I hear this a lot and I don’t exactly understand how it works. Also, what is the opposite of the ingredient house ? What people in an ingredient house have in their pantry and fridge and what the others have?!
P.S. Yes, I know I can google it, I did googled it and read the answer there but I wanted to hear this directly from people that consider themselves an ingredient household.
Comments
I have never heard of this.
Never heard of this term
Edit:
According to Google; it’s a household that stocks ingredients to make meals rather than buying pre-packed meals.
I’m not sure if this is really an “American” thing. I assume this is really going to depend on what age you are, your relationship/child status, and where you live.
Most houses are probably some mix between the two
I think it’s when the food is stocked and eaten as is, for instance a hard boiled egg instead of egg salad or deviled eggs. Toast instead of a sandwich.
From what I understand it basically means ‘nobody cooks.’
This is the first time that I’ve ever heard the term, but I googled it and by the grace of god I was able to discover the answer.
Okay basically it’s if in someone’s kitchen there is all the ingredients to make a meal like spices and veggies and uncooked meats but nothing to just snack on immediately or heat up immediately, thus having to cook. If you don’t have an ingredients household you might have some frozen meals in the fridge, canned soups and Mac and cheese or easy pastas plus whatever snacks.
ETA- spelling
Googling it, it’s a TikTok thing.
They stock ingredients to make food instead of ready to eat food
I’ve never heard that term. Maybe you’re thinking of the term “household ingredient” which would just be a common ingredient most people have around the house, like salt or flour or milk.
Instead of having a can of pasta sauce, I have tomato’s, garlic, onions, oregano, etc.
Same example can be used for any food.
Instead of frozen pizza, I have the ingredients above, cheese, dough (or dough ingredients), meat, vegetables, etc.
I’m a professional chef and am fairly familiar with the internet cooking culture and have never heard this term.
Where are you hearing it a lot?
Ingredient household – generally has ingredients to make meals but doesn’t have quick ready to go meals, frozen, premade etc .
Pretty much a house that cook their meals not just heats food up
It’s a mostly TikTok joke term for a house that has ingredients but no snacks or pre-made meals that a kid could just grab and eat when they’re hungry.
So you’ll see videos like “when you live in an ingredient household” and it’s someone eating shredded cheese off a plate or something.
It means you have fewer ‘processed foods.’
For example, you have all the ingredients for granola bars but you do not buy pre-made granola bars
So basically if you don’t cook that day, you aren’t snacking on a granola bar, you’re snacking on some raw nuts or raisins or whatever
An ingredient house is where people only cook. There’s no premade snacks like chips, fruit cups or cookies. There’s flour, sugar eggs etc… and if you want cookies you can make them. Or you can cut up your own fruit. But basically it’s a house where they stick to the main meals instead of having snacks around so when you do get hungry in-between meals it’s more of a challenge to find something. And that’s where the tiktoks come in.
I googled it. Is this not most people?
I keep a few prepackaged but most meals are made and cooked
Being an ingredient household means that the fridge, freezer, and pantry are full of stuff to make meals like fruits, veggies, herbs/seasonings, grains/pasta, meat, etc.
They tend to have little to no prepackaged meals where basically all you have to do is heat it up or snacks like chips, crackers, or candy.
Basically, there is no packaged food kept in the home. Ingredient households cook everything from scratch.
No idea
I asked once how I could avoid being an ingredient household and the only thing I can figure is that I should keep a lot of prepared foods/frozen meals and junk food on hand. I’m not gonna do that. We keep fresh fruit, fresh veg, marinated meat, rice, bread, and all kinds of things on hand. My kids can cook.
It means a home where there are very little pre-made foods or processed foods. Like you actually need ingredients to make something from scratch rather than opening the freezer and just cramming something in the microwave
It’s a household that doesn’t buy many packaged or prepared foods, especially snack foods. Kids who describe growing up in an “ingredients household” mean that while their peers were able to grab a packet of crisps or some cookies from a cupboard after school, they could only grab a handful of almonds or maybe some bittersweet baking chocolate. They also wouldn’t have sugary drinks available, or desserts a lot of the time, and often their parents had strict diets or were vegetarian/vegan, or only ate organic food, etc.
It means in order to eat anything, you have to thaw, chop something up, cook it, boil it, and prepare it with a bunch of dishes and to do. That there’s nothing quick and easy you can grab and just eat without preparation
My daughter says that we have a lot of groceries but no food.
They really have a category and buzzword for everything
My gosh, does everything need a label these days? An ingredient household? Well now aren’t they special? Everyone has to feel good about themselves with silly labels.
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I’m in constant conflict with my family about this topic. I buy ingredients with which we can make meals — produce, raw meat, spices, dairy products, etc etc etc.
My loving family is constantly frustrated because “there’s nothing to eat.” They want to open the fridge and take out a roast chicken roasted at the supermarket, a bucket of potato salad made at the store, and a cup of tiramisu made in some factory. They want to open a bag of chips or candies. It is beyond frustrating!
