Make your own or buy pre done

MrsJT_2

Hi All,

I've always made things such as lasagne, chilli and spag bol with jars of sauces or packet mixes but I were just wondering how many of you make them completely from scratch and does buying all the ingredients still work out cheaper than buying the jars or packets (not branded but stores own).

Also bread, are you better baking this yourself or buying it from a store?

Thanks all

BitterAndTwisted

If you're a useless cook, have no time, or no particular interest in food then those jars are probably going to be OK.

It takes about five minutes prep and fifteen minutes to make one from scratch but there's no comparison in taste.

Not everything we do or like is led by how cheap or convenient it is.

Bread: it's always better to bake it yourself even if it's with a bread-maker rather than by hand. Some of that shop-bought bread is salt-laden damp muck, so I don't buy it. Decent-quality bread can cost two quid a loaf so I make most of mine myself.

MrsJT_2

Thank you BitterandTwisted, I don't mind cooking and actually quite enjoy it if I'm honest but I don't mind the jars so were trying to grasp whether it would be cheaper to use the jars or make from scratch as we are trying to budget everything.

Is bread easy to make without a bread maker :huh:

redfox

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pigpen

I can't stand home made bread.. I've tried all manner of recipes and I just hate it.

I tried with the herbs and stuff and went back to the packets as it was just far too bland.

Each to their own.. try it and see what you think you can always go back to buying jars/packets if it doesn't suit your family.

-taff

If you make it with packets or jars you're at the mercy of eating whatever preservatives and rubbish hae been put into the jars by the manufacturer.
As a quick example, get a tomato [yes, even the tasteless supermarket ones] and eat it. Now eat a teaspoonful of the sauce. Can you taste a chemcical taste? Yes? Thats preservatives and god knows what else.

Me, I can't stand pre-made sauces unless they're good quality, and things like dolmio are not good quality.

It might be convenenient but you are what you eat, and if you want to eat a load of poisons, that's up to you.

I don't understand what happened to\\ this country, that we place no value on time to make or do anything, and that cheap nasty chemical foods are preferable to properly cooked food without any or as few as possible contaminants.

And then i got off my soapbox......:D

And I make my own sauces

jackyann

I usually keep a jar by me for when I am very short of time, and make from scratch most of the time. It's cheaper in the long run, but can seem more expensive when you are buying herbs & spices. I do use tinned tomatoes, which are cheaper & tastier than using fresh (in this country!) but they have no chemicals / preservatives.
Spices & some herbs are much cheaper from Asian groceries; some herbs can easily be grown even if you don't have a proper garden.
I think bread is cheaper home made (if you count quality). If you make a lot, consider bulk buying flour (but it is perishable, so be careful).
I also think it useful to make batches and freeze sauces, but the taste goes if you freeze for too long.

DigForVictory

I do not make lasagne often. I don't use jars for it. It's slow, expensive (relatively), laborious, the chaps eat every bit and are complimentary without nudging.
I do make curries & sweet-&-sour dishes with jars as hungry chaps are difficult to live with.
It hadn't *occurred* to me to freeze them - does white sauce freeze well?

THIRZAH

I do buy most of our bread but make rolls for weekend breakfasts.

Otherwise I make nearly everything from scratch.I make a big batch of tomato sauce and freeze it and double up on things like chilli so there's always something in the freezer.

I do buy chutney as DH is the only one who eats it and a jar lasts us for ages. We often get a couple of jars in Christmas hampers.

unimaginative_user_name

I make lasagne from scratch but sometimes make a double batch of bolognese sauce and freeze half to save me time next time I want to make a lasagne. I find homemade tastier and more satisfying, plus as others have said it's not full of chemicals.

thriftwizard

Sometimes it comes down to quantities, if you're happy with the taste & ingredients of jars, packets & supermarket bread. (What are mono- & di-glycerides of fatty acids, BTW? I never put them in my HM bread & don't think anyone's missed them. Pigpen - try no-knead Dutch Oven bread if you have any kind of cast-iron or glass casserole to cook it in - it's irresistible)

I can quite see that for one or two people, it could be cheaper to buy ready-made, though not necessarily nicer unless you want to spend a lot of money, and even then I'd balk at some of the fillers, preservatives & stabilisers. But for 7-10, which is what I'm catering for just now, it's very much cheaper to buy separate ingredients & cook from scratch than to buy small portions x 5 or 10. When there are fewer of us, I'll still cook vast pots & will freeze relevant quantities to re-heat when needed. Like most OSers, I do keep a jar or two of, say, pasta sauce in hand for emergencies, but provided I'm home - or 3 out of 5 kids, or the trainee daughter-in-law - to cook, it's only going to get used by a hungry offspring late at night!