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.

Using a slow cooker for making pasta sauces costs less for the fuel.

Depends on what you cook! I've found cooking from scratch almost always much cheaper; including fuel.

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.

I bet it was pennies.

We use bottled LPG or cooking and I cook everything from scratch. 13kg bottles last for months.

Ha, though the NHS suggesting 9-a-day......er fuck off, who the hell has that much veg and salad in the fridge who lives alone?

That's bollocks. I live alone and can easily eat that - as an example, fruit with yogurt for breakfast (that doesn't need to be refrigerated), nuts and olives as a snack mid-morning, lunch (they don't need to be refrigerated), vegetable bowl with lunch of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and radishes, with a lunch including lettuce (most of which do need to be refrigerated (except tomatoes) but don't take up much space), orange or banana mid-afternoon (no refrigeration) and that's nine before I've had any vegetables at dinner.

FOR cooking

Not sure why people are fixating on flour when it’s the other ingredients which cost the money.

So if you’re making a cake which contains, as a rule, 8 oz butter, then the butter alone is going to cost you somewhere in the range of £1.70 (assuming you can get it on offer.) the eggs are around £1.40 for 6, so approx 90P for the eggs. So even if your 1kg bag of flour makes 4 cakes, add in the butter and eggs, and those 4 cakes have already cost you over £10, without factoring the sugar, vanilla extract, gas etc into the cost, and assuming you’re only making a plain cake with no filling or icing.

It completely depends on what your are cooking! We mix it up, some expensive meals and some super cheap. I can make a green lentil curried soup in the slow cooker for under £1, that is about 8 portions and includes the cost of cooking it.

Supermarkets can make use of economies of scale that a home cook cant, and they can use off cuts to make their things with, things that used to be available to buy but i just dont see in supermarkets as much wonky veg etc.

I am sure some things are cheaper still - people always rush to pasta sauce (80p for 500g v - a tin of tomatoes is about 40p for 400g, plus onion, plus herbs, plus garlic) but i know I tried to make humous and a quiche and they were more expensive to make.

I think we need to reassess the way we cook. When I did home economics at school 40+ years ago we got marked down if there was space in the oven when using it. We had to plan to use all the shelves, what goes on the top one and the bottom, plus using it as it cooled down afterwards. Now I heat up my 50% bigger oven just to cook a couple of chicken breasts. My old teacher will be turning in her grave.

I wouod love to eat well but my son is suspected arfrid the amount of foods he eats is limited I can batch cook my arse off he literally won't eat it yes my child will starve himself recently school had to give him the snacks I sent in and a quiet place to eat them in because he had eaten literally nothing since the few mouthfuls of breakfast from the day prior his eating is all about texture and situation based so he will eat things at school he will not eat at home and vice versa

The cosy of living increase is a nightmare for us

But the actual cost of decent home made cake explains why many shop bought cakes aren't good - lack of decent butter etc.

Agree @BringBackCoffeeCreams a lot of that organisation for efficient use of things takes time and has gotten beyond us. Perhaps an idea for Jack monroe etc to look at efficient heat usage.

Slow cookers always win this overall of course - eat more slow cooked meals for energy savings

I often put a pepper, onion, garlic, tomato puree, sometimes mushrooms (ocassionally bacon or chorizo) in tomato sauce with tinned tomatoes. Even without the bacon or chorizo - which are obviously more extravagant - it would be tight to get that under £1.
I love baking but agree making a cake is often more expensive than buying a supermarket cake (but usually nicer) . Half a block of butter would be at least 80p for a start before you add in the other ingredients.
Lots of people on MN advocate batch cooking as a way to save money but for those on very low incomes there are barriers to that because you need

• store cupboard basics
• the money to buy stuff in volume (eg a large pack of meat/pasta might be cheaper per 100g but will still be more expensive than the smallest pack)
• fuel/space/pans etc to cook a greater quantity of food
• suitable containers to put the "spare" portions
• sufficient fridge or freezer space to store them

Cooking from scratch works out a lot cheaper.
Regarding cakes - I sometimes make a batch of muffins using flour, oil, 1 egg and sugar as a base and sometimes add an extra like chocolate chips or grated apple and cinnamon. It works out very cheap.
I do make more expensive cakes using more eggs and butter occasionally too but I'd rather have that than the over processed ones from the supermarket.

When it comes to meals, you can do it cheaply. Tinned tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and veg can be quite cheap.
It's important to factor in the health benefits too.

"quality and nutrition" are exactly the reasons people should be buying fresh ingredients and cooking from scratch.

Buying ready made meals , sauces, dinners etc means you're paying a high price for all the fats, sugar, flour, flavourings and chemical additives and a teensy amount of (low quality) protein.

Fat , starch, salt and sugar are very cheap to buy. So if you CRAVE a highfat high sugar high starch high salt diet it's much cheaper to cook your own unhealthy diet.

What this country urgently needs is mass consumer education in how to do very basic arithmetic on pencil and paper, followed by paper and pencil menu
planning.

