Buzz
While there’s nothing wrong with relying on a box mix for brownies, creating a batch of rich, fudgy squares from scratch might just win you more brownie points at the bake sale. The term scratch might evoke images of manually gathering ingredients by hand, but its origins have nothing to do with the kitchen.
In the late 18th century, scratch referred to the starting line in sports such as running and cricket, often literally scratched into the ground. It also denoted the line in a boxing ring where fighters stood before a match. This usage gave rise to phrases like toe the scratch, bring to the scratch, and come up to (the) scratch, all meaning to meet a certain standard. Today, we use expressions like up to snuff in a similar context.
While start from scratch also has its roots in sports, it originally meant more than just beginning at the same point as others. As Merriam-Webster explains, it signified competing without any advantage or handicap given to less skilled players to balance the competition. This meaning persists in sports like golf and bowling. By the early 1900s, scratch and its related phrases were being used figuratively to describe anyone starting something without any prior advantage.
“My client is a young child, a destitute immigrant who began with nothing as a stowaway and is now striving to earn an honest living,” James Joyce wrote in Ulysses, which was published in full in 1922.
The exact origin of applying from scratch to food is still uncertain. However, the earliest documented reference Grammarphobia discovered appeared in a 1946 The New York Times article, which noted that “traditional cooking methods—starting from scratch, without relying on frozen or canned goods—are declining.” As TV dinners gained popularity in the 1950s, the author of that piece likely felt vindicated in their prediction.
