I agree with your definition, homemade is something you make from scratch. I guess I am showing my age. Today anything you put in the oven and bake is homemade vs buying already made at the store. It is sad to think of kids growing up and never knowing what "real" homemade is and how much better it is health wise (no dyes, chemicals or perservatives) and in taste.
Clare

I dont think a box cake mix is homemade. If it's made from scratch and I put together all the ingredients myself then it's homemade, with the exception of maybe some flavor/seasoning packets from the store.

I saw one, and only one, episode of that HGTV show "semi-homemade" and was appalled. She used store-made angel food cake (not a mix, a cake already baked at the store!), canned frosting, canned pie filling, and who knows what to create holiday cakes. I guess since you create the train-wreck of a dessert she was demonstrating in your kitchen you can call it "homemade".

I don't think homemade includes using boxed mixes. It's fine if someone wants to use them but just tell me so I don't waste the calories eating it.

I sort of have to disagree. If you are speaking of homemade as opposed to "bought from a bakery" the cake mix cake would be "homemade". Homemade and from scratch are two different things. A frozen pizza simply reheated is store bought. A pizza put together and baked with a store bought crust and tomato sauce in a can could be called homemade and a pizza made on a crust you mixed and tomatoes you chopped would be from scratch.

Put me down as another that considers 'homemade' to mean made with actual ingredients, NOT made at home using a box.

Not saying I never use a box mix (some of the brownie ones aren't bad), but I never describe that as 'homemade'.

Ive had trouble with this before. When I bring desserts to a potluck, people ask if they are homemade. Well, I didn't buy it at the store already made, but it's usually just from a box mix. I'd say boxed cake mixes and the like are not homemade, even though they are "made at home".

My MIL is a pretty good cook, but I've learned over the years that anything she "makes at home" is homemade to her. Her famous spaghetti sauce is Prego (Granted she adds peppers and spices to make it better, but still.) lol And sometimes her cookies are the slice and bake kind! But I don't care-I still like them! In her defense she does make many other things "from scratch".

We just made ice cream, homemade and from scratch!! Actually pretty good since the grandson wanted chocolate and all I had handy was the syrup. I would have prefered plain ole vanilla or something with frozen fruit, but he 86'd that idea. After we went to the store for all the ingrdients, told him it was cheaper to buy the carton of ice cream!

If someone tells me something is "homemade" I know there is a good chance they just mean "not from a bakery." If I'm impressed with the food, I might ask "Do you mean from scratch?"

Or as my youngest says "from scrap," as if he has an image of food made from extra ingredients lying around the kitchen. LOL.

But mostly, I just really don't care if they bought it, thawed it, or mixed it up. The ability and desire to make a cake, or whatever, from scratch is not how I judge a peron's character.

99 times of 100, the chocolate chip cookies I serve are slice and bake. I do not ever call them "homemade." If someone asks if I "made them" I say "I baked them" or "yep, me and Pillsbury dough boy." If that makes me less of mother/wife/woman in the eyes of some, so be it. I don't think it's a bit sad that my kids are deprived of cookies from scratch.

I bake from scratch, and from a mix. Whichever works at that particular time.

I find that I have to stress the "from scratch" (and have even had to sort of argue w/ people to get them to believe I measured the flour myself), bcs everyone I am speaking to assumes I used a mix.

(and even though i do both, I have to tell you, I never really notice any difference. Well, sometimes the "from scratch" cakes are a bit uneven--too moist, or too dry, or too delicate... But I enjoy them all.)

I consider a cake made from a mix to be homemade. If I bake and frost it, it is homemade.

To me, homemade means from scratch, not from a box. Something from a box is "prepared at home", not homemade. There's a big difference. I've been told I'm a "foodie", "gourmand" or "food snob", and I always say, "thank you". I don't think they're giving me a compliment, though LOL.

homemade = not from a box.

To call 'from a box' homemade is deceptive....

How far back to scratch does one have to go? When I make my dressing for turkey I don't use a box and I make it from fresh ingredients but I buy the french bread for it without baking it (from scratch) myself. Would that be homemade? If so, then if one should bake a box cake and make a filling from scratch and an icing from scratch what do you call it? If you use frozen peas in your stew along with everything else fresh is it no longer homemade because you didn't shell them yourself?

