16 Recipes Where Homemade Is So Much Better Than Store-Bought

Store-bought never stood a chance.

By Jess Eng
Published September 10, 2025
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Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

At Serious Eats, I plan and run several taste tests each month—which means I spend a lot of time in grocery store aisles and subsequently tasting and tasting and tasting to help determine which store-bought foods are actually worth buying. During our taste tests, I do come upon products, such as peanut butter and tortilla chips, that taste better than what I can make at home. But most of the time, nothing beats homemade: Not only can you control for flavor—including sweetness, saltiness, and tartness—and texture, but making food at home can be educational and cost-effective, too.

Below, I've compiled 16 recipes for common store-bought foods worth making at home. Whether it's crispy, aromatic granola, freshly salted french fries, or jugs of tart lemonade, these are the kinds of foods and drinks that prove why DIY almost always wins. So skip the aisle and head to the kitchen.

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  • Pancakes

    Side view of pouring syrup on pancakes

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Fluffy, tender, and stackable pancakes are the star of the breakfast table. Boxed pancake mixes are convenient, but, as we found in our taste test, the pancakes they produce can be bland, dry, or overly sweet. Thankfully, we've got plenty of recipes for plush, light, and flavorful pancakes. We even have a homemade pancake mix that takes just five minutes to whip up and is shelf-stable, so breakfast is almost as easy as opening a pouch.

  • Protein Bars

    Stack of homemade protein bars on a patterned plate

    Serious Eats / Brittney Cottrell

    Protein bars are everywhere these days, but many of them taste like cardboard. This no-bake recipe skips the chalky texture of store-bought bars and uses crisp rice cereal, chocolate, nuts, seeds, and cranberries to create a pleasantly chewy and snappy snack that actually tastes good.

  • Salad Dressing

    Lemon vinaigrette in a small bowl next to a plate of greens.

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    Sometimes, a store-bought bottle of dressing can be too acidic, salty, or sweet for your liking, and you're stuck with the same flavor until it’s gone. Homemade versions, on the other hand, require just a few pantry staples—sometimes the list is as short as oil, vinegar, and salt, but the options open up if you have honey, pepper, mustard, salt, or soy sauce on hand as well. Whether it's a creamy ranch or a lemony vinaigrette, there’s no shortage of easy, versatile sauces to dress your salad greens.

  • Yogurt

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    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Store-bought yogurt is convenient, but making it at home means having control over thickness and tang. Leave it as-is or strain it for Greek-style richness, then eat it plain or fold it into sauces, marinades, and desserts. Though making your own yogurt might feel intimidating, before you know it, DIY yogurt will be a part of your weekly routine.

    Continue to 5 of 16 below

  • Lemonade

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    Serious Eats / Dave Katz

    Homemade lemonade reigns supreme, thanks to its freshly squeezed citrus and the fact that you can control the balance of tartness and sweetness. Store-bought jugs work in a pinch, but, as we found in our taste test, many bottled options are flat or artificial-tasting. For the freshest-tasting lemonade, start with the classic, then experiment with our cardamom lemonade, pickle lemonade, or a macerated version that extracts lemon oils for an extra-aromatic sip.

  • Granola

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    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    There's no better weekend project than baking a tray of homemade granola, inhaling its toasted, nutty aroma as it bakes, then digging into a fresh, still-warm bowl. The store-bought stuff is handy, but making your own granola means you'll be able to include your favorite add-ins—be it nuts, seeds, dried fruit, or even chocolate—and control just how sweet you'd like it. If you're short on time, you can always make our five-minute microwave granola.

  • Cookies

    20131213-chocolate-chip-cookies-food-lab-55-edit.jpg

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    A homemade cookie, still warm from the oven, is one of life's simple pleasures. Compared to homemade, store-bought cookies often contain less butter, a key ingredient that adds flavor and helps the cookies brown. Whether you prefer chewy, crispy, or cakey versions, we have many, many cookie recipes that will suit your needs.

