Why Do You Cook? : Spilled Milk #132

In defense of making things from scratch. (OK, maybe not croissants.)

So about a month ago I saw this on one of my feeds and I felt a lot of mixed emotions after reading it: "‘I Decided To Make It From Scratch, Yet Nobody Could Tell The Difference’: People Are Sharing The Labor-Intensive And Tedious Foods That Just Aren't Worth Making From Scratch.”

It’s easy to learn how to roast a chicken! Photo by Cisco Lin on Unsplash

The title is odd, and shame on the editor for not cleaning that up, but one look and you will get the drift.

I cook for many reasons. It’s a yoga in the classic sense of the word, a meditation. I relax and only focus on the food when I have it in front of me. I find peace when I am cooking. I love to feed others, I love to eat, I love the science of it, the art of it, the craft of it. I do it out of necessity to feed my family and because some days, it’s my work … literally.

I know I am not alone. I also know most other folks don’t care for cooking. And every opinion exists thats in between. Home cooks offered some ideas in the story that made a lot of sense. A croissant, like other laminated pastry work, is hard to make. And with so many good bakeries in every town in America these days, a decent one can be had pretty easily. Laminated doughs are also available frozen and some are pretty decent, so there is that angle to consider as well. Just Google it — a ton of options come up.

But many of the rest of these struck me as absurd. Look, doughnuts aren’t for everyone to make at home, but they aren’t hard to make and they are so fun. Check out my Sufganiyot recipe on my website if you want to try one.

Am I crazy? Seriously, please tell me if I am. Look, I know these articles are mostly clickbait bullshit, but this one was ridiculous. As it kicks off, it makes the wrongful assumption that “People praise the idea of making elaborate meals from scratch.” I wasn’t aware of that trend, but I do see people praise the idea of making all types of meals, and the word elaborate is subjective, after all.

The effort of making any dish can be construed as “not worth it,” I guess — that seems subjective as well. It quotes Ina Garten’s maxim “Store-bought is fine.” Here is what isn’t subjective: As someone who has spent a life in food, I can tell you Ina isn’t right about everything, and oftentimes store-bought isn’t fine (BTW when someone says a food item is “fine,” they sometimes mean something is pretty fucking awful, and they’re just being polite.) What this article should have been called is “Foods That People Who Don’t Like to Cook Don’t Like To Make.” So here are the foods on this list I believe are ALWAYS worth the time, because cooking is ENJOYABLE.