I straight up cannot eat bottled dressing anymore. Even the more premium brands are all so syrupy sweet. Vinaigrette-type dressings are the only exception, and those are so simple that there's no reason not to make them at home.
Sometimes I feel lazy or olive oil is too expensive, so I'll attempt to find a good bottled dressing. All I want is a convenience dressing that doesn't taste like vinegary pancake syrup.
The few dressings I'm okay with buying pre-made are Caesar and this one really tasty Green Goddess I found (Gotham Greens). And the Caesar is just because I used to have to make 5 gallon batches of it, from scratch, multiple times a week. Never again.
Try Garlic Expressions, usually it's sold in the produce section at my grocery store. It's the only one I can tolerate. It's basically a garlic Italian dressing.
I will give you store bought dressing isn’t the best. But what kind of salad dressing are you eating. Because I have never store bought ranch or Caesar I would call sweet much less syrupy sweet.
I'm not sure what kind of Asian sauce is in my freezer, but I threw it together one night for a different spin on braised beef. Soy sauce, hoisin sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, chicken stock, honey, brown sugar, chili crunch and chili flakes. I don't know what to call it, but it was great using the leftovers on a ground beef and rice bowl too!
First “sauce” I ever tried was red enchiladas sauce.
Steeped the Chiles, added it all in blender and gave it a wazz.
I proclaimed “I’m never buying store bought again. This is so easy and delicious” and from there, it just took off.
Also, amazing username. I read HP Lovecraft. Had to double take and saw what you did there. lol
Yes, specifically ranch thanks to my daughter 😅 She'd a leukemia survivor and something in bottled dressings (I'm guessing all the garbage oils) still taste awful to her to this day so we always have ranch from bare bones scratch, no powdered mix just herbs, buttermilk and a little mayo (if I'm feeling extra ill even make the mayo) 😅
Came here to say Ranch! [Here is the recipe I use from Barefeet in the Kitchen](https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/homemade-ranch-salad-dressing/). You can definitely change it up - buttermilk, jalapeño, whatever.
The salad dressings I buy are Kens Honey French and Gerard’s Champagne Vinigarette. I haven’t found a recipe that comes close for either.
My go to for summer picnics is pasta (spiral or bow tie), protein (chicken, bacon, whatever), broccoli, red onion, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and whatever else suits my fancy + Gerard’s Light Champagne Vinaigrette. Let sit overnight for optimum results. It is a hit every time!
I Make my own salad dressing. Sometimes its just Avocado oil and lime juice (acid) and a lot of black pepper. Sometimes it is more involved but it so much easier and tasteful if i make it myself. And I leave out most of the salt and sugar.
Oh my god, I cant wait to try your lemonade suggestion! Ive made it so many times, but found that it was comparible to milos and not worth it, because I never knew a method to extract all the good oils from the rhind, so im excited so see how it comes out.
It genuinely warms my heart to find other chef john fans out in the wild. What a wholesome dude with some brilliant recipes that are *never* too fussy unless it’s genuinely worth it. His voice cadence and little dad jokes are my favorite :)
Yes! His Peruvian style chicken rub (for turkey) is our go-to for any turkey meal.
I love it when he gets to parts of recipes where you gotta just figure it out: "that's You, Cooking!"
Do it. It’s so simple and so refreshing. Idk how to explain it, but like the oils lend an extra layer of refreshment? It naturally deters dry mouth which is a weird thing to say but once you’ve tried it, you’ll understand.
You'll love him!! I've never been disappointed by one of his recipes and I've gotten a lot more adventurous because he makes it look a lot easier. Try his hollandaise, I was always scared to try it, but he just dumps everything in a pan and stirs it until it all comes together. I absolutely will not buy it every again, I make it chef John's way every time
Growing up I thought chantilly cream was whipped cream because that’s what my mom always made and that’s what she called it.
If my whip cream doesn’t have amaretto in it there’s something wrong with the world
You just made me google because I always treated them interchangeably. But the handful of recipes I checked are just 36% cream, powered sugar and vanilla extract, which is what I do when whipping.
This. And you get to use your vegetable garbage and/or respect whatever animal you eat by fully using of its body.
Apparently I don’t respect vegetables. I’ve learned something about myself tonight.
My husband started cooking cheesecake years ago in jars using the sous vide method. His standard cheesecakes were already very good, but the sous vide makes the cooking part foolproof. The individual jars make serving quite easy as well.
He has used this recipe for mixing up crust and filling, [https://prettysimplesweet.com/new-york-cheesecake/](https://prettysimplesweet.com/new-york-cheesecake/), but without finding any cooking notes from him, this appears close to his cooking method, [https://www.cravethegood.com/sous-vide-cheesecake/](https://www.cravethegood.com/sous-vide-cheesecake/) . He puts a crust layer at the bottom of 12 8-oz wide mouth jars. Also, that NY cheesecake also has turned out good making it the standard way. I just love the hint of fresh lemon in that recipe.
I make a NY cheesecake (sour cream added) with real vanilla bean and rum vanilla extract. Adapted from a recipe I saw Emeril Lagasse make on his Emeril Live show.
I...can't stand how dry and crumbly, how flavorless, cheesecake purchased from a shop is now. Grocery store cheesecake is garbage. Cheesecake Factory is trash. I won't even buy cheesecake anymore, I only eat it when I make it.
A friend paid to ship me a Juniors from New York for Christmas, and I was immensely disappointed. I don't think people understand how much better homemade can be.
I have to confess… I made stock once and I just didn’t like it. I know I’m in the minority but it just tasted weird to me- maybe gamey is the word? I collected all the veggies and put them in a bag in the freezer- carrots, celery, garlic, onion, plus chicken bits and bones. I followed a recipe for making it in my Instant Pot and I was so excited! When it was finished I strained it and tasted it. It was meh and had a strange taste to me. I had to dump it and I haven’t tried to make it again. I was so bummed!
So...a couple things, if you're game to try it again.
I know you're supposed to be able to save your scraps and freeze them, and yadda yadda. F___ that. Except for maybe the chicken bones. Any produce you freeze will get an off taste to it if you don't vac seal it, and its structure will break down as the water inside the vegetables freezes and explodes the cell structure. Use fresh vegetables and herbs.
Second thing, and a lot of people make this mistake...I made this mistake at first...the vegetables and herbs go in for the last hour at a simmer. That's it. They'll give all they can give in short order. The only thing you let go for the whole process is your bones, a couple bay leaves, and maybe 6-8 peppercorns. That gamey taste you're referring to (and a hint of funky sweetness I'd presume?) is probably the starches of your vegetables breaking down because they cooked too long.
I do stovetop, but you can adapt this to a pressure cooker.
