I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
and other pre-processed foods.

Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

wd39

"Bubbablue" > wrote in message
m...
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

That's something I've found to be very annoying to, oh that sounds
good...wait it calls for a mix. I do think the answer is that a) people are
lazy and b) many people don't realize that it doesn't take much if at all
longer to make simple things from scratch. On the rare occassion that I do
use a mix or other processed thing that requires any prep, it usually takes
me longer because I have to read the instructions a couple of times.

When I took a cooking class in HS (no longer home ec in 1990) I remeber the
instructor telling us that in many instances mixes were more economical. It
may cost more than the $0.99 cent cake mix and $1.99 can of frosting for me
to make a cake, but it's worth it.

Jessica

Bubbablue wrote:

> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??


....because most people do not like cooking.

~john





--
"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized
nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police
more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!"
-- Adolph Hitler, 1935


"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The
prohibition of private firearms is the goal."
-- Janet Reno US Attorney General

Bubbablue wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>

It's so difficult because they can't find "from scratch" recipes. The
recipes all call for cream of canned soup.

HTH, :-)
Bob

Bubbablue wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.

Try Alton Brown's recipe. I make one similar to his and it turns out
great without any prepackaged crap.

> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

The culture in the U.S. at least is that of convenience, not quality.

--
John Gaughan
http://www.johngaughan.net/

"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Bubbablue wrote:
> > I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> > recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> > and other pre-processed foods.
> >
> > Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
> >
>
> It's so difficult because they can't find "from scratch" recipes. The
> recipes all call for cream of canned soup.
>
> HTH, :-)
> Bob

My MIL pretty much refuses to cook anything that has more than 4 or 5
ingredients. And water, by the way, may be classified as an ingredient. She
can take some chicken, throw a can of mushroom soup on top, sprinkle it with
some pre-mixed spice, and she's got something with different flavor instead
of plain baked chicken.

If she had to make something similar from a scratch recipe, it wouldn't be
possible, and she'd never add the spices individually that you would find in
a mix.

Donna

"Jessica Vincent" > wrote in message
news :
: "Bubbablue" > wrote in message
: m...
: > I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back.
Almost every
: > recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice
mixes,
: > and other pre-processed foods.
: >
: > Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
: >
: > wd39
:
: That's something I've found to be very annoying to, oh that
sounds
: good...wait it calls for a mix. I do think the answer is that
a) people are
: lazy and b) many people don't realize that it doesn't take much
if at all
: longer to make simple things from scratch. On the rare
occassion that I do
: use a mix or other processed thing that requires any prep, it
usually takes
: me longer because I have to read the instructions a couple of
times.
:
: When I took a cooking class in HS (no longer home ec in 1990) I
remeber the
: instructor telling us that in many instances mixes were more
economical. It
: may cost more than the $0.99 cent cake mix and $1.99 can of
frosting for me
: to make a cake, but it's worth it.
:
: Jessica
: --------------

Yep. I know what you mean.

A while back I related this to a time when I was in the Service.
I must have been at a potluck or somebody's house... regardless,
I asked for the recipe for something that I had liked... some
woman had said it was so easy... "a box of this and some of
that...". I then asked her to save the ingredient section of
'the box' the next time she made it. Upon her asking why I
explained that I rarely used mixes because they were too
expensive and that most things, I could make from scratch at a
far less cost. She couldn't conceive that notion and now that I
think about it, she never did give me that label... whoever she
was and for whatever that dish was... Hmmm, guess it wasn't that
great after all. LOL
--
Cyndi
<Remove a "b" to reply>

On Mon, 08 Mar 2004 20:36:18 +0000, Bubbablue wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes, and
> other pre-processed foods.
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

I shall charitably presume that you were looking in places where you
might reasonably expect to find recipes that met your requirements.
I have no idea where that might be, as I'd be hard put to find recipes
such as you describe were I to look for one, but still, I shall mightily
most charitably to presume.

Given that you were looking in sensible places, consider a hypothesis.
While people who _can_ cook from scratch are perfectly capable of
substituting sauces and herbs for canned and packaged ingredients,
people who can't cook from scratch are incapable of substituting _back_.
The recipes as written can be used by both populations. A kindly person
holding the well being of mankind to heart would be pleased. Noblesse
Oblige, old chum.

Or, you might try opening a second cookbook, but this time, look for
one that ISN'T in the series "A Hundred Hotdishes For The Holidays".

Martin
--
Martin Golding | If you boil it, they will come.
DoD #236 BMWMOA #55952 SMTC #2 |

On 8 Mar 2004 20:36:18 -0800, Bubbablue wrote:

> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

Really! Especially when it's some dort of mix or tin that I can't readily
get.
--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.

