Things that are cheap to make from scratch

Quoted message said:

Can you guys name other stuff?

I don't know about cheaper but making fresh pasta is DEFINITELY more fun
than boxed!!!

Andy

Andy said:

I don't know about cheaper but making fresh pasta is DEFINITELY more fun
than boxed!!!

Andy

Making just about anything from scratch is more fun than buying it
pre-made.

-Mike

Mike Pearce said:

Andy said:

I don't know about cheaper but making fresh pasta is DEFINITELY more fun
than boxed!!!

Andy

Making just about anything from scratch is more fun than buying it
pre-made.

That's not true... when was they last time you ate meat that you
gutted... I don't consider preparing a package of chicken quarters from
scratch... I don't see the fun in gutting a chicken and then an hour
later eating same. A package of chicken parts is more like cooking in
kit form, same as paint by numbers. Today most all foods are purchased
nearly prepared... you must be very young. I'm willing to bet most
folks reading rfc have never gutted a chicken, many have never cut one
up, or even touched one with bare hands. I've been invited to dinners
where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

Mike Pearce said:

Andy said:

I don't know about cheaper but making fresh pasta is DEFINITELY
more fun than boxed!!!

Andy

Making just about anything from scratch is more fun than buying it
pre-made.

That's not true... when was they last time you ate meat that you
gutted... I don't consider preparing a package of chicken quarters
from scratch... I don't see the fun in gutting a chicken and then an
hour
later eating same. A package of chicken parts is more like cooking in
kit form, same as paint by numbers. Today most all foods are
purchased nearly prepared... you must be very young. I'm willing to
bet most
folks reading rfc have never gutted a chicken, many have never cut one
up, or even touched one with bare hands.

I've never plucked and gutted a chicken but my dad sure did, many times.
It's no wonder people prefer packaged chicken - I let the butchers deal with
their job, which is butchering.

I have most definitely cut up whole (purchased) chickens - it's much cheaper
to buy a whole chicken than it is to pay for a package of chicken breasts.
(The back, neck and wings go in the freezer for stock.) By the same token,
it's cheaper to buy a package of bone-in skin-on chicken breasts and skin
and bone them yourself than it is to buy the boneless ones. (Said bones
also go in the freezer for stock.) Now if I could just figure out how to
bone chicken thighs, which I prefer, neatly (a.k.a. not mangling them).

I've been invited to dinners

Quoted message said:

where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Lots of people do that. I don't really understand why. I mean, I
understand the convenience. But by the same token, I've never had anyone
serve up a spiral-sliced ham and pretend they did the spiral slicing
themselves. In fact, it's usually announced - hey, we got a spiral-sliced
ham! 🙂

Jill

jmcquown said:

But by the same token, I've never had anyone
serve up a spiral-sliced ham and pretend they did the spiral slicing
themselves. In fact, it's usually announced - hey, we got a
spiral-sliced ham! 🙂

Jill

Jill,

We served a spiral-sliced honey-baked ham at a party and nobody ate it
because they were all waiting for it to be carved! Once the word was
out, it went fast. 😄

Andy

jmcquown said:

Sheldon said:

I've been invited to dinners

Quoted message said:

where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Lots of people do that. I don't really understand why. I mean, I
understand the convenience. But by the same token, I've never had anyone
serve up a spiral-sliced ham and pretend they did the spiral slicing
themselves. In fact, it's usually announced - hey, we got a spiral-sliced
ham! 🙂

Well, then those boneheads need to learn how to bone a ham. duh
They'd save a lot of money, and it would be better ham too... spiral
cut is
low grade ham at a high grade price.

Btw, serving ANY smoked ham is never from scratch, not unless you
smoked it yourself. Smoked ham is strictly a convenience food... all
preserved foods are... you mean like opening the lid on a can of tuna
makes that tuna salad a from scratch creation, no way... then you may
as well call your morning flakies from scratch because you poured in
the milk and sugar yourself.

Sheldon

"Sheldon" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

jmcquown wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Lots of people do that. I don't really understand why. I mean, I
understand the convenience.

I'm not being a snob, I really don't get the convenience at
all. What's to making a good roast chicken, even if you don't
have a rotisserie? The chickens I've had from supermarkets
are really sucky, but I don't know where else I'd get one.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But by the same token, I've never had anyone
serve up a spiral-sliced ham and pretend they did the spiral slicing
themselves. In fact, it's usually announced - hey, we got a
spiral-sliced
ham! 🙂

I bring them to my mother's at Easter, all the better to avoid
the can o' ham. This way, also, I can just heat it up and bring it
warm to the house.

