what are some foods that just are not worth making on your own?

got me thinking.

i have a vietnamese friend that refuses to make Pho. she said it isnt worth it if you can buy a bowl for less than $7.

i'm trying to up my chinese food game. i made steamed chicken/mushrooms and egg drop soup the other night..

anything just not worth making at home? lots of chinese items for me. dim sum stuff...

i know there are pro chefs here that probably make your own filo dough.

Although I've made them at home i'd say:

Sushi

Complex ethnic dishes like papaya salad, Bun bo Hue

Sausages or meat forced into a casing. Baloney

honey (haven't made that one yet, Dam HOA)

Things that use difficult-to-source ingredients, or ingredients that'll go bad before being used completely.

I also rarely cook anything that requires an oven, since I do not have one in my apartment and can only borrow a toaster oven occasionally.

Papaya salad is actually really easy, there's a really good recipe in the Pok Pok book. I'm spoiled though since shredded papaya is available 5 minutes walk from me.

I haven't made either but based on my research in the past Bun bo hue is one of the more complex things to make, more so than pho.

I enjoy really authentic Asian food but usually it takes too much effort to make most of it and I'm usually cooking for myself so I can either eat it straight for a week and have a pantry full of random ingredients.
Plus, Asian food is usually family style and requires at least a few dishes to complete the experience. Ban chan for example in most Korean places I wouldn't try to make or making multiple dishes in a wok in an ill equipped kitchen.

Deep frying anything for me is not worth the hassle.

Fed, that's the recipe I use. I know it easy to make given you have green papaya, tamarind paste, palm sugar, fermented dried shrimp and a two quart mortar and pestle.

Thats true. It's all relative since I usually have those on hand. I prefer palm over table sugar for a lot of sweets/drinks so its usually in my pantry. The dried shrimps can be used like kombu for intensifying stocks but I also use it quite a bit normally in Chinese food.

Fresh pasta, pizza, Schnitzel, french fries,

Baklava comes to mind. AB did an episode and the whole family was like... I don't think so. And good baklava is hard to find.

I never make pasta myself. I prefer dried pasta to fresh anyway. Authentic Asian food I never make myself. But westernized dishes like sweet and sour pork, I do.

Confit duck legs I also just buy. It's actually cheaper to buy than to make.

Mucho Bocho said:

Although I've made them at home i'd say:

Sushi

Complex ethnic dishes like papaya salad, Bun bo Hue

Sausages or meat forced into a casing. Baloney

honey (haven't made that one yet, Dam HOA)

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I make my own bologna at work but the process is pretty easy and there is nothing stopping me from doing it at home as well.

Johnny, Nice! I'll have to disagree with you though. Proper emulsified sausage takes skill and patience and good tools. Least that been my experience.

As you know there's also a difference between Oscar Meyer baloney and San Danielle mortadella.

Personally, I would not assign this recipe to the inexperienced cook:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Mortadella di Bologna.pdf

Any cured meats are just not even on my radar (apart from bacon but that is still a while off).

Smoked meats, just dont jave the equipment readily available here in aus.

Anything pastry (at least done properly without buying pre-made doughs) and a general amount of baking. Though baking is more an effort thing. I am too much of an imprecise cooker so i really have to focus when baking since exact ratios are inportant there.

Matus said:

Fresh pasta, pizza, Schnitzel, french fries,

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I really enjoy making fresh pasta as well as pizza. I'm doing pizza tomorrow with garlic confit, feta & basil (a riff on one from the Gjelina cookbook).

I stopped making fresh pasta when my wife developed an allergy to egg. I need to make some without egg though - we really miss it.

Bill13 said:

Baklava comes to mind. AB did an episode and the whole family was like... I don't think so. And good baklava is hard to find.

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Bill , one of the best baklava makers of Turkey opened a branch in NY and they ship next day or in 2 to most states in continental . I ordered from them when I used to live in USA . It is the real deal

Papaya salad is also fun usuba practice, I think the texture you get from cutting it in a katsuramuki-like style, but thicker, is awesome.

For me, deep fried foods fill that category more ... all the hassle with having to set up hot oil and later having to filter and store it back, and there is always SOME mess to clean up... and many of them don't even store well, so you have all the hassle for one meal or two.

Gnocchi. I made it twice, never again. I think this is one of those things you make with friends, sitting around a table talking so you don't notice the time it takes.

Deep fried stuff for all the reason mentioned, duck confit as above, and since my son was born I just haven't had the time or energy to make nearly as much bread. I hope to get back into bread soon but buying from a legit bakery is also delicious.

