How cost-effective is it to make pantry staples from scratch?

http://www.slate.com/id/2216611/

by tptacek • 17 years ago

64 38 17 years ago

tptacek6• 17 years ago

If you're going to be "ramen profitable", you might as well put the extra effort in and enjoy yourself. =)

patio11• 17 years ago

I generally try to avoid competing with large capital-intensive factories manned by Chinese peasants to see if I can beat their food production while fumbling around inexpertly in my understocked kitchen and losing about $1.50 of imputed income a minute.

(A long way to say "I do not roll my own ramen". I kind of feel a little lazy that I barely even cook my own ramen anymore, but I know the business case for it is pretty solid, on the same logic. Preparation and cleanup time is so wasteful...)

tptacek6• 17 years ago

I try to avoid eating things that come from large capital-intensive factories manned by Chinese peasants.

netsp• 17 years ago

It is a mistake to take 'revenue forgone' too far. You would not (usually) spent that time in paid employment, so you haven't foregone that time.

Anyway, no need to get too fancy. If you don't enjoy cooking, don't do it. anyway:

"I take it as a given that everyone knows better than to quit their job—any job—to take up cracker-baking, so I attached no value to time."

HeyLaughingBoy3• 17 years ago

You can easily beat their food production. Just realize that you're not beating them on price, you're beating them on taste.

And I have rolled my own ramen, or at least my own soba noodles :-)

cjc• 17 years ago

Careful though - All the time spent researching / cooking / perfecting this food may eat into your ramen profitability.

I recently took up cooking and if you get serious, it gets expensive, specifically in the following ways:

1) Stocking up - Initially buying spices ($4 each), pots, pans, trays (a decent set will run you $400), a good knife($80) which you will eventually need, other staples ($a bunch)

2) Experimenting - You'll get stuff wrong a lot. You'll ruin food. You'll buy more food. Sometimes it's expensive food like steak.

3) Showing Off - When you figure out you can cook something that is noticeably better than rubber, you'll want to cook for your friends. They will like the food and thank you, but they won't always remember to leave cash behind.

4) No more junk food - Cooking the good stuff makes you appreciate good food, and by appreciate I mean spend more money on.

I find cooking to be a lot like programming. There are tons of options and methodologies and evangelists and opinions, but when it comes down it, the thrill of creating something (even something palatable only to you) is unbeatable.

tptacek6• 17 years ago

I agree with all of this (cooking is my most expensive hobby), but bear in mind that your point is the entire thesis of the Slate article.

If you haven't read it all the way through, I highly recommend it. Something about the way it's written just seemed right for Hacker News.

timr• 17 years ago

"Initially buying spices ($4 each)..."

Let me recommend Penzey's:

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html

You'll get vastly better spices and herbs than you would at the store, for half the price (less if you buy in larger quantities). Every year, I shop the retail store in my hometown, and walk away with all the spices I need for a year (20 or 30 different kinds) for about $60. It's slightly more if you have to get them shipped, but still way cheaper than the megamart.

chris112• 17 years ago

For buying food check out local salvage food stores. I've worked a tiny bit at one, and my mom uses them a lot. You can save a lot on high quality food.

Don't let the name scare you off, salvage just means that other shipments are better suited to retail. The reasons the retail grocery store sent back the shipment range from cans being dented to one jar being in the same box as a broken jar and getting water damage on the label. Or the food could be nearing its expiration date.

Since the food is being returned to the warehouse, some bad food occasionally slips through. But most stores are very good about checking for expired or bad food, and nearly all problems with food quality are very obvious as long as you check the date.

Food quality can be very good. If it is being run as a health food store, you'll basically be getting some of the food from places like Trader Joe's and Wild Oats for bargain prices. The stores are also good if you want to buy bulk ingredients. Variety is usually good, but selection isn't. Since the stores are at the mercy of other stores for their produce, you can't expect to find a specific brand in a store at a specific time. And you also can't really expect to find a product in the store just because you had previously bought it.

Salvage stores might not be for everyone, but they can save you a lot of money on high quality food. Some food may be selling at or below wholesale. So it is at least worth checking out.

Here's a list of stores by state. I have no idea how accurate the list is, but I recognize about half of the stores in my state.http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97055

Or you could get involved with an farm coop. I have no idea how it is price wise, but I think it is cheaper than a grocery store. The food is locally grown, and can be organic, so it is usually high quality. How a coop usually works is that you pay them a flat fee every month and they send you seasonal produce as they harvest it.

silentbicycle3• 17 years ago

Like many hobbies, you can make it really expensive, but you really don't need to. A few pots, a good-sized cast-iron skillet for less than $20, a decent knife (I like Chinese vegetable cleavers), a paring knife, a few wooden spoons, a cutting board or two. That's enough to start out, and (as with programming), starting small can give you a better idea what you actually need.

Alton Brown's _Gear for Your Kitchen_ (http://www.amazon.com/Alton-Browns-Gear-Your-Kitchen/dp/1584...) is a pretty good equipment overview.