"John Gaughan" > wrote in message
...
> Bubbablue wrote:
> > I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> > recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> > and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Try Alton Brown's recipe. I make one similar to his and it turns out
> great without any prepackaged crap.

And what recipe is that? I still haven't seen any mention of any particular
recipe. The original poster was talking about a recipe for turkey. I find
that one does not need a recipe to make a turkey. One can purchase them at
the supermarket or butcher shop.

Charlie

> > Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> The culture in the U.S. at least is that of convenience, not quality.
>
> --
> John Gaughan
> http://www.johngaughan.net/
>

On 8 Mar 2004 20:36:18 -0800, (Bubbablue) wrote:

>I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
>recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
>and other pre-processed foods.

Where on earth were you looking? With the exception of canned chicken
broth, I just found a dozen non-packet recipes for roast turkey on a
single web page.

>Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

Why is it so difficult for people to grow their own vegetables? Or
play the piano? Or bicycle? Interests differ. Tastes differ. There are
cookbooks for everything from 3-ingredient dishes to labor-intensive
haute cuisine. "Why is it so difficult...?" Perhaps because of time
contstraints. Perhaps for economic reasons. Maybe they just plain
don't care -- many don't.

Does it annoy me? Not a bit.

On 3/8/2004 11:36 PM, Bubbablue wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

Yeah, last time I was at the bookstore I picked up some cookbooks to
look at and one of them was like that -- add one can of this, etc. I
put it back.

--
jmk in NC

On 3/9/2004 12:16 AM, Levelwave© wrote:
> Bubbablue wrote:
>
>> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
>
>
> ...because most people do not like cooking.
>
> ~john

hehe! Most people haven't *tried* cooking. They have just tried
opening blueberry muffin mixes with fake little blue bits and adding egg
and whatever else is necessary to reconstitute it...

--
jmk in NC

On 2004-03-09, Bubbablue > wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

No profit. Can't sell any products. In case you haven't noticed, the
world wide web has degenerated into one big online mega mart. Googlemart!

nb

Scratch will have different meanings for different people. For some,
making jell-o at home instead of buying it pre-made is a big deal. I
don't churn my own butter nor grind my own flour. There are some who
would call buying both of those in the supermarket convenience foods.


If you're having trouble finding recipes that use the right amount of
preparation from scratch for you, the problem isn't with the other
people, it is with your searching skills. Find a few basic cookbooks
(easy) or basic websites (a bit harder) that suit you. Keep going back
to them.


--Lia


Bubbablue wrote:
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

just had a conversation this morning with two friends about "lazy
mealtimes."One said that her daughter did not have the time to cook as
she worked, so everything came out of a tin or packet or freezer."So
what" was my reply, i too worked full time and had 3 children but i
still managed to cook proper meals made with fresh produce and baked
etc.my friend then realised that she too brought up her family whilst
working and that was in the days before she had a freezer.we all
decided that living in a time of conveience "everything," that a
whole generation of people are growing up not knowing how to cook from
scratch and baking is a no no. the product of lazy parents are usually
lazy children.At the moment we have two tv. programmes about obese
people and it all boils down to what they are eating eg. fish and
chips, pizzas, fast food rubbish etc.Anyway getting back to the
thread, i too get annoyed with recipes that ask for a packet of frozen
pastry etc. etc. so i do not bother with them and if i need a recipe i
get out one of my tried and tested old books.What we need is to bring
back cookery and baking to educate the young as part of the school
curriculum. i teach my grandson (just turned nine) how to bake and he
loves it.

On 9 Mar 2004 06:56:31 -0800, (paula) wrote:

>just had a conversation this morning with two friends about "lazy
>mealtimes."One said that her daughter did not have the time to cook as
>she worked, so everything came out of a tin or packet or freezer."So
>what" was my reply, i too worked full time and had 3 children but i
>still managed to cook proper meals made with fresh produce and baked
>etc.my friend then realised that she too brought up her family whilst
>working and that was in the days before she had a freezer.we all
>decided that living in a time of conveience "everything," that a
>whole generation of people are growing up not knowing how to cook from
>scratch and baking is a no no. the product of lazy parents are usually
>lazy children.

But, but, but...not everyone *cares* about hand-crafted cooking. Just
as not everyone wants to garden, or paint, or go swimming. My mother,
a "housewife," cooked 3 reasonably decent meals a day at home and
occasionally tried new recipes, but AFAIK didn't have much interest in
the process. She sometimes baked a cake or cookies, and she never
mastered piecrust. She made many of my clothes when I was a kid (many
dresses with smocking), she gardened a bit. She kept house. She
participated in church activities. She had rafts of friends. I don't
think she was "lazy" for not baking bread or putting up preserves or
for using frozen veg. Cooking was not especially interesting to her.
In fact, the popularity of home 'adventures in cuisine' probably was
uncommon before the 60s. You got y'r Betty Crocker cookbook and away
you go.

