/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>13650188
git gud

>>13650188
>that food you like
what food was it?

based functionless and incapable modern citizen

it is weird how prevalent the belief that individuals can create mass produced shit themselves more efficiently than facilities dedicated solely to that item's creation is. making it ''better'' is probable though

>>13650265
more efficiently? nay. but you cut out the middleman if you buy at-cost

>>13650270
you can really only cut out the middle men in food production by stealing or growing your own.

>>13650287
there's more than one middleman, you know. if you buy groceries you're cutting out the preparation and performing it yourself instead of paying for it. see?

>>13650292
but buying groceries doesn't even constitute 'at-cost', since it's retail. I'm not saying you can't out perform a restaurant but you cannot out perform a factory.

>>13650320
...yeah which is why I wrote "more efficiently? nay". because I was agreeing with that sentiment

>>13650320
if you only buy loss leaders you are getting things below wholesale costs. Grocery stores only mark things up 2-5% anyway

>>13650265
grocery stores have some of the lowest margins of any type of store, you get pretty close to at-cost. if you're buying something that comes to the store made, you probably can't save money by making it. a store's in-house made stuff is a huge markup though. I'll buy peanut butter from a grocery store because it'll be cheaper, but I won't buy their potato salad for example.

if you buy food from a restaurant or takeout place you can absolutely save money. way higher margins

> Is bad at making food, so thinks it'll always be bad
> Bought a bunch of extra ingredients for later, so thinks they spent more money
>Doesn't know that restaurants buy in bulk, completely missing the mark in cost.

Fuck you op. Neck yourself faggot

very nice

It didnt taste better because you didnt put in such a shitload of salt, sugar, fat and MSG as the factory it came from did.

>>13652600
>purposefully making something that is a worse tasting version than what you can get made for you

>>13650188
Yeah, you need to learn the intricacies of cooking. Once you get the instinct, you'll always make better food at home. I've ruined every restaurant for my family. I can copy better than anything out there.

>>13652612
And what about those of us who don't live with obsessive autistic tendencies?

>>13652631
Is that what they call chef's now? Autistics? Neat bro, you're on the right track in life, clearly. You know those old women who gripe about everything in life until they're dead? You're the male equivalent of that, or at least you're heading down that road.

If you try a little more and bitch a little less, you won't hate yourself so much.

>>13650265
Efficiency means cutting corners and mass production means appeasing the lowest denominator. Mass produced food is often made to be weak, textureless and tasteless because of whiny tastelets not being able to tolerate full flavours. Often if you want to experience flavour properly you have to do it yourself.

>>13652692

They call it "victory food", Victory Gin etc.. It's made for the underclass. It's made for you. If they could make every food out of hog anus or dead human beings, they would.

It depends on what you make. You probably can't make cheaper salsa than you can get at the store, but you can make a day's worth of portions involving grains or beans or things like hamburgers for pennies. It helps not being a dumb bitch.

>>13652703

This is exactly correct. Some things are easy to make some are better in a jar.

>>13650188
This happens to me when I make pumpkin pies.

>>13650265
We don't create it dipshit, we buy it at the store minus the markup. I eat like a king every day for less then most poorfags spend eating fast food every day.

>>13650265
>>13650292
>>13652703
>>13652720
i have autistic analyses of this on my old computer but you can absolutely produce your own food cheaper than you can buy it with a few basic skills around canning and preserving -buying food in season and in bulk and processing it yourself
tomatoes see the lowest benefit, i can make them for 4 cents cheaper per 100ml than the cheapest canned tomatoes i can buy
but they're much better than the most expensive tomatoes i can buy
other fruits, meat and vegetables see a much higher cost savings, including salsa
things like stock and beef stew i can make 40 cents cheaper per 100/ml than any of the poverty tier sludge they sell at the grocery store
i've never come across anything that costs more for me to make from scratch , provided you have some forethought and buy the ingredients at the right time

>>13652750
The problem you have is you're using the fixed point that "people can cook". If you can't cook properly, you'll make shit food no matter your starting point.

>>13650333
>>13650333
>Grocery stores only mark things up 2-5% anyway

Soft kek

>>13650265
this is something I wonder about stock in particular. every cooking book goes on about how how much better homemade stock is, and yet how easy and cheap it is to make and freeze. why is not commercial stock like that than?

>>13652750
And you're including the cost of having you fidgeting with these jars and cans for hours? Are you can produce more value than what you'd earn in the same amount of time working?

>>13650192
the chad de funes poster

>>13652766
My free time is free
Im not paid for grocery shopping either and i greatly prefer the quality if my home canned goods
Nothing from a factory can compare

>>13650265
This. People are retarded if they think they can make things cheaper than the stores. They're buying products in bulk for far cheaper than you can. That said the one advantage you do have when home cooking is making it with better quality ingredients, so you can definitely make it taste better.

>>13652607
You didnt know processed sugar was a drug?

>>13652841
Things made with ingredients that get hydrated are generally 4x+ the cost if you bought the dried version yourself

>>13652841
>>13652857
Worded weirdly - dried is cheaper

>>13652766
why are you here if your time is so valuable and you hate food and cooking

>>13652766
Why are you here if your time is so valuable and you hate preparing food?

>>13652750
>but they're much better than the most expensive tomatoes i can buy
This is the real reason to make your own if you're not a poorfag, and even if you are. Ragu and homemade are very different things.

>>13652750
>homemade meat

>>13652829
Do you account for facilities and energy use? Because you can't hand wave that cost like you can the opportunity cost of free time.
Even if you refer to your own calculations as autistic i suspect you do not, and as such they won't reflect your actual cost of home production.