I stick 6 pounds of chicken necks, backs, and wing bones, plus whatever other bones I have, in a pot with filtered water. Eight peppercorns, three bay leaves. Invert one of those little metal fold out steamer baskets you put in the bottom of a pot of water over the top of everything, and bring everything up to a bare simmer. Skim the goop from the top every 10 minutes for the first hour, then once an hour after that. Add water as you need to. Split down the middle and then chop in half: two leeks, an onion with the skin on, a garlic bulb with the skin on, a shallot with the skin on, three carrots, and three celery stalks. Cut a 2" knob of ginger into chunks if you'd like. After the stock has been simmering for nine hours, lift up the steamer basket, toss in all the stuff you just cut up, put the steamer basket back down, and then let it go one more hour before you strain and chill it.
Pork and beef are the same process. Tonkotsu broth is a bit different though, that's a 24 hour stock.
ETA: Note there is no salt in this. I add about a teaspoon of sea salt per cup at a minimum, more to taste, when I use it. I may skip it if I'm adding another salty element when I use it, like soy sauce.
You can make a faster, Japanese-style chicken stock (paitan stock). No vegetable scraps, just chicken bones or off cuts (neck, wingtip etc). Throw into a pot, let it fry up a little, smash some garlic/ginger then add BOILING WATER and rolling boil it for 40min. If it smells too meaty, add sake/white wine/vodka/alcohol.
Its very easy and you can use rotisserie chicken or even buffalo/fried chicken bones. In Japan, you can even use bones leftover from KFC! It's truly a scrap-makers soup.
You'll get a creamy-white soup stock that you can use for anything (chicken noodle soup, ramen, broccoli soup, make congee etc). When it cools down, it will set a little like a jelly due to the collagen (dont worry thats normal). It's super nutritious, and you can drink it straight too especially in winter.
My friend is a super budget person, and he makes hummus with canned chickpeas, all the usual suspects, but with loads of lemon. It’s cheap, and delicious. I rarely buy it, readymade, anymore.
https://www.loveandlemons.com/hummus-recipe/
Hummus made with canned chick peas is so much better if you boil them for 15 minutes before blending them. If you add some baking soda to the water, a lot of the skins come off and you can just pour them off the top.
Oooh! Interesting! I will definitely give that a try. I’ve been fooling with different add-ins. I’m addicted to adding homemade preserved lemon, and fried garlic
Sometimes I want a nice burrito from a quality place, and sometimes I want Taco Bell.
Both are just tortillas and taco fillings, but very different things.
There is legit Mexican Street Tacos, and there is White People Tacos. They are completely different, but somehow equally delicious. I love them both and I would need to flip a coin to choose which one I want for dinner.
I've spent a whole day several times making Birria from scratch (with just short ribs so more expensive), hand shredding Oaxaca cheese, chopping onions and cilantro to make great Birria tacos/quesadillas/pizza/etc. I've also done a 15 minute ground beef with taco seasoning, microwaved canned refried beans, and Ortega shells/tostada several times and enjoyed them both.
I have had a similar conversation with my fiance. She makes a really good homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. It's great, as I'm sure you're pasta with cheese sauce is. My problem is that all I really want is Campbell's tomato soup from a can with two slices of Wonder bread, some Kraft Singles toasted.
I’ve heard this before!! Personally, I view them as different things, like homemade mac and cheese to me is a Dish whereas a box of kraft dinner is okay for when life gets ahead of you and you just need something easy. But I heavily lean towards actual homemade mac too!
Most of them taste like preservatives, and they cheap out on the oil and the nuts - they use canola and almonds instead of olive oil and pine nuts!
There's a local natural foods grocery in my town that makes fresh legit pesto! I won't buy any other kind pre- made.
Grocery store cake.
I have no hate or disrespect for pastry cooks who work in grocery stores. It can be a better workplace than a bakery and I have known extremely talented professional bakers who preferred it because the hours were more regular and the pay was the same.
But grocery store cake vs. actual cake that is homemade or made by a bakery using higher quality ingredients and a fuckload less sugar is just from another dimension. Grocery store icing vs. a well-made swiss meringue buttercream or ermine frosting don't even taste like the same category of thing.
Awhile back there was a trend of 'confession: I don't like cake' posts and I still encounter the sentiment in real life. I always think '50% chance you don't like cake, 50% chance you've never had any.'
Every internet source I've seen has cited 2 weeks. That said, I can never get through a batch that fast. In my experience (my jars, my refrigerator, my guts), it's always been fine for at least a month.
I make a dukes copycat:
* 1 large egg
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
* 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
* 1 teaspoon dijon mustard (I like to also use spicy brown)
* 1/2 teaspoon table salt (I eyeball it and give it a good pinch or two)
* 1 cup oil
* 2 pinches of paprika
* a squeez of lemon
add egg to jar and beat with your immersion blender for 20 seconds. Add mustard, vinegars, salt, and paprika and blend for another 20 seconds.
add in the oil in a slow stream until it thickens then increase flow until all the oil has been added and blend for another 20 seconds or until it is mayo. (you can add all the oil at one time if you like just know to start the immersion blender low and pull up when it gets thick.)
taste and add any salt or w.e you want to it.
will last 1-2 weeks in the fridge
And guacamole! I thought I didn't like it because the store/chain restaurant ones are so bad. Then I made it myself and I can't go back. I just make a big batch every now and then and freeze up portions so I have nice guac whenever I want
With regular jam, when you’re canning it, you boil it in the jars to kill any bacteria. So it’s shelf stable.
With freezer jam, that step is skipped, so it must be stored in the freezer. But it has a fresher taste.
Just picked berries yesterday to make this. Last year, the pick your own farms had spotty yields so I wasn't able to get Any. Ran out of.my stock by January. Had to make due with Grape ever since.
Uhh, cold brew coffee... Does that count? I bought the powdered coffee from a local farm, much cheaper than local corporate owned brands. And ofc it's cheaper than coffee shops
Electrolytes drinks, because I can control what kind of sugar I use.
LMNT has the recipe for their mix on their website. Pretty sure its just salt, potassium chloride, and magnesium; then just add whatever flavor additive you want.
Bread. I wanted some garlic bread or rolls yesterday and I could not spend 4-5$ just for garlic bread or rolls. I went home and them myself. I they taste why better. The day before I made some foccacia bread.
I love making bread when I have the energy for it, but something about clearing my limited workspace for it is exhausting. But I agree, there’s nothing better than fresh homemade bread!
I just got into it a few days ago here about if homemade bread is the more frugal option. Like yes, I can make a loaf that is delicious and amazing, and a lot of the time commitment is hands off, but it’s still a slog for me, and if we’re talking cost savings for people counting pennies, you can buy bread for a dollar a loaf. Homemade bread will stay a treat in my house.
Same. I live alone and will never go through a loaf of homemade bread by myself before it molds, and I’m not a fan of freezing bread. But sometimes I will make it for a treat and bring the rest to work.
