Ready to cook vs Ready to eat, All you need to know

Ready to cook and ready to eat, one word is different but a world of a difference. 

As the name suggests, ready-to-cook means they need to be heated, cooked, and processed finally at home before consuming. This is an important step to complete the cooking, get the food tasting the way it’s intended to, and also an important step in food safety. 

You may even need to or optionally add additional ingredients to complete the dish.

Ready-to-cook consists of curry pastes, and frozen foods as the most recognizable but in a way, we all use ready-to-cook products at home already in the form of ginger garlic paste or ready-made dosa/ idli batter which are now a convenience products for most individuals. 

There’s still a lot of control in the chef’s hand when it comes to using ready-to-cook products, she/he can add the freshest produce, use a variety of proteins and serve it as per choice with accompaniments and condiments. You can very well make a perfectly balanced meal for your family, right from children to elders with these products being a staple in your pantry. 

It is also the perfect way to add variety to everyday home-cooked meals- for instance with 1 cookd butter masala gravy product you can make butter chicken, paneer butter masala, makhani biryani, or butter masala pasta, need we say more options? You can serve mom, dad, grandparents, in-laws, the babies, your neighbours and so much more. 

Quick and nutritious meals, less cleaning and happy tummies? Yes, please!

But perhaps the perception still stands? Preservatives and artificial ingredients must be an additive, right? Right? No, wrong. 

Ready-to-cook food have progressed in the years since its inception and can be prepared minus the artificial additives in state-of-the-art food facilities with teachnology-driven, pioneered packaging. This way, nothing but what your mom would add in ‘ghar ka khaana’ (home food). 

Ready-to-eat foods on the other hand are just as the name suggests, ready to eat without preparation, heating or cooking. For example cheeses, prepared sandwiches or salads or more commonly available flavoured rice pastes, idli podis or instant foods which require minimal to no cooking at home like noodles, dehydrated poha/upma, and curries.  

What’s all the hype though?

If you ask us, in a single word- Convenience. 

This is fastest and saftest way to get quick, easy, simple and tasty meals at home in a fraction of the time. 

Haven’t you heard? Time is money. 

But haven’t you also heard? Health is wealth. 

So how do you balance health, money and time? By making home made, fresh and nutritious meals and perhaps these categories of foods from well-reputed brands are in part a solution to that but remember guys, balance is everything. 

Let us know in the comments if you’ve used ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat products before and what your favourite was!