Originally Posted by cubbie

I see this often on food-related forums and it always annoys me: someone creates a thread to ask for opinions about commercial products (what's the best yellow cake mix/jarred giardiniera/store-bought spaghetti sauce/frozen Chinese dumpling/dry pasta/boxed chicken broth/whatever, and someone eventually, invariably, replies "it's so easy, why don't you make it yourself?" That's a useful answer to "how hard is this to make myself?" It's not a useful answer to "I can't or don't want to make this myself; what's your favorite commercial brand?"