'Convenience' isn't a dirty word. For many, cooking is a boring,
messy, but necessary chore. It isn't "lazy" to help your hamburger, if
you're not interested in cooking noodles and making a sauce and
washing extra pots, and your audience is perfectly happy to eat the
result. Look at the number of posts asking how to make something that
"tastes like" a commercial product. It isn't "lazy" to buy a packet of
taco seasoning if you don't care to maintain a spice cabinet with half
a dozen jars of cumin, oregano, chile, etc., and you like the taste of
a mix.

In article >, "D.Currie"
> wrote:

> My MIL pretty much refuses to cook anything that has more than 4 or 5
> ingredients. And water, by the way, may be classified as an
> ingredient. She can take some chicken, throw a can of mushroom soup
> on top, sprinkle it with some pre-mixed spice, and she's got
> something with different flavor instead of plain baked chicken.
>
> If she had to make something similar from a scratch recipe, it
> wouldn't be possible, and she'd never add the spices individually
> that you would find in a mix.

I don't buy this as a reasoning. I roasted a turkey:

Turkey
Salt
Pepper
Onion
Lemon
Rosemary

So, including each thing, that's six ingredients. No soup, no
prepackaged anything.

I make shredded pork for tacos:

Pork shoulder
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Cumin

5 ingredients.

Pinto Beans:

Pintos
Water
Bacon
Celery
Scallions
Tomato Sauce

6 ingredients including water to cook beans.

Rice for said tacos:

Oil or Lard
Rice
Onion
Salsa
Chicken Broth

Now, granted I usually make my own roasted tomato salsa for this, so
that's more ingredients, but you can use a good salsa from the store I
guess, so that's one prepackaged ingredient, and 4 other things
including the cooking fat.

Quick Tomato Sauce for any Pasta:

Olive Oil
Garlic
Onion
Fresh Tomatoes diced (in season) or Canned diced tomatoes
Pitted Kalamata Olives
Freshly Grated Parmesan

6 ingredients including the cooking oil, and boil some pasta. It
takes me less than 10 minutes.

And my easiest meal ever:

Chuck Steak
Salt
Pepper

3 ingredients, cook tightly covered with foil in oven at 300 F for 5
hours. Serve with good bread, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt and
maybe corn on the cob with butter or succotash.

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man." Acts 17:24

In article >,
(paula) wrote:

> just had a conversation this morning with two friends about "lazy
> mealtimes."One said that her daughter did not have the time to cook as
> she worked, so everything came out of a tin or packet or freezer."So
> what" was my reply, i too worked full time and had 3 children but i
> still managed to cook proper meals made with fresh produce and baked
> etc.my friend then realised that she too brought up her family whilst
> working and that was in the days before she had a freezer.we all
> decided that living in a time of conveience "everything," that a
> whole generation of people are growing up not knowing how to cook from
> scratch and baking is a no no. the product of lazy parents are usually
> lazy children.

I agree. While I don't completely avoid prepackaged foods (we keep
canned tomatoes and beans around, there is a brand of boxed chicken
broth I like to keep on hand for when I don't have homemade stock, we
occasionally have a frozen pizza, etc), I make my own bread, we get good
meat from the butcher and cook it simply and well most of the time, we
buy produce in season and use it, we cook just about everything from
scratch here, including making yogurt and preserves. I am a mother of 3
little boys under 6, tomorrow that will be 4 children. Now, this is my
full time job, but it takes less than 5 minutes to make quesadillas on
the stove for lunch or sandwiches or a salad and heat up some leftover
soup from dinner, I can get dinner on the table from start to finish in
less than 45 minutes, including getting all the ingredients out and
prepared, most weekday main dishes take about 20-30 minutes to cook,
make some pasta or rice or something to go with it in 10-15 minutes,
steam some veggie in the microwave or on the stove in 5-10 minutes, you
can do these things at the same time. Breakfast we cheat a little, as
we stock cereals and milk or give them fruit and boiled egg with toast.
We also cook up a triple batch of waffles or pancakes on the weekend and
freeze the leftovers to toast up on school days. It is more that it
takes some thought and mental preparation than that much time or effort.

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man." Acts 17:24

In article >, Frogleg
> wrote:

> 'Convenience' isn't a dirty word. For many, cooking is a boring,
> messy, but necessary chore. It isn't "lazy" to help your hamburger, if
> you're not interested in cooking noodles and making a sauce and
> washing extra pots, and your audience is perfectly happy to eat the
> result. Look at the number of posts asking how to make something that
> "tastes like" a commercial product. It isn't "lazy" to buy a packet of
> taco seasoning if you don't care to maintain a spice cabinet with half
> a dozen jars of cumin, oregano, chile, etc., and you like the taste of
> a mix.

