http://slowcooker.cooktopcove.com/20...wcookerkitchen


I'm having a discussion on a slow cooker site about whether cake mix and pie fillings count as single ingredients. It seems to me that it is very lazy cooking although it makes everything simple. It's probably very tasty as well, although all the additives in the cake mix put me off.

I just find it difficult to accept cake mix as being a single ingredient.

It's a sign of the times (and by times I mean something that's gone on for the last 30 or 40 years or more). It was probably started by mix manufactures developing recipes to make their products more useful, but it's caught on. Now if you flip open many magazines or cookbooks marketed to busy people you will find these sorts of shortcuts.

So, yes, it's a legitimate ingredient. But if it makes you feel better, you can always get out the ingredients for your favourite cake and use them instead. I do that sometimes because I only occasionally keep mixes about.

Huh. I was going to edit my post, but I don't see a method.

Anyway, brain is set on slow, but I just thought I'd mention that I realised it was funny that the cake mix was a hang up, but the pie filling got a pass. It can also easily be made from scratch by using fresh or tinned fruit, water and sugar if required, and corn flour (corn starch).

Also, this recipe has been around for donkey's years. I have it in at leat two community fundraiser cookbooks going back to the late 70s/ early 80s.

I agree about the pie filling as well. My main concern would be the number of preservatives, flavour enhancers and other things in the "ingredients", when it's really fairly easy to chuck them all in together.

It's three ingredients and a couple of minutes prep time vs roughly five for the cake and three to five for the pie filling, plus fifteen or so minutes of prep time from scratch, some of which needs to be done on the stove (thickening the pie filling.)

So, while I see your point, it's not the sort of hill I would be willing to die on. Convenience has its place in the modern kitchen.

I think my objection to that recipe is that I don't really see the point. Why wouldn't you just buy a pie and put it in the oven to heat up?

For me, cooking is good for two reasons: you get to pick ingredients to your taste and dietary preferences, and you get a sense of achievement having made something nice. This recipe doesn't tick either of those boxes. Clearly there's a demand for things like this so people must like them for some reason (and I wish them all the best) but it seems a bit weird.

Edit to add that I'm not claiming any virtue here, I probably eat more ready-made stuff than I cook. It's just that I either cook or don't cook, I don't enter this strange half-way house.

I wouldn't class cake mix and pie filling as ingredients.
Mind you, that's an American recipe, seeing as it talks about a stick of butter. I have seen some highly unusual ingredients in American cookery books.

What about premade pastry? Ice cream? Lemon curd or strawberry jam? All of those things are easy to make from scratch, and a tart or trifle made from them would be lovely and extraordinary. But a much quicker and easier version could be made using tinned and frozen ingredients.

There's enjoying food, and then there's looking down your nose and being a foody snob. I've purchased many British made mixes for things that could be made from scratch, so the British are hardly immune from the need for speed and ease of preparation.

Sometimes cutting corners is okay.

One reason is that the "ingredients" may be easier to store than a whole pie.


How do we feel about curry paste and curry powder? Are they ingredients, or does it only count if you mix the spices from scratch?

I'd say that everything is an ingredient, it's just that some are more processed than others. If I fancy a basic slice of toast, my options for ingredients are "flour, water, yeast" at one extreme and "a slice of bread" at the other. Here's my toast recipe:

Ingredients: a slice of bread
Method: toast the bread for one minute on each side

I mean, it's the most basic (and pointless) recipe I can think of, but I think it's still technically a recipe.

I'd never use those, I prefer to use simple ingredients. But I have a recipe for a cake for busy busy people, here it is: Buy a cake.

'Pie filling'
'Cake mix'

Sounds horrid. Just use the raw ingredients.
I expect by 'cake mix' they mean an approximation to spone cake.

The recipe is an easy fruit cobbler, of the sort popular for potluck suppers or night's when you want to have a dessert that looks like more effort than it is. The cake mix can be mixed and matched with the fruit depending on the maker's mood and the rest of the menu. As a rule, cobblers are faster than pies because there is no pastry involved.

Here is a cake mix if you've not seen one before :
https://www.duncanhines.com/products...llow-cake-mix/

Here's the cobbler. (Or near enough)
http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy...Berry-Cobbler/

Eww Pie Filling, I remember as a kid would get fed that sickly goo most weekends in a pie.

Even the pies you buy in the supermarkets these days have real fruit

Having been growing up with my gran and mum both been old fashioned cooking/home ec teachers (years ago both retired) packet mixes were never allowed in our kitchen. I always cheat on pastry both filo and shortcrust these days as in my opinion it's just easier. But talking about "cake mixes" I was at my cash and carry and they had a bag of industrial size muffin mix for £1 I though what's the worse that could happen. So far I am hooked. I add fresh fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, fresh cream.

I always used to do my own pastry as supermarket pastry (like Jus-rol) always tasted plastic-ey and nasty, and was made with hydrogenated fats.
But now you can get really nice all-butter pastry in the 'Finest' ranges etc, so I buy that these days.

I will buy puff pastry as I have no time for that. Also ready pizza dough. Everything else I make from scratch from ingredients.