homemade v store bought

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

I love making jam and preserves. We grow raspberries, tayberries, strawberries and blackcurrants so I make a summer berry jam from them. We also love to forage for blackberries for jam. I've also made apple chutney and red onion marmalade. We also have a medlar tree in the garden which I use to make medlar jelly. It's the most unusual thing. Most people when I tell them have no idea what it is lol.
I sometimes make shortcrust pastry but don't tend to bother with puff pastry.
I always make homemade cakes and biscuits and some times bread.
I just love being in the kitchen.

peachyprice

Ketchup & mayonnaise - store bought, I wouldn't know where to start with ketchup, mayo ends up v.expensive if you get it wrong and it would go off before it were used.

Pastry - always make my own, shortcrust, puff, rough puff, chocolate, choux. I haven't made a hot water crust, but I would like to give it a go one day

Jam - I have made it but don't regularly, I don't find its any cheaper if you have to buy the fruit and I don't grow any

Mash - can't make it for the life of me, it comes out either lumpy or sticky, so I always buy it

Chips - I love, love love homemade proper fried chips, that's why I never make them, I would eat too many too often, oven chips are easy to resist.

Roast potatoes - I have never and will never by shop bought

Parsnips - I bought my first ever frozen ones a few weeks ago, they were ok, but not as good as homemade

Veg in general - all fresh except of peas

Pasta sauces - have never bought one, can't see the point when HM is just as easy

YORKSHIRELASS

Dont you also find that homemade is often a very different taste and texture than shop bought? I love my own pizza bases but since I started making my own have never eaten a frozen pizza. I also saw someone mention ready made lasagne sauce which I tried a couple of weeks ago because I was short of time - wouldnt bother again.

As for veg, I keep veg in the freezer for convenience - peas, beans, carrot and swede mash, peppers and sweetcorn. I also have a bit of a secret love of potato waffles with an egg and some beans on top.

buythedip

A fridge/cupboard full of fresh (like a 5kg bag of spuds vs. frozen chips, but learn which types are suitable for which) or the components of a sauce (e.g. tinned toms, a basil plant that you keep alive in a pot, a garlic bulb) gives you much more flexibility which I see as an important element of cooking with an eye on cost. It also encourages some versatility when you're thinking about dinner.

THIRZAH

I make jam, marmalade and pastry-although sometimes buy puff pastry.All of our cakes and most biscuits are home made.We do buy bread although I do make it sometimes.

DH is the only one who eats pickle and is often given jars in a hamper at Christmas so we only have to buy it occasionally. It's not worth me making it.

I'm the only one who eats mayonnaise so again it's not worth making from scratch. A jar lasts me about three months.

We only buy ketchup when DGS visits-about three times a year ( he lives at the other end of the country. I buy a bottle for him then give the bottle to his mother when they leave.

I make a big batch of pasta sauce and freeze it.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Mash - don't buy little New Potatoes. Cut the spuds into chunks and boil. Drain and bung in a big blob of butter and a splash of milk. Bash about with a masher and you're done. To make them slightly more interesting, add sliced bits of cooked kale, Savoy cabbage or chopped up bits of Spring Onion and bash a bit more with a wooden spoon. That's fed an entire country and diaspora for a good couple of centuries.

If there's some leftover mash, mix it with self raising flour or plain flour and a little bicarb until it forms a dough, flatten it, and then cook in a pan with bacon for breakfast.

Gravy and stuffing - that's what the Good Lord invented Bisto and Paxo for.

Chips - oven chips are an abomination against nature. But if you must, get McCain ones, preferably thick cut, not nasty cheap own label ones.

Frozen Microwave Jacket Potatoes - just don't.

Pastry - nobody cares as long as it's pie. It's easy enough to do pub style pies in any case, just knock up a meat & gravy/veggie and sauce in a pan, chuck it a a dish and shove a disc of readymade puff on the top, splosh some beaten egg over the top, stab a couple of holes in it, in the oven for just long enough for the pastry to cook. For fruit pie, don't bother with the pastry, just cook the fruit and serve it with yoghurt/cream/ice cream.

