/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Check out cardamom or vanilla pods. It's ridiculous what they charge.

Because people will pay for it.

Wait until you go to a proper ethnic grocery. See what the Indians charge for cinnamon.

I go to a middle eastern store for sesame seeds and cardamon. Stupid cheap. Like $2.50 for a pound of sesame.

>>4701669
Fucking this, I tried to get a small thing of cardamon and it was $12

>>4701681

Not having these is the worst part of living in a smaller midwestern city. The hippie health food store has the best bulk deals for the area, but I'd have to drive to St. Louis to get to a decent ethnic grocery, as even the Chinese ones around here overcharge.

>>4701687
Try Clovers in Columbia. They have a pretty decent bulk section

>>4701694

Springfield. Mama Jean's is all I've got, really.

>>4701683
>>4701669
I think I recall reading cardamom as the second most expensive spice before safron from wikipedia. Then again, its wikipedia. It does seem like vanilla beans are pricier than cardamom anyways.

The good thing is a few grams of cardamom should last you a freaking decade.

Slightly off topic but didn't want to make a new thread

Where would I find reasonably priced saffron? I want to try my hand at paella, but after seeing that spanish saffron is $10 for .03 ounce at my local whitey grocer, I ended up making lasagna instead. My options:

1. Asian grocer (which has mainly East Asian ingredients)
2. Tiny, tiny Indian convenience store
3. An upscale grocer with bulk spices
4. Amazon.com

Oddly, going to the super-trendy Central Market for their bulk spices department is by far the cheapest way I've ever found to buy spices.

I can buy approximate amounts of spices I'll use for a season (I like to buy quarterly to keep everything super fresh) and sometimes have to put my thumb on the scale just to get a non-zero price to printout.

McCormick Vanilla bean pod at Giant Food. $6.50
>look inside
>2 lonely (half?) pods

You fuckers better appreciate this cake.

>>4701710

Call them or physically drop by each. I doubt you'll get it cheap anywhere, though. And if you do, I'd be very suspicious.

>>4701647
Shit sucks. Luckily I have a small family-owned business near me that sells spices and herbs much cheaper than supermarkets. There are small businesses in St. Charles too but that's too far a drive.

>>4701718
That would be the smart thing to do.

Also, is that a reasonable price for saffron? Seems kinda expensive, especially if every recipe calls for a pinch of it.

>>4701699
YEP, you're fucked.

I'm lucky that I live by an Amish market, here near Dover DE.
Stupid cheap spices. Even ones that are normally cheap in supermarkets are so cheap as to be almost meaningless. Dill for $7 lb, smoked paprika for $13 lb, star anise for $24 lb. Keep in mind that spices are so light that the amounts I bought, which are more than enough for a few months or more, were only $2.5, $2, and $3 respectively.

>>4701726

Well I wouldn't call it reasonable. But unless you're taking a trip to Spain soon I'd be surprised to see it for much less. It's labor intensive to pick, if I remember right.

That said I haven't cooked with it much for the same reason. Maybe someone else knows better.

It's only the bottled shit that's so expensive, if you go to a natural foods store that has stuff in bulk then you can scoop from big jars into little baggies that they weigh at the register. It's a whole bunch cheaper.

>>4701710

Yeah, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as cheap saffron. It's the pistil of a flower. Think about going around and picking out pistils of flowers, one by one.

>>4701732
>>4701779

Very true, I'll shell out a few extra bucks if I'm already indulging in some (hopefully) decent seafood. Thanks for the help!

just go to an Indian grocery and pay like 5 dollars for a full pound of decent cinnamon

>white people
>middle/upper class idiots (not necessarily white)
That's why.

We have a Sudanese market is my town. Dem's some good spices!

Supermarket spice racks are for middle class white women who are too scared to go to ethnic stores.

>>4701694
not that guy. I'm irritated with Clovers, price wise.

Honestly, the Hyvee bulk departments are about as good in both price and selection. But we've also got a couple halal grocers and "global foods" places scattered around town for the good bargains.

But if I need anything really unusual, I make a trip to Penzey's in St. Louis. They're only really overpriced if you buy the jars. Just get the bags, it's absurdly cheap.

>>4701710
If you find saffron cheap, it's almost definitely safflower intentionally mislabeled as saffron.

It's one of those things you just can't get a bargain on.

>>4701850
Not everyone has an indian grocery in their neighborhood.

>>4701924
go online,pay 5 to 10 dollars and get a bulk pack of 1 to 2 pounds of cinnimon delivered to you then

or move to a town worth living in?

You purchased 1/5th of the amount of cinnamon sticks for roughly 1/5th of the price.

>>4701972
... do you know what numbers are?

>>4701972
You better read yourself some motherfucking books, Anon.

>>4701972

>>4701972

If I'm doing the math correctly:

.15 lb = 2.4 oz of sticks for $1.63

The other is .75 oz for $8.49

Even the price per pound tells you something is wrong. It's $10.89 per pound bulk vs $181.12 per pound.

>all natural
>gourmet collection

That's why the price is so high. Compare the price to a pack of non gourmet cinnamon sticks.

>>4701647
>>4701972
>>4701973
>>4701975
>>4701990

0,15lb - 1,63
0,75lb - 8,49

Let's do maths.

75 / 15 = 5
8,49 / 1.63 = 5.2

So there's a slight markup but yes, look at the price and weight comparison before jumping to your retarded conclusions

>wat r numbers anon
>wat r books anon

The McCormick one is true cinnamon, the other one is cassia bark

>>4702055

It is .75oz, not .75lb.

>>4702055
It isnt 0.75 ( or 12 oz) pounds, its 0.75 ounces.

Jimmy carter, we failed you

>>4702055
Oh my God is has the price per pound WRITTEN RIGHT THERE.

>>4702055
Boy I bet you're red in the face right now.

>>4702071
>he thinks we haven't all long since realized "lol ur cinnmons fake d00d" since back in the 90's and health food stores even sell cassia under the cinnamon name anymore

>>>/the80s/