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An abomination if premixed, but acceptable if deconstructed.
SO FOODIE.
The NYT version of the recipe omits several traditional powdered Ranch Dressing mix ingredients such as maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, lactic acid, calcium stearate, artificial flavor, xantham gum, carboxmethylate cellulose, and guar gum.
I bet the snobbish version is pretty good even without those ingredients. But if you are too lazy to assemble them, some buttermilk, mayonnaise, parsley, chives, and dill make a good substitute.
Let me start by saying that I'm not anti-convenience food. i use them every now and then.
Yet, I never claim to be "against" convenience-type foods, either.
A friend of mine...well, she's more of an acquaintance, but we're friends on Facebook...anyway, she has talked trash to me before about her sister-in-law, who "Only fixes things like Hamburger Helper for her kids..." (And she feels so sorry for the kids, their mom should care more about them, blah blah blah...) Apparently, she's "much better" because she always cooks "homemade" food for her kids...
Yet, her claim to fame is the "Mississippi Roast," which is a roast that is plopped in the crock pot with a packet of ranch dressing mix, a packet of au jus mix and a few jarred pepperoncini peppers (and a whole stick of butter!!)...
Tonight, she posted that her husband forgot an important ingredient when he tried to replicate her "best" dip, and that when she got home, she added in the ranch packet...oh, and her daughter is a "foodie just like her mom" because she detected that it was "ranch" that was missing..
I guess I just don't see how a "Mississippi Roast" is anymore "homemade" or "from scratch" or "healthy" than Hamburger Helper. Actually, now that I think about it, it probably actually takes more prep time to brown the hamburger, etc. for HH than to dump a chunk of meat and a few packets into a slow cooker for the day.
It's not just this acquaintance, though. I see this all over Pinterest. Those who like to "cook at home because it's healthier and better for the whole family" but who use cream of mushroom soup, Lipton's onion soup mix and powdered ranch dressing, Italian dressing, gravy mix, etc. in every other recipe.
Listen, I don't have a problem with convenience foods. I still make green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup for the holidays because my mother-in-law likes it that way. My husband's not a fan of mac and cheese, so I'll still make my Velveeta shells and cheese every now and then because it's just me eating it. Other than that, though, I mostly cook from scratch. If a recipe has "cream of" soup or onion soup mix, I'll mostly pass on by. I don't have a problem with people cooking that way, though. I think what annoys me is the air of superiority by many who are so much better than others, when what they are making is just as processed (if not more so) than Hamburger Helper or a quick meal from a restaurant down the street.
Reminds of a woman I knew from a moms group. A bunch of us got together one day for a picnic with the children, and she was making a big deal about how she only fed her family organic foods. I was biting my tongue thinking "B**ch, I seen your freezer, and ain't no one here gonna be impressed by your organic hot dogs and chicken nuggets!" It was annoying, making other moms feel guilty about feeding their kids conventional fruits and veggies, while she's got a pantry full of organic Oreos.
The NYT version of the recipe omits several traditional powdered Ranch Dressing mix ingredients such as maltodextrin, monosodium glutamate, lactic acid, calcium stearate, artificial flavor, xantham gum, carboxmethylate cellulose, and guar gum.
I bet the snobbish version is pretty good even without those ingredients. But if you are too lazy to assemble them, some buttermilk, mayonnaise, parsley, chives, and dill make a good substitute.
No you could not because the original has nothing to do with any of those ingredients esp buttermilk mayonnaise or salad dressing.
Did you miss the part they are only using the seasoning packets as a dry rub?
Lazy now? LOL it was the New York Times snob who threw mayo in there for absolutely no reason at all.
Hilarious that she's supposed to be a food writer and doesn't know the difference between a dry rub and cooking something in a bunch of salad dressingish thick cream MAYO-Y liquid (gag)
No you could not because the original has nothing to do with any of those ingredients esp buttermilk mayonnaise or salad dressing.
Did you miss the part they are only using the seasoning packets as a dry rub?
Lazy now? LOL it was the New York Times snob who threw mayo in there for absolutely no reason at all.
Hilarious that she's supposed to be a food writer and doesn't know the difference between a dry rub and cooking something in a bunch of salad dressingish thick cream MAYO-Y liquid (gag)
I do see your point about the dry rub aspect.
But there is no reason to be such an elitist, looking down on natural ingredients like our farming ancestors used rather than cutting edge "modern" laboratory created foods.
