# Would you call this "Home made"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [November 9, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004 "2024-11-09T23:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/21 "2024-11-10T20:19:42Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > Would you call this “Home made” chicken fried rice? Not personally, but you do you. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/22 "2024-11-11T10:31:58Z")
I like cooking from scratch but most of the times, I do pretty much like you : I start with a few ready-made ingredients and tweak them to add a whole layer or two to my meals. Let’s call it “home-tweaked”. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/23 "2024-11-11T15:12:52Z")
I’d just call it “semi-homemade.” Wasn’t there a trend for this kind of stuff back in the mid-2000s? I feel there was some Food Network show called “SOMEBODY’s Semi-homemade” – yeah, Google says it was “Semi Home-made Cooking with Sandra Lee.” That gets the point clearly across, at least to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/24 "2024-11-11T15:21:38Z")
I’d call it homemade. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/25 "2024-11-11T16:11:03Z")
What exactly would be home made in this situation? Can instant rice be used, for example? Or only bulk rice? Because at some point, everything comes from somewhere else. > [@Chronos](#): > > to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/26 "2024-11-11T18:22:47Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > What exactly would be home made in this situation? Probably not starting with premade fried rice and precooked chicken. Sounds like a great meal, and it’s cooking, but it’s not _home made chicken fried rice_. I’d say that needs to start with raw chicken and uncooked rice. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/27 "2024-11-11T18:37:46Z")
Definitely home made. You applied heat to ingredients. You made it at home. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/28 "2024-11-11T23:48:09Z")
OK, how do you make a sandwich? Most likely, you take two pieces of store-bought bread, and put some store-bought fillings between them. You assemble them, though, which is “making the sandwich”. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2024, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/29 "2024-11-12T00:11:30Z")
So sticking a can of condensed Campbell’s soup in a pot with some water would qualify as “homemade soup”? I suppose by some definition, it would, but not what I would generally think of as “homemade soup.” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/30 "2024-11-12T11:36:41Z")
If you fed me that fried rice, and told me it was homemade, and told me how you’d made it, I’d raise an eyebrow. Well, that’s not true, because one of the great tragedies of my life is that I can’t raise just one eyebrow at a time. But I would _try_. But if you fed it to me without calling it homemade, I’d say it was delicious, and thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/31 "2024-11-12T12:23:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sandra Lee The former First Lady of New York! (via Cuomo) ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/32 "2024-11-12T12:24:23Z")
Sure, but I’ve never heard anyone refer to a “home made sandwich”. The only distinction I’ve ever heard for sandwiches is that someone might refer to a “pre-made” sandwich , meaning the ones that you pick up from a cooler at Walmart or the convenience store as opposed to a sandwich freshly made either by the speaker or the person behind the deli counter. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/33 "2024-11-12T13:04:08Z")
I, too, have never heard anyone refer to a “homemade sandwich”. You usually use the word “homemade” when distinguishing between a dish cooked at home and one often purchased ready-made. So, “homemade cake” I’d expect to be baked in the house serving it (quite possibly from a mix, unless they also said, “from scratch”). I guess in this case the “trader Joe’s fried rice” might be considered like the cake mix? That’s not a product I’m familiar with. Does it come ready to eat? Ready to heat and serve? It’s it a dried seasoned rice that needs to be cooked before you can eat it? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/34 "2024-11-12T13:22:21Z")
You can draw the line where you want. We had some friends over and I served sushi. One of our guests asked where I bought the sushi (she said it was the GOAT) and I told her I made it. She initially refused to believe it was possible. I explained that I’m in a buying “club” with three other people, and we got good deals on fish that way. I brought a block of frozen tuna out of the freezer to show her, then showed her my fish knives. I explained how I’d made the sweet & sour soup. I admitted to buying the seaweed salad. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/35 "2024-11-12T13:31:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Most likely, you take two pieces of store-bought bread, and put some store-bought fillings between them. Bread is one of the ingredients of a sandwich, no matter who makes it, no matter where. The origins of the bread is not relevant to the status of the sandwich. Pre-made fried rice and cooked chicken are not the ingredients of chicken fried rice when someone typically makes the dish. Their origins is fundamental to calling the dish “home made”. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/36 "2024-11-12T14:12:15Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I guess in this case the “trader Joe’s fried rice” might be considered like the cake mix? That’s not a product I’m familiar with. Does it come ready to eat? Ready to heat and serve? It’s it a dried seasoned rice that needs to be cooked before you can eat it? Good questions. Is Rice-a-Roni homemade? IIRC, you have to combine ingredients, add water and butter, and cook for some length of time. Further - what is the context in which the designation even arises? Is the food preparer asking themself whether they “home-make” certain dishes? Is someone else - say a dinner guest - asking whether it is home made? I’d suspect a great percentage of what is prepared at home involves the use of ingredients that are - at least partially - pre-prepared. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/37 "2024-11-12T14:21:27Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Bread is one of the ingredients of a sandwich, no matter who makes it, no matter where. _However_, situations vary. After thanksgiving I like to make turkey sandwiches with leftover white-meat turkey. Traditionally I like to bake a farmhouse loaf and use that bread for our sandwiches. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/38 "2024-11-12T14:38:12Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > guess in this case the “trader Joe’s fried rice” might be considered like the cake mix? That’s not a product I’m familiar with. Does it come ready to eat? Ready to heat and serve? It’s frozen fried rice that requires heating in a frying pan or microwave. Adding some chicken, an egg and soy sauce, salt and pepper is the equivalent of adding sliced pepperoni , red pepper and garlic to a frozen pizza - and no one would call that “home made”. At most, someone might say they “doctored up” the pizza and that’s how I would describe the fried rice as well. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/39 "2024-11-12T15:37:21Z")
But you can’t say you started with fried rice, and then say, “look I made fried rice.” You are missing the crucial step of modifying the name to reflect the difference. Start with fried rice…, finish with, ‘Wildly, Wonderfully, Enhanced Fried Rice’! NOW its homemade, definitely! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004/40 "2024-11-12T15:42:39Z")
FWIW This wasn’t a Principal Skinner SuperNintendo Chalmers situation. Not conning anyone. It was just an idle thought while I was cooking and thought it would be an interesting topic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-this-home-made/1010004.md?page=3)