What qualifies as cooking from scratch?
By mclendon
@mclendon (308)
United States
June 12, 2008 5:46pm CST
I put this in parenting because some moms are proud to say they "cook from scratch" for their families. What qualifies as "from scratch"?
If you open a package of boneless breast filets, season and bake them; and measure out rice from a big bag and boil it and season it, and you cook and season fresh or frozen vegetables and serve "homemade" rice crispy squares for dessert - do you consider that having cooked from scratch?
OR do you have to cut up and cook a whole chicken with bones, bake bread from the basic ingredients, cook vegetables and bake a cake from flour, egg, etc. to consider it a meal "from scratch"?
How much do everyday moms really cook "from scratch"?
2 people like this
2 responses
@Gemmygirl1 (2867)
• Australia
13 Jun 08
Well, bread is easy enough to make from scratch but i dunno about the rest - if you wanna get REALLY technical, from 'scratch' would probably involves killing the chicken yourself, growing your own veggies & stuff but that's just kinda getting too technical! ^_^ I doubt there are many people out there at all who go that far!
I dunno if i cook from scratch, i usually buy things in a packet mix where you cook up the meats & veggies then add in the flavour sachet or seasoning & it takes a while so it's close enough.
As long as it's healthy & tastes good, then i really don't think it matters!
Tonight for dinner we're having a lamb & potato casserole - chopped lamb, veggies, baby potatoes plus the flavour sachet, served with mashed potato so i would probably consider that to be close enough to scratch since i still have to dice the meat, peel the potatoes, mash the other potatoes, cook the vegetables - it's time consuming enough to consider it to be a fairly 'from scratch' meal i think!
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
13 Jun 08
Your meal sounds pretty close. I'd use fresh, rather than frozen vegetables, though. It's not the same hassle to cup and peel fresh veggies as it is to de-bone a chicken, so I would skip the frozen vegetables.