It takes literally no skill to roast a turkey. It basically requires an oven and a big chunk of time. But it's ridiculously simple.
Oh but it is not! The breast can get too dry. The skin can be flabby. And don't get me started on the seasoning!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nefret
I began using store bought marinara sauce after I stopped to consider that most "home made" tomato sauce recipes call for cans of tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, canned puree, etc. I guess the more cans called for, the more complicated, and thus more "home made" one could consider the recipe.
Reminds me of the craze many years ago for adding pudding mix to a boxed cake mix. The manufacturers began producing the boxed cake mixes with the pudding already added and supposedly people complained. They wanted to add the pudding mix themselves.
SMH
Growing up the homemade sauce was the jarred tomato sauce with browned ground beef and onions and spices depending on who makes it. Eventually I got annoyed at how many jarred sauces had too mush salt, sugar and weird stuff. So I started making it myself.
Now I use crushed tomatoes. The huge can. And simmer that with my ground beef and favorite spices. Add a few squirts of tomato sauce and it is good! Not too complicated.
I have never claimed that my food is scratch made. Homemade yes because I made it at home LOL. I do use some convenience items it my foods too. I am also one of those who uses pre-packaged chili mix when I make chili. I like the flavor and it's easy. As for hamburger helper or tuna helper never had it never will. I don't use too many ore-packaged seasoning mixes because of the sodium content, I try and get the lower sodium ones. Now I still love Rice A Roni but the salt content is way too much. I grew up eating pre-packaged rice and pasta mixes and my mom was a great cook but when it came to side dishes during the week she took shortcuts. I do use canned soups in some recipe's.
I never had hamburger helper. I think my mom thought it was gross. At some point in adulthood, I thought it seemed like a good idea, but I was put off by all the ingredients. Eventually I made something my mom called hamburger helper. I cooked some hamburger meat with onions and italian seasoning, made elbow or curly pasta and then added my own freshly shredded parmesan. It was sort of like hamburger helper. And quite tasty! She was impressed.
It rarely turns out when I try, and ends up being a waste of time, money, and materials.
Hmm, that is really interesting. I am no fan of gravy, but it is my contribution to the Thanksgiving meal. I don't find it too hard, and it meets my picky dad's approval. I have even made a few modifications here and there. But i still think it is pretty easy, but time consuming. Maybe because it was one of the processes I was fascinated by as a kid.... the way the flour turned from white to a nutty shade of brown.
I've tried it. I haven't made it, but I have tried it. It's not terrible.
I never said that it was, actually. I just said that it's not too far removed from Hamburger Helper or anything else that is made with a box or a packet and that if those were the only types of recipes in my repertoire, I probably wouldn't brag about being a superior home cook. Actually, I have lots of homemade recipes and consider myself a pretty good cook, but I don't preach to others or talk about others behind their back because they make convenience foods. I'd feel like a hypocrite. Heck, I love Hamburger Helper. I even buy a box of Cheeseburger Macaroni flavor about once a year because I get an occasional random craving for it.
The roast doesn't taste ranch-y at all, actually. It tastes a little vinegary and zingy from the pepperoncinis. It's really oily, which isn't too surprising, since a chuck roast is already a little fatty, and the roast does call for a whole stick of butter. It's also a little salty, or the one that I tried was, anyway. I don't know if she salted the roast before putting it in or if it's from the packages, but it was noticeably salty...and I'm not one of those people who is super-sensitive to salt.
If I were to attempt it, I'd probably avoid adding salt to it at all, look for low-sodium "packets," use unsalted butter and cut the butter in half, at least. I'm not sure that it needs much or any butter at all?
This recipe was all over Pinterest and Facebook for a while.
That whole stick of butter seems really weird to me. It seems like chuck, particularly in a slow cooker, has plenty of fat to tenderize and flavor the meat. It seems like this could be improved by adding in some potatoes for the last 10 minutes or whatever. The potatoes would suck up some of the salt and give you an instant side dish. And would taste beefy.
I think I would like to try a chuck roast slow cooked with some ranch seasoning on top. Or maybe some beef short ribs.
An example and you judge whether I cooked a "from scratch" meal last night. We had seafood crepes. The crepes were home made, the shrimp, lobster tail and swordfish I cooked from scratch, the salad was a basic green salad with homemade blue cheese dressing and the squash was fresh. I did use a jar of prepared cheese sauce.
What did you use the cheese sauce for?
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