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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.

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Watch Next: Who Cooked it? GRILLED CHEESE | Chef: £5 Budget or Normal: Unlimited Budget? 🧀🔥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dq5nvVjm7s

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26 Comments

  1. 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. 🙄

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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!

  6. 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.

  7. 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 😀

  8. "Most people don't have access to a mixer."

    "We're going for luxury cream versus luxury butter."

    Make up your minds!

  9. 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

  10. Would have made a funnier watch if they competed who can churn butter the fastest!

  11. 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.

  12. '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.

  13. Jarred pesto is trash imo and although the ingredients for pesto are expensive I still suspect it’s cheaper
    ETA suspicion is founded

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

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