>>13652734
Yes I'm sure you think that.

>>13652888
The argument wasn't that it was in any way fun, he said it was more profitable.
Why are you mad?

>>13654003
unless you actually have the capability to work it's not a cost for you to spend time doing something. so unless the guy has very free work scheduling or runs their own business there isn't an intrinsic financial cost to using your own time/labor. A lot of people misuse and suggest this opportunity-cost analysis for domestic decision making but it's almost always fallacious. can still be helpful it's just not right.

>>13653333
Yes i include most costs
Fuel/electricity, canning rings and water
It all pretty negligible
For example 3 burners at full power for 6 hours costs less than $3 which is more than enough to can 100lbs of tomatoes
I dont include reusable items like jars and cookware

>>13654003
> you can absolutely produce your own food cheaper than you can buy it
this /=profitable. "If you can produce lower than cost" is the summation of what he stated. Using his hobby time to do this is not exactly a pure science (in relation to employee cost vs personal cost) since payroll is usually the largest expense in an operation. However, if he is using his free time I think it is fair to say that he can wave any employee cost, since you are forgetting the economy of scale as well. Let me run this down

One individual purchasing 100 cans of tomatoes a year is not 100% of the product of a tomato cannery. They are only able to charge what they do, for everyone, because of the economy of scale. Products purchased in the bulk that they are by a company result in massive savings, as do the creation of goods in bulk. So, by a fair comparison, if he made 100 cans of tomatoes utilizing his own garden, canning and labor, it would be the comparison of that 100 cans of labor vs the total it required the company to create that 100 can chunk, not the price offered in the marketplace. It is not a linear ratio comparison.

>>13652750
>my tomatoes are 4 cents cheaper than the store
>my stock is 40 cents cheaper
are you a jew

>>13654357
you say this now but i bet you cry when gas goes up 2 cents

>>13650188
been meal planning for like two weeks now and it's really working out for me. having to cook every day isn't as bad when you can plan ahead

>>13654367
not really. I ride my bike to work, walk to get groceries, and if I need to drive, gas isn't expensive in the midwest.

I don't do big scale prep like OP because imo it's not worth my time. Yeah I can grow a garden, learn how to get good tomatoes, keep the deer and rabbits from eating it, pick it all, and can it. But the opportunity cost of that is all the time and effort, when I can just go to hyvee and buy a can of good enough quality tomatoes for 1.99

>>13650188
>look up recipe
here's your problem. lrn2cook

>>13650188
I'm happy someone here is saying it. Someone who is paid to cook all day long and has a diverse amount of ingredients at hand is going to be a better cook than I am as someone who works in an office 8-5 and doesn't have the time or flexibility to experiment. It's only "cheaper" if I buy the exact same shit in bulk and therefore have the same basic meal waiting for me each night, and I consume it all instead of throwing it out because I dared to have a social life.

Cooking is enjoyable when you want something special on a given night and maybe spend that time cooking with someone else, but doing it every single night is really just a chore, and not that much cheaper given your time.

Before someone asks for the millionth time why I come to this board, it's because I like food, not because I like cooking.

>>13654532
Just make two different batches so you can alternate each day. It's not hard.

>>13654561
I don't want to eat a batch of chili or batch of stew every other day. I'm not poor. I'm an adult.

If I want tacos on Tuesday, great. Salad on Wednesday? You got it dude. Thought about steak on Thursday but someone invited me out to watch the NFL game at the bar? Great, I can go, because I haven't bought a ton of food I need to eat or set to go to waste.

I know 4chan is averse to having friends, leaving the house, or lives in the middle of a sleepy flyover town though, so cooking every night is just part of your same boring routine.

>>13654635
there's a nifty little invention called refrigeration. I only ever cook 2 days every week.

>>13650188
where's the rest of her head

>>13654659
Man, I sure you're having a great time with your microwave and reheated food. Gonna start a meal prep thread next?

god damn meal preppers ruining a decent discussion about low cost high quality food

>>13650188
Your missing the most important thing in peoples life: time

Assuming you're being smart about it you do have a better cost to quality ratio. Like for example I can go out and buy a box of cheap instant hot chocolate mix for like a dollar. And it will taste meh. Or I can buy 12 dollars box of artisanal hot chocolate instant powder. And it will taste good. Or I can go out buy hard chocolate bar of good quality for like 3 dollars, spend a few extra moments stirring and make my own hot chocolate. And have taste amazing.

I realized I could buy a whole loaf of bread, ham, turkey, bacon and cheese for the same price as one subway footlong

So I'm like, nigga I can put that shit in a toaster oven myself

So I did

I eat sandwiches every single day now

>>13654635
Stop coping, just admit you can't cook and just want to waste your money on take out

>>13652607
Are you a fatass?

>>13650188
>>its not cheaper
Happens sometimes; good ingredients cost good money.
>>it doesnt taste better
You're just a shit cook then.

>>13654635
Food you cook at home is healthier, cheaper, often tasty as fuck if you have half a brain. It's made from better ingredients and is just overall hard to beat. Mostly it's the fact that eating out will give you health problems and make you fat

>>13650265
Yea all those recipes online which say it takes 10 minutes and it ends up taking 45. As if you can just click your fingers and all your kitchen utensils, pots and pans are immediately in place ready to use.

>>13650188
>spend time going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients
>use resources and kitchen space storing all the ingredients
>spend time preparing the ingredients
>spend time cooking
>the food tastes pretty good but you've had better at a restaurant
>spend time and resources cleaning up
>make sure the rest of your ingredients don't spoil
If you have the money to eat out often and if you're single, cooking is a chore.