It can get rather silly if you want to take to ridiculous lengths. I agree with the few that said it's the final taste and enjoyment of the end product that counts.

I know a lady who prides herself on doing everything from scratch. The problem is her stuff doesn't taste all that good. When she brings things to our potlucks and picnics most of her food is left over. But everyone compliments her of course and talks about how gourmet her style of cooking is. But nobody actually eats it.

Something you make from scratch!

Homemade to me means made from ingredients you have "at home", not a box you buy & add a few things to make it your own. I think cakes made from a box taste just as good as scratch cakes & I've even had mine mistaken for scratch cakes.

found this interesting when i was taking a knitting class using home sized knitting machines...although you create one sweater at a time, i don't really call it hand-made, when you use knitting needles...

some former actress sells "hand-made" sweaters at her boutique, when they're actually machine made...

When asked if my food contribution is homemade, I answer: "Yes, Betty Crocker (or whatever mfg.)and I made it." It always brings a grin or chuckle and IS true.

I say "homemade" only if I used all the separate fresh ingredients, measured and mix and tweaked, and baked or cooked it myself.

Since I rarely use boxes of any sort, most of my food is home made.

Once in a while I'll used jarred sauce as a base for pasta dishes, but usually I used chopped tomatoes and make my own.

I don't really consider it homemade, but I find it funny that people think there is such a big difference between a cake made from a box and a made from scratch one... So, by homemade you mean.. you mix the sugar, flour and baking soda yourself... big deal! I wonder how many people have actually made a homemade cake to realize that there really isn't that much of a difference. Even the mixes make you add the eggs and butter/oil, etc. (ps. There really isn't that much coloring or perservatives in them either - just think of everything you eat). So since "from scratch" really doesn't impress me all that much when it comes to cakes, I really don't care if people refer to cake mix cakes as homemade.

I can tell a store bought cake, but I can't really tell the difference between a cake from a box or a from scratch one. The icing usually is the deal breaker for me.

homemade to me is scratch...boxed is boxed...even though I had to mix it up and add the liquid...it's still from a box

I'm with wildchild on this. I'll bet very few people actually go all the way to scratch, from growing or raising the food to final prep. Well, maybe grainlady does.

Most of us buy sausage in a roll or links, graham crackers, saltines, ketchup, butter, cheeses, jams, soy sauce, etc. without thinking about it. Even the vanilla, chocolate chips, cocoa or chocolate for our "homemade" cakes came from someone else. All those things were only dreamed of 75 years ago except in season and locally or very special occasions.

Probably the reason many of us are such good cooks today is because of store-bought ingredients that just weren't availabe in the past. Anyone still use lard? I do, for piecrust, but I don't fry in it.

Anyway, I do both box mixes and from "Scratch" as time and inclination permit. And I LOVE frozen puff-pastry for many things.

A little funny a read a while back and have never forgotten:

Young bride tried her hand at cooking meals that were like her MILs, but no matter what she did and how much trouble it was, he always said it "wasn't like Mom's."

Finally she got tired of that and just opened up several cans and boxes, heated them up and served them to hubby.

Yep, he said: "Finally, you did it. Just like Moms!!"

Homemade, or from scratch?

Sue

I use the term home-baked for stuff I make out of mixes, including boxed cake/brownie mixes and slice & bake cookies.

Home-made is reserved for stuff I make completely from scratch. If I take a cake mix and doctor it up, it's home-baked, not home-made.

I'm with wildchild on this - how far do you go back?

I bake cakes from boxed mixes usually. Big deal. I make my own icings and glazes. Semi-homemade if you want to call it that.

But how many of you use canned cream-of-whatever soup with your meat dish for an easy gravy? Or your for your casserole or crockpot meal? Do you call that dish homemade? You've browned the meat, added vegetables or noodles - but you didn't make the sauce. Homemade?

I never use canned soup as an ingredient - a quick bechemel sauce takes me 5 minutes to make, can be flavored with anything, and I think tastes better, and certainly has less sodium in it.