This may be true, but the salt, fat, sugar, simple carb content of
these mixes and packaged foods are extremely high, and if that's all you
eat, it isn't all that great for you. I keep some frozen veggies,
canned tomatoes and beans, boxed broths, things like that. It's no sin,
and there are days when all you are up to is a frozen pizza, but when
that is all that you eat, it isn't good for anyone.

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man." Acts 17:24

In article . net>,
"Jessica Vincent" <jeileenvincentnospam@earthlinkdotnet> wrote:

> That's something I've found to be very annoying to, oh that sounds
> good...wait it calls for a mix. I do think the answer is that a)
> people are lazy and b) many people don't realize that it doesn't take
> much if at all longer to make simple things from scratch. On the
> rare occassion that I do use a mix or other processed thing that
> requires any prep, it usually takes me longer because I have to read
> the instructions a couple of times.

I remember our boys' godparents offering to make pancakes for the
family when they were helping us out after we had our last child. They
wanted to know where we kept the mix. We said we used flour, baking
powder, butter, eggs, etc. They bought mix. It was a little faster,
and we were grateful for the meal, but we were glad when we used it up
and were back to our "normal" pancakes. They taste better, have better
texture, and really don't take _that_ much longer to make. Most people
don't know what scratch cooking tastes like anymore.

> When I took a cooking class in HS (no longer home ec in 1990) I
> remeber the instructor telling us that in many instances mixes were
> more economical. It may cost more than the $0.99 cent cake mix and
> $1.99 can of frosting for me to make a cake, but it's worth it.

Because of the kinds of cakes I tend to make, they do cost more than
a mix, but there are things like applesauce cakes and shortcakes and
carrot cakes which are at least as cheap if not less. I can make
macaroni and cheese for much less than the boxed stuff, and it tastes
much better. Part of it is that we shop sales, use coupons and buy in
bulk when it will save us money. I always check the mark down section
in the store, and the cheap meat section of the market has fed our
family well for years. We use our stale bread for croutons and french
toast and bread pudding. We use old cornbread to stuff a chicken, we
use the carcass to make stock. We use the leftover chicken and veggies
to make pot pies, or rice casseroles. We take what is on sale and in
season and make it work.

I think the real test of a cook is not what s/he can do with great or
expensive or optimal ingredients, but what can be done with cheap
things, pantry items or leftovers. Now, not everyone is interested in
doing this, but it is far cheaper and tastes better.

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man." Acts 17:24

Imagine you were looking for a job. Which do you suppose would have
more openings and pay mo working in advertising for firm that made
pre-mix food items like packets of seasoning, canned soup and dessert
mixes, or writing cookbooks that include items that have been published
dozens of times before like homemade chicken stock, from scratch pie
crusts and salad dressing?


Now imagine you're advertising some pre-mix food item. How would you go
about it? Maybe by inventing recipes that use your products for
ingredients?


--Lia

> Frogleg croaked:
>
>My mother, a "housewife," cooked 3 >reasonably decent meals a day at home.
>mastered piecrust. She made many of >my clothes when I was a kid (many
>dresses with smocking).

Dresses? And all this time I thought your real name was Jeremiah and you were
a bullfrog... must be all those "frog to prince" fairytales when I was a kid.
Hmm, I can't imagine a female wanting folks to think she's got legs like a
frog... well, strong thighs ain't such a bad thing on a woman... ok, and I bet
when you get all het up and to croaking your chest gets all red and puffed out,
and that I like! Yeah, I hear yoose out by the pond on a hot summer night,
you never seem to get enough... ribitt, ribitt, ribitt all night long... come
morning your legs can't hardly take another leap, you just lie there in a
puddle all worn out... but it's a good kind of tired!
Perhaps one day we can meet for lunch and catch flies together... once we get a
little tongue action going who knows<________@ <G>