Yes, to me its the answer to everything diet and cost related. Eating 9 a day? Easy when veg makes up the bulk of your diet. Cooking from scratch? A fraction of the time/energy required for meat to cook. Cost? The savings are huge.

I’ve never used a slow cooker but am tempted to buy one.

At the moment, I live in a studio with a convection microwave and a George Foreman grill.

I use the grill for cooking chicken, the microwave for everything else but I am limited in recipes.

could I do a stew or a casserole in the slow cooker? Make soups? I am at risk of going down the Lidl ready meal route for hot meals (although I eat lots of salad, veg in salad, nuts and fruit).

the eggs are around £1.40 for 6

6 eggs are £1 even in Waitrose, and even less in Aldi/Lidl. Half the issues could be solved by checking prices and/or shopping elsewhere (and that doesn't have to compromise on animal welfare as Aldi's/Lidl's are still free range).

I think we need to reassess the way we cook. When I did home economics at school 40+ years ago we got marked down if there was space in the oven when using it. We had to plan to use all the shelves, what goes on the top one and the bottom, plus using it as it cooled down afterwards. Now I heat up my 50% bigger oven just to cook a couple of chicken breasts. My old teacher will be turning in her grave.

@BringBackCoffeeCreams I completely agree, we've lost sight of true 'home economics' i.e. the economy of running a home, and most notably when it comes to cooking. If I run the oven I cook various things in there at once if I can, for reheating later - for example, putting some potatoes in for jackets on another day (and that re-heating will be in a microwave, not putting the oven on again). Or making some granola which is just oats on a baking tray drizzled with a bit of oil and what ever nut/seeds/dried fruit etc odds and ends need using up - way cheaper than buying it pre-made. Or using up some left-over pastry to make a cheap pudding. Make the most of the heat you have because, unlike a microwave, you don't need more energy depending on how much you've got in there.

Much as we shouldn't be having to have competitions as to who can have the thinnest gruel, we have become accustomed to running ovens whenever and for how ever long and they aren't cheap. If we want to live more cheaply we need to get back to planning, cooking on hobs, making the most of oven heat/space and knowing how to cook well with what's affordable.

I cook from scratch but bloody hate meal planning, food shopping, cooking 😠

I'm one of the few that much prefers a jar of pasta sauce or a supermarket lasagne but cook from scratch because it's cheaper, healthier, yada yada...

I have always batch cooked things like Bolognese sauce, curry and chilli, even being on my own now I still do it thought now I tend to do just tomatoes, onion and garlic which I freeze and then I have the basis for many other dishes. At the weekend I bought a huge ham shank which I put into the sdlow cooker overnight and used a big bag of dried peas, a couple of celery sticks, onion, carrot and potatoes to make a mountain of pea and ham soup, about £5 in total. It's substantial enough for lunch with a piece of bread, there are probably about 12 portions.

I’ve just cancelled my milkman because I can no longer justify spending the money,

Of course you can't. Delivered milk costs a fortune because you're paying the milkman's wages, his fuel costs, his vehicle purchase and maintenance costs.

You can buy milk FAR cheaper at ANY supermarket, in a larger carton that will easily last a week in the fridge. Economy of scale.

@BrightYellowDaffodil

Stop!!!!! How do you make granola?

oats from a pet just scattered on a baking tray? Cover them all in a drizzle of oil? add stuff? Is that it?

I love granola 🙂

I need a microwave version 🤣

could I do a stew or a casserole in the slow cooker? Make soups?

I use my slow cooker for stew, casserole, soups, curry, bolognaise, chilli, pulled pork, rice pudding etc.

I often put a pepper, onion, garlic, tomato puree, sometimes mushrooms (ocassionally bacon or chorizo) in tomato sauce with tinned tomatoes. Even without the bacon or chorizo - which are obviously more extravagant - it would be tight to get that under £1.

I'd agree, but with the additional vegetables your sauce will go further and either feed more people or leave more left over which can be stored.

The other point I meant to make in my previous post was about what we eat. I am absolutely not advocating anyone starving themselves but we can easily eat so many snacks. The idea that we should be grazing all day on cakes, crisps, biscuits, bars etc is quite a modern phenomenon and I think we need to get away from that. I certainly notice my shopping bill creeping up when those sorts of foods find their way into my basket. Maybe we also need to think about the hypothetical cake OP gives as her example - things like cakes should be an occasional treat rather than the norm. And I'd absolutely agree with PPs about meat - as a society we have the idea that a meal = meat + [something else] and we need to get away from that too.

I think this depends on the quality of ready made you might buy and size portions you expect-also whether there is one of you or 6. If you would live on M&S or Waitrose or Cook ready meals and buy 1 each or use 2 portion meals for 1 person (easy if it's hungry bloke) then making yourself is cheaper and healthier - if you live on. £2 budget range ready meals and there is just yourself - Yep it's probably cheaper to eat ready made and possibly less waste too .I find buying a large good quality farm chicken every week helps (there's only 2 of us or occasionally 3) I can do a roast, a stir fry /ramen plus a pie 'or 'a couple of sandwiches out of it- so get 3 meals from it. I also buy a lot of yellow sticker food and freeze.