My son’s best friend lives in an “ingredient household”. Basically everything needs to be cooked or prepared to be eaten. They don’t have things like chips (crisps), crackers, cookies (biscuits), etc in their house. Their pantry has things like rice, beans, lentils, canned goods. They have fruit that needs to be peeled or cut up, etc.
My house is more of a “snack household”. With two special needs kids who eat small amounts, multiple times a day, and the kids’ friends who come over almost daily, I keep those snacks as well as cut up fruits/veggies, string or snack cheese, small yogurts, etc. Plus I bake a lot so I have breads and such to snack on as well. I keep easy to make foods too that the kids can make in the microwave or with a kettle. Packs of ramen, little bowls of macaroni and cheese, etc.
I have never heard this term before. And to be honest, I would have thought that this would basically be the norm. I have always had ingredients around.
Stuff I almost always keep on hand:
– Rice. I’m a little extra, so I keep basmati long grain rice and sushi style short grain rice on hand. I go through a lot more short grain rice than long grain rice.
– Noodles. I normally keep egg noodles, some green bean rice noodles, some buckwheat Sobe noodles around. I might have other noodles as well, depending on what looked good at the store.
– Pasta. I normally keep some vermicelli, some spaghetti, some linguini, some farfalle (bowtie pasta) around. I normally have some other pasta around too. I like keeping some couscous around too.
– Spices. My big four are Onion powder, Garlic Powder, Paprika, and Pepper. Italian Seasoning, Dark Chili Powder, Cumin, Tumric, Safron (OK, Saflower), curry powder, sage, crushed red pepper, red pepper, other pepper powders. Obviously, salt – I try to mostly use table salt for the iodine, but pink Himalayan, Hawaiian Black, and Irish Smoked are also very popular in my house. I also have some Kosher salt for when I need big grains.
– Vegetables: I always have potatoes, Onions, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapenos on hand. Obviously, I buy other veggies as needed.
For other fruits and vegetables, we buy seasonally and as we want them.
– Meat: This has been harder. We have been alternating between chicken breasts and ground beef. We buy other meat specifically for meals when we plan them.
– Cheese: I normally stock a shredded yellow cheese (Sharp Cheddar, Colby Jack, “Mexican Blend”, something like that), Shredded Mozzarella cheese. I have also been stocking a shaved blend of Parmesan, Romano and Asiago cheeses.
In terms of cheese slices, I normally have an American cheese, and something else – sharp cheddar, Provolone, pepper cheese, swiss cheese, something like that.
I normally have better cheese floating around the fridge, but that’s just random based on what I grabbed the last time I was at the cheesemongers. There is a 20 year old Cheddar that I just can’t get enough of. We really like old cheeses.
And I mean, we do use some frozen foods, and some convenance boxed foods too. I use a lot of canned tomato products. I used to make my own Pizza sauce from tomato sauce, then I tried Dei Fratelli pizza sauce and it’s almost exactly what I used to make anyway, so…
And yes, my Freezer has frozen pizza and burritos and all that stuff, too. Sometimes you don’t want to cook, you just wanna nuke something and be done with it. And Ramen. So much ramen.
What
I worked in restaurants and I’ve been a hobbyist home cook for 30+ years, spending hours every week on cooking and learning about cooking.
I’ve never heard this term in my life.
This is something that teenagers and children say when they are mad their parents don’t buy more snacks.
My husband called my grandparent’s kitchen analog for this reason. There was no quick meal, you were going to do ALL the prep. Which is fine, but when house sitting was a surprise to him.
Never seen it but I’m not on tiktok and apparently it’s from there? But I get it, it just means you don’t have any quick eats and just have ingredients for a cooked meal
Go to the grocery store and buy $150 worth of food. Get home and there is nothing to eat.
We are primarily an “ingredient” household.
Those who aren’t usually have a lot of packaged goods that take minimal time to cook/reheat. Frozen dinners, cans of soup, packaged precooked rice, canned or frozen veggies that can be microwaved, boxes of cereal, instant oatmeal, granola or cereal bars. bags of chips and snacks, even things like sandwich meats and cheese to make a quick sandwich.
We don’t tend to have a lot of that in our house. I buy dried beans, rice, pasta, I have a freezer full of various meats (chicken, ground beef, pork chops, etc). I buy mostly fresh veggies and fruit, I have cabinets full of spices and various things like soy sauce, vinegars, oils, worcestershire sauce, chili paste, and other things.
In other words, if you want to eat something that you can fix in a few minutes, you’re going to be limited to fresh fruit, fresh veg, or a slice of bread (which I make every week).
Never heard of this. Must be a term from a subset of social media
An ingredient household is a house where the kitchen is mostly raw ingredients or their pantry generally requires cooking something.
As opposed to a house with lots of grab-and-go meals, microwave meals, etc…
At first, I thought it was “household ingredients” lost in translation.