Are you trying to be healthier by cooking and eating at home more often? That’s great! Until your husband or kids start turning up their noses at your creations of love. Solve this problem by learning why your homemade food doesn’t taste good.
Cooking at home is a noble practice. As a homemaker, mother and wife, the health of your family can be supported by what you serve them at mealtime.
This is a great honor and power you have, but maybe your family doesn’t think so by how they turn up their noses at your homemade meals. And you’re stuck wondering why your homemade food doesn’t taste good.
Don’t give up!
Implement a few of these cooking tips to help your homemade food delicious.
Ingredients to Help Your Homemade Food Taste Good
Use Real Butter
Growing up, we had lard and butter in our house. No liquid oils. No margarine or fake shortening. Lard and butter are what I learned to bake and cook with. And these are what make foods delicious.
If a recipe calls for a liquid oil, just melt and cool your butter before adding it to the recipe!
If a recipe calls for margarine, shortening, Crisco or any solid fat, just use butter or lard – softened or hard from the fridge.
Want to make your own lard? Learn how to render down lard.
My mom had a bakery for a while. When people asked her for her recipes, she didn’t hesitate handing them out because she knew the customer would be back. They’d be back saying, “I tried making these cookies but they just don’t taste like yours.” “I tried making your bread, but it just doesn’t taste like yours.”
Through the following conversation it would usually come out that the customer had used margarine instead of real butter or that they had cut down on the fat to make it “healthier.” Or that they had used liquid oil instead of melted butter.
Butter makes food taste better!
Use Enough Salt
Contrary to popular belief, salt is a health food. It is essential for life. The right kind of salt, that is. Our bodies need it to function. And it brings out the natural flavor of foods so no one says your homemade food doesn’t taste good.
To achieve the greatest health benefits from salt, use unrefined salt any time you can. I love my Celtic Sea Salt
Don’t try and cut back on salt in recipes. Salt your foods before setting them on the table so your family or friends don’t feel bad emptying the salt shaker.
Also, with many unrefined sea salts, they are larger grain and moist so they don’t come out of a shaker very well. Salt while you cook to remedy this. And look into a salt pot for your table and one for next to your stove.
Use Seasonings
You don’t have to have a whole cupboard full of seasonings but you should invest in the basics
Always start with salt and pepper in your main meal creations.
Some common seasonings are:
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Basil
- Parsley
- Oregano
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Paprika
From there follow your recipe to the T. There is a reason it is in the recipe like that so do it! Even if it seems like a ton of spice, follow the recipe the first time. Tweak later.
I was notorious for being too lazy to measure every seasoning out so I’d guess. My “teaspoon” was always way less than an actual teaspoon. Once I began using measuring spoons for every spice, my food dishes came alive!
Use Bone Broth
Soups, gravies and casseroles will taste a million times better if you use bone broth as your base.
Yes, I know, the boxed broth off the shelf is so much more convenient. I have it sitting on my pantry shelf for a quick go-to. But as you pour it into your food, it’s pale in color and weak in flavor. Not only is it watered down enough to remain liquid at all times, but who knows if bones are actually even boiled for that broth.
If making broth isn’t your thing, there are a couple great companies out there that sell real, gelled bone broth!
Use Fresh Ground Flour
When people taste my homemade whole wheat bread they don’t believe me that it’s 100% whole wheat. It’s fluffy, not crumbly and delicious.
If you try making 100% whole wheat bread with whole wheat flour off the store shelf, you will end up with a dense brick.
You can learn how to make your own white bread at home. I don’t include my 100% whole wheat recipe because few people have a grinder
When wheat berries are ground, the flour has a 30 minute window of opportunity to either be used or frozen before nutrients begin fading and the composition of the flour changes. I grind my flour and immediately stir it into my recipe.
If you don’t want to invest in a wheat grinder but want to use whole wheat, understand that your best results will come from 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white flour in your baking recipes.
Use Butter on Vegetables
If you come from a fear of fats or butter, this may be a hard one to swallow.
Putting butter on all your cooked veggies will make them more delicious for your family.
Butter on veggies also unlocks more nutrients! You’ve heard of fat soluble and water soluble vitamins, right? So when you add a healthy fat to your veggies, you are enabling the fat soluble vitamins to be taken up by your body. Check out some of these studies sited for how fat maximizes the nutrient uptake from veggies.
Learn more about the benefits of healthy fats from Sally Fallon’s book Nourishing Fats
The Process of Making Your Homemade Food
Follow the Recipe
Make it exactly like the recipe the first time. If then you realize it was awful or needs tweaking, then begin experimenting. Shorten the stirring times, extend the cooking time, add a bit more butter, etc.
This includes the instruction part of the recipe, as well. The first time you make a recipe, follow the step by step instructions to a T. After the recipe becomes an old friend, then begin experimenting.
Want to become a better baker? I share my baking tips and techniques here.
Sear Meat
When I would see the instruction to sear the meat before putting it in the oven or Crockpot
Lazy, I know. [Except now I have an Instant Pot 
But then I learned the Why behind the process of searing. Searing meat brings out the flavor.
So now I take the extra step and pan sear my meats in a butter or lard before continuing on with the recipe.
Grab your free Instant Pot guide here!
Pan Fry and Sautee with Butter or Lard
I’m contradicting myself here. I just told you to follow the recipe to a T. Now I’m telling you to always substitute butter or lard for oils.
Butter and lard have higher smoke points (which means they don’t burn easily) and are healthy fats. They also add the most flavor to your food.
If you are preparing a Mediterranean dish, go for the olive oil. Just know that it has a lower smoke point so you have to keep a gentle heat when using it.
Now that you have these starting tips for troubleshooting why your homemade food doesn’t taste good, get cooking!
Butter only has a higher smoke point than olive oil if it’s clarified butter. Regular butter has a lower smoke point than oils.
Thanks, Kerri! Yeah, I looked at several different charts and they don’t seem very agreeable with each other. So I wonder if the quality or processing of the olive oil can make a difference in smoke point? I personally don’t care for the taste of olive oil so I don’t use it much.