Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
creating edible food?

Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
the microwave for 20 minutes?

How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?

I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
with my take:

Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
food I serve to my family and friends.

I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).

Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
resources present themselves.

How 'bout you?

maxine in ri

On 18 Mar 2006 13:07:47 -0800, "maxine in ri" >
wrote:

>Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
>produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
>dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
>combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
>food I serve to my family and friends.
>
>I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
>in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).

Same here. I use cans for things I can't easily make myself (olives
are a wonderful example), but mostly, it's raw ingredients (no, I
don't grind my own flour or make my own pasta -- I still think of
flour and dried pasta as ingredients, not convenience foods in the way
that canned soup, for instance, is) to start with.

serene

maxine in ri wrote:

> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>
> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?
>
> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?
>
> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.
>
> I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
> in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>
> Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
> learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
> resources present themselves.
>
> How 'bout you?
>
> maxine in ri
>

Ok, my definition is that I use whole, raw and as natural ingredients as
possible. I cook from scratch when I do homecanning so IMO those food
items while processed are still from scratch. I'd say I by minimally
processed foods as you mentioned then use them in meals at home.

cooking - I really shy away from the microwave but that is because I
didn't grow up with it and still don't really like it so you can't
really judge it by me. I like the bbq, burners, or oven myself.

cheese - I make yogurt and have been doing so for quite some time but
yogurt cheese always messes up. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I
would like to make my own cheese but now is not the right time.

bread - I make all the bread and bread products we eat. It is usually
multigrain but I use unbleached flour sometimes for other types of
bread. I think I would averagage 2 loave a week for the 2 of us then a
special loaf if we have company. Leftover bread is turned into croutons
or bread crumbs.

"serene" wrote>

"maxine in ri" wrote:
>
>>
>>I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
>>in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>
> Same here. I use cans for things I can't easily make myself (olives
> are a wonderful example), but mostly, it's raw ingredients >
> serene

I cook mostly from scratch, except for such things as canned stewed or diced
tomatoes. At breakfast, though, I cheat if I'm making pancakes and use good
old Aunt Jemima mix. it's too early in the day to fool around with separate
ingredients.

Somehow, using too many prepared items in cooking takes away the fun.

Dora

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:44:37 -0500, "limey" >
wrote:

>
>"serene" wrote>
>
>"maxine in ri" wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
>>>in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>>
>> Same here. I use cans for things I can't easily make myself (olives
>> are a wonderful example), but mostly, it's raw ingredients >
>> serene
>
>I cook mostly from scratch, except for such things as canned stewed or diced
>tomatoes. At breakfast, though, I cheat if I'm making pancakes and use good
>old Aunt Jemima mix. it's too early in the day to fool around with separate
>ingredients.

Would it work for you to mix up your own pancake mix? It's pretty
simple, a lot cheaper, and you can control the ingredients.

serene

In article . com>,
"maxine in ri" > wrote:

> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>
> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?
>
> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?


Nope, but I just finished eating a Smart Ones lasagna frozen dinner that
I nuked here in my office before I go to the gym! I was famished!


> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.

Maxine, I agree with your definition of scratch cooking, where in my
mind, its using mostly unprocessed ingredients. Heating up a frozen
dinner may be cooking in the literal definition, but it is not cooking
from scratch, by any means.

Than again, cooking from scratch does not imply a quality result. For
example, I could take a piece of fish, and some herbs and spices and
come up with something that tastes totally dreadful even though what I
might have cooked included all unprocessed ingredients.

"maxine in ri" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>
> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?
>
> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?
>
> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.
>
> I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
> in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>
> Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
> learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
> resources present themselves.
>

For me it involves cooking things starting from the most basic components
that are practical. Just about the only canned veggies I use are tomatoes,
when fresh aren't available in the same quality and after the ones in my
freezer are gone. I'll use canned tomato paste, too. And canned artichoke
hearts, olives, things like that.

I bake my own bread, but I don't grind the grains. Sometimes I make pasta.
It depends. I buy things like crackers and graham crackers. I've got panko
bread crumbs that I bought.

Some things don't seem to be practical or worthwhile to make at home --
ketchup, for example. I bought corned beef already "corned." I don't smoke
my own ham or sausages.

It also depends on how much of a highlight a particular ingredient is in the
overall meal plan. Sometimes I make my own tortillas, but I've got a good
local source, so quite often I buy them. Desserts aren't a big thing around
here. Sometimes I'll make a dessert, but right now I've got a couple boxes
of Girl Scout cookies around. don't remember the last time we had boxed
cookies, though -- probably last Girl Scout season. There's always some kind
of fresh fruit available for dessert, if we want it. My pie crusts are hit
and miss, so sometimes I'll buy the pre-made crusts if I'm making a pie.
Depends on what else is going on. I might bake cookies, but I'll buy the
chocolate chips.