---= BOYCOTT FRENCH--GERMAN (belgium) =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
Sheldon
````````````
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."

On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 09:07:13 -0800, Ranee Mueller
> wrote:

> I remember our boys' godparents offering to make pancakes for the
>family when they were helping us out after we had our last child. They
>wanted to know where we kept the mix. We said we used flour, baking
>powder, butter, eggs, etc. They bought mix. It was a little faster,
>and we were grateful for the meal, but we were glad when we used it up
>and were back to our "normal" pancakes. They taste better, have better
>texture, and really don't take _that_ much longer to make.

Even "tastes better" is subjective. And 'only a little longer' is too
long if you don't care to cook.

I have a friend who has arranged his life just the way he likes it. He
shops every 2 weeks for mostly frozen dinners, canned things,
breakfast cereal, milk, and soda. Every so often he buys a pot roast
and a bag of frozen veg and has that for a week or so. He eats weekday
lunch at various restaurants with unadventurous food. He likes Pizza
Hut pizza once a week. He does *not* like to cook; he does *not* like
to mess up/clean up his kitchen. I've known him for over 15 years and
he's *never* mentioned a memorable meal or a special restaurant. He is
one of those 'food as fuel' people. He just plain don't care.

A (different) friend had a week-long business trip from this
restaurant wasteland to the SF Bay area -- at the company's expense. I
told him of many terrific restaurants within walking distance of his
motel and urged exploration. When he returned, he was really excited
about the array of fruit available in Safeway. That's what he ate in
his motel room. No restaurants at all. He ate at the visited company's
cafeteria for lunch and that was it.

If *everyone* cared about cooking and the nuances of how to roast a
chicken, there'd be 10,000 msgs a day in rfc. Insisting that everyone
learn to cook, enjoy cooking, be discriminating in their taste in
restaurants, eat healthily, and teach their children to cook is the
same as insisting that everyone ought to run 2 miles every day, sleep
with the window open, take up photography, or travel to Mexico just
because these are things that interest *us* or seem right to *us*.

Bubbablue wrote:
>
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

Because a lot of them never learned to cook. So if someone says
"throw 8 packages of junk together and you'll have a great meal,
they believe it.

Also, having all those darned fresh things in the house is hard to
manage if you think ketchup is a vegetable, and the putrid stew in
the vegetable bin of your fridge just goes to show how infrequently
you cook from scratch.

maxine in ri

Frogleg wrote:

> She made many of my clothes when I was a kid (many
> dresses with smocking),


I don't know why - but I always assumed you were a man...

~john

Levelwave© wrote:
>
> Frogleg wrote:
>
> > She made many of my clothes when I was a kid (many
> > dresses with smocking),
>
> I don't know why - but I always assumed you were a man...

Ditto, wonder why?

nancy (not that that's a bad thing!) (laughing)

On 3/9/2004 2:32 PM, maxine in ri wrote:
> Bubbablue wrote:
>
>>I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
>>recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
>>and other pre-processed foods.
>>
>>Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>>
>>wd39
>
>
> Because a lot of them never learned to cook. So if someone says
> "throw 8 packages of junk together and you'll have a great meal,
> they believe it.

This is kind of funny. It reminds me of a college roommate that I had
in my first apartment. We took turns preparing meals Monday - Thursday
and were on our own for the weekend. She thought that Hamburger Helper
was the way to go (Tuna Helper, etc.). I had never even HAD Hamburger
Helper until then! I was like, people think this is good? :-/

--
jmk in NC

zxcvbob wrote:

> Bubbablue wrote:
> > I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> > recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> > and other pre-processed foods.
> >
> > Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
> >
>
> It's so difficult because they can't find "from scratch" recipes. The
> recipes all call for cream of canned soup.

I have a cook book "for men" that calls for some canned and/or packaged
products. I have about 20 other cookbooks that rarely call for any of
cans or packages I guess it depends on the cookbooks you buy.

Bubbablue wrote:
>
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

It isn't, but you were looking at the wrong recipe!

On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 16:56:22 -0700, Arri London >
wrote:

>Bubbablue wrote:
>>
>> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
>> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
>> and other pre-processed foods.
>>
>> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>>
>> wd39
>
>It isn't, but you were looking at the wrong recipe!

Yeah, sounds like some of those recipes that actually are just ads for
specific products. "Melt one ton Kraft Velveeta cheese with half a
can RoTel tomatoes..."

modom

"Nancree" wrote:
> Someone else wrote:
> >Yeah, sounds like some of those recipes that actually are just ads for
> >specific products. "Melt one ton Kraft Velveeta cheese with half a
> >can RoTel tomatoes..."
> ====================
> Actually , this makes one of the Great party dips around (minus a ton or
two of
> ingredients ;-) )