Quoted message said:

Well, then those boneheads need to learn how to bone a ham. duh

Why would I want to bone a ham? Something weird about a
boneless ham, I guess it's canned ham flashbacks.

Quoted message said:

They'd save a lot of money, and it would be better ham too... spiral
cut is
low grade ham at a high grade price.

Depends. I've had some very good ones, but I've also had really
crappy unspiral sliced hams. Hams are iffy in my opinion.

Quoted message said:

Btw, serving ANY smoked ham is never from scratch, not unless you
smoked it yourself. Smoked ham is strictly a convenience food... all
preserved foods are... you mean like opening the lid on a can of tuna
makes that tuna salad a from scratch creation, no way... then you may
as well call your morning flakies from scratch because you poured in
the milk and sugar yourself.

Now, now, not all of us have a smokehouse and months to cure
hams ... never mind the pig!

nancy

Sheldon said:

That's not true... when was they last time you ate meat that you
gutted... I don't consider preparing a package of chicken quarters from
scratch... I don't see the fun in gutting a chicken and then an hour
later eating same. A package of chicken parts is more like cooking in
kit form, same as paint by numbers. Today most all foods are purchased
nearly prepared... you must be very young. I'm willing to bet most
folks reading rfc have never gutted a chicken, many have never cut one
up, or even touched one with bare hands. I've been invited to dinners
where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Only some of what you say is true. Depends where you live. There is
nothing better than a "fresh" chicken, IMHO. Used to have them all the
time when I was a teenager... And yes, I do touch raw meat with my "bare
hands". These days, most people do go to the local butcher or fish
monger for their "fresh" meat, poultry or fish, but that is still much,
much, better/healthier (and cheaper) than buying those pre-made dinners
or having "fast-food" every day.

--
Cheers
Cathy(xyz)

Sheldon said:

jmcquown said:

Sheldon said:

I've been invited to dinners

Quoted message said:

where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Lots of people do that. I don't really understand why. I mean, I
understand the convenience. But by the same token, I've never had
anyone serve up a spiral-sliced ham and pretend they did the spiral
slicing themselves. In fact, it's usually announced - hey, we got a
spiral-sliced ham! 🙂

Well, then those boneheads need to learn how to bone a ham. duh
They'd save a lot of money, and it would be better ham too... spiral
cut is
low grade ham at a high grade price.

Sheldon

It's usually been in a company party "pot luck" type setting where the
company provides the ham, generally around the holidays. Unless it's set up
in a fancy hotel banquet room there isn't the professional staff to be
boning ham for up to 200 people. And you wouldn't want to trust some of the
employees with sharp pointed implements 😉

Jill

kr_gentner said:

Most baked items are cheaper to make than to buy. You can also use the
flour and cocoa to make cake. A good selection of staples allows you to
make a wide variety of things. Add yeast and you can make all sorts of
breads cheap too.

Some things just aren't worth the work. We have an Italiian bakery in our
town that makes wonderful and sells it for $1.40 per loaf. With just two of
us in the house, and my wife not eating bread, it just isn't worth all that
work to make a batch of bread if I can pick up a loaf that is better than I
can make. However, their cookies as pies aren't very good. I can do much
better at home. Most Nanaimo bars are much cheaper to buy than to make, but
the real thing home made is far superior.

I make most of my own jam, and I can get 6-7 jars out of a batch. It would
cost me as much for one jar of good jam as it costs me to make the whole
batch. Good Seville orange marmalade is very expensive, and I can make more
than a dozen jars of it for less than it would cost to buy one jar of the
good stuff.

Ice cream is another matter. By the time I buy the cream, eggs, milk and
flavourings I could easily get a quart of a premium brand, and I come out a
little ahead because I get almost 1 1/2 qt. in a batch.

Most home made pies are a bargain compared to bakery prices, and if you find
pie making easy it is well worth it to do it yourself.

It does pay to have a good supply of staples and other ingredients, and it
really pays to buy in bulk. I used to buy flour in 5 pound bags, and then I
realized that for about 50% more I could get four times as much. Vanilla
extract is much cheaper in larger quantities.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I started making cornbread a while ago and found it's very cheap to
make from scratch. You get a 4 lb bag of cornmeal for $4 and 4 pound
bag of flour for $2 and some other stuff and you can make many big pans
of cornbread.

I just bought a can of Hershey cocoa powder for about $4.19, and OMG it
goes a long way. You can make a cup of hot cocoa with only 2 or 3
teaspoons of cocoa. That's a helluva lot cheaper than Swiss Miss, isn't
it? I wish I had found this out a long time ago, cuz I would've had hot
cocoa more often. I made a couple of batches of chocolate pudding and
still have most of the cocoa left.