>>13655995
>not having a personal sous chef to help you

>>13652644
I agree that cooking at home is better.
But fucking jesus christ you're massive pretentious faggot

>>13654357
i said 40 cents cheaper per 100 ml than the cheapest sludge
a 410ml can of dog food tier puritan irish stew costs $2
i can make a 500ml jar of irish stew with local organic vegetables and grass fed beef $0.40

>>13651021
I've run into retards like this in real life
"I just spent $100 for pizza ingredients what the fuuuuuuuck I thought it was cheaper"
somehow they can't realize the leftover ingredients will make many more pizzas

mass media was a mistake, trains everyone's brain to only think 3 seconds into the future

>>13650188
How on earth is a homemade steak not cheaper than a restaurant's?

>>13656022
Ok so you're lazy and bad with money, got it.
What makes you different from a nigger?

>>13657167
imagine being poor like this nibba

Buy 5 $5 sandwiches a week
You can get bread $3, ham $5, cheese 5$, tomato $1, lettuce $1 and make 10 sandwiches cost $15.
Now if your making bread it's different but cooking a big $10 steak your self is way cheaper than the same cut for $40 at a restaurant.

>>13656022
Only if you hate cooking and completely retarded with picking your food.
You can make most stir fry dishes for one for the price of half a onion half tomato half bell pepper, a few mushrooms a clove of garlic and ginger then 200g of meat and some rice.
Cost me about $1 of the vegetables at most and depending on the meat $1-3 and fuck all for rice maybe .20 then it takes 5 minutes to cut it all up and 5 minutes to cook and 2 to wash up.
Taste close enough and it cost about $12 for the same thing were I live.
Plus I like cooking.

>>13650188
you sound like my ex wife.

>found recipe online
>doesn't read it all the way through
>doesn't prep ingredients ahead of time
>food turns out okay, not great

"i'm never cooking again!"

it's a skill. the idea that you're going to read a recipe online and it be better than something mass produced or prepared by someone who has done it thousands of times is absurd.

i've been cooking for over 20 years and i still know so little about it but i can be presented with a kitchen, tools and items and knock something up in less than an hour or so that's edible and, dare i say, good.

>The rambling idiot way of valuing a homecooked meal:
>Buys all the standard ingredients because they have fuck all (oil, butter, spices, milk based products, broth, other common flavor enhancers)
>Gets like 6 big porkchops
>4 different vegetables they wont use until they expire for other food
>Big sack of rice
>Potatoes
>Cooks all 6 porkchops at once
>Has no electrical cookware to aid making large batches
>Peeling potatoes and chopping vegetables with never sharpened knife takes forever
>Never remembers to pre-heat the oven before starting to cook
>Puts a pot with excessive amounts of water on the stovetop
>Eat 3, save 3 for next meal
>Microwaves porkchops and leftovers
>"OK lets count our savings!"
>"Wtf I spent so much for two meals, the second one tasted shit microwaved and it took me hours to make, this is bs i'm going to mcdonalds to save money from now on"
>Gets "sorry about your weight"'d at mcdonalds

>>13652750
Yeah, I did this for years since I've got six kids and try to save where I can. It's really hard to break even considering the time and capital invested unless you go big and have a family that doesn't mind eating like they live in a barracks. You do get better flavor than the cheapest alternatives but that matters less than you think when eating the same blend of seasonal veg for the dozenth time running.

So yeah, if you like that sort of thing it's possible to get good and not spend quite as much, but if you really want to just save money over anything else just do a community buyers club instead. A couple families with a wholesale club card that go monthly or bi-monthly to fill a large van or two with seasonal bulk and then team up to preserve it and split the bill/bounty will save you thousands per year as opposed to hundreds.

>>13657398
pretty good description of all the retards trying to trash on cooking on a cooking board.

>>13654635
>Bro.. ITS MY SOCIAL LIFE! Im just literally too social to cook. All those people with normal lives and responsibilities? None of em cook, of course, simply too busy

>>13656022
What the fuck else is your time good for? You probably spend all day jerking off and posting on 4chan anyways, heaven forbid you need to leave the house and interact with other humans.

>>13657398
Sounds like my roommates. These guys will drop $150 - $200 going grocery shopping and let 3/4 of it go bad.

>>13657398
it's absolutely absurd to me that people do this in an era where you can buy a deep freezer for 40-60 dollars and it only costs 30 dollars of electricity a year
how hard is it to honestly just break some stuff down and freeze it, or hell just buy the shit already frozen
it'll last basically forever and cost you a quarter the money, and any meats you've got access to have already been frozen and thawed repeatedly
it's even worse knowing there are people that do that on this very board

>>13654635
This is what the classic, "I don't know what I'm fucking doing so fuck it" mentality is like. You're gaslighting yourself into believing your lifestyle. You're delusional, and you'll end up poor later in life.

>>13654635
I have a 35 year old cousin out in BC who makes 140k a year and can't afford food week to week and is living at home because he has no life skills and a kid and a mortgage.

Get your fucking shit together or you'll suffer.

>>13657950
>living at home
>has a mortgage
at least make your dumb lies sounds real

>>13657960

He's renting it out and is underwater 1500 a month. He's entirely fucked. I'm not lying at all. BC is some of the most expensive real estate in existence, even in Sardis/Chilliwack

>>13657967
so why doesn't he sell it?

