From the grocery shelf

There was a time when making pickle was treated as a sort of rare, family get together the process was a laborious one and often, the entire family would gather on a terrace to spread out and dry chillies and then pickle them.

Today, however, getting pickle is a lot less ceremonious; one simply has to go to a store and pick up a dated jar of the stuff.

Pre-packaged convenience has stolen into a lot of other common kitchen staples as well. Papads are never rolled from scratch, coconut milk can be bought by the tetrapack and even plastic tubs of chutneys — which have a shelf life of exactly two days, more often than not — can be found quite easily.

No doubt, this is more convenient, especially for women who return from their daily nine-to-fives and simply don’t have the time to start concocting various delicacies. But for some Bangaloreans, these pre-packaged products can’t match the taste of the real deal. Metrolife speaks to a few to find out whether these simple items are still made at home or can be found only on department store shelves.

Kaushik, a professional, believes that most people take to prepackaged items because they spell sheer convenience.

At the same time, he feels, they fall short of expectations. “Many people take to these products because they don’t have the time — or resources — to make items from scratch. I live in an apartment and my wife and I just don’t have the space to roll of papad or dry pickles. But personally, these store-bought products don’t have the same taste of those that my mother and grandmother used to make,” he says, nostalgically.

Frankly, he admits that pre-packaged products do have a certain glamour attached to them — but the follow-through is often missing. “We tend to buy these items partly because of curiosity. We see them and assume that they will taste exactly like their homemade counterparts. But they do taste a little artificial and have a very short shelf life — which is why we rarely pick them up a second or third time,” he explains. Archana, a software engineer, more or less agrees with this view.

“My folks at home always prefer homemade items — these are fresh and free of chemicals used for preservation. Besides, we can make these items exactly how we want them — we can pick which ingredients we want and how spicy we want it, which isn’t really possible with pre-packaged products,” she says, adding, “but despite this, in a busy world where the entire family is wrapped up in work, such products can actually be a lot of help.”

Shruti, an IT professional, feels such products may lack quality, but are still a blessing. “At the end of a busy day at work, I simply don’t have the time to come home and worry about making pickles or chutneys. It’s much easier to simply buy myself a bottle. The taste might not be as great, but you get used to it eventually. Besides, my mother sends me a large bottle of homemade pickle every couple of months — so I make do with that,” she states.