My October baking has inspired looking into this one. Why, exactly, do we say something’s made “from scratch” if it doesn’t use a mix? Maybe y’all know this already, since it’s pretty simple, but I was clueless, LOL.

In my head, I think it may have had something to do with the meaning of scratch that comes from the verb meaning “scrape together,” as in scratching out an existence. Because, you know, you scrape together the ingredients. Literally… And I guess that’s not totally far afield.

But in fact, it’s a bit more simple than that. One of the noun meanings of scratch is “nothing.” (Which I guess I’d never really paused to consider before.) So from scratch really means from nothing. Er, nothing pre-made anyway. Interestingly, that’s been in use since 1918.

Do you like to make things from scratch, or are you more for the ease of boxes and mixes? (My answer depends on the project.)