Frozen peas are brilliant. Frozen sprouts are good. Frozen sweetcorn is good. Don't bother with vegetable mixes, as you just get the cruddy bits and two woody lumps of broccoli per bag.


Jam - can you be bothered? Do you have blackberry bushes taking over the back garden? Would your family eat jam every single day and never, ever stick a buttery knife into the jar? If not, don't bother. Same goes for lemon curd - unless you are guaranteed to demolish it within a few days, stick to the stuff from the supermarket.

Curry sauces - cook sliced onions for much longer than you would normally. Chuck in garlic, ginger and spices. Chuck in a lot of tomato puree and a tin of toms. Bubble away, throw in some mango chutney once the meat/veggies are cooked, plus some coriander. The two ingredient bread works better than spending on Naan breads here - to make it three ingredients, chuck in some Nigella or Cumin Seeds. You can cook them in a dry frying pan if you make them about an eighth of an inch thick. If you have bread and particularly if you have cooked spuds (which are brilliant for just chucking into a sauce), you don't need rice. If you leave the spices out or vary them according to what you have in mind, the generic onion, garlic and tomato covers pasta sauces, pizza sauces, casseroles and if you blend it, soup.

Pasta. Just buy it. It's not worth the hassle when you can get a bag for pennies.

Veggie soups. Make them. Cook veggies and blitz with stock. You don't need to add milk or yoghurt if there's a spud somewhere in the mix.

Yorkshire puddings - if you can make them, you can make them. If you can't, just thank the Lord for St Auntie Bessie. Depending upon your position on this ecumenical matter, either make or buy Toad in the Hole.


Beans and pulses - if you are incredibly organised and patient, soak and cook them because they taste better. If you're a human being, just open a tin and rinse the gloop off in a sieve.

Frozen pizzas are foul. Make the base as previously described or buy a flatbread from the supermarket and chuck what you want on top (tomato sauce therefore becoming optional). It will taste a hundred thousand times better than the frisbees in a box.

I am actually quite a good cook - but you choose your battles. One is that a bit of spud bashing is good for the soul - and the other is that precooked pizza is the work of the devil.

VfM4meplse

splishsplash wrote: »

Just mix self raising flour with Greek yoghurt. Good for pizza dough, garlic bread, flatbreads, bagels, dough balls, any number of things.

Usually 2 cups flour to one cup yoghurt. I usually only have 0% fat yoghurt which makes for a good thin crispy crust, if I want a fluffier crust, I add some milk and lemon juice and hold back some of the yoghurt. If you had wholemilk Greek yogurt you wouldn't have to do this.

Just mix the ingredients, knead for a couple of minutes then roll out. No proving or raising time, you're good to go.

Easy pizza dough recipe, I've got to try it. I suppose you could always mix in LO mashed potato to make it more substantial

I am really loving catching up on the OS board this evening. I am told one of my trees in the garden bears plums and I cannot wait to get jam-ing! My plan B is a selection of berry plants from Poundland, I've just got to work out where to site them.

sillyvixen

Havd not bought oven chips in years, I don't have a chip pan or fryer so occasionally do home Made wedgies. Home made mash is better than bought, usually only make mash as a topping. Mayo is helmans - life is too short and as it is only used occasionally preservative shop bought lasts longer I don't do red or brown sauce. I don't make jam or marmalade but as I can buy it for £1.20 a jar at church, home made and better quality than super market stuff, keep it in the fridge and its better than top brands, and proceeds go to a good cause. If I have time to bake I will, don't usually have cakes or biscuits but will buy if no time (I recently made jam tarts with the kids at church and nobody had ever come across them before!! I real used that I have not had a jam tart in years).
I am heavy handed I can't make pastry to save my life but am good at bread if I had time. 2 items I buy are ready made pastry and Yorkshire puddings (my nan could make Yorkshires - but the gene was not passed on to either my mum or myself).

suki1964

Have made mayo - waste of time, we eat so little

Wouldn't be bothered to make ketchup either - a bottle lasts nearly a year

I do make my own pastry, shortcrust and suet crust. Puff pastry Ive not attempted since a disaster in school and tbh, the fresh ready made is good, esp if you can find saxbys

Potatoes come into this house fresh and get boiled, mashed, roasted, chipped to order. I do sometimes buy skinny fries for the grandkids, but seriously - frozen roasties???