That said, I often use Classico Tomato and Basil pasta sauce as a jumping off point for stuffed peppers, meatloaves, or where ever I want a good tomato sauce. Why? Because it's good, it's inexpensive, and I can doctor it anyway I want.

All of us use some convenience products. Snubbing one over another is just silly.

I'm with Wildchild on this one for the most part. I wouldn't consider presenting a frozen dinner or lasagna as home made but a boxed cake I baked with icing that I make myself I would consider as homemade (meaning it didn't come from a bakery). I used my own eggs, my own milk and my own oil, mixed it in my kitchen, in my bowls and baked it in my oven.

We use lard or shortening that we didn't make in our cakes - is that homemade? We use vanilla from a bottle or Heaven forbit imitation vanilla - definitely not homemade.

What about pies? Many people use canned pumpkin to make a pie. Do you consider that homemade if you added your own spices and baked it? I would. Gasp! I use frozen pie crusts because I can't make pastry for the life of me but I do make my own fillings. Is that homemade? Would be for me.

I bake pizza all the time using premade pizza sauce, canned pineapple, jarred olives, pepperoni and ham from the deli but I would still consider that pizza I made in my kitchen, that I put together as homemade meaning it didn't come from a pizzeria.

Most people can tell though when something (like cookies or angel food cake or pizza) is not homemade so there is no point in telling people it is.

Anne

not a box you buy & add a few things to

Whoops, then NONE of my cookies or cakes are homemade. Because, I buy the flour and add things to it.

I'm with Wildchild, too. If someone asks (and really, I can't remember the last time someone asked) I say "homemade in my kitchen from a kit" which is what Woody calls a box cake or brownies, but gee whiz, the box stuff all tastes so good these days. Or I'll say from scratch, but I don't make too many things from scratch beside cookies and one kind of cupcakes or baked fudge, mostly I use "kits".

If it is prepared in your home it is made in your home; ergo, it is homemade, whether you assemble ALL of the ingredients individually, or some of them come premeasured and in a box for the sake of convenience.

If you go to the store/bakery/wherever and you purchase it completely assembled and ready to eat, then it is not homemade.

If it is from a box then it isn't homemade imo. When we make pies, cakes, cookies, etc. they are from scratch and people can tell the difference in taste.
As an example, our town has a Harvestfest every Fall. The fund raiser for the elementary schools are selling pies at the food booth. We usually make 6 different flavored pies. When Wayne and I drop them off at the school, our pies never make it to the booth. The teachers/staff always snap them up first. I have even sold one to a school bus driver out on the sidewalk as I was delivering the pies to the school. Not being able to taste the difference between homemade from scratch and boxed or canned I definitely have to disagree with that statement. NancyLouise

If you buy flour, shortening, etc. to make a cake or cookies, that is homemade & made from scratch, IMHO. If you buy a boxed cake mix where the flour, salt, sugar, etc. is already blended, then add your own egg, oil & water,which obviously can't come in a box, that is not homemade in that you added things to a boxed mix, even if you added them in your own home. It really depends on your definition. I don't count bakery items you buy in a store. Everything you make at home, to me, isn't necessarily "homemade".

So let us say we use an item of clothing as the end product. Would sewing the item from a purchased pattern and fabric make it a homemade item or must you design your own pattern and weave your on cloth to meet the criteria?

I think cindyb_va has a good idea with the home baked vs homemade.

I used to make decorated cakes for the public and the people always told me they loved my cakes because they tasted so good. I always used boxed mixes. The only time I made from scratch was for specialty cakes such as German chocolate or Italian Cream Cake. There is a world of difference in those boxes and scratch.

I don't really care when eating what someone else prepared whether it's box or homemade. Like Flamey said box stuff all tastes so good these days.

Here's a question for you... does anyone but me prefer the boxed cakes you make at home over most bakery cakes?

Now, I'm not talking about an exotic wedding type cake, but more along the lines of the cakes you buy for birthday or company parties. I always prefer the taste of a made at home cake (boxed or otherwise) over that of a store or bakery bought cake. I have noticed though it seems many "cake" people (those that can tell the difference between a boxed mix and scratch) actually prefer the store bought cakes. So, I don't know which is considered "better" by most people; I'm never sure what to do when I entertain.

