some meal costs vs alternatives

[mindstalk]

1) A sloppy joe/picadillo. $1 1 lb fatty ground pork, $3 canned diced tomatoes, $1/lb whole wheat elbows, $2 4 slices of American cheese, plus onion and spices. Call it $8. Closest nearby equivalent is a quesadilla picadillo, that was quite good, but cost $14 (a fairly standard meal price around here), and probably had 1/4 - 1/2 lb of meat. So $8 at home, vs. $28-56 of takeout meals... Could be $6 at home, because with that cheap fatty pork, you don't really need the cheese.

2) I'm back to baking whole wheat sourdough. $6 for 5 lbs of whole wheat flour. After adding water, that's like 5 24-oz loaves of commercial bread costing $2.50 each ($12.50 total), or 7 1-lb loaves of artisanal bread costing $4-6 each ($28-42 total).

Are those fair comparisons? Well, I can't make anything like industrial sliced bread. Home bread is closer to artisanal. Probably not as good... then again, I don't think I've ever seen whole wheat sourdough in a store. There's refined sourdough, or whole wheat, not both.

Comments

[sraun]

With a Pullman Loaf Pan and a bread recipe that has a pretty consistent small bubble structure, you can get really close to commercial bread.

Adding a Bread Slicing Guide can get really close.

[mindstalk]

Yeah, the right pan would help for shape. As for texture and density, each of whole wheat and sourdough make that harder I think, never mind doing both.