I made a soup last night. I made it at home, but I feel that I cheated. I used reconstituted organic low sodium bouillon instead of boiling the bones to make the broth.
Can it still be considered "homemade"? Is this tasty dish I made for dinner last night somewhere in food limbo between homemade and processed simply because I chopped veggies and added meat?
Can it still be considered "homemade"? Is this tasty dish I made for dinner last night somewhere in food limbo between homemade and processed simply because I chopped veggies and added meat?

Either no, or 'barely', but this isn't really a bad thing either, it's just soup. Your 'limbo state' between homemade and processed seems about right.
I use bouillon all the time when making soup, I buy my chicken as boneless breasts so rarely do I have the ingredients for making stock and I eat a lot of soup, and I've never noticed a difference.
But I'll say no just because with most soup, there's really only three levels of making it. A) Heating it from a can, B) using pre-made broth or bouillon and just dicing meat and veggies, or C) actually boiling down stock. Considering making stock is the most time and labor intensive, and actually focuses around the core concept of soup - using leftovers - then doing it this way has to be considered the 'truest' method short of growing the components yourself which is gardening and livestock manging, not cooking.
So I won't cry foul on someone calling it 'homemade' if they use bouillon, but realistically there's not much difference between A and B compared to B and C. I regularly toss in veggies just when making Campell's chicken noodle, and I'd never call that homemade, but it's no different then B. I wouldn't call make a Noodle-Roni Pasta dinner homemade either, just because I tend to toss vegetables into while I'm cooking it.
Can you call it part of a homemade meal? Yeah, but not in of itself really a legit stand-alone homemade item. Your just dicing some stuff and throwing it in a pot. A sandwich isn't homemade because it was made in your kitchen, but if you baked the bread yourself, then it is.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
/survey about "Home made" food.
- 09/03/2010 02:49:05 PM
444 Views
You didn't make the bouillon, but you made the soup.
- 09/03/2010 02:57:44 PM
270 Views
I'm actually gonna say no
- 09/03/2010 04:27:16 PM
343 Views
probably depends on how you define homemade
- 09/03/2010 04:48:00 PM
257 Views
That's why I like her 'limbo state'
- 09/03/2010 05:19:49 PM
324 Views
Re: That's why I like her 'limbo state'
- 09/03/2010 05:30:15 PM
258 Views
I think there are more than three levels.
- 09/03/2010 04:53:12 PM
295 Views
I disagree
- 09/03/2010 05:31:03 PM
296 Views
Yay common ground
- 09/03/2010 05:42:54 PM
286 Views
- 09/03/2010 05:42:54 PM
286 Views
Yes, your soup is a lie
- 09/03/2010 05:59:52 PM
255 Views
Get back in the kitchen and "homemake" me a pie and I might lean your way. *NM*
- 09/03/2010 05:02:50 PM
141 Views


*NM*
*NM*