Which Homemade Basics Are Worth The Effort? | Sorted Food
Is homemade always better than shop-bought? Or are some things just better left to the professionals?
We’re back for round two of Homemade vs Store Bought, putting homemade versions of everyday food favourites head-to-head with their supermarket counterparts.
Can we recreate these products from scratch and make something even better, or will the convenience, consistency and flavour of the shop-bought versions prove too difficult to beat?
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25 Comments
For the record, Heinz ketchup in the uk does not contain Xanthan Gum. Its ingredients are tomatoes, spirit vinegar, sugar, salt, spice and herb extracts, and spice.
Tea is more of a broth than a soup
Also thing is with homemade stuff is the shelf life
Something like heinz will outlast homemade due to packaging and additives
Tomato sauce was epic, I really like that , would you make it . No
Ketchup is the one thing I do make! There's always tomatoes/scraps left at the end of canning, so I use that as a base and have fun from there! I usually start making it while the last sets of jars are processing – so not really any added time.
I don't like the taste of ricotta bought in the store, I always make it from scratch. It freezes well. I also keep an eye on the ingredients in frozen ravioli and lasagna, too make sure it doesn't have ricotta. I don't know if it's the preservatives that affect the taste for me or what.
Heinz shut down their Canadian plant and fired all the workers. So French's stepped in and bought the plant and re-hired all the workers. As such many Canadians switched to French's ketchup. Now that we're being attacked by US everything is up in the air.
Edit: The best ketchup I ever ate was when I was a kid and my mum made homemade ketchup using vegetables from our garden.
The tortilla-making part might have inspired me to try it as well.
Here in Germany, there are two common variants:
With a bit of maize/corn flour,
or with whole wheat flour.
I could make one with a mix of corn flour and whole wheat.
Heinz Ketchup is a dirty word in Canada
none of these seem worth it
Homemade flatbreads can also go in the freezer. Make a big batch to stock up on them.
I don't make my own flour tortillas, because I haven't mastered them yet, and mt local grocer has fantastic ones. Plus, as I'm in Texas, there are plenty of places to buy essentially homemade ones all over. But, I do make my own corn tortillas, and they are so much better than store bought.
Following on from @Rub198' s comment, you should consider doing the 5 minute no-knead bread recipe, So easy. Mix the ingredients last thing at night, cover, and then in the morning, heat up the oven, shape the (rough) baguettes, bung in to cook and 25 minutes later you have fabulous, crusty bread.
Made my own bbq sauce before andcu have to say while it was more effort I did enjoy it more than the generic store bought
I'm here for Everything is Soup.
Those dough balls, can store in freezer for up to 3months or so, take out a few, leave for an hour, roll, tortillas!
The tomatoe sauce, buy big tinn or other of passata, make a fat huge pot of ketchup, if jar properly will last 1-3 years easy, but yaa, do a pot, store, then when down to olast jar of kethcupo, do anothe rpot.
If I had a kitchen and stoprage I'd so be doing both.
I think we would need some information about how long stuff stays good in the fridge. If I make a tortilla dough, turn it to the balls and keep then in airtight way in a freezer, how long are they usable? (I usually eat two tortillas at the time, so this is big question for me.) And the longer ketchup stays eatable, the bigger amount I can made, and save some time and money in the process. Could I add some Sodium Benzoate Powder (Nordic counties call it Atamon) or maybe jam sugar in it? Also, considering ricotta, can I freeze it? How long it stays good in the fridge?
And oc, this is especially important knowledge fod person living alone.
Big normals Christmas roast dinner battle please! with restricted chef support 😂
No Mexican would buy those things, at least not from the big brands. I rarely do because I usually make them with maize (aka masa harina) and when I don't feel like making them I can alway yell over the fence for a few. The advantage of having mexican neighbors. Personally I like fresh made a lot better. It's a entirely different ballgame. Plus: don't make 6. Make 30 or 40 and freeze them Then you have the best of both worlds.
Does Heinz Ketchup really contant xanthan gum – or any gum – in the UK? Because in the US it doesn't.
Kush is right that replacing a bit of the milk with heavy cream in homemade ricotta makes it so much nicer – not traditional but it can be a little coarse and unremarkable as is, the richer dairy fat seems to really smooth it out
home made tortilla are worth it in my opinion if your going to make something like tacos its worth it the other things yall made i have never made so idk but i disagree with yall but yes throw a pack or store bought in the freezer and your good there aw well
Quick context – I'm in my mid 50's, my Mum is in her mid 70's, my Nan (her Mum) was in her early 20s during WWII, so year of birth circa 1920 ish.
I was about 30 when my Nan passed, so have plenty of memories of her cooking and as expected was part of a generation where everything was made from scratch. She was born and raised in Belgium and her repertoire included hand made croquettes, which at family gatherings people would fight over. The making of them started days before. I also remember her hand making mayonnaise too, better than any store bought product could ever be, but there's definitely a generational factor.
Mum still has the knowledge and skills to make most things at home from scratch, but convenience comes into play, particularly as the years progress.
Don't laugh at the soup comment! One time for family meal at the restaurant I was working in, one of the cooks combined Heinz and hot water, and called it tomato soup. None of us touched it.
I make those wraps all the time, not bought them in years. Add dried herbs in the mix too
"Real tomato ketchup Eddie?"
"Oh nothing but the best!"
I like the format but would have appreciated a “blind” taste test on each. I feel this helps protect against bias opinions.