In the last year or two I have started making as many kitchen staples as possible from scratch… and let me tell you. It has brought more joy to me than I ever imagined. Plus, I love that I’m saving money doing it too!
Now the thought of making mozzarella cheese from scratch might seem overwhelming (don’t worry, me too!), but just like everything else, we start at the beginning. Things like buttermilk or salad dressing are so ridiculously easy it’s almost impossible to fuck it up. Starting with effective meal planning can help you achieve more success when you’re just getting started making more ingredients from scratch.
No matter the reasons, I think it’s incredibly important to pay attention to what’s in the food we’re buying and ask ourselves if it’s something we can make at home. You’d be surprised at how easy some things are to make instead of buy. Plus, it’s a good skill to have in your back pocket and you never know when it might come in handy.
Benefits to making ingredients at home
I could talk about all the reasons you should make more kitchen staples from scratch, but I never want to tell anyone what they “should” do. Everyone is in a different boat and we all have different priorities. There are a lot of benefits to making more ingredients at home and I highly encourage you to give it a shot, and I will do my best to convince you ?
It can save you money
Times are tough right now, so maybe your only reason for trying to make more kitchen ingredients from home is to save money, but that is not where it ends (even though it’s probably the most important and the reason you are here).
Instead of buying an ingredient for a recipe that will likely end up in the trash later, you can make only what you need. Buttermilk is a prime example of this. I cringe thinking about how much buttermilk I wasted because I didn’t know how simple the process was.
How to make 1 cup of buttermilk: Add 1 cup of milk (I recommend whole or 2%) to a bowl with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white distilled vinegar. Let sit for 10 minutes and then viola! You have buttermilk!
Other foods, like mayonnaise for example, are simply cheaper to make at home because the ingredients used to make mayonnaise are cheaper than buying it already made. You just get a lot more bang for your buck when you do it yourself.
It’s usually healthier
Not only can you expect to save money, but making kitchen staples from scratch is usually healthier. Now, I don’t want to go on about not being able to pronounce ingredients, buuuut we are kinda going there. My problem isn’t with the ingredients, it’s more of the idea that for food like mayonnaise to be shelf stable and last what feels like forever, it has to contain a lot of shit.
Personally, I like to avoid foods with an ingredient list that’s a mile long, and that usually means it’s healthier. Or at the very least, it is in its more basic form. I don’t think preservatives are inherently bad, but for me to feel good, I avoid them when I can.
If eating healthy is important to you than this post might be for you: 7 tips to stay healthy and keep your grocery budget low.
Know what’s in the food you’re eating
Being healthier kind of relates to my next point, which is that by making your own ingredients, you know everything that is in it. No googling what Calcium Disodium EDTA is (a preservative and flavor enhancer used in mayo if you were wondering). This might be great if you have food allergies because you can control what ingredients you use.
Plus, the more informed you are about what you’re putting in your body, the better choices you can make for yourself. The food we eat plays a huge role in our health. From our mental health to our gut health, it’s always good to eat food that fuels us instead of drains us.
It makes us feel good
My final reason to convince you to make more kitchen staples at home is that it can be extremely fulfilling. Most recently, I started making mayo at home and when I finally got it right (took three tries), it made my entire day and I couldn’t wait to make a sandwich just so I could use it.
Maybe not everyone will feel the same way, but I love to cook, and the kitchen is my happy place. But regardless if you enjoy cooking, it is true that when we use our hands to create something, we get a dopamine hit. It feels good. We are proud of ourselves. And we can enjoy using it more than we do when we buy it.
Are you convinced yet? ?
If you want to get started making more kitchen staples at home than I recommend including it in your weekly meal planning. If you’re new to meal planning then you can always read this post next on how I save money every week with meal prep.
Kitchen staples to make at home – that I have tried
These are the kitchen staples that I have personally tried to make at home and found it life-changing enough to include it on this list! There’s a lot more out there, but this is a good start.
- Bread – my absolute favorite thing to bake! Personally, I’m a sourdough girly, but it does take some work (time… it takes lots of time), so if you’re looking for something quick there’s plenty of options out there for you.
- Buns – level up your hamburgers and hot dogs with some homemade buns. This one took me a couple tries before I was happy with the end results, but they are so much tastier than the store-bought version.
- Pizza crust – this might be one of the first kitchen staples I started making at home and I’ve never looked back. It’s super easy and I always make two crusts. One to use and one to freeze for later.
- Tortillas – the first time I tried making homemade tortillas, I did so because my mom gave me her tortilla press and I can confidently say I prefer a rolling pin. I like making and freezing small tortillas for tacos and big tortillas for breakfast burritos.
- Mayonnaise – once you get the hang of this one it is so easy to make and the ingredients are super cheap, all you need is vegetable or canola oil and an egg. It can be a little tricky to make, so don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first couple of times.
- Buttermilk – I whole heartedly believe more people need to know about this one. If you ever find a recipe that calls for buttermilk, you can make your own with milk and vinegar or lemon juice. Yup that easy.
- Brown sugar – all you need to make brown sugar is molasses and sugar, it’s that simple. If you buy brown sugar and then it goes stale before you finish using it, then this one is definitely for you.
- Seasonings – those single-use taco seasoning packets you can buy at the store have got to go (respectfully ?). It’s much cheaper to make it yourself and you can customize it to your liking. We make our own fajita seasoning, taco seasoning, pork rub seasoning, italian seasoning… all the seasonings you can dream of.
