A lie told by grocery stores is that everything they sell makes life more convenient. That’s not always true. Some of what they sell is overpriced, inferior quality, and at the end of the day, just pointless. I would rather spend the five minutes it takes to make an amazing barbeque sauce than fork over ten dollars to buy the sugar sauce I used to love as a kid. If you know your way around a kitchen, then you’ve probably felt this way about some of your favorite foods.

Here are my criteria for foods that you should definitely make at home. If you’re thinking of making a pantry staple yourself, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the homemade version cheaper than the store-bought version?
• Does my own recipe taste better than the store-bought alternative?
• Does making this myself allow for creativity and self expression?
• Is the food versatile, or do I use it in a lot of recipes?
• Is making this food myself quick and easy?

If you answered yes to all of the above, you should definitely try making the food yourself. For your convenience, here is my personal list of must-make foods to upgrade your cooking and go easier on your wallet.

Matthew’s Allstar List of Must-Make Foods

Specialty Mustard: If you’re sampling something other than classic ballpark mustard (aka yellow mustard), then it’s almost always worth it to make it yourself. Specialty mustards are expensive, some of them for no good reason. Homemade mustard gives you the flexibility to experiment with seeds, spices, vinegars, spirits, and fermentation methods, creating a personalized flavor profile.

With that being said, some specialty mustards are expensive precisely because they’re so good, time intensive, and difficult to make. I’ll never buy grey poupon again, but I’d certainly invest in some good Swedish mustard. Alice wrote an awesome article on the various types of mustard just a few weeks ago for you to read up on to get your mustard motivation.

Barbeque Sauce and Rub: I was raised on various brands of that at the end of the day just tasted like brown sugar and vinegar. It wasn’t until about two years ago I learned there was a huge variety of sauces, ranging from the watery and incredibly vinegary Kentucky Dip (which I use in my famous coleslaw recipe) to the herb-forward sauce known as Carolina Gold. I even invented a pair of sauces I call “Slap-yo-Mama" and “Punch-yo-Pa" that were so good, they were the first recipes I kept to myself out of pride.

If you have any love for outdoor cooking or barbeque, then homemade sauces and rubs should be your next field of study.

Salad Dressing: Sauces and dressings are among the worst offenders of store-bought foods that are needlessly expensive, crammed full of factory ingredients, and at the end of the day just don’t taste good. Try making your own caesar salad dressing, and you’ll never go back to the store bought sludge on the bottom shelf of the grocery store.

Broth / Stock: If you know me at all, you know how important homemade stock is to me. I would rather use salt water than store-bought stock—that’s how bad the factory stuff is. Plus, making your own stock is incredibly easy, saves a ton of money, and is super nutritious.

Check out this article for an easy recipe to make your own vegetable stock.

Mayonnaise: I almost didn’t add mayonnaise to this list for a couple of reasons. First, it’s hard to find a good recipe. Second, a lot of people reportedly struggle with making mayonnaise. This has scared me off of mayonnaise for far too long. However, one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to start making my own mayonnaise. The stuff is cheap, and nothing compares to a fresh mayo. Store-bought mayos are full of preservatives and weird ingredients that dilute the flavor and can’t be good for your body. Plus, once you’ve learned the technique and can reliably make mayonnaise, then you can start whipping it up in no time. I’ll post a recipe once I’ve found one I’m happy with.

Matthew’s Backup List

I consider the above list to be the best bang for your buck. They are “super recipes" that are great for your budget and turn you into a kitchen wizard. With that being said, I have a list of other foods you might consider, but might be too much effort and not enough payoff. To be clear, every recipe on the list below can be totally worth it. However, they might be too time-intensive, budget restrictive, or ultimately just as good as the store-bought stuff.

Bread: There’s a reason that “cooks" and “bakers" tend to get placed into two categories, and that is because bread making takes a ton of commitment. It can be difficult from a technical perspective, sometimes requires expensive equipment, and is highly time consuming. While I adore a fresh, homemade loaf, I personally leave this up to my wife and mom (though once in a blue moon I’ll make a lovely focaccia, biscuit, or quick bread).

Pasta: I have plenty of experience making noodles, so take this from someone who knows: homemade pasta is incredibly fun and rewarding, and there are elements of it that are difficult to replicate with store-bought noodles. The best pasta dish you ever have will undoubtedly be made with homemade pasta—from flavor to texture, the homemade stuff is amazing, and from an artisan’s point of view, I adore pasta.

But if I’m being honest with myself and you, it may not be worth the commitment. Pasta takes a lot of time, and fresh pasta goes bad quickly. Not to mention there is a lot of technique involved, turning it into a culinary black hole. There’s a reason that I only make pasta every few months, but I make a new sauce at least every week. Most of the time, I’m just as happy buying a high-quality brand like Barilla.

Pancake Mix: Let me start by saying if you ever make pancakes, waffles or crepes at home, you’d better make your own mix. Store-bought mixes have a ton of pointless and unhealthy ingredients, and the flavor is embarrassingly bad when compared to the homemade stuff. They’re also ridiculously easy and take just a few minutes to make. However, what keeps this recipe off my allstar list is that it’s not an incredibly versatile recipe. Most of us don’t find ourselves using pancake mix for more than, you know, pancakes.

Ice Cream: There’s nothing quite like a good homemade ice cream. Except for it requires special homemade equipment, and most of the recipes out there are no better than the store-bought stuff. Most of the time, you’re better off splurging on some Haagen-Dazs.

Nut Butters: Of all the foods on this list, I consider nut butters the least worth making at home. If you compare a high-quality peanut butter to a homemade recipe, the flavor will be similar, the cost will be similar, and the food itself isn’t exactly versatile (I don’t see many of you making peanut butter chicken). You might disagree, but I’d rather just buy a good, natural peanut butter with no sugar added.

Condiments with a Short Shelf Life: To close this list off, here’s another item that I personally make all the time, but you might not find it worth the trouble. Ketchup, hot sauce, and herb-heavy sauces might taste great, but if you don’t eat or cook with them often, they’re more of a party trick.

I made an incredible compound butter a few weeks ago with garlic, parsley, and carrot greens, but since I never use the stuff, I promptly forgot about it until it spoiled on my countertop a week later.

You should definitely try making your own fermented hot sauce at least once, but if you don’t have it in you to make it a habit, don’t worry about it.