> It's delicious with corn chips. Velveeta was manufactured for
melting--that
> 's why it exists. Don't compare it with cheese--it's not supposed to be
served
> as cheese.
> No harm in using handy products once in a while. If you want to start
by
> going out and milking a cow and churning your own cheese--go right ahead.
I'll
> be waiting inside, with my feet up and reading a good book.


Yeah, I wouldn't wait around for cheese to be churned either

<now, which one's the milkin' end agin?>

>Yeah, sounds like some of those recipes that actually are just ads for
>specific products. "Melt one ton Kraft Velveeta cheese with half a
>can RoTel tomatoes..."
====================
Actually , this makes one of the Great party dips around (minus a ton or two of
ingredients ;-) )
It's delicious with corn chips. Velveeta was manufactured for melting--that
's why it exists. Don't compare it with cheese--it's not supposed to be served
as cheese.
No harm in using handy products once in a while. If you want to start by
going out and milking a cow and churning your own cheese--go right ahead. I'll
be waiting inside, with my feet up and reading a good book.
Nancree

at Tue, 09 Mar 2004 04:36:18 GMT in <de1f575.0403082036.14570018
@posting.google.com>, (Bubbablue) wrote :

>I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
>recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
>and other pre-processed foods.

I see 2 groups of recipes, usually in different places and directed to a
different audience.

The first group may be very broadly called the "harried housewife" (I'm
using this as a label, not as an actual description of the person). In this
group the emphasis is in spiffing up an everyday meal pattern that's become
boring and stale. A lot of the people in this group have a very static
rotation of meals (If it's Wednesday, it must be spaghetti night...). Most
of these people don't have very much time on their hands and when they
arrive home, they don't want to spend even one brain cell of energy on
thinking about meals. They are also usually in a mood to use up whatever's
lying about the house, and they often buy a lot of prepackaged stuff
because it has a long shelf life, allowing trips to the grocery to be less
frequent, it's self-evident what you can do with it, minimising the
thinking involved, and it's a known quantity, so there's little risk that
you'll encounter an unexpected flavour. Of course, with such a fixed set of
meal choices, monotony does set in, which is where the prepackaged recipe
comes in handy - how do you enliven what you've got on hand enough at least
to bring people to the dinner table? It's useful to have a recipe book for
this because, again, it means you don't have to think - just follow the
recipe and there you go.

The second group, again, broadly, may be termed the "gourmet". The emphasis
in this group is on exotic and highly creative cooking. This group also
tends to eat out a lot more at fine restaurants, and have often encountered
very good things elsewhere that they might want to try at home. Something
of a "the sky's the limit" attitude also prevails - these people are quite
willing to spend any number of dollars and any number of hours to create
something. They won't hesitate to drive out of their way and make many
trips to track down and buy unusual, rare ingredients if that's what it
takes. Something of a purist ethic often prevails, and so these people tend
not to care for prepackaged anything - if you're not making from scratch,
you're not living the real experience. These people need recipe books
because any one person's creativity can only go so far, and it's hard to
figure out, without a lot of talent and training, just what food
combinations work well together. Recipe books in this class contain a high
proportion of recipes that take a long time to make, use expensive
ingredients, or require specialised techniques or equipment. The people in
this group might not even follow the recipe to the letter, because they're
usually pretty comfortable with modifying recipes they've seen to suit
their individual tastes. So they get the recipe books for ideas.

>Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

It's not actually all that hard, but with these 2 groups prevailing, many
people get the impression that scratch cooking involves a great deal of
time and expense. Now, this isn't the case - there's plenty of stuff you
can make from scratch that is both simple and cheap, but as to why you
don't find recipes for simple, cheap meals made from scratch, the reason
isn't that it's hard, it's that it doesn't sell. It's usually pretty easy
to figure out how to cook from scratch when you're talking about simple
meals, and so most people can learn to do it on their own without a recipe
book. So the market for scratch recipes for simple, everyday meals tends to
be very small, and while there are recipes available and books that are
published, the number is much less than those from the above 2 groups.
Summarising, it's not that it's so difficult for people to cook from
scratch, it's that it's so easy that a recipe book isn't required, and to
an extent, the existence of a recipe for a dish implies that it's fairly
difficult or non-obvious.

--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

On 10 Mar 2004 00:47:57 GMT, (Nancree) wrote:

>>Yeah, sounds like some of those recipes that actually are just ads for
>>specific products. "Melt one ton Kraft Velveeta cheese with half a
>>can RoTel tomatoes..."
>====================
>Actually , this makes one of the Great party dips around (minus a ton or two of
>ingredients ;-) )
> It's delicious with corn chips. Velveeta was manufactured for melting--that
