Pointless Quiz Questions

[Walt Freitag]

Of all the products you can buy at a supermarket, which is the most frequently manufactured at home instead of purchased at the supermarket?

(post your own, and/or answer)

- Walt

[Rich Forest]

Hm, well, I don't actually grow the beans myself, but other than that, right now I guess I'd have to say coffee.

I've also taken part in the growing of various vegetables and fishing for fish, and getting eggs from the chickencoop and so on, but it's been a while.

Rich

[Dav]

Ummm...... . . . . . . . . . .  .  .  .  .

Water?

Dav

[clehrich]

Depending on what you mean by "manufactured," my first choice would be water.  I mean, maybe if you live in a really toxic environment it's reasonable, but haven't people ever heard of a water filter?  They shell out a buck a bottle for stuff that comes out of the tap for very little.

Besides that, I always think cut-up chicken is silly.  The more cut-up it is, the sooner it stops being fresh.  You pay a guy to run a frozen chicken through a bandsaw (no joke), so you get splinters of bone all over the place, and you tear up the grain of the meat.  And if you have any manual dexterity at all, you can learn to cut up a chicken in two tries (a few more if you want to do it really elegantly), and you get it the way you want it.  Then you can use the carcass for stock.

Which is another thing I don't buy.  Canned stock tastes like metal and salt.  Boxed stock is the same crap in a box, and tastes like cardboard.

So basically I combine three stupid things and get wonderfulness for cheap:

Chicken (cut up).  Cook, and serve with:
Water (out of the tap)
Carcass (from chicken)
Bring to boil, then simmer gently for 3 hours.  Throw in any root vegetable peelings you may have around instead of throwing them away.  Strain, freeze or salt gently and serve immediately.

Think how much you've just saved, over
Bottled water
Cut-up chicken
Tan crap from a can
Plus it  makes your house smell fantastic.

Sorry, you provoked a rant.

[Christopher Weeks]

Cottage cheese -- accidentally.

Chris

[Walt Freitag]

It's not water; getting it out of the tap doesn't constitute manufacturing. Putting it in bottles arguably might, but not many people do that regularly. Filtering it might also be considered manufacturing, but fewer people filter their water than manufacture the product I'm thinking of.

Hmm, coffee might be a close call. The thing is, the supermarkets I've shopped at don't sell ready-to-drink coffee. If yours does, then I might have to accept coffee as a valid answer, but it wasn't what I had in mind.

Love that chicken stock. I make my own too.

- Walt

[JamesSterrett]

Bread?

[Rich Forest]

Hmm, coffee might be a close call. The thing is, the supermarkets I've shopped at don't sell ready-to-drink coffee. If yours does, then I might have to accept coffee as a valid answer, but it wasn't what I had in mind.

Yeah, I knew I was stretching the meaning of what you'd posted. I was going with that they sell roasted, pre-packaged coffee and instant, etc., whereas I buy the beans green/raw and roast them myself, grind them, and so on and so forth. Sort of home-brewing for the coffee crowd.

But I still got the garden, fishing, and growing your own chickens stuff. I'll stick with those.

Rich

[C. Edwards]

Hmm..

Salad
Sandwiches
Pancakes
Cakes/Pies
Coleslaw

Those are my best answers so far.

-Chris

[clehrich]

Oh, god, yes.  Salad.  Excellent point.  What kind of freak cannot cut lettuce?  And what sort of weirdo buys pre-made pancakes?  I don't have  a problem with buying pancake mix, but you know, it doesn't take much to cook the things.  And not tearing up lettuce leaves seems to me deeply strange.

But I admit that I like frozen pizza, although to be fair I must say that frozen pizza doesn't actually taste quite like anything else in the universe, and certainly is very different from real pizza.

And yes, I used to buy them when I lived in Chicago.  Chicago deep-dish is a totally different sort of food -- no relation at all.

[jrs]

Iced tea?

Julie, who grew up with a pitcher in the fridge and considers Snapple an abomination, Honest Tea on the other hand ...

[Jack Aidley]

Pre-grated cheese? The 'pre-grated' part obviously, not the cheese itself.

[Matt Wilson]

Ice?

[coxcomb]

Strawberries

The ones you buy at the store usually suck hard. Sadly, most people don't know because they've never had the real thing. :-(

[Emily Care]

Iced tea.  Sun tea is da bomb.