>>13657980

Because with the Chinese buying everything in existence the appreciation means he'll never be able to enter the real estate market again. I he leaves he's never going to afford property again. This is a liquidity issue and a dipshit issue. He's a bad choice machine with women and pretty much everything.

>>13654635
Based. I can cook and grew up with parents that cooked dinner almost every night, but as someone who has a decent job and goes out often, cooking is a chore more than anything. Eating out really isn’t that expensive, just don’t be a dumbass with what you order. If you’re truly lucky, your workplace gives you free snacks and meals because food really isn’t that expensive on the company’s part and it keeps workers happy.

It’s much better to find a better job that pays tens of thousands of dollars more than your current one than to spend extra time cooking and saving $1-2k a year by eating home cooked meals every day.

>>13657992
>than to spend extra time cooking and saving $1-2k a year by eating home cooked meals every day.

You really don't understand what it's like to cook better food than you can buy, do you? You don't go to Nobu every night. Everything I cook has been better than I can purchase, outside of fine dinning.

>>13658008
That’s nice. My time is better spent elsewhere.

>>13658012

See you on Fortnite, bro.

>>13658012
like posting on 4channel?

>>13658019
Yeah, tbqh. Am I going to be cooking at work?

>>13658023
Can you cook and change oil filters? Not sure.

>>13657992
based and swepilled
hope i can make it to dropbox or linkedin one day for their amazing free food

>>13650188
Started cooking myself and the first year kitchen looked like a nightmare every time but now 3 years in i am getting the hang of it, veg, chicken, fish, meat.

Also lost 17 kilos, no idea how since i like food :D i am now a skinny 80kg guy :D and not a 97kg blob.

>>13658041
Hell yeah. I’ve heard Google’s and FB’s food is kinda mediocre even though they’re known for having free food.

Pic related is from Dropbox’s cafeteria, also free.

>>13657145
Who wants to make that many pizzas? This is what I don't get about you "always cook in" autists. I want ONE pizza. I don't want to retain the ingredients for six more pizzas in my fridge.

>>13658077
I love people that live like meth addicts.

>>13655811
I can't cook as well as a trained chef, no. I also don't want to spend the time to learn it that much. I am also not a mechanic but can change my oil when I need to. I am also not a professional Smash Bros. tournament player but I enjoy picking the game up to beat up some friends.

>>13655930
How will eating out give me health problems if I count my calories and eat like a normal human? I'm not eating 1500 calories worth of McChickens, I'm going somewhere with a functional and tasty menu.

>>13657857
My social life matters when wanting to partake in it means my $20 of vegetables in the fridge are going to spoil, or the leftovers I have sitting there are going to be another day older.

>>13657866
God forbid someone wants to relax after a full workday and not spend an hour in the kitchen when you only get 3-4 hours of time to yourself each day as is.
>>13657943
How the fuck am I going to end up poor? I own a home and make six figures. Am I suddenly going to stop having a job and need to eat rice and beans every day? When that day comes, I will switch to rice and beans.

>>13657950
>>13657967
It's not my fault your brother lives in an absolutely shit area and can't function. I doubt cooking at home would fix the $1500 he doesn't have every month.

>>13658100

There's a 70% chance of a recession this year alone. I hope you're recession proof and have skills that anyone cares about. And you need to know that with the bond yields in the shape they are, it's not going to be a recession, its going to be a depression.

>>13658100

You know that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a pyramid and when that pyramid is based on a house of cards the people at the middle and top echelons fall furthest, right?

So I hope you have some skills when they start trying to recapitalize Goldman Sachs and failing.

>>13657179
You're also eating ham & cheese sandwiches every day for a week. At that point you might as well go full prepfag and start vomitting your meals straight into some tupperware.

>>13658106
I'm a marketing exec with a ton of experience in digital ad tech. I'll be fine.

Plus I bought my home at the bottom of the economy in a nearly recession-proof area even if the bubble bursts. My cost of living is $600 a month all in on utilities and mortgage. I also have a roommate.

Again, saving a couple hundred bucks on cooking in every night is not going to really have a marked effect on me financially.

>>13658119

Those are good numbers, you get to watch the world burn.

>>13658118
Well it's not that bad I gave that example.
I will just ask for 3 slices of 5 different cold cuts and I always got different vegetables to put on them and 2 types of cheese.
Its also only like $0.50 for each.
You might get dirty looks though.

>>13658077
>yeast
>Cheese
>Tomato sauce
>Flour
>eggs
>pepperoni
>HOW THE FUCK AM I GONNA FIND ANOTHER USE FOR THESE WACKY INGREDIENTS

Your retarded brah

>>13650188
what recipe, anon? Im calling your bluff.

>>13658077
it wont be enough for more than two pizzas.
Which is good because when i make homemade pizza i always want more the next day

>>13658722
not he but what are you doing with pepperoni? please keep your answer PG-13

>>13658722
your pizza dough has eggs?

>>13658077

The entire cost for a personal pizza for me making it from scratch is maybe 60 cents. Not even that. And I made 8 dough balls today, cut up a pepperoni, have sauce in the pantry. Mushrooms, green peppers, olives, onion, mozz grated up, oregano and basil tomato if I want. All fresh as shit.

>>13658882
I haven't made this recipe for a decade, so I cooked up a test bread. Turned out fine, even without a stone/steel. and only at 450F.

>>13658882
>maybe
I looked up walmart pepperoni and it is six dollars for a sixteen ounce sausage, so assuming you divide one by eight that pushes you to seventy-five cents a za. This is one ingredient. I'm not calling you a liar I just think you're bad at estimation.

