Foods I didn’t make from scratch that I’ll now attempt…great idea.
Unsolicited review here: I had really high hopes here and felt a little left down. Partly because I disagreed with some of the assessments (it said to buy ground beef, which is certainly cheaper and MUCH easier, but I find the quality of ground beef into which I control the ingredients is highly preferable). Also because it spent significant time on areas that I feel fall out of the purview of “make or buy” decisions: “make” your own chickens, ducks, or honey? Entertaining passages, for sure, but that’s another level apart from spending a Saturday making bread and stock. And I felt cheated that the fried chicken recipe was just the Ad Hoc recipe. I will try making my own vanilla extract at some point in the future though.
Back to the thread
All ground meats, not just the beef mentioned above
Ricotta
Baby food, for those in the market
Pickles
Potato chips - a bit of a hassle, as is any frying project, but pretty simple and they absolutely disappear once made.
Whipped cream - homemade is crazy simple and not comparable to any store bought product
Yeah, you can find many videos about shaking butter on the web.
What I do is let the cream age opened in the fridge first (often a month+ past the expiration date). This souring of the cream makes a mild cultured butter with some tang, and that is how I like it. But you can also do it with fresher cream. I have often had some pretty scary cream containers in the fridge ‘maturing’.
I also try to avoid ultrapasturized cream as it takes so long to sour to my taste. In one case I left a container opened on the kitchen counter for almost a week before I could taste the slightest bit of souring.
Before shaking, I let it come to room temperature or leave it out over night. Shaking time depends upon the temp of the cream and how much moisture has evaporated from aging. Often it takes around five minutes, but I have had some take up to 30. That’s no fun.
Just make sure to paddle the butter fat really well with a wood spoon or something. It is the buttermilk particles left in the fat that will go rancid and cause the butter to spoil quicker.
k.
A big +1 on that.
Jams and jellies
Pickles +1
Applesauce
Cookies
Whipped cream +1
Pizza dough
Salad dressings +1
Pesto +1
Sloppy Joes!
Bottled water.
Sick of seeing all of the little plastic bottles get recycled or thrown away.
Whipped cream, pasta, fresh mozz, salad dressing, tartar sauce. More that I’m forgetting probably
This reminded me of the times, many years ago, my children made butter in small baby food jars on field trips to local farms. There was a song they sang, shaking the jars, as they passed them along. They sang:
Shake it, shake it, shake it; Shake it all you can; Shake it like a milkshake, and pass it to a friend.
The end result was quite good - fresh butter - although in small quantities.
My wife made Creme Chantilly for a dessert – one of the dinner guests brought her niece who had never had any whipped cream except out of a can. She nearly ate the whole bowl, she could not believe how wonderful it tasted. WHIP YOUR OWN CREAM. DO NOT BUY!!
Ricotta is amazing when it is homemade
This is not only good advice, it’s also the recipe for whipped cream in its entirety.
LOL - I thought whipped cream went into the “who doesn’t do that?” category.
Appreciate the thoughts on the book, which I will be happy to share. I haven’t read it myself (though Leslie refers to it a fair amount) and it was my impression that it was looking at cost and time/work spent for comparable product - more than a “what gives you the best result?”
Pickles are something I need to try.
We use Kirbys as our salad cucumber anyway.
Yeah, the author looks at 3 inputs: Cost relative to store bought, quality relative to store bought, and hassle relative to store bought. A bit of background: The author decided to write the book after losing her job and trying to find ways to save money. Therefore, I think she doesn’t quite give the “hassle” factor its due, as she was unemployed during this period. The author and I frequently disagree on what is a hassle and what isn’t. I’m not bothered by fried chicken - I don’t view planning ahead as a hassle, making a brine and frying food are pretty simple relative to, for example, cheesmaking, or certain types of pastry making (Croissants? Mix dough, then fold this thing 10 times? In the morning, pre-coffee?) It’s a good read though, I would recommend it to those who are enjoying this thread.
fwiw croissant dough freezes quite well.
I forgot about pickles.
I don’t go all out on the canning process, but I like to make quick recipes and refrigerator pickles. These three recipes from F&W have served me well. I constantly change up the vegetables depending upon what I see at the farmers’ market.
The curry ginger one works amazing on radishes. I also like to make them with asparagus and cubed golden beats. I have to blanche the beats first though.
Also, David Chang in his book, Momofuku, has some really good pickle recipes. I’ve tried his pickled melon and the pickled mustard seeds are completely amazing.
k.
Someone must buy those cans I see in the grocery stores. Not me, but someone.
Reminds me of how my mother would say that the jarred matzoh ball manufacturers should be very grateful to her since so far as she can tell by talking to people she was the only one who ever bought them. Everyone else said they made their own 
Back on topic:
Sunday sauce
croutons (croutons only appear in my salads when I have stale bread)
Ice cream/sorbet
Pie Crust
Occasionally mayonnaise but I always have a jar of Hellmans in the fridge. If it’s for guests I make my own. Same thing for salad dressing - there are a few store brands I like but for guests I’ll make it.
Sal’s Sauce (a sweet/hot sauce for chicken sold by Sal’s Birdland restaurants in upstate NY)
I always liked the texture croutons add to a tossed green salad (which we have most nights) but I was buying them and my wife doesn’t like the store bought variety. We had a dinner party where one of the guests brought the salad and home made croutons. My wife said she would eat those if I made them. That was about four years ago and I haven’t bought a crouton since. I use a good quality ciabatta and toss it with EVOO, S&P, dried herbs and dehydrated minced onion, and grated cheddar. They are a pantry staple here.
Also a tidbit from that “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter” book: Store bought croutons cost more per oz than filet Mignon.
Salsa
Hummus
Mayo (also buy Duke’s)
Ranch dressing (also buy sometimes)
I probably forgot a few.
For those of you who make Ranch dressing:
I have made it before, but the only buttermilk you can buy is in quart containers. Being a single person, I am NEVER going to use all that buttermilk, so it is just a waste for me to buy it. I have tried substituting things like yogurt, etc., but it just never tastes the same. Any thoughts on a substitute for buttermilk?