10 reasons to cook from scratch

My ingredient lists tend to be simple. You don't need to be a chemistry major to recognise all the things I cook with. No sodium glutamate, no potassium sorbate. Ready-made meals are full of the stuff - and that's only top of the iceberg. I can't even recollect the more complicated food additives without looking at the actual label - they tend to have more letters than antidisestablishmentarianism. Do you call that food?

I don't.

Food safety regulations supposedly protect us from harmful ingredients getting added to our grub. Yes, well. Even if I trusted government agencies that much (which I don't), I still wouldn't feel comfortable eating half a chemistry lab.

When I cook from scratch, I don't have to wonder if veggies were cleaned before being added to my salad, or if my chicken has ever landed on the floor or not. I know all that, just as I know how many times oil for deep frying was used or how old my porcini mushrooms are. I know exactly how much sugar goes into my pie and how much salt was added to my lasagne.

I don't have this comfort with convenience meals, no matter how 'convenient' they are.

You could call me over-sensitive, but if you have ever worked in food industry - or know anyone who did - you probably know a nasty story or two. Having heard my share of food horrors, I cherish my paranoia.

On the picture - onion biscuits

The food I cook usually gets eaten within half an hour. It does not stay in fridges for weeks or months at a time - unless I really, really want it to, which rarely happens. In other words - it's fresh.

It is made from fresh ingredients, too. You can't really judge freshness of your meat or veg or fruit once it has been stewed or frozen. When you buy basic ingredients - preferably not in supermarket, too - you're more likely to get really fresh products. There's only so much you can do to a tomato to disguise its age.

Freshness aside, cooking from scratch allows you to taylor the flavour exactly to your needs. Someone in your family doesn't like mozarella? No problem, add cheddar to your pizza instead. Not a big fan of cinnamon? Leave it out when you're baking apple pie. You decide how to season your food.

Surely you know your taste better than a mass producer?

On the picture - courgette/zucchini soup

I must have saved a fortune by cooking. Inevitably, cooking from basic ingredients is more budget-friendly than buying convenience meals.

To prove my point, let's take a closer look at the economics of pizza. I'll quote my local (Irish) prices, but I'm sure they will be similar wherever you live.

Frozen pizza - anything from E2 to E5.

Homemade pizza (my standard recipe makes two large pizzas):

1/2 kg flour - E0.50
10 g yeast - E0.10
4 tbsp oil - E0.10
salt, water - cost too insubstantial to mention

mozarella cheese - E0.70
tomato sauce - E0.50
onion - E0.20
salami - E1.00
feta cheese - E0.50

All in all, it costs me about E3.60 to make two large pizzas. No need to add that they are much tastier than frozen stuff.

I could repeat the mathematics for any recipe but inevitably, I would end up with pretty much the same results. Retailers make the highest profits on processed foods. If you 'process' them yourself, profit stays in your pocket.

On the picture - BLT

Sure, I can spend hours in the kitchen if I want to, but I know a whole range of quick and easy recipes for times when I don't want to. I shared some of them in my article called Ten Minute Dinners - you can see for yourself that I'm not bluffing.

I can cook a dinner in less time than I would spend re-heating a frozen meal or driving to a fast food joint. It's no rocket science either - anyone with basic knowledge of cooking and a recipe can do it too.

On the picture - pierogi

It's no coincidence that countries with 'convenience food' culture are also countries with the highest obesity rate.

Commercially processed food is full of empty calories. It is composed of the cheapest, least nutricious ingredients. It rarely contains more than symbolic quantities of vegetables (forget about fresh - you won't get your 5-a-day this way). Instead, it's jam-packed with salt, sugar, fat and starch. NOT the healthiest diet.

If you're worried about calories in your food, cook light. By 'light' I don't mean commercial products labelled as such. I mean less fat, less sugar, more veggies and unprocessed grain. It's easy to switch to a healthy, low-calorie diet when you are the person who controls what's on your plate.

On the picture - deviled eggs

I love, love, love to cook. I love to spend time in the kitchen, chopping, stirring, mixing, seasoning. I love to experiment with flavours, to get creative with shape and texture of food. I enjoy designing my own recipes and who cares if an experiment sometimes ends in a disaster. I like to use completely new ingredients in my cooking, to learn how to use an exotic spice or a new (to me) type of cereal. I like to hunt for new recipes, to try them out, to adjust quantities or flavours.

I'm supposed to exchange all that for the joys of taking plastic off a tray and popping it in the oven?

Forget it!

On the picture - apple cake

OK, I know I'm running the risk of sounding cheesy (and of infuriating some feminists...) here. I'll try to be as no-nonsense as possible.

Convenience meals and domestic bliss are not exactly compatible. I understand that it's not always the case, that there are women who hate cooking and families who don't mind. I'm happy for you, if you belong to this group, whatever works for you is fine by me.

Still - I love cooking for my family. I feel insanely proud that I can feed them delicious, healthy food. In my world, time spent in the kitchen is not wasted, it is invested to create something of emotional as well as economical value.

Lucky me, my efforts are fully appreciated.

On the picture - kiwi chicken with potato puffs and carrot salad

Let's be frank - convenience meals do not provide a lot of choice. A few basic ideas are recycled over and over. There's a pasta-and-tomato theme, there's something battered, there's standard Chinese or Indian meal, there's pizza/burgers/chips junk and that's pretty much it. After a while even a less sophisticated palate craves something more.

Cooking from scratch gives you literally thousands of options. You can explore different cuisines, use any ingredients you want, employ whatever culinary technique appeals to you.

I am confident I could cook something different every single day, for years if needed. Could any convenience food section in any supermarket compete with that?

On the picture - kopytka (Polish gnocchi)

While almost everyone can boil potatoes, really impressive cooking takes some skill. As with any ability, this skill needs practising too. In short - the more you cook, the better you get.

There are always new tricks to discover, new techniques to master. While satisfaction from a difficult job well done is usually enough, you never know when such a skill could come handy.

Now, how's a convenience meal to self development? Can you be a world champion of ripping plastic packaging away? Can you get better at throwing stuff into a microwave? Nah, no skill required, nothing new learned.

On the picture - pastitsio

Have you ever cooked a show-off dinner for large group of people? I have. I'm not much of a social animal but I admit - compliments pouring from left and right were very, very pleasant. I'm afraid the effect can not be achieved with supermarket take-away meal, no matter what the advertisers claim.

Ability to cook something truly impressive is useful, believe me. Whether it's seasonal celebration, family gathering or good old dinner party, a fancy meal is bound to earn some respect.

Do I really need to add that to cook show-off dinners you need more than ability to re-heat a pizza?

 On the picture - buckwheat with meat stew and pickled gherkins