I don't make jam or marmalade either as we eat so little. Ive jam in the larder I made 5 0r 6 years ago - waste of sugar and time

But I do make lemon curd, cant beat HM lemon curd

I bake cakes and biscuits, I make soups and cook from scratch

Life is short, time is too precious to be fluttering around making stuff that is rarely used when its cheaper to buy from the supermarkets. I also am a fan of stock pots, always nicer and a darn sight more convenient then saving and roasting bones and boiling down for hours

MMF007

When we were snowed in this winter I made cheese scones for the first time in years. I had forgotten how ridiculously easy and cheap they are to make :Prepacked scones are never as good and are expensive by comparison.

Same for HM bisciuts. Far superior to shop bought and soooo quick to make. The problem is that you seem to eat more of them though....

I don't have a breadmaker, have made bread but, to me, it is not worth the effort because we don't eat much bread and can buy really good in local bakery.

Sausage rolls - again shop-bought are poor value and always have too much pastry and usually poor sausagemeat. HM are worlds better and again, quick to make. OK, I usually use a block of readymade shortcrust pastry because I don't eat much pastry so no point buying lard. So skinning sausage then rolling pastry takes minutes!

Mash, defo HM. Faaar superior but you do need to use the right spuds (check labelling, some make better roasters). Roasters, so easy, too. Cut spuds up into fairly large chunks (too small makes for all crisp and no spud, imho),par-boil, toss is a little oil, put on tray in hot oven and devour with a sprinkle of salt and maye a sprinkle of herbs.

Pizzas - agree totally with prev poster - HM are a million miles nicer than bought and far less greasy! But, confession, i have often bought a pizza dough packet mix, made that up (just added a few herbs, water, kneed, flatten), top with tomato paste, more herbs, cheese, etc etc. Very tasty and ready long before any pizza delivery would arrive. Cost is pennies each.

Soup - again, really easy and soooo cheap. Tinned soup, except tomato,! is mostly pretty dire in comparison. Leek and potato soup - clean and chop leeks, peel and chop potato, add salt, and a clove or 2 of garlic, put in pan with boiling water and a blob of bought stock gel (although I often use leftover gravy), boil, blitz. Cost is pennies per portion, tastes delicious. Couldn't be easier. Freeezes well, so make a big batch. Add some stilton cheese if you like! Mushroom soup rather than leek? Mushrooms well washed, then as above but no potato and maybe a tiny sprinkle of thyme. Same with butternut squash and red pepper (but add a few chille flakes). Yep, i am a massive fan of easy HM soup

I do make marmalade but using the cans of pulp. No way would I make it from absolute scratch (did it once, took hours!,). I reduce the amount of sugar and favour the lemon version. Just dunk clean jars in boiling water to sterilise. Put pulp and sugar and water in large pan, stir, bring to boil for 15 mins, job done. Goes down well as little gifts, too. HM lemon curd is very easy and is delcious, too. I kind of agree about apricot jam being available in shops but I love the smell of apricots cooking so have made it myself when time permits and i have sourced YS apricots!!

Homemade pesto is beyond delicious! Foolproof to make. And it freezes well.

However, at the risk of losing my halo........ I buy pre-cooked rice. I don't eat rice but DH does. A very quick meal will be leftover chicken, veg, cooked up with spices and a tin of toms, thrown over microwave rice. That is an expensive way of providing rice but as it is rarely used in our house I see no need to buy it dried (I used to) because it would be past best long befoe we used it up.

Oh, have rambled. Sorry.