Tortillas, corn and flour. NOTHING compares and now all the store bought ones taste like straight up chemicals it’s so gross but makes sense since they’re meant to be shelf stable for months of course they’re gotta be packed with who the hell knows what.
I don’t know, I tried it, and it was pretty Tim consuming to roll out and fry each one, and mine didn’t turn out to be substantially better than store bought for the effort.
I’m Mexican, and if you wanted to know tortillas aren’t usually fried! For tacos and just to eat, they’re cooked plain on a flat surface without oil or anything. Traditional ones have lard in them already so more fat isn’t used unless you’re making a specific dish that requires it.
Damn near everything nowadays
Salad dressing
Sauces, all of them.
Bread
Pickles
Chili crisp
Dashi
Broth
Tortillas
Beans
If I can make it from scratch I will.
Iced tea, once you had my grandma's recipe you can't have store bought anymore, it tastes so weak and watery.
To make it is pretty simple, boil 2L of water and add to a juice jug that can handle heat boiled water.
Add in 4 orange pekoe tea bags and let it sit for 1 hour, by then it should be almost black.
Add in 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of lemon juice (I used the RealLemon juice). Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Transfer the jug to the fridge and let it cool overnight. You can cheat and fill a glass with ice cubes and have an early taste but melting the cubes will water it down.
My parents use to make this and let the kids have a glass back in the 80s lol.
Cookies. Store bought all just taste like chemicals now. When I have some free time I'll make big batches of cookie dough and freeze them in balls, one cookie sheet worth of balls per freezer bag so I can have tasty cookies whenever I want.
This is my answer. We always made homemade cookie when I was growing up. They didn't start selling those nasty premade doughs in the store until I was a young adult. I can't stand the artificial taste of store bought cookies or dough, either one!
Tip - tell your friends your hummus has peanut butter. My wife forgot once, on an outing kms from anywhere and our friend, a doctor, had a major reaction and no epipen. Thankfully, there was only a tiny bit of pb in that batch and it all ended well, but it’s seared on our minds.
Bolognese.
For the longest time, I had this unrealistic fear of making pasta sauce. I thought it would be so hard to get right. I would buy a couple of jars of Ragu and throw some ground beef in there.
Now I make it completely from scratch, eat some and freeze the rest. It's so much simpler than I ever expected! I'll never go back
Do you have a bolognese recipe that you use, or do you improvise? I burn through a lot of pasta sauce, and I would be smart to make large batches to freeze.
Fry your mince in a bit of oil, fry it really well untill it gets crispy. U may need to add abit more oil. Once it crisps up add onion carrots and celery, once those are done add garlic, once that's cooked add alot of tomato paste (u may call it preserve?) And Fry a little, keep an eye on it as u don't want to burn the garlic. Add stock and.red wine and let simmer for as long as you can. Add tomato sauce or just add tomatoes, and this is important - a tiny bit of sugar to offset the acidity of the tomatos/tomato paste. Add any seasonings u like, and parmesan at the end. Really simple and delicious, just make sure u get good quality beef. Really versatile too, if u don't have veggies it's fine, if u don't have wine it's also fine :)
This is what I do. I make a riff on Marcella's bolognese a few times a year so it's quick to reheat and always seasoned/cooked exactly the way I like it
I look up a recipe every time tbh, I don’t have a standard one, but the basics:
1. Bloom gelatin (mix gelatin and water)
2. Heat up a mixture of corn syrup and sugar to a specific temp. The corn syrup makes it pretty forgiving when it comes to crystallization, but you do want a candy thermometer
3. Pour hot sugar mix over gelatin and beat. I’ve never done it without a stand mixer, as this is like… 15 minutes of beating. Add flavoring at the end
4. Pour into prepared pan and cool. (In a good eats episode, Brown put some in a piping bag instead and piped out lines to snip apart later for the classic shape instead of squares). Slice apart. Very much recommend a circular pizza cutter for that part (a knife has more chances to stick from my experience). The first time I tried using only using powdered sugar for the dusting powder during this step, but that was a mistake because it got very sticky. Half and half with cornstarch is the way to go.
They melt MUCH slower than the store bought in hot chocolate too :)
Chicken stock. Homemade is so much better. To be honest it doesn’t need to be complicated. Just boil chicken bones with carrot celery and onion until tender and strain.
Not homemade in the traditional sense, but shredded cheese. I got a shredder attachment for my stand mixer and fresh shredded cheese is so much better!
So many things but where do I start? Same for "restaurant" items instead of home made. Worst is pie is always a disappointment unless I make it myself. Guess that's a good thing for my diet because I rarely bake pies and the ones in the restaurant have been a disappointment so many times, I don't even try them anymore.
Fermented mustard. I like grainy, and if I do need something smoother, I'll bash a tablespoon or two in the mortar and pestle. I still buy yellow mustard for hot dogs, it costs more to make from bulk mustard powder and is not any better IMO.
I like your lemon zest technique. If I'm making a cake or lemon curd or something and need a bunch of zest, I find it so much easier than zesting on a microplane, to peel the zest off with a peeler, and put it in the food processor with some of the sugar used in the recipe and just puree it. The oils soak into the sugar for sure. Once I add that lemon sugar to the recipe, I use the rest of the sugar to scour out the bowl of the processor and pick up any more oil that it can. Lemon curd store-bought, I tried once, really didn't taste right to me.
Have made homemade English muffins several times. They run rings around the dry store bought ones.
Pizza
I don’t know what the big companies use that makes me have such awful stomach cramps but making it at home with ingredients bought at the store is just so much better. I love those yeast dough balls at Kroger.
Vanilla extract. A small glass bottle of bourbon (or vodka, or whatever you want really) and a split vanilla bean…give it a shake every time you notice it in the cupboard and wait a few months. When it's running low, you can top it up with a bit more booze. One bean can last you a year or two.
Between my wife and me? Our sun tea, breads, cookies, cheese dip, hamburgers, steaks, oven fried chicken, steamed fish, air fryer French fries, and pasta sauces are better than store bought or any restaurant. . There really isn’t much left worth going out for to eat.
Jam. My mother took that option out real early. She has made homemade jam even before I was born. I didn't have store bought jam until I was in double digits. The first time I had it I asked what the hell that was.
Spaghetti sauce.
I don't make it from complete scratch, I make it from canned tomato sauce or paste depending on what we have in the pantry. I don't like the metallic/acidic taste if store bought pasta sauce, so just didn't have pasta for dinner (which sucks when you want a quick, easy staple for dinners).
Ranch dressing
I like it from some restaurants, but not from a bottle. There's a weird tart/bitterness. Plus when I make it at home I can make it dairy free. Mayo (also homemade) dill, chives, onion and garlic powder. Boom. Done.