- Salad dressing – this can be a money saver and usually homemade salad dressing is much tastier too! If you’re overwhelmed with the idea of making homemade dressing then start with something easy like a vinaigrette and then build your way up to making the more complicated dressings like ranch or caesar.
- Pasta – oh boyyy!! This is hands down one of my favorite things to make! While it is time-consuming and complicated if you choose to make ravioli (still worth it though!), spaghetti or fettuccine noodles are easier than you think to make. And you don’t even need a pasta roller. They are handy to have, but there are plenty of recipes showing you how to make pasta with a good ol’ rolling pin.
- Ginger beer – not everyone will find this one useful, but I still wanted to include it. Not only is making your own ginger beer quite satisfying, but it is healthy for you too (yay for gut health)! It’s great for supporting digestive health, boosting the immune system and even relieving nausea. Plus, it’s practically failproof!
- Cream cheese – I’m still figuring this one out to be honest. I’ve made it once when I realized I didn’t have cream cheese, but of course, I needed it for a recipe. Thankfully, I was able to save a trip to the store and easily make this at home. It’s surprisingly simple too!
Kitchen staples to make at home – that I haven’t tried but plan to
In honor of being as transparent as possible, I don’t want to tell you about ingredients to make at home that I haven’t tried without disclosing that first. These are things that I either plan to make from scratch, but haven’t gotten around to yet or things that I have tried, but was not successful with.
- Yogurt – I’m not a huge fan of yogurt to begin with, but I was still fascinated with whether or not I could make homemade yogurt from store-bought yogurt. Even though it didn’t really work, I still saw enough success that I know it could work. I plan on trying again soon and I will report back when I do ?
- Bacon – Oooh boy am I excited for this one! We are currently in the process of curing our own bacon and I can’t wait for the results. A big reason for trying this out is cost. I usually buy bacon from the deli and it costs $6/lb, but the pork belly (which is how you get bacon) we bought cost $3.49/lb. So far, I dont’ really think it’s that time-consuming, but it is a lot of waiting. We should have ready-to-use bacon in about 10 days.
Update: the bacon turned out wonderfully! Highly recommend. This is going to be a regular in this household now!
- Sour cream – another ingredient that you would think might be complicated, but it really isn’t. All you need is whole milk, cream, and white vinegar or lemon juice. So really, the name makes sense! So far, I haven’t had a reason to make this one, but you will need to plan a couple days in advance because it can take up to 48 hours before it’s ready.
- Butter – there’s just something about the idea of churning butter on a warm spring morning in a flowy cottage dress, listening to the birds chirp… but let’s be real. I will definitely be using my KitchenAid ?. All you need is heavy cream and either a stand mixer or some willpower and strong arms.
- Mozzarella cheese – there’s something intriguing about cheesemaking in my opinion. I always thought it took a bunch of science, expensive equipment, and a certain kind of person. Turns out, anyone can make cheese. The reason I put mozzarella specifically is that I’ve heard it’s a good one to start with and the one I plan to make first. Oh, and of course, it’s much cheaper than the store-bought version.
Tips for success
Making kitchen staples at home might sound intimidating at first, but once you get into the groove, you’ll find it sounds a lot scarier than actually doing it. With a few helpful tips, you’ll be right on track to saving money by making more foods from scratch.
- It’s okay to fail! In fact… plan on failing. There’s no harm in getting it wrong the first few tries. We’re only human and we all gotta start somewhere. I threw out a lot of broken mayonnaise before I finally got it right, but that made it that much sweeter when I finally had success.
- Don’t rely on whatever you’re making till you know you can make it. This will just add extra unnecessary stress. If you’ve never made pasta before, then don’t plan on making it for a party. Wait till you have the hang of it before showing off your skills (and definitely show off your skills – you’ve earned it).
- Plan for enough time… and then probably a little more. Back to the pasta example, I’ve gone wrong sooo many times here. I don’t know why I can’t get it in my head that homemade ravioli is a time consumer and I always think I can do it in a couple of hours. I’m always wrong.
- Don’t try it all at once. One of my goals is to have a complete pasta dinner with homemade bread (got it), homemade ravioli (check), and homemade cheese (don’t got it), in a butter sauce that you guessed it… uses homemade butter (working on it). But it takes time to learn everything and I’ve enjoyed taking it a few steps at a time. Start with one or two ingredients and then build from there.
- As always, have fun with it. I won’t lie to you, some of this shit takes work and a lot of patience so it’s always best to enjoy the process as much as possible. Plus, if you’re planning to fail, you have enough time, and you’re not doing it all at once, then there is no reason you can’t just sit back and let whatever happen happen.
Final thoughts
Looking back ten years, I don’t think I ever envisioned this in my future. I’ve always liked to bake, but I never thought the day would come when I would be excited to make mayonnaise from scratch. Yet… here we are.
For some people, this is just another way to save money on groceries. For others, it might be to avoid preservatives or to have peace of mind about what’s in your food. Regardless of your reasons, it can be an empowering thing to learn and I encourage everyone to at least give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen? Other than getting addicted to making homemade sourdough and then ending up with several jars of sourdough discard in your fridge. If you know you know ?
Sourdough jokes aside though, I always like to leave my blog posts with a little encouragement. Start with something that sounds enjoyable to you, not necessarily the “easiest” thing. It will be harder to give up and more rewarding in the end. Don’t be afraid of messing up. Always, always give yourself credit for doing the dang thing regardless of the outcome.
With that, I wish you good luck, and if you have any questions or suggestions, leave them in the comments below.
Talk again soon! –Annie