>'s why it exists. Don't compare it with cheese--it's not supposed to be served
>as cheese.

[Blushing] I guess you know why it came up with that recipe off the
top of my head, don't you? Velveeta-based chile con queso is an old
favorite chez Odom, even if we haven't had it for a while.

Still, there are plenty of brand-based recipes out there that appear
to be more ad than cuisine.


modom

(Bubbablue) wrote in message om>...
> I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
> recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
> and other pre-processed foods.
>
> Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??
>
> wd39

It drives me absolutely NUTS since I live someplace where I cannot get
all of these pre-packaged foods or pre-mixed spice blends. Having them
shipped in is cost prohibitive!

Sandi in Central America

On 8 Mar 2004 20:36:18 -0800, (Bubbablue) wrote:

>I was looking for a recipe for turkey a few weeks back. Almost every
>recipe I looked at called for canned soup, pre-packaged spice mixes,
>and other pre-processed foods.
>
>Why is it so difficult for people to cook from scratch??

For me, I run a little of both. I enjoy cooking a lot...from scratch
as a rule...on my days off. On my workdays, I don't get off work until
6, then usually have to make dinner for the kids (my wife works
evening/nights). So, it's prepackaged stuff for quick, easy,
non-memorable meals on my workdays, and from scratch nice food (like
the crawfish etouffe' tonight).

Yes, there's packaged mixes (bisquick, some brownie mixes, etc.) up in
the pantry for "quick and easy". They are a little cheaper, and more
convenient. They also fit in for "quick and easy" times, since they
still beat out McYuck.

Still, it's funny, if I'm doing a "quick" dinner during the work week,
I don't want to use a variety of mixes as ingredients in a
pseudo-scratch thing either. The pre-packaged stuff is just plain
eaten. Real food comes from real ingredients.

My one weakness...I only occasionally use homemade stock, since I
don't usually plan well-enough to do that. I keep some of a variety
for important food, but otherwise, will usually break down and use
pre-made stock, of the low-sodium variety.

Bob

"Ranee Mueller" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, "D.Currie"
> > wrote:
>
> > My MIL pretty much refuses to cook anything that has more than 4 or 5
> > ingredients. And water, by the way, may be classified as an
> > ingredient. She can take some chicken, throw a can of mushroom soup
> > on top, sprinkle it with some pre-mixed spice, and she's got
> > something with different flavor instead of plain baked chicken.
> >
> > If she had to make something similar from a scratch recipe, it
> > wouldn't be possible, and she'd never add the spices individually
> > that you would find in a mix.
>
> I don't buy this as a reasoning. I roasted a turkey:
>
> Turkey
> Salt
> Pepper
> Onion
> Lemon
> Rosemary
>
> So, including each thing, that's six ingredients. No soup, no
> prepackaged anything.
>
> I make shredded pork for tacos:
>
> Pork shoulder
> Salt
> Pepper
> Garlic
> Cumin
>
> 5 ingredients.
>
> Pinto Beans:
>
> Pintos
> Water
> Bacon
> Celery
> Scallions
> Tomato Sauce
>
> 6 ingredients including water to cook beans.
>
> Rice for said tacos:
>
> Oil or Lard
> Rice
> Onion
> Salsa
> Chicken Broth
>
> Now, granted I usually make my own roasted tomato salsa for this, so
> that's more ingredients, but you can use a good salsa from the store I
> guess, so that's one prepackaged ingredient, and 4 other things
> including the cooking fat.
>
> Quick Tomato Sauce for any Pasta:
>
> Olive Oil
> Garlic
> Onion
> Fresh Tomatoes diced (in season) or Canned diced tomatoes
> Pitted Kalamata Olives
> Freshly Grated Parmesan
>
> 6 ingredients including the cooking oil, and boil some pasta. It
> takes me less than 10 minutes.
>
> And my easiest meal ever:
>
> Chuck Steak
> Salt
> Pepper
>
> 3 ingredients, cook tightly covered with foil in oven at 300 F for 5
> hours. Serve with good bread, sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt and
> maybe corn on the cob with butter or succotash.
>
> Regards,
> Ranee

It's not my reasoning, it's hers. Personally, I like to cook. Sometimes
simple things, sometimes complicated.

But she doesn't have rosemary. Or oregano. Or basil. Or cumin. Or any other
single spice. She has about 3 spice mixes, and that's that. She'd never buy
kalamata olives, or fresh parmesan. She would never buy olive oil, it's too
expensive compared to canola or whatever she uses because in her world, all
oils have the same function. I doubt she'd buy fresh garlic or scallions
either. And I doubt she'd go through the trouble of cooking dried beans from
scratch. And she'd never cook a pork roast just to shred it. She'd cook the
pork roast and eat it as a roast, but to use it as in ingredient in tacos?
Not a chance.

And while you're looking at your pork, your beans, and your rice and
counting those as separate items, add them together along with the
tortillas, and you've got a LOT of ingredients for one single dish. There's
no way she's go though all of that for a meal. And if I was making tacos,
I'd have some tomatoes, guacamole, cilantro, onions, salsa, or whatever I
was in the mood for on the side to pile on the tacos or not. I have no
problem making a meal like that, but she wouldn't.

And then there's your pasta sauce. You're already over the 5 ingredients,
and you haven't added the pasta or the water to cook it in. And as far as
she's concerned, why mess with cooking tomatoes when you can just open a jar
of Ragu and it's done.

Seriously.