It also depends on how readily available an ingredient is. I don't like the
local Italian sausages, and I've seldom seen fresh Polish sausage, so I make
my own. I can't find good pita bread, so I make that. I can't find gyros
meat, so I make that. I recently made batches of ravioli and pierogi and
froze them.

Depends also on how much of a thing I use and how practical it is to make in
small quantities. I buy jelly, but I use maybe one jar a year. There are
probably a lot of other things like that. I buy cheese, but it's "real"
cheese.

I've also got a couple of recipes that call for canned products, and when I
make them, I use the canned goods if I want them to come out the way I'm
used to. I might try another recipe now and then, but if I'm making
something that I've eaten since childhood, it's just not the same without
the canned cream of mushroom soup, or whatever. But I'm more likely to use
those canned goods as in ingredient in a recipe than served as-is. So I
might use a jarred salsa in a recipe, but make my own for dipping.

And there are times when I crave boxed mac 'n cheese. Mostly when I'm
feeling a little sick. If I'm sicker, I want Mrs. Grass's chicken noodle
soup.

Sometimes I'll buy Safeway's soups. The tomato basil is pretty good. There
are other things that I'll buy now and then. About once a year, we'll have
Marie Callendar's pot pies. If I'm making burgers on the grill, I might buy
potato chips, and now and then I buy Cheetos. I'm definitely not fanatic
about not using prepared foods, but I probably use less than most of my
neighbors.

Donna

maxine in ri wrote:
> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>
Almost all of the meat, fish and vegetables I buy are raw and organic.
We eat hardly any grains or sugar so baking isn't an issue. There are
things which I don't want to make like cheese, wine, tomato paste,
mustard, smoked fish partly because I doubt if it'd be worth the effort
and partly because I doubt I'd do it well. But I do make mayonnaise,
tapenade, taramasalata. The cooking I do is mostly fairly simple, I
buy the best food I can and do as little as possible to it. If I want
something really complicated I'll go to a restaurant where they have a
kitchen brigade to handle recipes with 25 ingredients and 20 steps!

"maxine in ri" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?

Well, that would be from scratch, but it isn't necessary to do all of that to cook
from scratch by my definition.

>
> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?

Nope, not really.

>
> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?

Heating isn't cooking, it's heating....hence the word, heating.

> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.
>
> I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
> in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>
> Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
> learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
> resources present themselves.
>
> How 'bout you?
>
> maxine in ri
>

I'm with you. Cooking from scratch, to me, means making it yourself...not growing it
necessarily, but preparing it. When it's already prepared for you, you're not really
cooking are you?
I do alot of things myself, but there are other things that I don't have the time
for, or that I like from somewhere else. I don't make yogurt, but then, I don't eat
it either I do make bread, cakes, cookies, muffins, etc from scratch. I make
stocks, soups, gravies, sauces, et al from scratch as well. I do use jarred spaghetti
sauce sometimes, with my own twist on it, because, frankly, I like it! Now, I add
alot of stuff to the jarred red sauce, like meat (beef and pork), pepperoni, grated
onion, some herbs...but I don't consider that from scratch. I do make pasta from
scratch, but not always. Luckily for me, there's some tasty pasta to be had from
Little Italy!
But, I digress.
If you have to prep ingredients, it's likely from scratch

kimberly

"maxine in ri" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>

That would qualify but it is not really possible to live that way if you
want to eat a wide range of foods prepared in a range of styles. There are
few places in the world where you can grow (for example) tomatos all year
round, does this mean you can only serve tomatos in summer? OK you could
preserve your own tomatos (I do) but such are poor fare in salad.

Also there are ingredients that require skills, equipment and raw
ingredients that you can hardly have in every home. I know people who
pickle their own olives and make their own salami but who makes their own
soy sauce?

> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?
>

I don't think a dish like that qualifies but it could still be reasonably
tasty and somewhat nutritious.

> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?
>

No but I might do it if I had no fresh ingredients or time available and the
commercial product was a good one.

> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.
>
> I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
> in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>

Seems fair

> Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
> learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
> resources present themselves.
>

I have the same aspiration and the acres of pasture to make it possible!
Clearly very few people could manage this.