What is your preference? ...Made at home or store bought?

I'm 60. The debate over cake mixes has been going on since I was a little girl. My mom always used cake mixes and everyone we knew laughed at her for doing it. Her sister wouldn't eat Mom's cakes because "I can't trust you not to use a mix!" But her husband and kids ate Mom's cakes and enjoyed them, urging Aunt to try them, much to Aunt's dismay and anger. To each, his own.

If you buy a bottle of lemon juice or vinegar or vanilla or anything else that hasn't just come out of the ground or off the farm, you're not making "from scratch" in the historic sense of the word. Even baking soda is a mix! What about pectin for your jellies? See what I mean?

If you won't use a cake mix, what else won't you eat or serve? Jello? Pudding mix? Mayonnaise? Do you roast your own coffee?

I guess we all draw our lines wherever we want to.

I'm with you Wildchild. My Mother, who was born in 1914, always said that if you can find a mix that is as good or better than what you make from "scratch", then by all means use it. My Step Father raved about her bisquits for years before he found out they were made with Bisquick.

Here's a dirty little secret. Most (not all,but it's rare) bakeries that do birthday and wedding cakes buy their cakes frozen from a supplier. The cakes are then split,filled,iced and decorated. There is no little baker in a white jacket and hat in the back turning out the actual cakes.

Fresh bakery cookies are often the same. Dough quite often comes from different vendors, in tubs.

That favorite soup that is always so consistently good at the high end restaurant? Comes in a bag or at least the base does. You're more likely to get from scratch soup at the local "mom and pop" greasy spoon.

Homemade to me is completely from scratch

Doreen

I feel that "homemade" and "from scratch" are the same thing. As others have mentioned, that does not mean that I grew or raised all of the ingredients myself, but that I used a "recipe" (written or in my head or made up on the spot). "Homebaked" would refer to something I assembled at home from a kit (love that term, thanks Woody). I would not call it homemade, even if I added a few things to make it special (like the poppy seeds soaked in milk, extra egg whites, and almond flavoring I added to a white cake mix last night, YUMMO!).

Oh, and I forgot, I wanted to answer Carla's question. Personally, I like most of the bakery cakes as well as box mixes. It's the frostings and fillings that turn me off. But they have to use more shortening than butter so that the decorations stay firmer longer.

If I only had a choice between boxed and bakery cake I would chose the bakery cake. The taste/texture is much better then boxed. I don't like the icing though. It is tooo sweet for my taste. I usually scrape it off and just eat the cake.
We grind our coffee beans every morning, grind the meat we make for hamburgers/meatloaf/meatballs, and grind meat to make our own sausages. They all taste better then what we can buy premade or prepackaged at any store because we make it ourselves from scratch. As far as a seamstress sewing clothes at her home as opposed to buying something massed produced sewn, the seamstress would probably be doing a better job with the homemade clothing imo. Just like homemade has better taste and texture, home sewn would probably last longer and be better quality then pre sewn/bought. NancyLouise

When I married my wife 25 years ago she was an excellent baker - still is - and a good cook. She is now also an excellent cook (no, she's not reading this). One thing I did buy her on the recomendation of a female coworker was a book called 'The Cake Bible' by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It has recipes for different cakes, some basic and some more exotic, with a lot of tips and tricks. One thing my wife started to do as a result was to use cake flower instead of all purpose. She now says (only to me) that she doesn't like any cake as well as her own! She has a right!

While researching this message I stumbled across this link. And no, I'm not a compensated endorser!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cake Bible

I would choose a boxed cake over a bakery cake.

I live in NYC, and most of the bakery cakes are AWFUL!!

And the frostings on them are worse.

I have *never* understood the supposed cachet of bakeries. I have never gotten anything at a bakery that wasn't better than what I could make at home, even if it was from a mix.

(and I bet that most cakes you buy from a bakery came from a bakery mix)

Well, I take it back--once there was a bakery near my home that had a single cake I thought was really, really good. Once.

And I'd choose a box cake over a grocery store cake.

