What are the benefits of cooking from scratch? Is cooking from scratch more than a time consuming habit that our grandmothers did to survive because there wasn’t any other choice? Although cooking from scratch is not a necessity for your family’s survival, it is fast becoming a necessity if your family is going to flourish. This skill not only gives you a way to embrace a tradition of homemakers in years gone by. It is not just an old fashioned tradition, but there are also many benefits to cooking from scratch.
It saves money and food made from scratch tastes way better, for starters! Read on to find out more benefits that you can reap from cooking from scratch.
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This is a collaborative post with Naomi at The Virtuous Home, a blog dedicated to sharing all about homemaking & healthy living.
Hello there!
I am Naomi from the blog The Virtuous Home where I share all the old fashioned homemaking things and healthy living tips as well. I have a passion for following an old fashioned lifestyle because that’s how I grew up and I find it a sustainable way for my family to flourish.

While there is nothing wrong with a modern lifestyle, my heart longs for the simple ways that I got a glimpse of growing up. There was much lacking in a modern lifestyle for us and my family was not flourishing so I have started passionately seeking how I can create a place where my family and I can flourish.
Much of what I found was through old fashioned homemaking and healthy living, things like cooking from scratch. I truly do love spending my days in the kitchen enjoying the many benefits of old fashioned homemaking and healthy living, especially cooking from scratch!
Let’s look at some of the benefits of cooking from scratch!
#1 Cooking from Scratch Saves Money
You can save so much money by cooking food from scratch instead of eating out or buying pre-made food. Even if you are trying to eat healthier options like organic, buying the raw ingredients and making the meal will almost always be cheaper than buying pre-made foods.
Take pizza sauce for example. Walmart prices their pizza sauce at $2.62 for 14 oz. You can buy 15 oz of tomato sauce for $0.96 and make your own with a few seasonings that you probably already have on hand in your kitchen.
The list could go on pretty much forever of how much you could save by cooking from scratch so if you’re looking to pinch more than a few pennies, cooking from scratch can help you out!
#2 Cooking From Scratch at Home Tastes Better
You’ve probably heard the phrase “There is nothing like a home cooked meal.” And it’s true! Nothing can beat the delicious aroma and delectable flavors of food hot from the stove or out of the oven.
Nowadays, it may even be said of the InstaPot, crockpot, and dishes made in other appliances. When you have control over the seasonings and the freshness of ingredients, food just tastes better freshly made over the highly processed food items. We have no idea how long ago they were made or what all is in it. This greatly affects the flavor of food.
Having control over the freshness of ingredients makes food taste so much more delicious!
#3 Gain Control over Food Quality
If you are concerned about your health and the quality of food that you are eating, then learning to cook your food from raw ingredients or traditionally prepared foods will enable you to control what ingredients you use, avoiding unnecessary additives and chemicals.
Cooking from scratch has personally helped me afford better quality food. I was gluten free for several years and then when I switched to eating better quality food, I was able to start eating gluten again. I could only afford to eat this way because I cooked with raw ingredients which are cheaper.
Because I cooked my food from scratch, I was able to avoid a majority of things that were hard to digest which over time healed my gut. This wouldn’t have been possible for me if I didn’t know how to cook from scratch!
RELATED POST: What is Good Quality Food?
#4 It’s a Way to Learn New Skills
If you love to learn or want to embrace the old fashioned traditional way of living but don’t know where to start, then cooking from scratch is a great way to embrace this sustainable life. There are so many skills to learn and master like how to…

Fermenting food & beverages from tea like kombucha can be fun & beneficial to learn at home
- Sauté
- Fry
- Boil
- Peel
- Chop
- Season
- Bake
- Broil
- Grill
- Make a roux
- Canning
- Fermenting
- Pickling
Cooking from scratch covers so much and is a great way to learn traditional skills because they are pretty beginner friendly and you have to eat anyways so why not learn how to prepare and cook food well?
You don’t have to learn them all, but your family will love you for whatever cooking skills you do learn. It will help add variety and flavor to dishes and who doesn’t want more flavor?
RELATED POST: 15 Old Fashioned Homemaking Skills that We Still Need
#5 Cooking from Scratch is a Ministry to Others
Being in the kitchen is a wonderful way for homemakers to minister to their families. It’s a way to give ourselves and serve friends and family.
Our loved ones work hard and play hard all day long. Cooking from scratch meets their needs by providing delicious nourishment which allows them to fulfill their purpose. I know, our husband appreciate it when we save money on groceries because we buy raw ingredients!
Not to mention everyone thoroughly enjoys food that tastes good because it was well seasoned with our love! When we work with food, it takes our time, energy, strength, and love to go shopping, to meal plan, to research recipes (or come up with your own), to do whatever prep is necessary, to cook it, and to serve it up.
A lot goes into sustaining our family through good food made from scratch, but it’s so worth it! Our sacrifice gives our family a healthier life, a good life.
Cooking from scratch is a sacrifice of time and energy, but it’s worth it to see our families flourish because they are eating well.
#6 It’s a Sustainable Tradition
Homemakers for as long as the world has been around have cooked from scratch. In today’s world, we enjoy all kinds of technology that simplify and speed up so many processes. It has been beneficial in many areas.
With food, however, I have begun to wonder if we have done ourselves a disservice by having the ability to have food ready to go in a manner of minutes. It only takes a few minutes to heat up a frozen pre-made meal that you bought at the store. While the time and energy saved is a blessing, our health has suffered from poorly made food with all the preservatives to make it last longer.
Health conditions and food sensitivities are common. Have you ever wondered if this has always been the case? Have people always had these and we just didn’t know about them? Is this an age-old problem?

I have spent the last year or so learning traditional food preparation and about the quality of food. I have transitioned back towards cooking more from scratch and using as many traditional food preparation methods as I can. The result has proven to me that food sensitivities have not always been a problem and that there is a more sustainable way to live.
After being gluten free for five years, I can eat gluten again!
I haven’t done anything fancy or super expensive either. It was all basically cooking from scratch like homemakers have been doing for ages.
Cooking from scratch is a sustainable tradition that homemakers have passed on from generation to generation. There is so much wisdom hidden in this way of preparing food that solves a lot of problems and cooking from scratch will always be a more sustainable way to feed your family. The more you embrace it the easier it gets and the more benefits you receive.
Final Thoughts!
I have recently come to the conclusion that cooking from scratch can be hard but it can also be one of the easiest ways to cook if you go all in, continue to learn these traditional skills, and commit to embracing this way of cooking as far as you can go.
It truly can become a sustainable tradition for you and it will help you flourish!
There are so many benefits of cooking from scratch from saving money to a healthier way of eating to an easier sustainable way of living!
Cooking from scratch is a sustainable tradition that will enable your family to flourish. It is hard work, but there is very little in life that is worth pursuing that comes without hard work.
Hard things are good for us. They teach us, grow us, and make us better homemakers.

So friend, what do you think of cooking from scratch? Is it worth it- is it worth giving of yourselves so that your family can flourish? Is it worth the sacrifice of embracing this tradition?
The more you do it, the easier it gets. The more you get into it, the more you may find it to be a wholesome way of living for your family. So what do you think? Are the benefits of cooking from scratch worth pursuing?
This was a collaborative post with Naomi at The Virtuous Home.
If you want to learn more about how to flourish in your home, visit her website!
And while you’re there you can read my guest post about the value of slow, intentional food too.
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