Have to agree with the Sushi & bread ... Duck confit, however, I really enjoy making but I am obsessed with all things 'duck fat' plus I try and time it when making stock so am spending the weekend ...

Mucho Bocho said:

Johnny, Nice! I'll have to disagree with you though. Proper emulsified sausage takes skill and patience and good tools. Least that been my experience.

As you know there's also a difference between Oscar Meyer baloney and San Danielle mortadella.

Personally, I would not assign this recipe to the inexperienced cook:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Mortadella di Bologna.pdf

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I'm well aware the requirements and difficulties when it comes to emulsification.

You are correct, I would not ask someone who microwaves their dinner to make me mortadella. But I would say on average most cooks here (home or pro) are fairly savvy and not your average inexperienced cook. Pretty confident I could walk anyone here that posses a small amount of equipment through it. Let me know if you need some tips or help next time you want to make a batch.

JohnnyChance said:

I'm well aware the requirements and difficulties when it comes to emulsification.

You are correct, I would not ask someone who microwaves their dinner to make me mortadella. But I would say on average most cooks here (home or pro) are fairly savvy and not your average inexperienced cook. Pretty confident I could walk anyone here that posses a small amount of equipment through it. Let me know if you need some tips or help next time you want to make a batch.

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Yeah, have to agree with Johnny on that one. It all comes down to how much time you're willing to put in to front loading your brain with proper information first. As long as you can use a knife, food processor, thermometer, and can actually pay attention to what you're doing- it's pretty easy. You don't even need to stuff an emulsified forcemeat. In fact, stuffing sausages is the hardest technique regarding forcemeats IMO.

Guys I'm not saying it's not possible but if you think making mortadella is easy, your my hero cause to most mortal cooks it's not. Say what you will.the clean up alone will turn most folks off. Let's take a poll, how many people on this forum have made their own mortadella this year?

Definitely sushi, fried food, and a few other delicacies that involve relatively hard to get ingredients or ones that have a low shelf life.

I am not understanding the bread though. It's very easy and the final product is cheaper and superior to most commercial products. Maybe it's just easy to me, but it's just three ingredients and time.

Mucho Bocho said:

Guys I'm not saying it's not possible but if you think making mortadella is easy, your my hero cause to most mortal cooks it's not. Say what you will.the clean up alone will turn most folks off. Let's take a poll, how many people on this forum have made their own mortadella this year?

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Poor data set.

AFKitchenknivesguy said:

I am not understanding the bread though. It's very easy and the final product is cheaper and superior to most commercial products. Maybe it's just easy to me, but it's just three ingredients and time.

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Ditto. I thoroughly enjoyed making sourdough enough that I considered working in a bakery. My problem was having a substandard (at least to me) loaf that I just can't get through in time or pawn off to enough people. It's dirt cheap to make but takes a bit of setup and forethought to schedule around.

It would mean I'd have to consume at least a loaf a day.

Funny enough, I make home made pizza and bread more frequently than anything else. Feeding a family with pizza is cost effective for me. I usually bake 6 pizzas and I when I calculated the cost it's about $2-3 per pizza.

Also, I like making my own papaya salad. If you have a market that sells green papaya, the other stuff lasts a long time in the pantry or freezer.

One thing I won't make is pasta. I just don't see how I can make anything that compares to store bought. The store bought kind is inexpensive enough for me to justify the small additional cost of having it premade.

I don't know about the bread... Maybe we are lucky here in Aus, but for the most part, we can get very good bread very easily, and hence the reward isn't really worth the effort to bake it. Especially things like sourdough.

Though I will happily admit if I am having people over I will bake my own brioche buns, cause they are fun and easy and definitely impress people.

I bake bread every week-end. The point is that I am french living in Germany. And Germans make bread, but definitively not white french style bread that I like. It is more the super dark style, with which you are fed for the week after one slice. Therefore, I bake my own sourdough white rustic bread; 1.5kg pre week-end. With sourdough, one gets a bread that can conserved long. So it last me the week.
It is some work but really not that much. You have to feed the sourdough 1.5 day ahead of the bread making, after, the preparation of the bread is not that long. You have mostly waiting time. And the smell of the freshly cooked bread in you house is just amazing.

What I never do home are deep fried things.

Haggis.

I don't make my own creme fraiche. I did twice, but it's not worth it when available in stores.

Ricotta it's cheaper to buy. I have made goose mortidella this year