PSA: you can't make it better and cheaper at home.

Cafe Society
61

Funny, I just watched Adam Ragusea make the same point last night. (Great video but beware of the sneaky ad segue right in the middle.)

He makes good arguments, but I just can’t help trying to line it up with my reality. Sure, loss leaders like rotisserie chickens and sausage biscuits are way cheaper than anything I could make at home, and they’re pretty good for what they cost, too. But most of the cost of food is in the labor required to prepare it. So clearly, if you aren’t very well off, you can save a bundle over restaurants by doing the labor yourself. Economies of scale mostly aren’t going to be able to compete with free labor.

And some of the stuff I make is both phenomenal and dirt cheap. My homemade sourdough bread is better than anything I’ve ever bought from someone else. It’s not just better than cheap supermarket bread, but high quality artisan bakery bread too. And it costs pennies on the dollar, even compared to the cheapest Wonder bread you can buy. Not counting labor, of course.

The coffee I roast myself is less than half the price of the roasted coffee I can buy at the grocery store, and infinitely better. There are a few local roasters who make better coffee than me, but they sell their beans for $16-$20 for 3/4lb or maybe only ten ounces. I buy my green beans from Sweet Maria’s for under $6/lb. It takes me ten minutes to roast, but of course I can only roast a half pound at a time. So bulk commercial roasters can certainly beat me on economies of scale, but then their markup eliminates any economic benefit to me. Any other coffee snobs here? Can you imagine buying high quality single origin coffee that was roasted yesterday for $5.50 a pound?

Of course, most things I make at home aren’t gourmet. A lot of the food I make is just cheaper than restaurant food, not better. But I make a lot of food that is better than any restaurant food I’ve eaten. Sometimes it’s cheaper and sometimes it’s more expensive, but the pride of making a dinner I love is worth any extra expense.

Also, cooking is a big hobby of mine. It’s science, it’s art, it’s history, it’s culture, it’s social. I’d do it even if it cost five times as much. Hell, I have other hobbies I’ve spent much more money and wasted much more time on, for far less in return. People love those kinds of activities for some reason.

62

The cheaper part of the equation will vary based on how people value their time. I was thinking I’d prep/cleaning time but should acknowledge that going to a restaurant isn’t necessarily fast.

63

Even with rotisserie chickens, I’m not sure they’re “way cheaper” than what I can make at home. At best, they are about the same price (which does make it worth it, though I tend not to buy them unless I’m in a real time pinch.) Right now, whole chicken is 89 cents a pound at my local grocery. A broiler is, what, 3-3.5 lbs, so $3.11 at the heavy end. This particular grocery’s rotisserie chickens are, I believe $5.99 each. Stick it in a 450F oven for an hour, and you’re good to go.

Now, this is not to say it’s necessarily worth the effort – I love to cook, so I think it is, but it’s an extremely marginal benefit at that price (and whole chicken is more typically at $1.29-$1.49/lb). For most people, the rotisserie chicken is fine and not worth the hassle.

64

I was about to point out that roasting a chicken well is STUPID easy, and usually cheaper than pre-done rotisserie chickens. But you have to go to the trouble of seasoning it and roasting it yourself.

65

Yeah, it’s one more thing you gotta do so, yeah, I totally get it, for an extra buck or two, I’ll pay not to have to spend an hour doing it, the cleanup, etc. That’s certainly a case where I think the convenience is totally worth it, even if I just prefer to throw it in the oven myself most of the time.

But, then again, I almost get offended when I see pre-chopped vegetables that are like only a buck or two more than their non pre-chopped counterparts and think to myself “who the fuck would pay two bucks for pre chopped onions when I can get probably twice that amount for 69 cents if I chop it myself?”

66

I buy diced onions for the convenience factor, and because they’ve done a better job of getting consistent dices than I can manage. (And there’s a particular recipe I make not very frequently that requires a lot of onion, so the three-pound package from the discount store is worth it, just to reduce some of the labor.)

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[QUOTE=pulykamell;22150323

But, then again, I almost get offended when I see pre-chopped vegetables that are like only a buck or two more than their non pre-chopped counterparts and think to myself “who the fuck would pay two bucks for pre chopped onions when I can get probably twice that amount for 69 cents if I chop it myself?”[/QUOTE]

The $1.31 difference doesn’t matter one bit to many people.