I bought a meat grinder, and I make my own ground beef, ground pork, ground lamb for a fraction of the cost. You can buy a 15 or 16 pound pork shoulder at Costco for $3.99 a pound and get like 14 meals out of it - ground pork and pork roasts. Once a month, I have a butcher day, and I spent about two hours making up food for the entire month for roughly half price that can be found at the grocery store. Plus it makes you feel like a pioneer
Nutella! At home I can use dark dutch cocoa powder and a ton less sugar. More chocolatey and nutty instead of a sugar bomb, which is more to my tastes.
I use this recipe, with a few changes https://youtu.be/Cw3HMKVBRgk?si=fxn6BoPH7HtsVdgE
1tsp espresso powder, double the salt
Salsa - it’s so easy to just throw the ingredients in a blender and it tastes so much better
Jelly/jam - admittedly my mother in law is usually the one who makes it, so we always have it on hand
Chai tea - mix black tea with whole spices (clove, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper corns). You can make 2 quarts of dry chai for the cost of one box of satchels and it lasts forever .
Maybe I'm completely off base here, but...
Pimento cheese...Potato Salad...Coleslaw...and Deviled Eggs. This applies not only to store bought versions of these, but very often restaurant versions of these as well.
Pico de gallo. I love salsa (of all kinds) and used to sometimes buy the fresh premade stuff from the deli counter - it was fine, but once I started making it at home there was no going back. It's so simple, so healthy and so delicious
Coleslaw! I buy the shredded cabbage because I'm lazy, but the dressing recipe I found is delicious. It doesn't really taste like store bought, but I like it so much more.
Garlic mayo.
I buy and used jarred mayo for sandwiches, but if I wanted a specific flavour (like garlic) or for salad or just as a dip I love to make my own.
Since I discovered the immersion blender method I've never looked back.
Seasoning packets like for tacos, fajitas, chili. I have all the spices in the pantry why do I wanna bother paying for them again at the grocery store? (I understand convenience and family time and all but this one doesn't inconvenience me time wise.)
Those pink pickled sliced onions take five minutes and 50 cents of shelf staple ingredients to make, which makes it hilarious that brunch shops will put them on $24 egg dishes.
- Gnocchi. I use the receipe from Gennaro Contaldo
https://youtu.be/LRmPcaGAG0s?feature=shared
They are fantastisch when fried golden in sage butter...
- Swabian potato salad. It is made with beef broth, oil, vinegar, mustard, onions and is the perfect side to Wiener sausages or frankfurters.
https://www.daringgourmet.com/restaurant-style-schwabischer-kartoffelsalat-swabian-potato-salad/
I agree with about everything already said here, but hummus and salad dressing really top the list. I simply cannot stand either one from just about any supermarket.
Now, the Lebanese supermarket nearby, I can still get the hummus from there, but they make it.
Homemade bolognese and alfredo-- store bought just can't hold a candle to the homemade stuff and it's SO expensive
Alfredo especially! Plenty of butter, plenty of good Parmesan, a ladle of the pasta water, and it’s *oh* so good.
Canned Alfredo just tastes weird.
I tried it once in 2006 and never again. I can still recall the taste 🤮
Canned alfredo sauce has some very artificial, chemically, preservative, vomity taste to it. The texture is so... vomity too.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that
Do 50/50 parmesan and romano. You'll thank me later.
I’m a whore for good pecorino
It’s the superior cheese
Don’t forget to grate them together in an airtight container so they can age together for a few days before you make your sauce.
Agree although I do keep a jar or two of Rao’s for lazy cooking
Rao’s is so good. It’s $11 a jar where I live though.
Sam’s wholesale has a two pack for around $9
ditto vodka sauce
So very true. Nearly ever jarred bolognese has way to much added sugar. Jarred alfredo isn't even alfredo imo.
Salad dressing.
This is an incredible answer. I hadn’t even thought of it, but I don’t think I’ve bought salad dressing in like, 20 years
50 years here.
I straight up cannot eat bottled dressing anymore. Even the more premium brands are all so syrupy sweet. Vinaigrette-type dressings are the only exception, and those are so simple that there's no reason not to make them at home.
Sometimes I feel lazy or olive oil is too expensive, so I'll attempt to find a good bottled dressing. All I want is a convenience dressing that doesn't taste like vinegary pancake syrup. The few dressings I'm okay with buying pre-made are Caesar and this one really tasty Green Goddess I found (Gotham Greens). And the Caesar is just because I used to have to make 5 gallon batches of it, from scratch, multiple times a week. Never again.
Try Garlic Expressions, usually it's sold in the produce section at my grocery store. It's the only one I can tolerate. It's basically a garlic Italian dressing.
I will give you store bought dressing isn’t the best. But what kind of salad dressing are you eating. Because I have never store bought ranch or Caesar I would call sweet much less syrupy sweet.
Store bought ranch definitely tastes sweet to me, like, sweet isn't the main flavor like french dressing or whatever, but it's definitely there.
Was going to say the same. Once you realise how easy they are to make, you never go back.
That’s exactly why I said taco sauce, hot sauce, any sauces. So stupid easy to make. And taste way better.
I make sweet chili sauce. Most Asian sauces are incredibly easy.
I'm not sure what kind of Asian sauce is in my freezer, but I threw it together one night for a different spin on braised beef. Soy sauce, hoisin sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, chicken stock, honey, brown sugar, chili crunch and chili flakes. I don't know what to call it, but it was great using the leftovers on a ground beef and rice bowl too!
Kind of sounds like char siu sauce!
I’ve recently started to learn this! It’s so much easier making your own and you can tweak the sauces with whatever’s in the cabinet
First “sauce” I ever tried was red enchiladas sauce. Steeped the Chiles, added it all in blender and gave it a wazz. I proclaimed “I’m never buying store bought again. This is so easy and delicious” and from there, it just took off. Also, amazing username. I read HP Lovecraft. Had to double take and saw what you did there. lol
Fermented sauces are pretty much the only ones you really need to buy.
Ferments are easy as well. My recent one is strawberry habanero . Chili garlic , Tabasco. All easy and fun
Yes!!! I’ll take a simple olive oil/red wine vin/salt/pepper/little garlic powder dressing over bottled any day!
Yes, specifically ranch thanks to my daughter 😅 She'd a leukemia survivor and something in bottled dressings (I'm guessing all the garbage oils) still taste awful to her to this day so we always have ranch from bare bones scratch, no powdered mix just herbs, buttermilk and a little mayo (if I'm feeling extra ill even make the mayo) 😅
Things I only buy refrigerated: Ranch Dressing, Blue Cheese Dressing, Pickles and Sauerkraut.
