/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>13651955
Pasta sauce. "Blah blah it's so easy to make" and yeah, I know, but the truth is I really don't want to bother. But instead of throwing money in the toilet with Ragu or Prego, I get something like Rao's and use it as the base for a richer sauce. I'll fry up some sausage and some onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic, and then throw in a jar of Rao's marinara and it's better and faster than a sauce that I'd spend twice the amount of time on.

>>13651955
Chicken. I spent a few year working in a butcher shop. The cheap sale chicken is absolutely disgusting. Comes in a 40lb box with a sealed bag of chicken floating in slime. A bunch of the chicken breast will be majorly discolored and have to be thrown out. Some will come with ribs still dangling from them. Some white big chunks of grey fat and skim that need to be trimmed off. Disgusting. It’s the reason I don’t eat much poultry. When I do I buy the expensive stuff like Bell & Evans. That chicken come into the store looking perfect. No slime, no nothing. That extra couple dollars per pound is buying you whole different level of chicken.

>>13651955
i like to spend alittle extra and get sushirice
or at least calrose.
I really should switch to duck eggs, they taste so much better than chicken eggs
Ive also been buying not the cheapest milk the store carries. It's funny the things ill throw money into while hating the job paying for it

>>13651967

There's nothing dumber than making pasta sauce. It's one of the few things that costs more to make than to buy, and the time investment (takes hours to simmer a proper sauce) is not worth what you can get in a jar.

Cheese. I'll pretty regularly do slices of cheese and jam with crackers instead of a full dinner, and I don't even look at the price.

>>13652010
Its kind of fun. It's cheese for me too.
Each month is a different variety of cheese, it sort of gets tiresome if I begin to like various cheeses but it has really increased my palate and sort of changed the way I do groceries now.
Ive had one month where I did all cheddar cheeses of various variety and brands, another was spanish cheeses, Parmesan hard cheeses, blue, and soft cheeses. At this point I've tried at least 4-5 different white cheddars, goudas, mozzerellas, manchegos

Its fun

>>13652003
Depends on the sauce. Alfredo out of a jar always tastes like shit compared to homemade.

>>13652003
If you find a jar ever tastes better than your shittest homemade, your cooking skills need serious review.
Also buy vegetables from a greengrocer - way cheaper than a jar would ever be.

Butter.
My parents always cooked with margarine and I switched to butter in college. I was such an improvement that I tried fancier stuff like Amish roll butter and culturing cream with yogurt and making my own.

>>13651973
What about chickie nuggies

Morton brand kosher salt
I refuse to use table salt outside of baking, i really like it because its slightly finer than flake salt and is less salty. Costs about $14 for a 1kg box but its worth it imo

>>13652188
Fuck off, We all know you don't eat anything but McChickens all day while shitposting here about all your homemade sauces

>>13651955
That picture is utterly retarded. The size and compactness of that albumen sac is deetermined only by how fresh the egg is. The "pastured egg from a local farm" is just older. Not that there is anything wrong with that, eggs that are a week or two old have a much more intensive flavour. Fresh eggs are NOT better than slightly aged eggs. Plus you can always cut that albumen sack in some place with a sharp knife so the albumen spills out and you can cut it more evenly.

>>13651955
All egg price does in terms of egg quality is affect the color (which is a result of feed).

>>13652188
If you didn't get paid to shill then you need to rethink your life.

>>13652568
>>13652368
I mean yeah but the ones I buy rather than the dolllar 80 eggs do taste better and have a better texture so I enjoy it. For sure not just a color diff

>>13652568
What about the thickness of the egg shell? They sell eggs at my 99c store like $3 for 18 and they are white with really weak shells. The ones i get at trader joes are brown and have a really tough shell. I don't think that's just feed difference is it?

>>13653017
The shell color difference is because of the breed of chicken.

>>13651955
I don't eat a lot of meat. Not for any particular reason, I just don't. When I do, I spend the extra coupe of bucks for the better cut.

>>13652003
Why is this board so anti-fun? Its a cozy feeling to use a sunday afternoon to make a nice bolognese, do you also refuse to make stews because you can get them canned?

>>13652003
>he doesn't make his own pasta sauce
>he argues with cost
you deserve nothing good in life.