Ask Lemmy

A lot of French cuisine. Not talking about laminated dough here which I've done many times. More so the complete modern French meal involving multiple reductions and real demiglace and all the techniques that seem to require a full restaurant process. It's the one style of food I will go to a restaurant and happily pay for once in a while, I understand why it's expensive to make and respect the skill it takes.

The other style I food I do this with is the very opposite, shitty fast food I can't make at home.

cinnamon rolls

Pastelles. Find some grandma who makes them by the thousand. Don't buy Goya, they won't be as good.

You do you, but those are not difficult to make IMHO. I make a ton of batter and keep it in a squeeze bottle so I can easily make my kid pancakes in the morning

For me it's macarons and most baked goods

I still make lasagna from scratch but that's because I have to use gluten free pasta. All the pre made versions are awful

Never made any before but broth doesn't seem worth it unless you make a big batch, even then I don't have the room for a big ass pot or a gallon of broth in my fridge/freezer.

Stuffed vine leaves. I made them once for a gathering I had and they took me about 3 hours in all. Everyone loved them but for the time they took me, and how much of a pain in the arse they were to make, it wasn't worth it. The ready made ones in tins are just fine.

French fries. When I make them at home they suck.

Honestly, brownies. From scratch versus box I hardly notice a difference and in some instances the box was better... And the box is a lot less work.

Brunch. I'm too hungover to be cooking anything.

Definitely lots of food out there I'm not cooking from scratch but any "food I love" is probably something I'm cooking from scratch to begin with.

Anything with a lot of Indian spices. I just buy the paste in jars.

Wide rice noodles. If you've ever tried to make pad kee mao (drunken noodle) with dried rice noodles you know it's essentially not even worth it. The noodles are too important to the dish and the dried ones curl up and are just awful. My wife and I eventually figured out how to make fresh wide rice noodles and while it's very simple to do so (rice flour slurry into a cake pan, steam it) it's very laborious and time intensive. I'll do some laborious stuff (bake my own bread, homemade yogurt and soft cheese, pasta and red sauce etc) but damn if one of my favorite foods isn't too much work for all but special occasions.

Thank god we found a place a mile away that sells fresh noodles. Now we can have it whenever we want.

smoked wings