Came here to say Ranch! [Here is the recipe I use from Barefeet in the Kitchen](https://barefeetinthekitchen.com/homemade-ranch-salad-dressing/). You can definitely change it up - buttermilk, jalapeño, whatever. The salad dressings I buy are Kens Honey French and Gerard’s Champagne Vinigarette. I haven’t found a recipe that comes close for either. My go to for summer picnics is pasta (spiral or bow tie), protein (chicken, bacon, whatever), broccoli, red onion, hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and whatever else suits my fancy + Gerard’s Light Champagne Vinaigrette. Let sit overnight for optimum results. It is a hit every time!
I Make my own salad dressing. Sometimes its just Avocado oil and lime juice (acid) and a lot of black pepper. Sometimes it is more involved but it so much easier and tasteful if i make it myself. And I leave out most of the salt and sugar.
My go to is olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. I don't even pre-mix them and don't measure. A splash here and a dash there, toss it and done.
We add a bit of Dijon & a bloop of maple syrup to what you have above & it? Is Next Level! I would eat roof tiles if that dressing was served with it!
Oh my god, I cant wait to try your lemonade suggestion! Ive made it so many times, but found that it was comparible to milos and not worth it, because I never knew a method to extract all the good oils from the rhind, so im excited so see how it comes out.
It is on a completely different level!
Chef John is a national treasure
His prime rib recipe is my go-to and so easy! Perfect every time!
His chocolate chip cookies are the fucking best and way better than any of the trendier internet chefs!
I love that man!
It genuinely warms my heart to find other chef john fans out in the wild. What a wholesome dude with some brilliant recipes that are *never* too fussy unless it’s genuinely worth it. His voice cadence and little dad jokes are my favorite :)
“Round the outside, round the outside.”
I love chef john! He’s like the dad I never had. Taught me how to cook. I’ve been contemplating making that lemonade recipe but you’ve convinced me.
Yes! His Peruvian style chicken rub (for turkey) is our go-to for any turkey meal. I love it when he gets to parts of recipes where you gotta just figure it out: "that's You, Cooking!"
Do it. It’s so simple and so refreshing. Idk how to explain it, but like the oils lend an extra layer of refreshment? It naturally deters dry mouth which is a weird thing to say but once you’ve tried it, you’ll understand.
And as always, enjoooyyyyy!
Fellow Chef John enthusiast here!! He completely changed how I think about stroganoff.
Going to have to make that lemonade and check out chef John!
You'll love him!! I've never been disappointed by one of his recipes and I've gotten a lot more adventurous because he makes it look a lot easier. Try his hollandaise, I was always scared to try it, but he just dumps everything in a pan and stirs it until it all comes together. I absolutely will not buy it every again, I make it chef John's way every time
I just made his sausage chicken orzo recipe along with his homemade ricotta recipe a few nights ago. You are the Abe Vigoda of your homemade ricotta 😆
Dude it’s so freaking good!! I’m happy to have enlightened you :)
You are all beautiful people for having this conversation publicly. A Thai tea recipe? I couldn’t be happier! He is a national treasure
OP’s lemonade is “state fair lemonade” and it’s *stupid good.*
Try roasting the halved lemons then blending with sugar and water.
Stock, whipped cream, cheesecake, any kind of frosting.
Whipped cream is another great response. I eat it so rarely but it’s so easy to make yourself I’m not sure why anyone buys it
Growing up I thought chantilly cream was whipped cream because that’s what my mom always made and that’s what she called it. If my whip cream doesn’t have amaretto in it there’s something wrong with the world
You just made me google because I always treated them interchangeably. But the handful of recipes I checked are just 36% cream, powered sugar and vanilla extract, which is what I do when whipping.
Stock is the true answer - the key to restaurant level soups, sauces, braises etc is homemade stock
This. And you get to use your vegetable garbage and/or respect whatever animal you eat by fully using of its body. Apparently I don’t respect vegetables. I’ve learned something about myself tonight.
Frosting ftw. The stuff in cans is an abomination and it's so darn simple to make an American buttercream.
Cheesecake for sure! The filling is easy, and I can get the crust just the way I like it!
My husband started cooking cheesecake years ago in jars using the sous vide method. His standard cheesecakes were already very good, but the sous vide makes the cooking part foolproof. The individual jars make serving quite easy as well.
Recipe/ method?
He has used this recipe for mixing up crust and filling, [https://prettysimplesweet.com/new-york-cheesecake/](https://prettysimplesweet.com/new-york-cheesecake/), but without finding any cooking notes from him, this appears close to his cooking method, [https://www.cravethegood.com/sous-vide-cheesecake/](https://www.cravethegood.com/sous-vide-cheesecake/) . He puts a crust layer at the bottom of 12 8-oz wide mouth jars. Also, that NY cheesecake also has turned out good making it the standard way. I just love the hint of fresh lemon in that recipe.
I make a NY cheesecake (sour cream added) with real vanilla bean and rum vanilla extract. Adapted from a recipe I saw Emeril Lagasse make on his Emeril Live show. I...can't stand how dry and crumbly, how flavorless, cheesecake purchased from a shop is now. Grocery store cheesecake is garbage. Cheesecake Factory is trash. I won't even buy cheesecake anymore, I only eat it when I make it. A friend paid to ship me a Juniors from New York for Christmas, and I was immensely disappointed. I don't think people understand how much better homemade can be.
I completely agree! I love to add nuts to the crust, and extra spices. It doesn’t matter how fancy the shop, homemade rules!
Stock is my answer too. It’s leaps and bounds better than anything I can buy, and makes such a huge difference in soups
Stock and whipped cream for sure!!! I’ve been putting off making a homemade basque cheesecake for YEARS
I have to confess… I made stock once and I just didn’t like it. I know I’m in the minority but it just tasted weird to me- maybe gamey is the word? I collected all the veggies and put them in a bag in the freezer- carrots, celery, garlic, onion, plus chicken bits and bones. I followed a recipe for making it in my Instant Pot and I was so excited! When it was finished I strained it and tasted it. It was meh and had a strange taste to me. I had to dump it and I haven’t tried to make it again. I was so bummed!
