Yahoo Lifestyle People Are Revealing The Homemade Food Items That Cost Less And Taste Better Than Store-Bought, And I'm Taking Copious Notes
I will admit that in my kitchen, I tend to reach for convenience foods to help me throw together a weeknight meal (especially when the world feels chaotic and my brain is TIRED). But when I have a day off, I love to take my time cooking up a great meal from scratch. So, when I came across this Reddit thread of people sharing the foods that are cheaper and tastier when they make them themselves, I had to take notes for the whole class. Here are some of the top comments:
1."Pesto. I’ve never had a jar brand that’s close to decent."
"I keep a jar of it in my freezer as it keeps extremely well in there. It has a high enough fat content that it's easy to scoop out as much as you need for whatever you're making straight from the freezer. Great for single-serve pasta dishes, to throw in with sautéed veggies, or as a quick topper for fish, chicken, pork, etc."
2."Guacamole."
"Growing up in Michigan we ate mashed avocado, mixed with a seasoning packet from the grocery store, and called it guacamole. I didn’t have real guacamole until my mid-20s, and I was blown away! I started making it fresh and bringing it to parties, which made people think I was some sort of cooking genius. Nope, I just copied what the waiter did at the Mexican restaurant when I visited the 'big city.'"
3."I never buy seasoning mixes anymore. I have spices to make almost any mix, and they smell and taste so much better than a premade mix."
4."Red sauce for pasta. Always made from scratch."
"I've been making red sauce for the last 20 years, and even my worst batch is still better than anything I've ever had from the store."
5."Pizza dough. Store-bought ones just suck, and I can make mine with like four ingredients: bread flour, salt, yeast, and sugar."
"Same same. The recipe I use is also really nice with a drizzle of oil and some herb salt on top. It makes a great flatbread style side that I can have ready in 30 minutes."
6."Cranberry sauce."
"Shop-bought ones are too sweet and more like jam. I always liked it as a kid, but one year, my mom decided to make it, and it's incredible. Not as sweet and so much more complex. The difference is night and day. We make a lot every winter now and jar it for use throughout the year."
7."Tortillas. So easy and totally better homemade."
8."Chicken stock!"
"I am not sure if everyone knows it, but it is so easy to make chicken broth in a rice cooker. You just put in the bones (it's better with bones from a roasted chicken) and some root veggies, fill up the pot, push the soup mode button, and in two hours, you have a broth without a single intervention."
9."Pickled red onions and pickled jalapeños."
"I have like eight giant mason jars of pickled stuff in my fridge right now. Onions, radishes, poblanos, corn, red cabbage... It's addictive to pickle things."
10."Whipped cream. You can modify the amount of sugar you use and add extra fun flavors like coffee or maple syrup. Includes bonus arm workout!"
"You can also get dehydrated milk/powdered milk, and add 1 tablespoon to the cream, and it will help stabilize it for longer. If you were making a pie with whip, but it wasn't being eaten until that night, the milk powder makes it so the whipped cream is still high and full of air, vs. starting to deflate. Can stabilize, in my experience, up to a full 48 hours before any deflation/melting starts happening!"
11."Alfredo sauce. It's simple and delicious, and jarred sauce is vile and packed with sodium."
"Jarred white sauces are the most vile thing I can think of. Even just adding a little milk, butter, and canned Parmesan to your noodles would still be superior to paying several dollars for a jar of wallpaper paste."
12."Salad dressings or dips. I swear I can taste like a soluble wax or chemical in most store-bought dressings, and it really turns my stomach."
"I’ve found that nine times out of 10, I’m perfectly happy with the same basic vinaigrette on most 'kitchen sink' type of salads made from whatever whole food goodness is knocking around that week. Some avocado oil, Dijon, honey, balsamic, and lemon juice take about three minutes to put together and put away."
13."Hummus. Nothing at all like store-bought."
"People don’t understand how easy, cheap, and delicious homemade hummus is. Sabra is like eating fucking glue compared to delicious fresh hummus.
Plus, you can add all sorts of ingredients for a spin on the classic. I love beet hummus with balsamic glaze. I also dig black bean hummus with habaneros."
14."Pancakes. I can’t understand why anyone would ever buy pancake mix. It tastes absolutely vile, and the consistency is chalky. Pancakes are so easy to make!"
"And waffles!"
