Ask Lemmy

I once made borscht. That is a labour of love I'll never go through again. I also made a hot chocolate layer cake, including making the marshmallows, and that was a lot of work.

protip : you can cook anything. maybe you don't cook it well the first time. but if you're not completely freeballin it, and are following an established well reviewed recipe, once you cook it poorly or not to your taste, you can always make notes, and adjust the next time. be fearless in your experiments, there's a lot of freedom (and cost savings) in learning how to cook what you like to eat, the way you like to eat it, at home.

Demiglace. Way too much work.

I like to do a bunch of baking for the holidays, and usually do a mix of easy/familiar recipes, plus some new/challenging recipes. I made caramels, and while I was pretty happy with them, I never heard one person comment on them, and they were a lot of effort compared to things like chocolate chip cookies, so I've never made them again.

Edit: Another is pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkins. I've done it, it's not that difficult, but it's also not any cheaper or better tasting than just buying good canned pumpkin.

Cake. Orange cake.

I'd love go make chana masala, my favorite indian dish. but it just takes too long to make...

Most of them. They require not only the right ingredients and even the right brands. But the amount of tools you would have to go out and get, just to make that thing. I currently am struggling to make homemade butterbeer, from harry potter, because I spent like a combined $30+ in materials and ingredients and that's only by one recipe. Which is another thing, recipes vary and have their own way of doing things which again is going to require having to spend more just to make it.

It's a no-brainer why people would rather have take out or go out to restaurants.