A suggestion: trying to determine what people mean by "cooking from
scratch" seems quite pointless. As we have seen "scratch" varies widely
according to the circumstances. Another way to look at the same issue is to
ask:

(1) Do you desire to eat and to serve nutritious and appealing food?
(2) How much time and money are you prepared to spend towards that goal?

If all the denizens of RFC answered 'yes' to (1) [I approve of motherhood
too] there would still be quite a range of answers to (2) as we all have
different resources.

David

If God had wanted us to cook from scratch, She wouldn't have invented
Betty Crocker . . .
;-)

Having said that, I'm somewhere in the middle. I cook for 12 to 20+
folks at work, but I live alone.
Aside from scrambled eggs, grilled cheese etc. it's mostly Stouffer's
at home.
At work I don't bat an eye about using boxed scalloped potatoes - if I
have enough boxes in the pantry - but I can make 'em from scratch
"scratch" too.

Lynn from Fargo

Anthony wrote:
> maxine in ri wrote:
>
>>Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
>>creating edible food?
>>
>
> Almost all of the meat, fish and vegetables I buy are raw and organic.
> We eat hardly any grains or sugar so baking isn't an issue. There are
> things which I don't want to make like cheese, wine, tomato paste,
> mustard, smoked fish partly because I doubt if it'd be worth the effort
> and partly because I doubt I'd do it well. But I do make mayonnaise,
> tapenade, taramasalata. The cooking I do is mostly fairly simple, I
> buy the best food I can and do as little as possible to it. If I want
> something really complicated I'll go to a restaurant where they have a
> kitchen brigade to handle recipes with 25 ingredients and 20 steps!
>

That's the same as me - although I have smoked my own fish (caught by my
husband) a couple of times - still getting used to the smoker. Oh, and
the house is still stuffed with homemade 'wine' from a few years back.
There's a reason it's not been drunk yet - it tastes like diesel!

Jo

Henhouse wrote:

> Anthony wrote:
>
>> maxine in ri wrote:
>>
>>> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
>>> creating edible food?
>>>
>>
>> Almost all of the meat, fish and vegetables I buy are raw and organic.
>> We eat hardly any grains or sugar so baking isn't an issue. There are
>> things which I don't want to make like cheese, wine, tomato paste,
>> mustard, smoked fish partly because I doubt if it'd be worth the effort
>> and partly because I doubt I'd do it well. But I do make mayonnaise,
>> tapenade, taramasalata. The cooking I do is mostly fairly simple, I
>> buy the best food I can and do as little as possible to it. If I want
>> something really complicated I'll go to a restaurant where they have a
>> kitchen brigade to handle recipes with 25 ingredients and 20 steps!
>>
>
> That's the same as me - although I have smoked my own fish (caught by my
> husband) a couple of times - still getting used to the smoker. Oh, and
> the house is still stuffed with homemade 'wine' from a few years back.
> There's a reason it's not been drunk yet - it tastes like diesel!
>
> Jo

I haven't tried smoking but would like to buy a smoker. DFIL got me
hooked on smoked salmon, wonderful stuff! We haven't made homemade wine
since our rootbeer adventure. They ended up being mini bombs - not
nice. One of our relatives makes homemade wine that isn't too bad.
There are a couple of places where you can go to make your own wine.
They have all the equipment and can help you out. I wouldn't mind
trying that but I'd be scared it would come out like diesel as you say.

~patches~ wrote on 19 Mar 2006 in rec.food.cooking

> Henhouse wrote:
>
> > Anthony wrote:
> >
> >> maxine in ri wrote:
> >>
> >>> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> >>> creating edible food?
>

Ifin you get a itchin to cook, Scratch it?

--
-Alan

maxine in ri wrote:
>
> Is it growing all your own organic ingredients, processing them, and
> creating edible food?
>
> Is it opening a few cans, mixing them together, putting the result in
> the microwave for 20 minutes?
>
> How about heating up a frozen commercial entree?
>
> I'd like to hear how individuals here define it, and I'll start off
> with my take:
>
> Taking mostly foods that are minimally processed (fresh or frozen
> produce, uncooked, unseasoned animal protein, basic elements of baking,
> dairy products from the store, drynoodles and other grain products)
> combining and processing them with heat or cold or time, to make the
> food I serve to my family and friends.
>
> I use Canned and jarred goods, but not too often, or as a minor element
> in the cooking (canned tuna, or olives for example).
>
> Lately,I've been baking bread and making yogurt, and would like to
> learn enough to make my own cheeses,fresh ones first, then aged ones as
> resources present themselves.
>
> How 'bout you?
>
> maxine in ri

That's about what I do, for the most part.

Kate