>>13652644
>chef's
using apostrophes in plural nouns is a dead giveaway of having the annoying kind of autism. you annoying autist.

>>13658979

And you have crippling depression for making up shit online and trying to make others feel as bad as you feel every single day. Go take the talking cure and ask for help from loved ones if you have any left.

>>13650265
Yeah, except the mass produced shit is marked up 20% at each step of the supply chain for "value added" so they can make a profit, so doing it yourself is cheaper anyway.

The only question is how much of your time you're willing to spend cooking in order to save a few bucks. Since this is a cooking board, I'm going to assume everyone here would be happy to cook their own food and save a few bucks for their trouble.

>>13659032
You assume wrong newfag.
This is the fast food board if you want to cook food go to /fit/ and don't make the shit recipes.

>>13659002
i wasn't depressed until i was reminded autistic faggots use apostrophes on plural nouns

>>13650188
This is me but I admittedly cant cook for shit and I gave it a good shot for about 2 months and haven't improved at all (and I also hate it, it stresses me out)
I'd order take out from good restaurants every day if I could afford it
"just do it yourself'fags need to realize cooking is a chore for people who don't enjoy it

>>13658077
>Who wants to make that many pizzas
I have heard that Papa Johns used to be able to bake 6 million pizzas over four years in a single store, using only 6 ovens. Can you believe that?

>>13652756
People not being able to cook isn’t a problem. It’s a choice.

It’s cheaper by total weight and it should taste better unless it’s a soup or something that can possibly benefit from having a long time to sort of steep for the flavors to mix or for the ingredients to break down and become softer. But that’s not most things. That’s pretty much soups that are full of beans in my opinion

What did you make

>>13650265
fuckin American public education lmao

>>13659567
There was a guy on Cooking With Jack who was all chuffed because he could make his own bleach. He just diluted pool cleaner and claimed it was marginally cheaper which it may or may not have been. The country is full of such life hack individuals but if they aren't hurting anyone why shit on them.

>>13652750
Okay but I have a job so I neither have time for that shit nor am I poor enough to need to do it

>>13656981
He's right though. Either the food at restaurants are mediocre compared to homemade, or the price is 2-4x as expensive.
Although, most "hole in the wall" restaurants are damn good for their quality and price. Like, not even worth trying to recreate at home.

>>13650188

>>13660932
I see what you're saying but I can make a proper greek gyro at home with some shitty sliced meat from Walmart(It's the tornado beef from most souvlaki joints), tzatziki you can buy by the tub(working on my own greek yogurt recipe now) and cucumber, tomato, red onion cut and diced up properly and Trestella Feta Cheese bricks properly flaked. Then seasoning salt on top.

Oh you also need to get a good greek pita.

>>13657145
Even if you make the extra pizzas the end cost ends up being equal or greater (especially if you count the time you spend cooking and preparing as an expense) than fast food does

Unless you're just straight up buying bottom barrel about-to-expire discount 'food' or extremely basic and tasteless grains/beans for home-made gruel, it's an actual struggle to beat fast food prices.

Good food costs money, preparing food costs money. Often the people bragging about saving money and eating healthier by cooking at home are doing neither, as they end up using the exact same ingredients that the fast food company is using.

>>13661514
This is how the lazy justify their choices, without actually doing any calculation whatsoever. If you want to keep spending 6 grand a year on coffee at starbucks, do it. Piss your money away, but stop lying to yourself ffs.

>>13661514

I have a cousin just like you, you're probably 28ish, never had to cook for yourself until now, so you just keep tossing those take out wrappers in the bin. Keep telling yourself the same story.

>>13661522
Take your own advice and actually add your costs up instead of remembering that time you bought 3lbs of expired chicken for $2 as the average price of chicken in every one of your meals.

>>13661535
Every single thing I eat is fresher than McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Burger King, whatever shithole mess you eat at. My tomatoes are crisp, my lettuce is perfect, onion, beef, everything is just fucking better, you can taste it. It's the reason I don't bother with take out, because I ruined it for myself. They're trying to pinch pennies and save on everything. I'm eating high on the hog. Next time you eat a limp, wet taco bell taco, figure it out, you dull twat.

>>13652764
That's because commercial stock has to be shelf stable. Inevitably you have to sacrifice some richness and flavor to produce this. Home made stock only lasts a few days, store bought can last for over a year.

>>13661535
I know you don't know how to cook, but when you buy a freshly plucked chicken that is fresh chilled, you spatchcock it, rub everything with butter, under and over the skin. You have to physically separate the skin from the flesh like a baby butcher. Then celtic sea salt, then 4 blend pepper, then you have chicken and skin that is both perfectly cooked and perfectly crisped. Then you make fried rice from it, chicken sandwiches, skin chips, the drippings go into gravy you don't know how to make at this stage in your life. It's 8 bucks worth of bird that feeds you for weeks. And you literally drool from the combinations.

I guess you people live a life you enjoy. I don't fucking understand you. I've seen most of you end in depression at 40.

>>13661549
>Every single thing I eat is fresher than McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Burger King, whatever shithole mess you eat at.

You're buying the same ingredients. Do you think the cheapest vegetables you can find in the supermarket are any different from what fast food and restaurants have? Have you ever even worked in the food industry? Your lettuce isn't crisper, your tomatoes aren't tastier. They're the exact same produce. At worst the fast food stuff's been sitting out a few hours too long, but they get new stuff in every day while your 'crispier' lettuce sits in your fridge for a week.

>>13661581

Then why does it all taste like wilted piss? They don't leave it in those stainless pots too long, do they? I'm sure they don't.