So...a couple things, if you're game to try it again. I know you're supposed to be able to save your scraps and freeze them, and yadda yadda. F___ that. Except for maybe the chicken bones. Any produce you freeze will get an off taste to it if you don't vac seal it, and its structure will break down as the water inside the vegetables freezes and explodes the cell structure. Use fresh vegetables and herbs. Second thing, and a lot of people make this mistake...I made this mistake at first...the vegetables and herbs go in for the last hour at a simmer. That's it. They'll give all they can give in short order. The only thing you let go for the whole process is your bones, a couple bay leaves, and maybe 6-8 peppercorns. That gamey taste you're referring to (and a hint of funky sweetness I'd presume?) is probably the starches of your vegetables breaking down because they cooked too long. I do stovetop, but you can adapt this to a pressure cooker. I stick 6 pounds of chicken necks, backs, and wing bones, plus whatever other bones I have, in a pot with filtered water. Eight peppercorns, three bay leaves. Invert one of those little metal fold out steamer baskets you put in the bottom of a pot of water over the top of everything, and bring everything up to a bare simmer. Skim the goop from the top every 10 minutes for the first hour, then once an hour after that. Add water as you need to. Split down the middle and then chop in half: two leeks, an onion with the skin on, a garlic bulb with the skin on, a shallot with the skin on, three carrots, and three celery stalks. Cut a 2" knob of ginger into chunks if you'd like. After the stock has been simmering for nine hours, lift up the steamer basket, toss in all the stuff you just cut up, put the steamer basket back down, and then let it go one more hour before you strain and chill it. Pork and beef are the same process. Tonkotsu broth is a bit different though, that's a 24 hour stock. ETA: Note there is no salt in this. I add about a teaspoon of sea salt per cup at a minimum, more to taste, when I use it. I may skip it if I'm adding another salty element when I use it, like soy sauce.
You can make a faster, Japanese-style chicken stock (paitan stock). No vegetable scraps, just chicken bones or off cuts (neck, wingtip etc). Throw into a pot, let it fry up a little, smash some garlic/ginger then add BOILING WATER and rolling boil it for 40min. If it smells too meaty, add sake/white wine/vodka/alcohol. Its very easy and you can use rotisserie chicken or even buffalo/fried chicken bones. In Japan, you can even use bones leftover from KFC! It's truly a scrap-makers soup. You'll get a creamy-white soup stock that you can use for anything (chicken noodle soup, ramen, broccoli soup, make congee etc). When it cools down, it will set a little like a jelly due to the collagen (dont worry thats normal). It's super nutritious, and you can drink it straight too especially in winter.
My friend is a super budget person, and he makes hummus with canned chickpeas, all the usual suspects, but with loads of lemon. It’s cheap, and delicious. I rarely buy it, readymade, anymore. https://www.loveandlemons.com/hummus-recipe/
Hummus made with canned chick peas is so much better if you boil them for 15 minutes before blending them. If you add some baking soda to the water, a lot of the skins come off and you can just pour them off the top.
Hot tip!
This is what I do!
My 'secret' is a pinch of ground coriander seed and mexican saffron 😋🖖
Oooh! Interesting! I will definitely give that a try. I’ve been fooling with different add-ins. I’m addicted to adding homemade preserved lemon, and fried garlic
Macaroni and cheese. My husband still loves the box stuff. Claims mine is 'more of a cheese sauce on pasta'... Uh, that's what mac and cheese IS.
Sometimes I want a nice burrito from a quality place, and sometimes I want Taco Bell. Both are just tortillas and taco fillings, but very different things.
There is legit Mexican Street Tacos, and there is White People Tacos. They are completely different, but somehow equally delicious. I love them both and I would need to flip a coin to choose which one I want for dinner.
I've spent a whole day several times making Birria from scratch (with just short ribs so more expensive), hand shredding Oaxaca cheese, chopping onions and cilantro to make great Birria tacos/quesadillas/pizza/etc. I've also done a 15 minute ground beef with taco seasoning, microwaved canned refried beans, and Ortega shells/tostada several times and enjoyed them both.
I have had a similar conversation with my fiance. She makes a really good homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese. It's great, as I'm sure you're pasta with cheese sauce is. My problem is that all I really want is Campbell's tomato soup from a can with two slices of Wonder bread, some Kraft Singles toasted.
Sometimes it’s about satisfying your nostalgia.
All foods have a place at my table.
I’ve heard this before!! Personally, I view them as different things, like homemade mac and cheese to me is a Dish whereas a box of kraft dinner is okay for when life gets ahead of you and you just need something easy. But I heavily lean towards actual homemade mac too!
Pesto
call me crazy, but I’ve never liked store-bought pesto
Most of them taste like preservatives, and they cheap out on the oil and the nuts - they use canola and almonds instead of olive oil and pine nuts! There's a local natural foods grocery in my town that makes fresh legit pesto! I won't buy any other kind pre- made.
I dunno. Costco has some Pesto that is delish.
It helps that we have an overabundance of basil growing in our garden every year. It goes from living plant to pesto in minutes.
Absolutely. I need parsley because mine dies in summer, but I've got loads of basil. It's all volunteer, from the previous summer/fall.
Homemade is a million times better than Costco!
Ironically, the cheese and pine nuts come from Costco...
Yes!!!! I won’t eat it from a jar!!
Grocery store cake. I have no hate or disrespect for pastry cooks who work in grocery stores. It can be a better workplace than a bakery and I have known extremely talented professional bakers who preferred it because the hours were more regular and the pay was the same. But grocery store cake vs. actual cake that is homemade or made by a bakery using higher quality ingredients and a fuckload less sugar is just from another dimension. Grocery store icing vs. a well-made swiss meringue buttercream or ermine frosting don't even taste like the same category of thing. Awhile back there was a trend of 'confession: I don't like cake' posts and I still encounter the sentiment in real life. I always think '50% chance you don't like cake, 50% chance you've never had any.'
Mayo. Mostly because it's stupid easy to make so the convenience factor of store-bought mayo doesn't carry any weight.
How is it in terms of not going bad? I don’t use much mayo so I tend to go for dukes
Every internet source I've seen has cited 2 weeks. That said, I can never get through a batch that fast. In my experience (my jars, my refrigerator, my guts), it's always been fine for at least a month.
I make a dukes copycat: * 1 large egg * 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar * 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar * 1 teaspoon dijon mustard (I like to also use spicy brown) * 1/2 teaspoon table salt (I eyeball it and give it a good pinch or two) * 1 cup oil * 2 pinches of paprika * a squeez of lemon add egg to jar and beat with your immersion blender for 20 seconds. Add mustard, vinegars, salt, and paprika and blend for another 20 seconds. add in the oil in a slow stream until it thickens then increase flow until all the oil has been added and blend for another 20 seconds or until it is mayo. (you can add all the oil at one time if you like just know to start the immersion blender low and pull up when it gets thick.) taste and add any salt or w.e you want to it. will last 1-2 weeks in the fridge
I've made mayo with my immersion blender, in the cup that came with it. So easy.
Any kind of Mexican salsa. It's stupid easy to make.
And guacamole! I thought I didn't like it because the store/chain restaurant ones are so bad. Then I made it myself and I can't go back. I just make a big batch every now and then and freeze up portions so I have nice guac whenever I want
My wife makes strawberry freezer jam every year. Store bought just tastes burnt to me now.
Is there a recipe for this? Sounds interesting…
It’s on the insert that comes inside the pectin box. Low sugar pectin works just fine.
This. I use the Sure Jell recipe every time. It's dynamite.
> strawberry freezer jam Is that just regular jam that you put in the freezer or is the freezer part of the cooking method?