"I always make my own waffles, too, but many people don’t own a good waffle iron. The Breville waffle maker is truly outstanding. Perfect every time. No waffle sticking to the iron, ever."
15."Oat milk. Much more cost-effective to make it."
16."Mac and cheese!"
"I make great Mac and cheese from scratch, but honestly, sometimes you just want the box stuff. It's kinda like ramen. The packages are nowhere near as good as proper ramen, but sometimes you crave it."
17."Jerky. I can control the level of flavor and salt in it."
18."Ricotta cheese! It’s ridiculously easy. Can’t believe it took me so long to figure that out."
"I take whole milk and salt and bring it to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.
Turn off the stove but leave over heat.
Then I add 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar per liter of milk, and stir it in at the moment I turn off the stove and just twice. Then, I don't touch it (this is important!) Leave it for about ten minutes, then transfer it to a strainer with a double-lined cheese cloth. Let it sit for as moist or dry as you’d like it, 5-30 minutes.
Thats it. All done."
"I must try this! I often make paneer using a very similar method, and it's foolproof."
19."Crostinis for soups and dips. I just slice a baguette, brush with olive oil and top with salt, pepper, and thyme or parsley. Then bake. The store-bought ones never come close."
"A good tip to add a little kick is to rub a garlic clove on them after toasting. The toasted surface grates a little garlic on. I like doing this when I make caprese."
20."Mayonnaise. Haven’t bought it since I first learned to make it a decade ago. I use a full egg and an immersion blender, and it’s done in 20 seconds."
"Yes! A cup of oil, an egg, and some spices. My family likes cayenne in it, but we like cayenne in everything."
21."Granola."
22."French onion soup. I have perfected the homemade broth and use thyme I grow at home. Plus lots of patience for the perfectly caramelized onions."
"This is my mom’s favorite dish, and it is the easiest thing ever if you throw all the onions and butter in a crock pot and let it go for 18-20 hours. Onions are as dark as old pennies, and the stock is to die for."
"If you have a smoker, try smoking the onions first. It is amazing!"
23."If all you've had is canned enchilada sauce, then my friend, you really need to make it for yourself and discover what it should be. Canned tastes like they collected the dishwater after you rinsed out the pan from making good enchilada sauce and sold it back to you."
24."Mashed potatoes. I don’t understand at all why people use the instant ones. Mashed potatoes are simply boiled potatoes mashed with butter, salt, and milk (or cream/buttermilk/sour cream if that floats your boat)."
"And it’s not hard. I grew up eating homemade mashed potatoes all my life, had instant potatoes at school but never liked them. I tried making boxed mashed potatoes one time and burned them to the bottom of the pot. My husband still makes fun of me for it. Now I just always make them myself, and it tastes so much better."
25."Sauerkraut. The store stuff around here is all pasteurized. I bet I could buy some live fancy one somewhere, but I bet it’s much cheaper to make and I can make it just the way I like."
"Sometimes I make a cross between sauerkraut and curtido: I add shredded onion, carrot, and jalapeño to the cabbage. So good, I crave it when I don’t have any in the fridge."
26."Pie crust. I grew up thinking I didn't like pie crust. No, I just needed to find the right one. Mine is so creamy and buttery and so simple. No fancy tools required. It's literally as easy as one, two, three!"
"1 (8oz) brick of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
3 cups of flour
Mix well by hand/spoon/hand mixer/whatever until it forms a dough. Softening the butter and cream cheese makes it easier to mix, but be sure to chill the crust before you bake it. Makes enough dough for two double-crust pies. Freezes very well."
27."Buttermilk. I use it for ranch dressing, but I don't use the whole carton, ever. So I make it at home. Easy. Just add a little lemon juice or white vinegar to milk and stir until it thickens."
28."Gravy. I'll stoop to instant mashed potatoes in a pinch, but never canned gravy."
"I made fresh gravy for Thanksgiving, and my in-laws looked at me like I was a wizard. They always use the jarred stuff, bleh."
29.And finally, "Steak. I can make it better at home for 10% of the cost of eating a steak out."
"Same. The repeated disappointment of having a special dinner at the steakhouse everyone’s raving about, and the $60 ribeye tastes like ashes and gristle."
What's a food item or ingredient that you insist on making from scratch? Tell us what it is and why in the comments!
