive as the government food distribution system ran about 20 days behind schedule.[7] Although the Americans maintained Japan’s wartime ban on outdoor food vending,[7] flour was secretly diverted from commercial mills into the black markets,[7] where nearly 90 percent of stalls were under the control of gangsters related to the yakuza who extorted vendors for protection money.[7] Thousands of ramen vendors were arrested during the occupation.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen
Modern instant noodles were created by Momofuku Ando in Japan.[4][5] They were first marketed on 25 August 1958 by Ando’s company, Nissin, under the brand name Chikin Ramen.[6] Ando developed the entire production method of flash frying noodles from processes of noodle-making, steaming, seasoning, to dehydrating in oil heat, creating the “instant” noodle. This dried the noodles and gave them a longer shelf life, even exceeding that of frozen noodles. Each noodle block was pre-seasoned and sold for 35 yen. The instant noodles became ready to eat in just two minutes by adding boiling water. Due to their price and novelty, Chikin Ramen were considered a luxury item initially, as Japanese grocery stores typically sold fresh noodles for one-sixth of their price.[7][8] Despite this, instant noodles eventually gained immense popularity, especially after being promoted by Mitsubishi Corporation.[9] Initially gaining popularity across East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, where they are now firmly embedded within the local cultures of those regions, instant noodles eventually spread to and gained popularity across most other parts of the world.[1]
A separate claim of origin for instant noodles comes from Pingtung County in Taiwan.[10] Zhang Guowen, a Pingtung local, filed a patent for instant noodles in 1956. On 16 August 1961, Zhang supposedly transferred the patent to Momofuku Ando for 23 million yen.[10]
This thread just inspired me to make a pot of miso soup with ingredients already in the house: Filtered water, white miso paste, dried tofu, portabellas, pod peas, seaweed, coconut amines, sesame oil, aji mirin. Maybe for dinner I’ll add rice noodles. Time: 5 minutes prep + 10 minutes cooking.
I asked my cousin to make us some home made tortillas while she was visiting Michigan from Texas, her husband cried actual tears because she never makes them at home. They were the bomb! Took us all straight back to childhood, hanging around the stove until the next one was ready.
Under the name ground mustard you should find it with the spices in every supermarket, unless the British variant is something I’m totally unfamiliar with.
I hate to do the “nobody mentioned yet” bit, but nobody mentioned hamburgers and hot dogs??? Sure, lots of grilling goes on but most of those, especially hot dogs, are from a store and just being heated up. Hardly anybody grinds up meat and makes patties or sausages. Fast food must outnumber them by an order of magnitude, maybe two.
Like pasta, fresh ramen is very perishable unless properly dried. My grandfather had a ramen machine, but rarely made it because of the amount of work necessary and the short shelf live of the fresh product. I never ate it because of the small batches he made and short time window it was edible. My Dad said it was good, but not anything special.
Also like pasta sauces, the real key and signature note to a good ramen bowl is the broth, which can take hours or days to make a good one.