>>13661581
I grow my own, you stupid prick.

>>13661581

>>13661581

>>13661588
The same reason the placebo effect works.

Eating cheap and healthy is not easy, it takes some work to do it and at the end of the day its arguable you save much money at all. If you don't do your research and just grab whatever's cheapest like a fast food restaurant does, then you almost certainly aren't eating better than fast food, no matter what you think about how much crispier your supermarket lettuce is.

>>13661590
We aren't talking about food you grow yourself. You're like the arch linux of food discussions; by the way did you know I grow my own food???? Thanks hipster, but the conversation is about purchasing food and meeting or exceeding the quality of fast food without spending more than fast food.

>>13661581

If you can identify all of these herbs and vegetables and still hold to your retarded fast food beliefs, you're a lost soul.

>>13661630
I can make 16 10 inch pizzas for 1.50 a piece. What does that compare to Pizza Pizza with their 2 item max pizzas? I put fresh onion, green onion, mushroom, pepperoni, ham kilbossa, and sauce with both mozzarella, REAL parmasean reggiano, and cheddar if you like that shit, oregano, basil and 4 different types of pepper. on top for fun! You Walmart economists are missing out on real food.

>>13652829
>My free time is free
That's not how reality works. The time you spent canning has an opportunity cost - you could have been doing something else besides canning.

Whether that something else makes money or not is immaterial, your time is never free.

>>13661654
Yeah, I'm sure you can bro

I also made 50 cheeseburgers with 50 cents of ingredients. Dude just trust me.

>>13661666

And now you've just learned how the system has robbed you from opportunity benefits. Try taking your shitty skills out into the current environment and see how much money you make, Uber Driver. I hate how dull you people are to the big picture in 2020.

>>13657398
>>13657894
>>13657906
some """people""" just need to be put down

>>13661673

When was the last time that anyone trusted a dumb asshole like yourself? Tell me that?

>>13661690
You're not the sharpest tool in the shed.

>>13661697
It's fun to pretend. Go eat your McPigs. It'll be fine when your 401k can't support your life.

>>13661697
Are you contributing enough, honey? I probably shouldn't tease people that will end up homeless.

>>13654682
if you use the microwave to reheat, you are a bonafide retard

>>13657906
Nothing frozen recovers. It destroys all food, ruins all texture, runs together all flavor. You have convinced yourself that it does not because you have a need to be superior.

>>13660937
>10 dollar tip

>>13661514
>it's an actual struggle to beat fast food prices
A hamburger from McDonald's is 1/8 lb, and they sell it for $1.50. A pound of 80% beef is $3.99. Don't be ridiculous. The value of fast food is the convenience, not price. If you actually work out how much money you're spending vs. the amount of food it's significantly more expensive than making it yourself.

>>13661578
>It's 8 bucks worth of bird that feeds you for weeks.
A week at most, really. No need to lie on the internet, friend.

>>13652761

Imagine being too retRded to know how to shop. I buy all of my meat dirt cheap, only buy shit on sale. A kg of sirloin tio for under $8 leaf dollard

>>13661578
>I've seen most of you end in depression at 40.
explain this comment to me because it smacks of delusion to me

Name 10 prepared meals that you couldn't make better than a store or restaurant.

>>13661563
you can make shelf stable stock at home

I swear fast food and restaurants have some magic shit they keep hidden from anyone outside the industry. Its not just butter or MSG, I've tried those. They have some secret stuff that just makes food taste better than how you can replicate it at home.

>>13657398
So my options are
1. Only buy enough for one meal at a time and constantly have to waste time going to the store.
2. Stock up on items that will probably perish, or use a freezer which drastically lowers its quality.

>>13657857
You'd be surprised how many millennials and Gen Z dont cook at all.

>>13662007
what are you trying to recreate?

>>13662007
probably just their sauce + getting proportions right

>>13662021
don't forget
3. stop being obtuse and retarded

>>13661578
How is a chicken going to feed a person for weeks? Maybe one week, and thats eating chicken every day. Its going to expire at that rate if you've cooked it.

>>13661894
Cool, but you should be more grateful that I subsidize your consumption habits. If everybody behaved the way you do those deals wouldn't exist because the store wouldn't be able to afford to offer them.

I don't dislike cooking, but these threads try way too hard to make the process sound simpler than it is.

>Have to make weekly lists of all ingredients you plan to use
>Have to do weekly checks on everything you already have in stock
>Have to visit the store, maybe more than once depending on meal types
>Have to spend time cooking, just so it can end up not as good as a restaurant makes it in most cases
OR
>Drive to location and eat, for slightly higher cost and maintain your free time

>>13662058
big yikes

>>13662058
Cooking really is for the art. I cook things I can't get in restaurants due to lack of restaurant nearby, lack of catering to my allergies for the dish, or lack of anyone else ever cooking the thing before.

>>13661514
>it's an actual struggle to beat fast food prices.
You have no idea what groceries actually cost, do you?

>>13662103
8 buns. $2. Enough beef to make similar sized patties. $6-8. You've already met or surpassed the cost of cheap burgers without considering anything else.

>>13650188
I can add that i have done that for the last 5 years and in the beginning cooking is slow and cumbersome but after a few months it gets easier.

After 5 years i make my own recipes and i know what goes with what and cooking is easy and even fun at times :D

>>13662245
I can add that before i started cooking we spent like 600-700€ on food each month and now its below 200€ for two adults.