Can you guys name other stuff?

Most baked items are cheaper to make than to buy. You can also use the
flour and cocoa to make cake. A good selection of staples allows you to
make a wide variety of things. Add yeast and you can make all sorts of
breads cheap too.

Kathy

cathyxyz said:

Sheldon said:

That's not true... when was they last time you ate meat that you
gutted... I don't consider preparing a package of chicken quarters from
scratch... I don't see the fun in gutting a chicken and then an hour
later eating same. A package of chicken parts is more like cooking in
kit form, same as paint by numbers. Today most all foods are purchased
nearly prepared... you must be very young. I'm willing to bet most
folks reading rfc have never gutted a chicken, many have never cut one
up, or even touched one with bare hands. I've been invited to dinners
where I was served reheated rotisserie deli chicken, served with the
pretence of home made from scratch... the only from scratch was
transfering it to a fancy serving platter, with tongs.

Sheldon

Only some of what you say is true. Depends where you live.
These days, most people do go to the local butcher or fish
monger for their "fresh" meat, poultry or fish,

*Depends where you live*... not in the US... in the US the vast
majority shop for meat at stupidmarkets, and almost always not out of
choice, very few locations have butcher shops, poultry markets, and
fish mongers anymore.

Must you in every post remind everyone that you live in a third world
country... WE HEARD YOU... everyone else participating in this thread
lives in more advanced circumstances and is commenting from that
general consensus... you on the other hand obviously have nothing
appropriate to contribute, you're just being a juvenile pest with a
desire to barge into adult conversation... your "Depends where you
live." comment has long ago lost its novelty, its no longer
appropriate, it's a put-down, it's ignorant, it's RUDE! If you want
people to respect your life style choice stop harping on it... self
praise is no recommendation. I for one have long ago figured out from
your snide sideways comments that you are not happy with where/how you
chose to live, you'd return in a flash if only you had the means. Only
the wealthiest of Americans can adapt to retirement living in Central
America, and even many of the wealthy cannot, they are too used to
those common comforts that most Americans enjoy and take for granted
that are just not available anywhere there, not at any price. The
wealthy that do adapt fly backwards and forwards on a weekly basis for
major shopping and all medical needs. I know of what I speak, I lived
in Central America and traveled there extensively. I was one of those
who could have afforded to live there financially and almost did but
decided at the last hour that I didn't want to spend my retirement
going without the niceities I've grown accustomed to. I know a number
of Americans who did choose to retire to Central America, who became
elderly and frail and had to return anyway, they are in US nursing
homes, couldn't survive but a few months in what Central America calls
a nursing home, those are much closer to very crude hospices. Central
Americans don't go to hospitals to get cured, they go to hospitals to
die.

Sheldon

Dave Smith said:

kr_gentner said:

Most baked items are cheaper to make than to buy. You can also use the
flour and cocoa to make cake. A good selection of staples allows you to
make a wide variety of things. Add yeast and you can make all sorts of
breads cheap too.

Some things just aren't worth the work. We have an Italiian bakery in our
town that makes wonderful and sells it for $1.40 per loaf. With just two of
us in the house, and my wife not eating bread, it just isn't worth all that
work to make a batch of bread if I can pick up a loaf that is better than I
can make.

And then there are school bake sales,
where you can often find a REAL bargain . . .
:-)

In article <[email hidden]>,

Sheldon said:

cathyxyz wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Only some of what you say is true. Depends where you live.
These days, most people do go to the local butcher or fish
monger for their "fresh" meat, poultry or fish,

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I for one have long ago figured out from
your snide sideways comments that you are not happy with where/how you
chose to live, you'd return in a flash if only you had the means. Only
the wealthiest of Americans can adapt to retirement living in Central
America, and even many of the wealthy cannot, they are too used to
those common comforts that most Americans enjoy and take for granted
that are just not available anywhere there, not at any price. The
wealthy that do adapt fly backwards and forwards on a weekly basis for
major shopping and all medical needs. I know of what I speak, I lived
in Central America and traveled there extensively. I was one of those
who could have afforded to live there financially and almost did but
decided at the last hour that I didn't want to spend my retirement
going without the niceities I've grown accustomed to. I know a number
of Americans who did choose to retire to Central America, who became
elderly and frail and had to return anyway, they are in US nursing
homes, couldn't survive but a few months in what Central America calls
a nursing home, those are much closer to very crude hospices. Central
Americans don't go to hospitals to get cured, they go to hospitals to
die.

