To think that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable?

[AlternativePerspective]

I have always cooked from scratch, and I will be the first to admit that cooking from scratch has always been more expensive than buying e.g. jar sauces etc. However as things currently stand food prices are going up so much that cooking from scratch is becoming more and more unsustainable for many people who are struggling to make ends meet.

And in an era where we’re being told to live healthily, to cut out additives where possible, and to use the healthiest ingredients, while this has always been hard to sustain, right now for many it’s unsustainable from a financial perspective, and people are going to be forced to eat jar sauces, ready meals and various other foods with additives they didn’t want or need.

I’ve just cancelled my milkman because I can no longer justify spending the money, and it’s going to take a lot before I will ever eat ready meals or cook from a jar. But compromises are going to have to be made, and in many instances for some people, it’s not going to be possible to compromise.

I find cooking things myself much cheaper as I have all the ingredients I buy plenty veg and meat so I can make whatever I want. I buy a lot of yellow sticker meat and freeze or cook then freeze meals. But I make a lot due to a large family. Convenience foods and junk is much more expensive imo. I’m just quite careful I think as single parent and low income.

None of this makes sense. Rising prices are indeed a problem but cooking from scratch is still usually the cheapest option.

I think it depends on what you’re cooking though.

I agree that bulk cooking is definitely the way to go, but things like baking certainly aren’t cheaper. I just bought butter, and even on offer it was £1.70. Given you then buy flour and sugar and the electricity/gas on top of that you could buy a shop-bought cake for less. And while someone like me happily doesn’t need to eat cake, if you have small kids then you might want to.

So it’s not just the meals but all the added bits. Iyswim.

It’s the fuel cost that’s the killer for cooking from scratch. Plus having the stocked pantry of herbs and spices to add a pinch of this or a pinch of that.

I’ve steamed some bits for dinner last night and it took about an hour of constant gas to do enough (small steamer!). It’s going to have cost a fortune.

tomato sauce is one, ok homemade is nicer as you tweak to your own likes. But buying a jar is what, 50p-£1. I strongly doubt you can make it for that

But you get more than one cake from a bag of flour, sugar etc.

It's an initial outlay of course. But it's still cheaper per portion.

It’s also the fuel to keep the freezer on for bulk cooking. Not something you would necessarily have thought of previously.

You can definitely make a tomato sauce for less than a pound.

Cheap cake is full of shite. So if you want to price up the equivalent to a home made cake with just butter, eggs, flour, sugar etc you'd have to be comparing to a relatively expensive cake.

I think meals are not so different in price depends on how careful you are when buying meat, veg, etc. I also buy a fair bit of yellow sticker items and freezer a lot so there is always a portion left for the freezer.
But baking is a different story. It is impossible to bake cheaply now. A cake just cannot be made for £1.50/2 which is all they cost on offer. It’s quite sad because it will become a lost skill eventually.

What? I doubt many people don't have freezers so this is an expense they've always had. Sure electricity is more expensive now but freezers are still pretty cheap to run.

The idea that bulk cooking from scratch is less economical than buying ready meals because you have to pay to run a freezer is bonkers.

YABU. It is possible to cook from scratch with cheap ingredients. It depends on where you shop and what you cook. I am fortunate not to be in a position where I'm having to cut back, but if I needed to cut down on food costs I'd be cutting down on meat, spending less on snacks, quitting the milkman and downgrading to cheaper versions of things I buy regularly. I wouldn't be reducing the amount I cook from scratch. Quite the opposite, probably.

Even if you bake, you only use a small amount of flour, sugar, butter etc. So you can't compare baking a cake yourself with buying one.

Cooking from scratch is almost always cheaper, unless of course you're cooking Michelin star recipes with expensive ingredients.

Batch cooking and freezing is the way to go. Make a whole lot of bolognese, freeze portions and use as needed. Same with chicken casserole and stews.

I noticed a lot of mentions of flour and sugar but that isn’t the expensive items in cakes. The costly items are eggs, butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate, dried fruit, coconut, vanilla essence, glacé cherries.

Also for your pasta sauce , are you using good value canned tomatoes, grown and canned in bulk when in season and shipped by road, or expensive fresh tomatoes grown in Peru or wherever and air freighted to us, in the middle of winter?

I was thinking this about my homemade chocolate brownies yesterday. The ingredients will have cost about £5, as the recipe includes 4 large eggs and 275g of butter as well as cocoa and chocolate chips.

I could have bought a pack of cadburys mini rolls for £1 instead.

😄

I think it depends what and how you cook. E.g. cooking from scratch gives you the option to bulk out mince (fairly expensive) with lentils (nice and cheap). So your cottage pie then maybe isn't quite the same as the the ready made one. But if it's cheaper, healthier and (IMO) tastier, does that matter?

It does help enormously if you have access to a slow cooker and a freezer for bulk cooking.

Value. 30p a tin vs 50p for pasta sauce. It’s tight by the time you add in a pinch of this, and gas.

It's the pleasure and skills that are used as well and being able to improvise

I find cooking from scratch is usually cheaper, but it’s time intensive which people, if working long hours and multiple jobs, may struggle with.

Yes. It’s the fats and flavour that’s the cost, plus the cooking time.

I think part of the issue is that if you cook from scratch you tend to user higher quality ingredients. A cheap shop bought cake won’t have actual butter in it, it will be a cheap fat source like margarine. And it will be battery eggs, not the free range most people buy.

Frying mushrooms, adding a cheap can of tomatoes and either pepper, chilli flakes or herbs, or making a cheese sauce is definitely cheap that a jar of sauce. Can be frozen as well, so you can cut back on fuel by making in bulk.

Baking is pricey but cooking meals is very cheap. Especially Indian food. Hence we find restaurant and takeaway prices crazy.
The spices last for ages and you only need a little bit. Can use those same spices for veg dishes, for meat, for natural remedies when sick.