>>13662135
1 pound of ground beef makes 10 1.6 ounce (mcdonald's sized) patties
i pay 6.99/lb cad at an upscale butcher
i've seen ground beef at the supermarket for 3.99/lb
mcdonald's hamburgers cost 1.39 and i'm pretty sure that's the cheapest fastfood hamburger available in canada cad so ... you're wrong
mcdonald's $13.90/10
home high end 8.99/ low end $5.99/10

>>13650188
Are you seriously going to the store and buying groceries for one specific recipe? That's why it's expensive, dumbass. Don't cook by recipe, cook by technique. Buy a few staples that can be whipped into several meals. Waste nothing. Every scrap of onion goes into a stock. Leftover produce at the end of the week becomes a frittata. Cook enough dinner to have for lunch/dinner the next day.

>>13650188
>>Anon just make that food you buy at the store yourself, its both cheaper and its gonna taste better
>>look up a recipe and try it
>>its cheaper
>>it taste better
Sounds like a you problem to be honest

>>13659529
You would think that but there are some people that are actually incapable. I've witnessed it many times.

>>13657398
I consider myself bad at over-buying and creating waste, and seriously considering it for the past week, I wasted perhaps $4 out of a $200 weekly expenditure.
I don't know how people can stay this retarded about eating and cooking.

>>13662007
it's probably minute amounts of cocaine.

>>13658722
>your retarded
You can't even differentiate between your and you're, so I'm not too concerned.

Shit grammar aside, I still need to keep all of that shit somewhere and use it before it goes bad or I want to put something else in that space. So I'm either making pizzas or cheesy tomato pepperoni bread.

>>13658882
There is no way all of those ingredients cost you 60 cents. Unless of course, you're making 20 personal pizzas and bought everything in bulk. Which I'd love to know: where do you store all of this? Do you have two fridges? Do you live on a farm? I live in a home with one fridge and a roommate with whom I need to share space.

>>13661578
Jesus Christ you're pretentious.
>You literally drool from the combinations
Sure thing buddy. It's chicken. Chill the fuck out.

>>13662313
Meal planning for an entire week is a pain in the ass. I also have no idea how you "every meal at home always" people never have a desire to have something you didn't plan out a week ago, or don't go out with friends or family or whatever.

If I had a household to cook for, this would be different, but I'm a single guy with limited space in his home.

>>13664768
>pretentious
You clearly don't know what that word means.

>>13664770
If you don't think someone jerking themselves off over $8 worth of chicken that much isn't pretentious, you need to go look up the definition.

>>13664768
60 cents is a good estimate if you cheap out on cheese
a small pizza will only use less than a quarter of a pepper, 1 or two mushrooms, olives etc.

>>13664780
But again, that's only if you buy a bunch of this shit in major bulk or are eating nothing but pizzas. Even if I'm only using a quarter of a pepper, I need to use that pepper on something else in short order. Or the rest of that package of mushrooms. Or those olives.

It's gotta be eaten or thrown away, so for whatever the next meal is, you'd better be including everything else. This kind of cooking is only tenable if you're not a fan of variety, not a fan of leaving the house, and capable of storing said foods the whole time.

Not to mention what you're giving up. Someone here said that they assume the people on the cooking board like cooking, but this is FOOD & cooking. I cook when something sparks my interest, but I'm mainly here because I like food, not trying to figure out how I can save 40 cents per pizza.

>>13664768
>Meal planning for an entire week is a pain in the ass
I don't plan meals. I go to the store, buy what's cheap/on sale, do an hour worth of prepping each ingredient, store in containers, then I assemble meals on the fly based on what I have. If you learn how to cook you can whip up a decent meal with little effort. Learn what each ingredient is for and what it can do.

>>13650188
>just make that food you buy at the store yourself,
i like the idea, but i can't afford a farm
and it's winter
i'm not going to be able to grow vegetables and meat right now

>>13664801
Again, too much time and effort for a minimal return. I'm only a good cook when I set my mind to putting something together in advance, and spending time at the store looking for shit that's on special is a tremendous waste of my limited time compared to just going to a restaurant. The hour of prep you're doing is already too much of my goddamned time.

I totally get what you're saying if you're a great, experienced cook, with plenty of spare time or a need to function on a shoestring budget. I am none of these things, and my food will almost 100% of the time turn out worse than someone who knows what they're doing, even if it's with Sysco ingredients.

I like cooking maybe once or twice a week, when the time allows and passion strikes to have something I can't just go pick up.

i think you're just retarded op.

>>13664816
Could've just said you're lazy.

>>13664794
>moving goalposts
ok, if you're too retarded to find a creative use for 3 quarters of a pepper, that's a different conversation

>>13665020
I don't eat enough for three quarters of a pepper to be used in another meal unless I'm just eating the pepper. I'm sure I could just throw it into some sloppy mishmash like a stir fry but stir fry isn't all that good. Still pointless bulk that will probably not get used.

This reminds me of Taco Bell. Everything is the same combo of ingredients and mostly tastes the same, just rearranged in a different presentation with some kind of new sauce or something.

>>13661894
But if everyone did that, then the racks with all the half-off meat would be all be fucking empty.
Be grateful there are people that don't care and just buy it for its original sale price.

>>13665034
> reminds me of Taco Bell
yes i'm sure you think a lot of things remind you of fast food since you're a retard with no imagination who can't cook

>>13658876
they're a toping retard!

>>13664780
>by the way my premise breaks down if you don't make incredibly skint crap food
Absolute cope

>>13665797
Nobody puts egg on their pizza.

>>13665804
He's a faggot but my local bar does a couple of great breakfast pizzas.