68

I have been thinking about it. I don’t get it.

69

Is this a common thing? I don’t think I’ve seen diced onions sold. Minced garlic, sure.

70

Yep, my store sells diced onions in three forms: a frozen bag, jarred, and in a small container raw from the deli. You might have to ask for it - it’s a common item (hence we sell it in three forms) but not one that is usually advertised or heavily promoted.

71

This is going to be a bit of a pile-on, but I came in here to say that there’s not a single part of this post that I understand or agree with.

Beans should be present in everyone’s diet (eating habits) and they’re among the easiest things to cook, although there are a few details that you have to get right. First and foremost, you have to start with a good brand, because you’ll never get the results you want if the beans aren’t of high enough quality. The good brands aren’t necessarily more expensive, either. It can be terribly frustrating, because inexperienced cooks will keep using the same brand, thinking that the problem lies in the method. I’ve found good brands by asking neighbors (especially older housewives) and shopkeepers. Another important detail, as mentioned upthread, is to make sure you’re not using beans that are too old. Six months or less might be a reasonable limit. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the good brands sell their old beans to the shitty brands.

Lentils are the easiest to make. You don’t have to rehydrate them, you don’t even need to cover the pot, and cooking time is only about 30 minutes. Chick peas are similarly easy to make, although I’ve always rehydrated them and cooked them for about 25 minutes in a pressure cooker. Until recently, I’ve had a much harder time getting navy beans and similar to come out right. I always thought they required rehydration and a pressure cooker, but I’ve recently learned that it’s enough to boil the dry beans for a bit (maybe 5-10 minutes), discard the water and proceed thereafter as you would with rehydrated beans. An added advantage of the no-soak method is that the beans won’t split open as easily. I learned this method from the widow of a guy who ate beans nearly every day of his long life.

About salad, for the last year or so I’ve been making an excellent dressing with plain yoghurt, Worcestershire, mustard, anchovies (rinse to reduce salt) and parmesan. It’s easy to keep those ingredientes on hand.

So, beans and salad are two things that I can cook better and more cheaply than most restaurants (IMO), and there are a few more, as well.

72

Oh, of course I understand that. And the price of eating out doesn’t make a bit of difference to many people, as well. For me, it’s an unnecessary expense and because I cook daily (and use onions practically daily) that cost builds up. I’m the same with preshredded lettuce. I’m not paying two to three bucks when a head is like fifty cents. I understand the cost of convenience. I just can’t bring myself to regularly pay for that convenience.

73

I can make a really good bologna sandwich. Using quality ingredients and frying it in butter is the key. But if my kitchen is not well stocked it requires a $30 to $40 trip to the grocery store first. Sure, there will be some leftovers, but that’s a lot of money for a bologna sandwich.

74

What the hell kind of bologna sandwich are you making that it requires $30-$40 in ingredients, even if your kitchen is not fully stocked? An entire pound of bologna is like $3-4 here (and if you want to buy a quarter pound, you can, of course. You don’t need to buy a whole pound.) A pound of butter is around $4, but you can also get smaller half-pounds for around $3, or just get the nice Kerrygold half-pound for $4 if we’re splurging. A loaf of bread is $1.50-$5, depending where on the commercial “white” or “artisinal” scale you are. (And you can buy half loaves of some breads around here, too.) I’m only up to $12 max there if you’re splurging on a whole pound of bologna, the Kerrygold butter, and the house-made bread.

No, there’s no need to do it at home if all you want is one sandwich. I eat fast food out from time to time and if there was a place that sold fried bologna sandwiches around here, I’d likely get them there, as I so rarely have the taste for them. But it ain’t costing $30-$40 to make. ETA: Oh, I forgot the mustard. Add another two bucks or so, but then you also have mustard that will last you a lifetime for future use. Still, I have no idea how you can come anywhere near $30-$40.

75

Making your own New England baked beans is fun, and most of the time investment involves the bean pot sitting in a slow oven for hours. The main problem is that, depending on the size of your beanpot, you’ve got a half-gallon to a gallon of baked beans afterward. And, if you made them right, they taste exactly like B&M beans, with which you could have opened a can and heated up a single serving in about five minutes.

