What don’t you make from scratch these days?

Mashed potato.

Curry, stock (sometimes), horseradish cream, desserts for visitors/family (we rarely eat them), salad dressings, passata.

horseradish cream
Surely you make your own Jaxjacky? 😂 My Dad used to! He grew it and make horseradish sauce. He used to grow and pickle onions too.

Grow your own mustard seeds to make mustard? I can find you a recipe.

Let's get back to basics.

I buy pasta sauce, then add to it. Also a jarred butter chicken sauce; Patek's. I will buy frozen meat pies, and on occasion a frozen lasagna. Puff or phyllo pastry I buy frozen, but make my own shortcrust.

Most things are made from scratch. Today I had:
my own pre-mixed oatmeal (don't do the little pre-mixed pouches - too much sugar!)
home make beef barley soup, yogurt with fruit (I did not make the yogurt!), and a home made high fibre muffin.
Dinner will be salmon, potatoes done in the air-fryer and green beans, so nothing pre-made.

I buy chutneys and Thai curry paste. I buy passata and tomato concentrate. Does that count?

I have bought pastry as it's rather good.

But I love to cook from scratch. It's mainly quick and easy. Eggs, rice dishes, salads, mushrooms, fish.
I have tried ready meals and so called short cuts but wasn't impressed.

I use tinned tomatoes and passata where previously I bottled.

I've used frozen fruit.

Mostly I scratch make meals.

I've made chutneys, jams, passata etc but there are such good readymade ones now why would I slave over the hob?

Allira

I've made chutneys, jams, passata etc but there are such good readymade ones now why would I slave over the hob?

I'd suppose some just love to cook. I know we do.

Far less expensive as well. Less when I do the sums.

I'll probably make jams and jellies when we pick our fruit!
Blackcurrant jelly is the best.

Pastry and pesto.

My Christmas cake and rice pudding.

Making jam can work out quite expensive if you're buying the fruit - I only ever make it if I get fruit for free, either from our own garden or if someone gives me some.

I still make pastry, though it’s really my trusty old Kenwood Chef doing all the work.

Only the other day I made a big batch of tomato sauce for pasta - tinned toms, onion, garlic, celery, herbs, veg stock cube, tomato purée, a little sugar. Honestly took very little time, blitzed it once cooked in the blender.

I make beef burgers from good quality mince, again takes v little time. I make 4 - 2 for now, 2 for the freezer.

As for mashed potato, unless it was just for me, I can’t imagine buying it ready made - we want such a lot, mashed with butter and milk, 😋.

Chips
Custard
Mashed potato

Desserts. I used to make desserts from scratch when I was younger, but there are plenty of decent ones in the shops these days.

Pies. If we fancy a pie I go for the more upmarket bought pies, e.g. M&S Best Ever, or By Ruby chicken leek and bacon pie.

Cauliflower cheese. Sainsbury's frozen with added nutmeg and more grated cheese. It's lovely and GF.

Pies, we buy Brockleby's as they are local

Cottage pie- we always have an M&S one in the freezer. For years I used to make enough Cottage pies to feed 15 to 20 people for our family post Christmas get together. I feel I've done my share.

I love cooking and make most things from scratch and always have home made meals in the freezer but I am also happy to take the easy option sometimes.

You've jogged my memory about home made marzipan. It was my first teaching practice as a Home Ec. student and I really didn't know which way was up way back then. So there I was with a class of twenty, with twenty cakes waiting for their almond jackets and piles of greasy ground almonds and sugar with the students trying to make the whole lot into something that could be rolled out. Happy days!

Charlie Bigham' s lasagne this evening.

I used to make it from scratch but not tonight!

Cook's puddings, I try to keep one in the freezer, their chocolate almond torte and mango cheesecake is to die for, much better than I would make.
Puff pastry, the all butter one
stock pots although I do make my own chicken stock if I have a carcass
bottled chick peas and other types of beans
bottled artichokes

Pastry which we don’t have very often because of DH’s acid reflux; chips, again we don’t have them very often but we like the McCain Gastro chips or M&S triple fried chips and custard.

Fisherman’s pie, unless there are going to be a lot of us eating when son’s family over. We like Charlie Bigham’s

A large steak pie made by our local butcher. Crammed with steak pieces and gravy. Just heat for 35 minutes. Expensive at £8 but I cut it into 4 portions. Two for dh and I, and two for the freezer. He also makes a fabulous lasagne. The only ready made lasagne I would buy. Again I use half and freeze half.
I also use his ready made stuffing, always have a bag in the freezer.

I make spag bol from scratch, although I use a bought tomato and basil sauce, so it can't be said to be entirely home made.

I always use bought pastry, both shortcrust and puff.

I have had several attempts at making custard but I never seem to get it right, so I generally use the tinned variety now.

Puff pastry
Pastry cases for tarts
Custard
Very little else - I was brought up in a Third World country, just after the War,. Everyone was poor, absolutely nothing was available ready made, neither for nor clothing (including shoes) nor foodstuffs. If you wanted it, you had to make it yourself, or go to the shoemaker for your shoes. I was over 20 before I had factory made shoes!

@jane43 no custard on the chips I hope. Despite many tries I just can’t make rice pudding so I buy tinned and put it in the oven so it gets a skin . I was shocked to see my DD buys ready made mashed potatoes.