The other day Ashley was telling me about a social media conversation in one of the groups she is in. The discussion was centered around what everyone felt was real from-scratch cooking.
Apparently most in the group feel that unless you produce it yourself it’s not truly from-scratch. While I can understand the case, I also feel there is room in between. Let me explain.
If we look at from-scratch as black and white, it leaves no room for learning. Most people start out on their journey with shelves of store-bought food. Tons of boxed ingredients ready to make. They don’t know any better.
Slowly, over a long period of time, those of us on this journey learn how to cook food that does not come from a box. We try out a recipe here and a recipe there. And in between there are many failures and perhaps even a few burnt dinners.
This learning curve is a far cry from the magic kitchens and from-scratch meals we see on Instagram.
If instead of thinking as from-scratch must mean every ingredient comes from the basic ingredient, canned and cooked yourself, maybe we need to give ourselves a little breathing room. Sometimes it’s okay to use canned pumpkin rather than baking a raw one. Especially when the ingredient is out of season.
Now, I am not saying you should buy the full pumpkin pie mix in a can. Instead, try to find the simplest version you can. Single ingredient items such as canned diced tomatoes or pumpkin alone. Try to keep it under 5 ingredients in the item and you should do fine.
Eventually, you will be in a place and at a level that you are ready to try making the core ingredients yourself.
Just like learning to swim, we all start in the shallow end of the pool. Venture into the deep end too quickly and things might not go very well. From-scratch cooking is no different. And it’s perfectly fine to take baby steps along this journey.
It’s time to go try something new in the kitchen. Without all the guilt when you can’t make it 100% from scratch.