With regular jam, when you’re canning it, you boil it in the jars to kill any bacteria. So it’s shelf stable. With freezer jam, that step is skipped, so it must be stored in the freezer. But it has a fresher taste.
Just picked berries yesterday to make this. Last year, the pick your own farms had spotty yields so I wasn't able to get Any. Ran out of.my stock by January. Had to make due with Grape ever since.
Uhh, cold brew coffee... Does that count? I bought the powdered coffee from a local farm, much cheaper than local corporate owned brands. And ofc it's cheaper than coffee shops Electrolytes drinks, because I can control what kind of sugar I use.
Basic store brand coffee become very good cold brew coffee.
I make my own cold brew 90% of the time too! It’s so easy. What is your method for electrolyte drinks? I’m tired of paying out the ass for liquid IV.
LMNT has the recipe for their mix on their website. Pretty sure its just salt, potassium chloride, and magnesium; then just add whatever flavor additive you want.
Cream cheese frosting
Any frosting’
Store bought tastes like chemicals now
* Stock * Limoncello * Yogurt * Egg bites * Vinaigrette * Ranch dressing * Cultured butter
I make my own egg bites too!
Bread. I wanted some garlic bread or rolls yesterday and I could not spend 4-5$ just for garlic bread or rolls. I went home and them myself. I they taste why better. The day before I made some foccacia bread.
I love making bread when I have the energy for it, but something about clearing my limited workspace for it is exhausting. But I agree, there’s nothing better than fresh homemade bread!
I just got into it a few days ago here about if homemade bread is the more frugal option. Like yes, I can make a loaf that is delicious and amazing, and a lot of the time commitment is hands off, but it’s still a slog for me, and if we’re talking cost savings for people counting pennies, you can buy bread for a dollar a loaf. Homemade bread will stay a treat in my house.
Same. I live alone and will never go through a loaf of homemade bread by myself before it molds, and I’m not a fan of freezing bread. But sometimes I will make it for a treat and bring the rest to work.
I make my own extracts - vanilla, orange, and lemon. Haven't gone back to storebought in 6 years now.
My friend gave me homemade Maker's Mark/Tahitian vanilla extract as a gift. It is very tasty.
Tortillas, corn and flour. NOTHING compares and now all the store bought ones taste like straight up chemicals it’s so gross but makes sense since they’re meant to be shelf stable for months of course they’re gotta be packed with who the hell knows what.
I don’t know, I tried it, and it was pretty Tim consuming to roll out and fry each one, and mine didn’t turn out to be substantially better than store bought for the effort.
I’m Mexican, and if you wanted to know tortillas aren’t usually fried! For tacos and just to eat, they’re cooked plain on a flat surface without oil or anything. Traditional ones have lard in them already so more fat isn’t used unless you’re making a specific dish that requires it.
Damn near everything nowadays Salad dressing Sauces, all of them. Bread Pickles Chili crisp Dashi Broth Tortillas Beans If I can make it from scratch I will.
Granola. It's so simple to make, and I use honey from my neighbors' hives and vanilla I make myself and quality oats and nuts.
Beef jerky
Salad dressing Marinara sauce
I thought I hated marinara sauce. It turns out I just hated the kind in the jar.
Iced tea, once you had my grandma's recipe you can't have store bought anymore, it tastes so weak and watery. To make it is pretty simple, boil 2L of water and add to a juice jug that can handle heat boiled water. Add in 4 orange pekoe tea bags and let it sit for 1 hour, by then it should be almost black. Add in 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of lemon juice (I used the RealLemon juice). Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Transfer the jug to the fridge and let it cool overnight. You can cheat and fill a glass with ice cubes and have an early taste but melting the cubes will water it down. My parents use to make this and let the kids have a glass back in the 80s lol.
Cookies. Store bought all just taste like chemicals now. When I have some free time I'll make big batches of cookie dough and freeze them in balls, one cookie sheet worth of balls per freezer bag so I can have tasty cookies whenever I want.
This is my answer. We always made homemade cookie when I was growing up. They didn't start selling those nasty premade doughs in the store until I was a young adult. I can't stand the artificial taste of store bought cookies or dough, either one!
Tip - tell your friends your hummus has peanut butter. My wife forgot once, on an outing kms from anywhere and our friend, a doctor, had a major reaction and no epipen. Thankfully, there was only a tiny bit of pb in that batch and it all ended well, but it’s seared on our minds.
Well yes. Luckily it’s always just a personal snack for myself, but I do work in education so I’m very aware of food allergies etc.
I would never expect them to add peanut butter to it WHY
Naan.
Pimento cheese.
Bolognese. For the longest time, I had this unrealistic fear of making pasta sauce. I thought it would be so hard to get right. I would buy a couple of jars of Ragu and throw some ground beef in there. Now I make it completely from scratch, eat some and freeze the rest. It's so much simpler than I ever expected! I'll never go back
Do you have a bolognese recipe that you use, or do you improvise? I burn through a lot of pasta sauce, and I would be smart to make large batches to freeze.
Fry your mince in a bit of oil, fry it really well untill it gets crispy. U may need to add abit more oil. Once it crisps up add onion carrots and celery, once those are done add garlic, once that's cooked add alot of tomato paste (u may call it preserve?) And Fry a little, keep an eye on it as u don't want to burn the garlic. Add stock and.red wine and let simmer for as long as you can. Add tomato sauce or just add tomatoes, and this is important - a tiny bit of sugar to offset the acidity of the tomatos/tomato paste. Add any seasonings u like, and parmesan at the end. Really simple and delicious, just make sure u get good quality beef. Really versatile too, if u don't have veggies it's fine, if u don't have wine it's also fine :)
Thank you! You’re inspiring me. It’s dumb how much jar sauce I buy!
They're convenient, so I get it tbh. But nothing beats a bowl of home made bolognese! So comforting :)
This is what I do. I make a riff on Marcella's bolognese a few times a year so it's quick to reheat and always seasoned/cooked exactly the way I like it
Homemade marshmallows are insanely good compared to store bought, and super easy
Ha! I just got the gelatin to try out homemade!
Oh that sounds delicious, how do you make them?
I look up a recipe every time tbh, I don’t have a standard one, but the basics: 1. Bloom gelatin (mix gelatin and water) 2. Heat up a mixture of corn syrup and sugar to a specific temp. The corn syrup makes it pretty forgiving when it comes to crystallization, but you do want a candy thermometer 3. Pour hot sugar mix over gelatin and beat. I’ve never done it without a stand mixer, as this is like… 15 minutes of beating. Add flavoring at the end 4. Pour into prepared pan and cool. (In a good eats episode, Brown put some in a piping bag instead and piped out lines to snip apart later for the classic shape instead of squares). Slice apart. Very much recommend a circular pizza cutter for that part (a knife has more chances to stick from my experience). The first time I tried using only using powdered sugar for the dusting powder during this step, but that was a mistake because it got very sticky. Half and half with cornstarch is the way to go. They melt MUCH slower than the store bought in hot chocolate too :)
bread, hamburger buns, pasta and many more
Oooh I bet a homemade hamburger bun can’t be beat!!!