I wish B&M would offer something other than the white pea bean (traditional to Boston). They’re based in Maine, where the Bean Hipsters traditionally use yellow eye beans, soldier beans, Jacob’s cattle beans, even dark red kidneys.

76

Mayonnaise, black pepper, mixed seasoning like Mrs. Dash or generic equivalent, the really good pickles (at least $3 or $4 per jar), a tomato, an onion, some lettuce, Tabasco Sauce, high quality American cheese, etc. And nobody likes to be served just a sandwich with no garnish so you will need some potato chips and/or olives or something like that. OK, maybe $25 dollars if you are frugal when your kitchen is completely empty. Maybe you will be eating sandwiches for the rest of the week so you couldn’t say that the cost of that first sandwich is $25. But still you must make a substantial expenditure just to have that first sandwich.

Also, when was the last time you went to the grocery store intending to only spend $25 and not ending up spending more? Unless of course you only had $25 so you couldn’t spend more.

77

Well, I try to keep my daily food budget for the family (of four) at $20, like I said before. Most days, I get out of the store at under $20. If I’m stocking up on sale items to put in the pantry or freezzer, then, yeah, I can spend $30-$40, but that’s balanced out by the days I only spend $10 or $15. I don’t keep a strict budget. I just don’t like spending more than that amount, on average, per day for food.

78

I make all our bread. A 5lb bag of bread flour that is kosher costs about $2, and has enough flour for about 5 loaves. The yeast for 5 loaves costs about $1.50. The oil is negligible, but let’s say $0.10. I put a few other things in-- there’s a small amount of sugar to start the yeast; water, which in the amounts I use for bread is >$0.01; 1/2 tsp of soy lecithin per loaf (extends the shelf-life by a couple of days, and makes it softer); 1 tsp of malt powder to form a nice crust. Salt. Tiny bit of vanilla. Everything together I buy in bags or bottles that cost a few dollars and last forever. So, we’re talking about maybe another $0.25 per loaf. Challah costs a little more with eggs and honey, but let’s just talk about the sandwich bread now.

It comes out to about $1.05 per loaf. The dirt cheapest generic bread at the store is about $1.25 per loaf. The past-the-sell date stuff from the outlet store is cheaper at about $0.60 per loaf, but it’s nasty.

Bakery bread, which my bread compares to, is around $3.00 a loaf. The challah is $4.50 from the kosher store. (My challah is WAY better, and better-looking.)

Is my time worth it? It takes about 20 minutes to measure & mix, 1 hr. to rise, 5 min. to knead, and then another 20 to rise, and about 45 to bake. I can walk the dog while it’s rising, or take a shower. I can sit around watching TV in yoga socks, boxer shorts, and no bra. Plus, I* like* baking.

I like cooking too. Some people hate it. They should go to restaurants. But if your stuff makes you happy, and making it makes you happy, it wouldn’t even matter if it cost more.

Yes, if you are a lousy cook who hates doing it, and are doing it solely to save money, you might want to sit down and figure out exactly if and how much you are saving, and do a cost/benefit analysis-- particularly if you are not so poor, that you can’t afford to eat in restaurants where the food is nutritious, & you are simply trying to balance a budget to save for retirement, as opposed to someone living paycheck-to-paycheck, who needs to cut every possible penny.

But I know people who pay money to do all sorts of thing I consider silly.

You can have my oven mitts when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

79

Now I’ve got a hankering for a bologna sandwich, of course, done up Ynnad style. Yeah, my fried bologna sandwiches were much more austere efforts. No mayo, no lettuce, no tomato, no cheese. Just a thick-cut fried slice of bologna, served with mustard, and that’s about it. OK, sometimes maybe pickle/relish and/or onion. Basically, it was treated like a hot dog in terms of toppings with me. Local restaurant Au Cheval has a killer-looking fried bologna that I want to try one of these days. It’s also a bit more on the austere side in terms of amount of ingredients (though not in terms of quality), but it looks awesome. “Luscious house-cured mortadella dotted with black pepper, sliced thin, and piled into layers on a spongy brioche bun.” Looks like it’s dressed simply with cheese and a mayo sauce.

80

I’m betting it is better than restaurant quality, since you can adjust the spices to your preference, while the restaurant has to satisfy everyone.