Home Made vs Store Bought

[topdiesel]

My son was diagnosed with celiac a few years ago so no gluten in our house.  Most of the gluten free mixes really leave a lot to be desired.  So I have spent the past few years making our own breads, pancakes, cakes, cookies, pizza dough, pita bread, biscuits, pretzels, bagels, hamburger & hotdog buns, pie crusts, corndogs, donuts.  We only eat out at restaurants a couple times a month and I end up disappointed most times.  home cooked food is almost always tastier, it is just more work. 

 

[Hurltim]

I love making my own chicken stock. It's a great way to get 100% utilization of a whole chicken. 

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[leftimatic]

Oh jeez. What don't we make at home? Spent the last few months harvesting and canning. Peaches,apple sauce, pasta sauces, peach and berry jams, apple chutneys and pie fillings and a few others as they ripen.Blanching beans, broccoli, celery, collards and other veggies of that nature.  Just filled the freezers with a pig and 30 chickens. Been dehydrating all our herbs and fruit stuff too. The wife makes all our hand soap and my shaving soap, plus we make all our own lard(chicken and pork) You haven't lived till you've had chicken lard and garlic mashed potatoes, oh my! It's funny. The whole thing started as a challenge for ourselves to eat better and cheaper when our first son arrived. Then it became an obsession almost and now it's just second nature. Our grocery bill including toilet paper ,coffee, and laundry detergent is less than $100 at Costco every two weeks. And we are planning to lower that again this year. I now just google it before I buy it and nine times out of ten there is a recipe for whatever i'm looking for. It sounds busy but farming and homeschooling my two boys is my full time job now and I am digging it. 

[CoffeeGeek]

Produce SOOOOO MUCH stuff at home, I'm a bit of a fanatic. Lessee:

• canning fruits of all sorts (long term preserving)
• freeze prep of fruits (strawberries, cherries, blueberries) for winter use
• canning tomatoes in whole, chopped and sauce format
• make all our own bread. I have two ongoing sourdough starters, plus make buns, loafs, you name it.
• make most of my stocks (chicken, vegetable, beef, pork); I do a lot of pressure cooking (Instapot for the win), and always have a lot of bones to use for stock
• make most of my soups. We have three active raised bed gardens and one way we "preserve" our veg is by making soups out of them and freezing it. Our condo refrigerator currently has at least 35l  of frozen soups in it.
• the most complex thing I make at home is a traditional french cassoulet; old school style. Takes me 3 days. Full duck confit involved, full sausage making, full bean prep, loosen, simmer and flavour stages. 

I try to live the homesteader lifestyle as much as I can, even in a condo in the middle of a major metropolitan city. Next year's gonna be easier, as we just sold our place and are moving to another city and buying an actual house with land.

[AndrewNR]

Chef by trade.. Mrs is a thoroughbred Italian..

Between the two of us we'd literally grow and make everything if time etc permitted. Lately with the young family etc we just do what we can.

When family, work and home begin to stabilise again I'd like to get back to having fresh home grown vegetables, herbs and even some live stock occasionally.

Lately I mostly rely on a good relationship with local suppliers and artisans.

[jfire]

Homemade pizzas.
Homemade Pico de Gallo.
Spicy Dill pickles
Apple pies
Jams
Pickled beets.
Preserves
Picked from the orchard yesterday.(honeycrisp)

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[MahDooRow]

For anyone who likes to make home made pizza how many of you use your own sourdough starter?  I began using a starter about 4 months ago and it's paid huge dividends.  It really adds a lot of flavor to the crust.  I think it also enhances the texture of the crust, making it a little more chewy.  For anyone who wants to give it a try...

1. Day 1:  Add 8 ounces of AP flour and 4-6 ounces of cool tap water to a small container (plastic or glass is fine, I use plastic tupperware).  Mix together with a fork or a small whisk.  You want the consistency to be like a thick pancake batter; so if the initial mix is too dry, add more water until you achieve the right consistency.  Once mixed wipe the inside surface to remove any splatter, cover and let sit for 24 hours.

2.  Day 2:  Dispose 1/2 of the mixture from Day 1, add 4 ounces of AP flour and about 3 ounces of tap water, mix and continue to add water until you have a thick pancake batter.  Wipe the inside surface to remove any splatter, cover and let sit for 24 hours. Note:  When you remove 1/2 the mixture and add more AP flour it's called "feeding" the starter.

3.  Day 3: Repeat what you did on day 2.  By Day 3 you should start to see some small bubbles in the mix, which means that your mixture is starting to develop wild yeast and healthy bacteria.  You may even start to notice a sour smell... that's good!

4: Day 4: Feed the starter by repeating what you did on day 3.

5. Day 5:  Feed the starter by repeating what you did on day 4.  By Day 5 (and possibly as early as Day 4) your starter will develop enough wild yeast to cause the mixture to rise.  This means the starter is healthy and active.

After Day 5 you just need to maintain the starter by continuing to remove 1/2 of the mixture and add back in AP flour and cool tap water.  By continuing to feed the starter on a daily basis you are keeping the wild yeast and healthy bacteria active.  If you don't want to repeat the process every day you can put the mixture in the refrigerator.  When stored in the fridge you only have to feed it once every three days.  When making your pizza dough add 4-8 ounces of starter (depending on preference) along with dry yeast and other ingredients that normally use.  That's it!  Starter can be maintained for years if properly stored and maintained.  The longer you maintain it the more of a sour flavor it will add to your pizza dough.  If you like the flavor of sourdough bread (which I do) then you will really dig using the sourdough starter.  If you prefer less of a sour taste just use less starter.  

 

Happy cooking!           

[Akela3rd]

I used to make my own bread on a regular basis but have got out of the habit. I think this has inspired me to start again. Sounds good.

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[PaulPower]

Without reading the OP... homemade. You just give more of a F**k.

[BrightonCorgi]

I make pretty much everything from scratch...  Don't have enough yard to raise cattle or I'd do that too.

[Jefferson]

On 9/3/2016 at 10:09 AM, Hurltim said:

I love making my own chicken stock. It's a great way to get 100% utilization of a whole chicken. 

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Agreed. Its an all day ordeal but so damned good for soup and other dishes later. 

[Jefferson]

My lovely wife makes bread 2 or 3 times per week like my Mom did when I was a kid. I love it, she has over the years perfected her recipe and process.

Another thing I like to make is gravy, or pasta sauce if you will. We grow about 40 plum tomato plants each summer for this purpose. So good. Oh, and when you do a big batch up don't forget the spare ribs and meatballs.  

[Spanishcedar]

We are growing and hunting about 70% of what we eat.

A couple of things we like to make that we used to buy all the time are humus and kefir.

I don't mind putting in more effort and a little time to have better, high quality food, it's cheaper too and let's be honest... that means I can buy more cigars!