Sheldon

Hey Cathy(xyz), welcome to Central America! Say hi to Sandi while you're
there. (snicker)

Regards,
Dave W.

--
Living in the Ozarks
For email, edu will do.

Regardless of what doesn't happen, there's always someone who knew it wouldn't.
R. Henry

Mark Thorson said:

And then there are school bake sales,
where you can often find a REAL bargain . . .
:-)

LOL. Let's not go there again :-)
I only go to them to buy things these days. I refuse to contribute to them.

Mark Thorson said:

Dave Smith said:

kr_gentner said:

Most baked items are cheaper to make than to buy. You can also use
the flour and cocoa to make cake. A good selection of staples
allows you to make a wide variety of things. Add yeast and you can
make all sorts of breads cheap too.

Some things just aren't worth the work. We have an Italiian bakery
in our town that makes wonderful and sells it for $1.40 per loaf.
With just two of us in the house, and my wife not eating bread, it
just isn't worth all that work to make a batch of bread if I can
pick up a loaf that is better than I can make.

And then there are school bake sales,
where you can often find a REAL bargain . . .
:-)

Um, don't you have to have children enrolled in the school in order to
attend a school bake sale? This may not be the case all over. It wasn't a
bake sale but in a fit of nostalgia when I was 30-something I stopped by my
old high school to have a look around. I couldn't just wander around. I
was directed to the office where I had to sign in and state my reason for
being there. Long gone are the days of public "car washes" as fundraisers
(at least not without a teacher or two or some parents present) and bake
sales and "cake walks" open to the general public. There are just too many
nuts running out there for whom schools are a major attraction.

Jill

kr_gentner said:

Most baked items are cheaper to make than to buy.

That's not true, not if equal quality... just lighting your oven most
times negates any savings. And of course your time and effort are
worthless, right... baking is generally labor intensive and time
consuming... just a couple loaves of bread requires your attention for
many hours. Bakeries buy in volume, they pay less than half for
ingredients than you, and by baking in volume they can sell for the
same price as your cost or less, and still turn enough profit to cover
all expenses and show a profit. There is no way the homemaker can
compete price wise with a successful bakery... some items you'll pay
more for at a bakery, those that are labor intensive, like cookies, but
with most items you'll pay less than your cost to produce the same at
home... if you're willing to spend most of a day baking cookies and
only compute ingredients but don't include your time and labor then you
are saying your time and labor is worth nothing. If you're an
exceptional baker you can probably outdo the quality available at the
typical corner bakery, but the higher quality ingredients you use the
greater the spread in cost in favor of the bakery if they chose to also
up their quality... it's not that they can't out bake you, they choose
not to. Businesses, sucsessful businesses, tend to produce what will
sell at a price their market will bear. If the product at your local
bakery is mediocre it's because mediocre is the price range most folks
in your neighborhood are able/willing to pay... they are not going to
produce Champagne in a Budweiser neighborhood. Bakeries are like any
other business, they produce whatever will increase their volume.

Sheldon

Quoted message said:

I just bought a can of Hershey cocoa powder for about $4.19, and OMG it
goes a long way. You can make a cup of hot cocoa with only 2 or 3
teaspoons of cocoa. That's a helluva lot cheaper than Swiss Miss, isn't
it? I wish I had found this out a long time ago, cuz I would've had hot
cocoa more often. I made a couple of batches of chocolate pudding and
still have most of the cocoa left.

YOu could probably use a lot less than 2-3 spoons of cocoa for one cup
of cocoa. I make a cup often (microwave the milk) add 1 teaspoon of
cocoa and some splenda. It tastes like milk, instead of just sugar like
those instant things you were used to using. Blech.

I'm just curious though... how come you never knew this stuff before?
Goomba

Sheldon said:

Must you in every post remind everyone that you live in a third world
country... WE HEARD YOU... everyone else participating in this thread
lives in more advanced circumstances and is commenting from that
general consensus... you on the other hand obviously have nothing
appropriate to contribute, you're just being a juvenile pest with a
desire to barge into adult conversation... your "Depends where you
live." comment has long ago lost its novelty, its no longer
appropriate, it's a put-down, it's ignorant, it's RUDE! If you want
people to respect your life style choice stop harping on it... self
praise is no recommendation. I for one have long ago figured out from
your snide sideways comments that you are not happy with where/how you
chose to live, you'd return in a flash if only you had the means.

Cathy was born in Rhodesia and lives in South Africa. She can't return to
a place she's never lived.

Carol
--
http://www.manilowfund.com/

"You Deserve a Break Today" by Barry Manilow