Also, The Wok Shop (http://www.wokshop.com) has a lot of good equipment for very reasonable prices.

HeyLaughingBoy3• 17 years ago

I recently took up cooking and if you get serious

Don't take this the wrong way, but I find this to be a very puzzling sentence. To me, cooking your own food is a normal way of life, not something you "take up." I'm in my early 40's and I've been cooking since I was about 10 years old. My 8 year-old son helps me make bread and some meals all the time. It's not rocket science and it doesn't take expensive ingredients or tools. It was only in the last few years that I even had a set of knives that I could say were "good."

This morning I spent about $5 on a McDonalds breakfast (yeah, yeah, I know!). For about that same $5, I plan on making falafels with tzatziki sauce and pita bread for dinner tonight for me and my wife (and the kid if he'll eat it). Infinitely healthier and tastier than McSuck and feeds more for the same cost.

Don't make feeding yourself sound more complicated than it is!

mechanical_fish• 17 years ago

Bagel recipe! Score!

It is astonishing how easy it is to make bread from scratch. I've been making sourdough from Mark Bittman's recipe. It is so, so worthwhile. No two loaves have turned out quite alike, yet, but it appears to be hard to actually screw them up, because they're all delicious. Just remember to feed the starter...

tptacek6• 17 years ago

Highly recommend Ruhlman's "Ratio":

http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/04/ratio-the-simpl.h...

Bread is much simpler than even Bittman is making it out to be.

This book is the kernel hacker's guide of cooking.

jonknee• 17 years ago

I second your Ratio plug. I'd also recommend adding Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day to the mix, another great (easy!) bread book.

http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutioni...

billswift• 17 years ago

I've never actually managed to have dough breads turn out right, but my sourdough pancakes and cornbread are ok. The only dough product that works for me is pizza crust.

teuobk• 17 years ago

In addition to being cheaper (usually) and tasting better (very often), the food prepared at home gives the chef or baker a certain sense of satisfaction. I feel like I've really accomplished something when I make something delicious from scratch.

I always find it a bit magical when I bake something: I mix stuff together and put it in the oven. Out comes a food that's gone through an amazing transformation.

Incidentally, I think that the Food Network show "Good Eats" would appeal to the hacker mind.

ryanwaggoner• 17 years ago

This is how I feel about farming: you put some seeds in the ground and then several months later, you have a ton of food. What?

tomsaffell• 17 years ago

> a certain sense of satisfaction

I think this is an important and oft overlooked point. People so often talk about their 'time value of money' and use it as a justification to outsource so many parts of their life, often to the detriment of their quality of life.

Personally, I've been toying with the idea of curing my own ham - I do miss english style ham. I read a recipe last time I was in England, so I know roughly whats involved. Sounds like fun, but so far I haven't allowed myself the indulgence - one day..

bhrgunatha• 17 years ago

> In addition to being cheaper (usually) and tasting better (very often), the food prepared at home gives the chef or baker a certain sense of satisfaction.

I think for many there is a deep and fundamental pleasure gained just in the process of creating something. I get this from so many disparate areas - cooking, music, coding, making crafts with the kids, writing a letter or email to someone.

Not everyone has that, but if you do - cooking is a great one to experiment with because it's incredibly flexible in using different ingredients and methods and physically rewarding too.

wmblaettler• 17 years ago

I have been making Alton Brown's Very Basic Bread with fantastic results. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/very-basic-br...

Raphael• 17 years ago

So am I to understand that this person's time is worth nothing?

Confusion• 17 years ago

It is primarily about the taste, not about the cost. You are to understand that she willingly spends lots of time in the kitchen and would get satisfaction out of making better tasting bagels, that just happen to be cheaper. I'm rather happy with the fact that my girlfriend insists on baking our breakfast cereals herself.

adamc• 17 years ago

But it's presented as being about the cost.

visitor4rmindia• 17 years ago

That is actually an intersting question. Put in hacker terms would you say rms' time is worth nothing?

mhb• 17 years ago

You should probably base your understanding on what she wrote:

I take it as a given that everyone knows better than to quit their job - any job - to take up cracker-baking, so I attached no value to time. I happen to love messing around in the kitchen.

silentbicycle3• 17 years ago

Sometimes, getting away to do something different is a better use of time than sitting staring at a problem you've been stuck on for hours.

dhughes• 17 years ago

Two words: slow cooker.

tptacek6• 17 years ago

Two more words: sous vide.

rozim• 17 years ago

Check out pain à l'ancienne, the cold fermented baguette from Peter Reinhart in The Bread Bakers Apprentice. Several people who have tasted this say they can no longer eat store bought bread and it's amazingly easy to make.

chris112• 17 years ago

I have wanted to make granola. So easy, yet so incredibly tasty.

Too bad I'm stuck with a dorm kitchen.

HeyLaughingBoy3• 17 years ago

Use a toaster oven.

sdurkin• 17 years ago

This article doesn't factor in the value of the writer's time. Ignoring opportunity cost is a major no-no.

How cost-effective is it to make pantry staples from scratch?

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