"Make from scratch" - British vs. American?

Could it be that an American making, say, spaghetti and meatballs from scratch would start with a box of pasta and a packet of mincemeat

No. I don't know anyone who would use "make from scratch" that way. It would imply that you've made your own fresh pasta. (Personally mincing your own meat wouldn't be a requirement, though. "From scratch" just implies "from basic ingredients"...otherwise, why not extend it to personally butchering the cow?)

But, at any rate, in the US the phrase "make from scratch" is more usually applied to baked goods, like breads, cakes or cookies, and occasionally to homemade versions of things usually bought in jars at the supermarket, like sauces, salsas or relishes. It seldom refers to main dishes.

I don't know anyone who makes there's own pasta. If I opened a packet of pasta and made the meat/sauce it could still be regarded as made from scratch in my book, perhaps proper cooking is the point and not using pre-made sauces or dinners. Now you've gone and made me hungry !

Bon appetit Gwaijai! Any more feed(ha!)back?

I wouldn't say "I made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch," unless I really did make the pasta as well. I'd say "I made the sauce from scratch" or "I made the meatballs from scratch."

However, as zashibis says, I associate "scratch" more with baking. If I really were talking about my terrific dinner, I'd say "I made the meatballs myself" or "the sauce is homemade" or something like that.

I'd still say homemade, even if I bought the meat already ground and used canned tomatoes.

I don't think you're very likely to be served spaghetti made from pasta and mincemeat, whether made from scratch or not.

We had an "international pot luck" dinner at work some years ago, and I brought a large roaster pan of Polish sausage on a bed of sauerkraut with sautéed onion and caraway seeds. One of the women who sampled it asked who made it, and I said that I did. "The sausage is delicious! Where did you buy it?" she asked.

"I made it," I said. "I chopped the meat, added onions, garlic, mustard seed, salt and pepper, then filled the casings, tied them off, and baked them over the sauerkraut." (I hadn't "made" the sauerkraut, I had bought a large amount of packaged sauerkraut, then added sautéed onion and caraway seeds.)

I don't think you're very likely to be served spaghetti made from pasta and mincemeat, whether made from scratch or not.

Did you fail to notice the OP asked specifically about spaghetti and meatballs, perhaps?

In your rush to be snarky did you fail to notice that those meatballs were to be made from mincemeat? Or perhaps, like the OP, you don't know the difference between mincemeat and minced meat.

Funny, that, I seemed to remember that in South Africa we did actually use "mincemeat" to mean minced meat. I know that in other countries it's that Christmas mixture and did consider using another term when I wrote the original post, because there are always those poor souls who wander in here purely to nitpick, but then I rejected the idea of changing my natural (and correct, if you want to look deeper into the etymology) usage of words in honor of someone like that.

Back to the point - could everyone specify which country they're from? (Apart from NorthAmerican. Whose recipe sounds amazing.)

Edited by: babygiraffe