My life-long friend is the head professional baker in a fine bakery in Chicago. The bakery uses mixes by the hundred-weight for ALL their fine pastries - eclairs, cakes, pies, cookies, fillings, etc. The bakers in the bakery are called "finishers" because they assemble the goodies as ordered by the customers.

Guess what the two main ingredients in icing (frosting)- any flavor - are! WHITE SHORTENING (aka Crisco) and powdered sugar! Not a single pat of butter or margarine goes into the icings. Shortening, sugar and other ingredients are whipped for many minutes to incorporate lots of air and fluffiness. YUCK! If you ask me, that's one reason homemade from a mix tastes better than most bakery goods.

It's just a matter of semantics whether you call it "homemade" or homebaked."

My frienda Linda at work used to bring in decorated cakes from a bakery that she claimed she made herself. My mother used to make cake frosting form "scratch". Her recipe includes a lot of powdered sugar, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. I've had that crisco and sugar icing. I belkieve the Carvel company invented it and used it on their ice cream cakes going way back. 'Nuff said. I'm rambling.

Funny, I had coffee with a friend today who is 20 years older then me (70's) and doesn't bake. She even had her oven removed from her kitchen so she could add more cabinet space. She uses her microwave/convection oven to cook meat, etc. She says she doesn't need the calories and can find good enough baked goods at the grocery store or bakery for when they want a treat.

So maybe it is a matter of taste. DH can really tell the difference between my homemade pies and ones I have made using canned fillings and frozen crust or when I just baked a frozen one. He says the canned filling ones and frozen ones are way too sweet and mushy. He really loves my half butter half Crisco pie crust with fresh apples and very little sugar. And he says he can also tell the difference between my cakes (muffins, cupcakes) from scratch and box ones. Maybe because I use WW pastry flour for my baked goods which gives it more flavor. He says cakes from box mixes have an artifical flavor.(???)

And I am another one who hates bakery cakes or at least most bakeries. They taste like straw and the frosting is way too sweet.
Clare

My definition of "Home Made" means "from scratch".....no mixes or dressing packets or any other pre-packaged things.

I am mostly a lurker but had to come out of lurk dom to answer this...

This is the definition in the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary...

1 : made in the home, on the premises, or by one's own efforts
2 : of domestic manufacture

When someone asks me they usually ask if I made it from scratch, not if it is homemade...because in reality EVERYTHING is homemade if you prepare it in your kitchen. (or so my thoughts)

BTW, I have 3 of the Semi-Homemade Cookbooks which I absolutely LOVE! Everyone has raved about food prepared from those cookbooks.

"We grind our coffee beans every morning, grind the meat we make for hamburgers/meatloaf/meatballs, and grind meat to make our own sausages. They all taste better then what we can buy premade or prepackaged at any store because we make it ourselves from scratch."

Unless you've grown and picked the coffee beans then roasted them yourself, the simple act of grinding the beans doesn't mean that anything you make from the ground coffee is "made from scratch." And buying a steak and then taking it home and putting it through a meat grinder doesn't mean that you've made a hamburger patty "from scratch" because you didn't feed and nurture the cow and then slaughter it, etc., etc.

If folks think that measuring and assembling the ingredients is cooking/baking "from scratch," but pouring the dry ingredients out of a box and then adding the wet ingredients (including butter/shortening, eggs, water/milk, etc.) is not even homemade... that's just crazy. A boxed mix is simply premeasured dry ingredients that have been packaged together for convenience.

Yes, it does mean its' from scratch. With the exception of our local farmers, I know of no one that has the space to raise cows from birth, slaughter, etc. Coffee beans won't grow in my area of the country,etc. Same with the majority of veggies. Though we do grow some of them ourselves, but we have neither the space nor the knowledge to do it is well as the professionals. We are purchasing more organic produce and meats. We support local growers and like the taste and the fact that they don't use pesticides. But back to the original question. You have your definition and I have mine. I bake from scratch because it is fun and it tastes better. I don't need to be convenienced when I bake. And people seem to be able to tell the difference in taste also. NancyLouise

Wow! After reading all the posts in this thread, I'm not even sure any more :-)