>>13665977
fucking tastelets! am i right?

>>13650188
That's probably because your tastebuds have been destroyed by years and years of sweeteners, artificial flavours and chemical additives.

Enjoy.

>>13650265
That' s because at one point ALL companys start to substitue ingredients for cheaper stuff to keep making money.

>>13665804
I make pizzas with fresh buffalo mozz for under $2 for a 10"
There's no coping going on here

>>13666023
Look at every fucking fast food comapny ever to exist. Taco Bell, Subway, McDonalds, Tim Hortons.

Taco Bell in the 80s sold Beer! And had amazing fresh tacos with nachos and cheese with chips that were basically made from salt. Highschool lunch was a goddamn dream and I didn't even know it. Now it's all corn infused mucilage.

I've literally NEVER had a chili better than my chili tho. It's perfect in every way. Extra beefy, plenty of peppers, but dry heat instead of over the top spicy. If I could buy my chili I probably wouldn't though because it would be too expensive for a small ass bowl of chili from anywhere.

>>13666116
The universal problem with delicious homemade food is it doesn't have shelf life preservatives. I make bread, tortillas, pitas, chilli, mac and cheese, alfredo, garlic wine shrimp, cheddar bay biscuits..

They all taste universally better than anything store or restaurant bought but my bread lasts about 5 days without freezing before it moulds. I like that I'm not eating preservatives, but it's serious work to keep it all going. Or you learn to deep freeze and stop listening to assholes that say it isn't fresh.

>>13666051
>yes I do it for 55 cents
>oh and by that I mean 5 dollars come at me
can you see why people don't believe you?

>>13666151

>not baking fresh bread daily
>why even bother

>>13666258
Its almost like there are multiple anons itt

>>13650265
we are not talking about "efficiently" , we are talking about better.
Keep eating shit food, loser.

>>13666291
then don't jump in front of an insult retard

>>13666364
That's literally what he said last, you dumb nigger. The real question here is what do you value more, saving time or money? Both have pros and cons that everyone will value differently.

>>13666577
Time is money.

It would be ridiculous of me to cook at home every day to save $20 a week when I bust my ass on the daily to make more than twice that an hour.

>>13666526
You should take a walk

>>13666591
That's what I believe too; I rarely ever cook at home anymore. But some people have more free time during the day, or they have a family, or they genuinely enjoy cooking enough for them to want to spend more time in the kitchen. Not everyone thinks like that or has that kind of money.

>>13666599
>hey retard
oh I'm no retard
>yeah you are
no you called someone ELSE a retard :)

great effort

>>13666735
you seem a bit irrational

>>13666779
different anon here. I'm not anything like that. thanks for listening to my non-sequitur.

>>13666786
the difference is the context of the conversation
not that i believe you're a different anon anyway

>>13650188
When you are cooking for one or two, you need to buy smaller amounts of things and have a plan for other ways to use them. You may want to decide on a type of cuisine you like and mostly stick to making dishes of that cuisine. The ingredients in each recipe will overlap much better and make it easy and cost effective to use up everything you buy. I'm not about to go to the asian store and buy 15+ exotic herbs, spices, and produce to try to replicate my favorite thai takeout for one meal. That's the kind of retarded thing someone trying to learn to cook at home does instead of buying stuff like onion, garlic, carrot, potato, bone-on chicken thigh, rice, flour, versatile herb (I like parsley), butter, salt and pepper and just learning to make a small portion of basic chicken potato soup, chicken and fluffy garlic rice, or shredded chicken and flour tortillas, for example. What did you try to make that cost so much?

>>13652631
You don't have to be autistic. Just start learning how to make basic stuff at home and work your way up from there. It doesn't take nearly as long as you think it does to make meals better than average restaurants. Most restaurants have to cut a lot of corners to make it a successful business, so it's really not hard to outdo their quality. Your home cooking will be better than any chain restaurant 100% of the time.

>>13654357
He said cheaper than bottom of the barrel stuff. His stock is guaranteed better than even the highest priced stuff at the supermarket. By learning how to make basic things, OP spends less than he would on the worst quality garbage and eats better than what the most expensive grocery store products can make.

>>13664749
How much garbage do you keep in your fridge? It's not that much space.

>>13652764
Most commercial stuff is complete garbage made for the purpose of sucking the most money possible out of consumers while spending the least possible to make it. High end grocery stores probably sell good and pricey broth that the vast majority of consumers would never consider buying. Anyone with a pulse can make their own stock at home using bones left over from other meals, so anyone who cares enough to want real stock will make it. People who are too incompetent to make their own broth happily buy mass produced salty MSG water.

>>13667128

I pressure cook the bones from a 5 dollar chicken for 3 hours and get enough broth to make gravy, soup, anything at all and it tastes amazing, because it's real food.

>>13666666

>>13658882
what's your dough recipe? I 've always wanted to make pizza but it looks daunting.

>>13658882
>>13667236
seconding a recipe, i have a thing of yeast (looks like red balls?) and a bag of flour just lying around. Am about to go grocery shopping later tonight too.

>>13650265
restaurants generally sell their foods for 5x the cost of ingredients.

>>13650188
Congratulations. You suck at cooking AND you don't know how to shop

>>13667372
But with the cost of overhead that won't cut it. They make bank from drinks which is why they always get pissy when you order water.

>>13667431
I never see this happen in America. I prefer to drink water with most meals especially if I'm getting them at a good restaurant where I don't want the taste of a drink to compete with the food.

Maybe its cheaper in the long run, i'm sure you still have leftover ingredients you can use for different things.