Her cooking requirements are that it has as few ingredients as possible for
the whole shebang. Anything that she considers "extra" would simply be
removed from a recipe, which pretty much means flavorings get eliminated.
The whole meal should be start to table in 20 minutes or less, so there's
not much time for cutting, chopping or peeling. She doesn't own a single
sharp knife and I've never seen anything resembling a grater or grinder of
any sort. She's not going to bother with any long-simmered dishes that need
watching and stirring. The only exception to the 20-minute rule is a roast,
but there's little prep time, just pop it in the oven and take it out when
its done. With your turkey recipe, she'd do it in even fewer ingredients.
Turkey. No flavorings, just the bird itself.

She doesn't really care what things taste like, as long as it's edible. It
has to taste good enough that you won't spit it out, but it doesn't have to
be "tasty."

What's odd it that she does enjoy tasty dishes when other people prepare
them, or at a restaurant. It's just that she's not about to spend the time
it takes to make something like that for herself.

"Ranee Mueller" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> (paula) wrote:
>
> > just had a conversation this morning with two friends about "lazy
> > mealtimes."One said that her daughter did not have the time to cook as
> > she worked, so everything came out of a tin or packet or freezer."So
> > what" was my reply, i too worked full time and had 3 children but i
> > still managed to cook proper meals made with fresh produce and baked
> > etc.my friend then realised that she too brought up her family whilst
> > working and that was in the days before she had a freezer.we all
> > decided that living in a time of conveience "everything," that a
> > whole generation of people are growing up not knowing how to cook from
> > scratch and baking is a no no. the product of lazy parents are usually
> > lazy children.
>
> I agree. While I don't completely avoid prepackaged foods (we keep
> canned tomatoes and beans around, there is a brand of boxed chicken
> broth I like to keep on hand for when I don't have homemade stock, we
> occasionally have a frozen pizza, etc), I make my own bread, we get good
> meat from the butcher and cook it simply and well most of the time, we
> buy produce in season and use it, we cook just about everything from
> scratch here, including making yogurt and preserves. I am a mother of 3
> little boys under 6, tomorrow that will be 4 children. Now, this is my
> full time job, but it takes less than 5 minutes to make quesadillas on
> the stove for lunch or sandwiches or a salad and heat up some leftover
> soup from dinner, I can get dinner on the table from start to finish in
> less than 45 minutes, including getting all the ingredients out and
> prepared, most weekday main dishes take about 20-30 minutes to cook,
> make some pasta or rice or something to go with it in 10-15 minutes,
> steam some veggie in the microwave or on the stove in 5-10 minutes, you
> can do these things at the same time. Breakfast we cheat a little, as
> we stock cereals and milk or give them fruit and boiled egg with toast.
> We also cook up a triple batch of waffles or pancakes on the weekend and
> freeze the leftovers to toast up on school days. It is more that it
> takes some thought and mental preparation than that much time or effort.
>
> Regards,
> Ranee
>

What you consider a prepackaged food might vary, too. For instance, I bake
most of my own bread, but I buy the flour. I make my own spaghetti sauce,
but most of the time, I buy the noodles. I buy cheese, I don't make my own.

It also depends on what you're good at cooking. If you can't make a flaky
pie crust from scratch, you might buy a shell to bake a pie with absolutely
wonderful from-scratch filling, where someone else would consider that
sacrilege. If you needed a graham cracker crust, would you start by making
the crackers?

It also depends on the availability of pre-made foods of good quality. I
used to buy Italian sausage from a butchershop that made their own and it
was wonderful. I never cared to make my own sausage until I moved and
couldn't find anything close. So now I'm playing with that recipe.

And for me, it also depends on how important the item is to the whole meal,
and also on how much time I've got to make things. If I had to have dinner
rolls but didn't have time to make the dough, I'd use frozen dough and not
worry too much about it. I don't object to bottled catsup and mustard and
pickles and mayonnaise for sandwiches or burgers.

And I have one "old family" recipe that uses a can of tomato soup.

It also depends on who I'm cooking for. Company would never get a packaged
food. But for me...well, I've been known to have a stupid craving for some
horrible boxed product from my childhood. Like rice-a-roni. And when I'm
sick, I usually crave mac 'n cheese. But I certainly wouldn't want a steady
diet of that stuff.

In article >, "D.Currie"
> wrote:

> It also depends on who I'm cooking for. Company would never get a
> packaged food. But for me...well, I've been known to have a stupid
> craving for some horrible boxed product from my childhood. Like
> rice-a-roni. And when I'm sick, I usually crave mac 'n cheese. But I
> certainly wouldn't want a steady diet of that stuff.

This is part of it for me, I think. I don't think there's anything
necessarily wrong with eating boxed mac n cheese, or rice a roni or
whatever, but to eat that way all the time would make me crazy.

Regards,
Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of
heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man." Acts 17:24