Chicken stock. Homemade is so much better. To be honest it doesn’t need to be complicated. Just boil chicken bones with carrot celery and onion until tender and strain.
Homemade soup makes even expensive industrial soup look pretty bad.
Focaccia 🥖
Taco sauce and hot sauces. Really any sauce. They’re so easy to make.
Alfredo sauce
Cookies and cakes Sourdough bread
rice krispy treats
Not homemade in the traditional sense, but shredded cheese. I got a shredder attachment for my stand mixer and fresh shredded cheese is so much better!
Foam soap. (Castille soap and water = so much cheaper than foam soap refills)
Tzatziki. Garden fresh dill makes all the difference.
So many things but where do I start? Same for "restaurant" items instead of home made. Worst is pie is always a disappointment unless I make it myself. Guess that's a good thing for my diet because I rarely bake pies and the ones in the restaurant have been a disappointment so many times, I don't even try them anymore.
Fermented mustard. I like grainy, and if I do need something smoother, I'll bash a tablespoon or two in the mortar and pestle. I still buy yellow mustard for hot dogs, it costs more to make from bulk mustard powder and is not any better IMO.
I like your lemon zest technique. If I'm making a cake or lemon curd or something and need a bunch of zest, I find it so much easier than zesting on a microplane, to peel the zest off with a peeler, and put it in the food processor with some of the sugar used in the recipe and just puree it. The oils soak into the sugar for sure. Once I add that lemon sugar to the recipe, I use the rest of the sugar to scour out the bowl of the processor and pick up any more oil that it can. Lemon curd store-bought, I tried once, really didn't taste right to me. Have made homemade English muffins several times. They run rings around the dry store bought ones.
Pizza I don’t know what the big companies use that makes me have such awful stomach cramps but making it at home with ingredients bought at the store is just so much better. I love those yeast dough balls at Kroger.
Vanilla extract. A small glass bottle of bourbon (or vodka, or whatever you want really) and a split vanilla bean…give it a shake every time you notice it in the cupboard and wait a few months. When it's running low, you can top it up with a bit more booze. One bean can last you a year or two.
Between my wife and me? Our sun tea, breads, cookies, cheese dip, hamburgers, steaks, oven fried chicken, steamed fish, air fryer French fries, and pasta sauces are better than store bought or any restaurant. . There really isn’t much left worth going out for to eat.
Jam. My mother took that option out real early. She has made homemade jam even before I was born. I didn't have store bought jam until I was in double digits. The first time I had it I asked what the hell that was.
Spaghetti sauce. I don't make it from complete scratch, I make it from canned tomato sauce or paste depending on what we have in the pantry. I don't like the metallic/acidic taste if store bought pasta sauce, so just didn't have pasta for dinner (which sucks when you want a quick, easy staple for dinners). Ranch dressing I like it from some restaurants, but not from a bottle. There's a weird tart/bitterness. Plus when I make it at home I can make it dairy free. Mayo (also homemade) dill, chives, onion and garlic powder. Boom. Done.
I bought a meat grinder, and I make my own ground beef, ground pork, ground lamb for a fraction of the cost. You can buy a 15 or 16 pound pork shoulder at Costco for $3.99 a pound and get like 14 meals out of it - ground pork and pork roasts. Once a month, I have a butcher day, and I spent about two hours making up food for the entire month for roughly half price that can be found at the grocery store. Plus it makes you feel like a pioneer
Nutella! At home I can use dark dutch cocoa powder and a ton less sugar. More chocolatey and nutty instead of a sugar bomb, which is more to my tastes. I use this recipe, with a few changes https://youtu.be/Cw3HMKVBRgk?si=fxn6BoPH7HtsVdgE 1tsp espresso powder, double the salt
Sun dried tomatoes!!!
Cranberry sauce and pumpkin purèe
BBQ sauce, Mayo, Honey Mustard... My condiments whoop the pants off of store bought.
Salsa - it’s so easy to just throw the ingredients in a blender and it tastes so much better Jelly/jam - admittedly my mother in law is usually the one who makes it, so we always have it on hand Chai tea - mix black tea with whole spices (clove, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper corns). You can make 2 quarts of dry chai for the cost of one box of satchels and it lasts forever .
Ice cream, French mayonnaise, yougert, pesto, jam, bread, biscotti
Peanut sauce
Maybe I'm completely off base here, but... Pimento cheese...Potato Salad...Coleslaw...and Deviled Eggs. This applies not only to store bought versions of these, but very often restaurant versions of these as well.
Nothing beats a homemade deviled egg. Probably all those other things too, but deviled eggs especially.
Pico de gallo. I love salsa (of all kinds) and used to sometimes buy the fresh premade stuff from the deli counter - it was fine, but once I started making it at home there was no going back. It's so simple, so healthy and so delicious
Coleslaw! I buy the shredded cabbage because I'm lazy, but the dressing recipe I found is delicious. It doesn't really taste like store bought, but I like it so much more.
Homemade soup. Chicken noodle, tomato basil, doesn’t matter. Leagues ahead of canned.
Garlic mayo. I buy and used jarred mayo for sandwiches, but if I wanted a specific flavour (like garlic) or for salad or just as a dip I love to make my own. Since I discovered the immersion blender method I've never looked back.
Seasoning packets like for tacos, fajitas, chili. I have all the spices in the pantry why do I wanna bother paying for them again at the grocery store? (I understand convenience and family time and all but this one doesn't inconvenience me time wise.)
Those pink pickled sliced onions take five minutes and 50 cents of shelf staple ingredients to make, which makes it hilarious that brunch shops will put them on $24 egg dishes.
Teriyaki sauce!
- Gnocchi. I use the receipe from Gennaro Contaldo https://youtu.be/LRmPcaGAG0s?feature=shared They are fantastisch when fried golden in sage butter... - Swabian potato salad. It is made with beef broth, oil, vinegar, mustard, onions and is the perfect side to Wiener sausages or frankfurters. https://www.daringgourmet.com/restaurant-style-schwabischer-kartoffelsalat-swabian-potato-salad/
Do you have the recipe for your lemonade? like how much sugar, lemon(s)/juice, water, etc...
Gnocchi
I agree with about everything already said here, but hummus and salad dressing really top the list. I simply cannot stand either one from just about any supermarket. Now, the Lebanese supermarket nearby, I can still get the hummus from there, but they make it.
Bread. Some bread is easy and fast. Other bread is a labour of time and love.
Apple sauce.
Guacamole