Which Homemade Basics Are Worth The Effort? | Sorted Food
Which everyday cooking basics from scratch are actually worth the effort, or is the reality that store-bought just better and easier?
Mike and Chef Kush put Butter, Pesto, and Hummus to the ultimate test.
We’re getting our normals, Barry and Jamie, to judge them ruthlessly on Time, Effort, Taste and Cost..
Will a supermarket dip completely destroy their assumptions or is fresh always best? Let’s find out.
Sorted Live Show: BACK TO THEIR OLD SCHOOL Info – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1982666728557
Dates – Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th July 2026
Watch Live or On-Demand
Watch Next: Who Cooked it? GRILLED CHEESE | Chef: £5 Budget or Normal: Unlimited Budget? 🧀🔥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dq5nvVjm7s
#SortedFood #HomemadeVsStoreBought #TasteTest #CookingExperiment #FoodHacks
STOP EATING BORING DINNERS!
It’s easier than you think to cook up banging food… Click here to try Sidekick FREE for 30 days: https://onelink.sorted.club/vWe9/lx15b74h
Why’s it so awesome?
– Discover new ingredients and dishes
– Boost your confidence in the kitchen
– Reduce the stress of deciding what to cook EVERY day
– Make grocery shopping simple, with an automatically-generated list
– Cook more sustainably & reduce your food waste

26 Comments
Yes!
1:44…. "most people don't have a mixer, but they have a whisk and a bowl" directly followed by "so we're going with luxury cream and luxury butter" automatically triggered a groan and an eye roll. If they can afford luxury cream and luxury butter, then they can afford a mixer. 🙄
its interesting that cost varies so widely around the world
here in Aotearoa(NZ) it is cheaper to make your own butter, more expensive to make your own pesto(unless you grow your own basil, use neutral oil and substitute the pine nuts), and dramatically cheaper to make your own hummus
A little cumin in the hummus makes a huge difference.
WE NEED BREADDD!!
I used to have a plastic shaker, originally for cocktails, but it made butter quite nicely too. No need for 3 bowls and the muslin.
I watch this from Norway where I can buy houmous (hummus) in a bog standard store, but I don't know where to buy tahini, so I don't have a choice. I think I could buy it in a store with "foreign" goods (as we call it here), but not many other places. I have made butter, though. My mother, who grew up on a farm with no electricity until her teens, knows all those tricks. Pesto isn't a favorite here, but I think I have made it a couple of times, but bought it more
Maybe do homemade jam/jelly vs store bought? I find making it home is useful if I'm at the end of the week and haven't finished the fruit I bought, so for me it's a matter of reducing food waste and having some tasty jam!
Fresh and cultured butter are not a side by side comparison.
7:29 I'm not sure that's really a fair price comparison, considering you used premium double cream, what we in the states would call whipping cream.
If you had used cheap or store brand double cream the price comparison would probably be more accurate to what the average consumer is going to use.
This feels like a rare miss for you guys.
19:46 – Shrimp salad, shrimp gumbo, shrimp stew……..Kush got his Forest Gump moment! Also, YAY, BURN MARK IN FRAME AGAIN!
Also – 20:40 – We know the blender is the reason Barry missed holiday for a while 😀
"Most people don't have access to a mixer."
"We're going for luxury cream versus luxury butter."
Make up your minds!
I just put it in a jar and shake it. Easier on the arms
I found that useful or interesting.
I make my pesto and hummus. I have/had (the heat/sun fried my last plant) basil. I have texture issues with chickpeas so I use roasted cauliflower and sub PB for tahini. My parents have a decent veggie garden so I raid it when I need certain fruit/veg
Would have made a funnier watch if they competed who can churn butter the fastest!
Buttermilk biscuits! Best biscuits ever. Big in the south US.
homemade hot chili oil (with crisps) is always worth doing at home. its not hard., and fairly long shelf life, so you're not constantly making it.
'We're trying to make this as accessible as possible' – proceeds to make the boys do a procedure that a LOT of people literally cannot do by hand.
Love making homemade pesto. I grow my own basil. Yum yum yum.
4:03 funnily enough, Walt Disney did in fact descend from the Norman d’Isigny family
Jarred pesto is trash imo and although the ingredients for pesto are expensive I still suspect it’s cheaper
ETA suspicion is founded
Always wanted to make my own butter. That way I can have some regular and absolutely stuff one full of dill because you can not have to much dill.
You should do this then blind taste test
I'd love to see you do some more common items like yoghurt.
A small bit of feedback: accessibility-wise, it would be nice to bring the real subtitles back and to drop the background music, or at least lower its volume.
For butter, I've just put heavy cream into a jar, sealed it with a screw-on lid, and then shaken it until a lump forms.