  • Hummus

    Overhead view of hummus b'tahini

    Serious Eats / Mai Kakish

    Store-bought hummus is convenient, but making luxuriously creamy hummus isn't difficult. Blitz chickpeas, tahini, lemon, and garlic into a smooth dip, then finish with toppings like olive oil, paprika, or pine nuts for something that feels restaurant-worthy.

    Continue to 9 of 16 below

  • Ice Cream

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    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Nothing says warm weather like a scoop of ice cream straight from the freezer, though it's just as welcome in the dead of winter atop a warm pie. The idea of homemade ice cream might sound more tedious than store-bought, but as former Serious Eats editor Max puts it in his vanilla ice cream recipe, "If you can bake a cake from a box, you can make ice cream from scratch." Start with a vanilla base, then swirl in fruit, chocolate, or nuts to create flavors you’ll never find in a store pint. Plus, two ingredients are all it takes to make a quick no-churn ice cream. Just be warned: Once you start experimenting with homemade ice cream, it's hard to go back.

  • Bread

    Sliced no-knead bread on a wooden cutting board.

    Serious Eats / Mariel De La Cruz

    Making your own bread can be a time-intensive project, but slicing into a loaf, with its distinctive crackly crust, toasted aroma, and pillowy crumb, that you've made from start to finish, is incredibly satisfying. Whether it’s no-knead bread, sourdough, or a focaccia, homemade bread simply tastes more alive!

  • Pasta Sauce

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    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    The mere mention of making pasta sauce might conjure up an all-day simmer, but not every sauce requires hours. While an Italian-American red sauce benefits from slow cooking, fresh tomato sauces take just under 40 minutes to make and can have much deeper flavor than those from the store. Pestos or creamy vodka sauces offer even more variety, and can be made ahead. You can even swap in dips, such as babaganoush or labneh, as my coworker Laila does, for traditional pasta sauces to switch things up.

  • Pizza

    Nduja pizza cooked in outdoor pizza oven on a piece of parchment set on a pizza pan

    Serious Eats / Andrew Janjigian

    Delivery or frozen pizza can be an incredible late-night snack, but making your own pizza is more fun. Plus, you can tailor each pie to your liking with the dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings of your choice for a chewy New York–style slice, a crisp Detroit-style pan pizza, or something experimental with seasonal produce.

    Continue to 13 of 16 below

  • Fries

    basket of french fries

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    We’ll be the first to admit the merits of a superb store-bought fry (looking at you, McDonald’s), but homemade fries, straight from the fryer, are a satisfying project that you can brag about to your friends. Plus, you can pick your cut—classic shoestrings, chunky potato wedges, or the double-fried kind that stay crunchy for ages—and season them exactly how you like.

  • Soup

    Bowl of Nilagang Beef on a wooden plate, on top of green tablecloth. 2 glasses of water, bowl of soup and napkin on the side.

    Serious Eats / Lorena Masso

    A satisfying bowl of soup isn't just for sick days. Canned soups make it easy, but homemade versions let you play with broth styles, swap in fresh, seasonal vegetables, and pick out your favorite pasta, beans, and legumes. Have too much soup? Consider freezing it for a day when you're too tired to cook.

  • Waffles

    buttermilk waffle segments topped with butter and maple syrup on a baking sheet

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    The batter for homemade waffles comes together in one bowl and gets poured into a hot waffle maker that does all the cooking for you. The result has crisp, golden ridges and tender valleys that can catch melted butter, maple syrup, and any other toppings. Meanwhile, store-bought frozen waffles, even when freshly heated in a toaster, are more prone to turning soggy.

  • Mayonnaise

    Two-minute mayonnaise in a serving bowl with a spoon, with an open face tomato sandwich on the right edge of the frame

    Serious Eats / Diana Chistruga

    Silky, creamy, and light, homemade mayonnaise is made with fresh eggs, so it's generally richer, creamier, and tangier than most store-bought brands. It's true that hand-whisking eggs, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, and olive oil can seem like an unnecessary arm workout, but when you have a trusty immersion blender, the homemade version comes together in seconds.

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