Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I would like to have this thread serve as a discussion on ways to set up a "food engine" for lowering costs, by which I mean, preparing things at home for far less than buying it in the store, or buying in bulk, etc.

I have started to learn how to cook and bake better, and am now somewhat shocked by what must be insanely high profit from bakery departments at Costco and the local grocery stores. Or perhaps the profit is not high due to a lot of other inputs like transportation and the amount that gets thrown away?

Example: 1 pound to 1.5 pound (16-24 ounces) loaf of bread is at least $1.19 on sale, often getting upwards to $2 or more depending on brand, sales, etc.

Yet I can buy 5lbs of non-GMO, high quality flour (King Arthur Flour brand) for $3; and if I shop around at a food supply store can probably get the same in a bulk bag of 50lbs for under $20 (the Cargill probably-GMO stuff is $12-$15 locally).

Yeast is almost nothing if you buy in bulk, $4 for 2lbs at Costco.

So maybe 70 cents or less for higher-quality bread:

1.5lbs flour : 60 cents
yeast: 10 cents

Yes there is my time involved, but this is after-tax savings, so if I save $1 it replaces $2 I have to earn and be taxed on. And I can come to no other conclusion but that the bread I make has got to be healthier because nothing is bromated, chemically leavened, processed, etc. Heck, even some of the "whole wheat" has HFCS in it!

So bread making is one kind of food engine.

What else is there?

(I am working on soups too, this usually involves making my own chicken stock, then throwing away the veggies in the stock, but reusing the cheap chicken meat, now boiled, in chicken salad or a chicken noodle soup.)

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Not exactly related to your post....A garden can save a lot of money. Plus the quality is usually better.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Pizza. Maybe pasta, though I think it's cheap now when on sale. Lasagna. Spaghetti sauce. Granola. Cookies, cakes, desserts. Ice cream? Possibly jams & jellies. A lot of mixes, like taco mix, gravies, sloppy joes, etc.

It's hard to beat bulk pricing. Really depends on your ingredient cost to see if you can save, plus the time factor as well.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Wait, what? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but why would throw away the veggies? Thems good eats. If you want to save some of the stock for later then save half and make chicken-vegetable soup with the other half. It's all already in the pot anyway.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

You can catch your own sourdough yeast and then it's free.

You might be interested to hear that there is no comparison between the taste and texture of bread made from fresh ground wheat, properly proofed (to remove the phytic acid), and that of bread made from stale flour. However buying a mill and sourcing wheat berries might actually increase your cost-per-loaf for a while.

My wife's bread lasts for weeks without mold, properly stored. It remains moist the entire time. It makes perfect toast, sandwiches, etc. And it is 100% whole wheat. It is good enough to eat by itself, though salted butter is always a welcome addition.

Bringing costs down is a good reason to make your own bread but once you've tried bread from fresh ground flour, you will realize that tasting real bread is an even better reason.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

The recipe I have for chicken stock says not to keep them, the veggies are 1 each of leek, potato, onion, 2 carrots, etc. Note I am using the cheapest cuts of chicken meat I can buy, and throwing it in the pot bones and all.

They are very soft and mushy after 2+ hours of cooking them - would they really have any nutritional or taste value after that?

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

What's the harm of leaving the veggies in? Even if their nutritional value would be reduced by the cooking time, any residual nutrition would be good. What sense does it make in taking them out?

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Because then it's not broth, it's soup with overcooked vegetables.

Throw 'em out, strain the broth, put it in the fridge, when the fat congeals on top and hardens, remove it and toss it. Now you have a nice clear gelatinous broth that can be used for soups, stews, sauces, rice, etc.

I guess you could eat the overcooked vegetables. Put it in the blender with garbanzo beans and make humus maybe. But if you've never made stock, you probably don't understand just how unpalatable they are by the time the broth is done. I seriously doubt there is much nutrition left in them by then anyway.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

People looked at me funny when I wheeled the cart with 30 five lb bags of flour to the check out, but I got then for 99 cents each. Nowdays we make bread out of them, 1 lb of flour per loaf, and 1/4 tsp of yeast, 1/4 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of salt and 2 tbsp of cornmeal for each loaf. Figure 25 cents plus whatever it costs to run the oven for a 1 1/2 lb loaf.

Chicken stock. Ok, I'll admit I sometimes add the middle of the celery and the leaves, and the bottom part that isn't as pretty. I use the wilting green parts of the ogreen onions and the dried brown skins too, but pretty much, in chicken stock I put pieces of roasted chicken skin, bones and parts you wouldn't eat, but the dog would love. I add bay leaves, salt, pepper and sage, too. No restaurant, not even the Jewish delis make better chicken soup than mine, either. Its far better, even my matzo balls make from home ground matzo crackers bought 5 lbs for $1.79 two yrs ago, and the home made egg noodles made from the above flour with the help of my spaghetti making machine. And no, I strain everything out and toss it when making the broth after 1 1/2 hrs in the pressure cooker. PS: the chicken fat off the top is used to make the matzo balls. Also, you'll get a lot more and better flavor if you season and roast the chicken first, then strip out the meat, and make the stock from the rest. The cheapest way to do this is either buying the leg quarters when they go on sale for 39 or 49 cents a pound, or just buying a whole chicken when on sale for 79 a pound, and using the leftovers from the meal to make the broth, and then chopping up the leftover meat and adding it to the soup broth along with carrots, celery, and a bit of onion. Do it that way, and for a family of four you get 3 dinners from 1 chicken, 1-roast chicken, 2-chicken and dumplings or biscuits, 3-chicken noodle soup with matzo balls.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Bread does well in a freezer too. So you can make a few loaves at a time and freeze the extras.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Even if you make it yourself, it can be expensive. I have a loaf of walnut apple bread rising this very minute. I don't have a walnut tree on my property, so I bought my 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts at the store for $2.69. See how expensive a good loaf of bread can be!

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

ShortJohn, the principle you are applying can be used for many things in the kitchen. Do you buy Pillsbury rolls and biscuits at the grocery store? The kind that need only to be baked after you popped open the refrigerated roll? Or do you bake them from scratch with flour, baking powder/yeast? Do you pick up KFC on the way home from work? Or, after a hard day, do you slaughter your own chicken and start from scratch? Just kidding, of course; many of us living in the burbs aren't allowed to keep chickens. But nearly everything you eat will be cheaper and more nutritious if you cook your meals from scratch. I hardly ever spend money on carry-out Chinese food because I stir-fry my own, LOL.

There may be exceptions. We found Stouffer's mac and cheese for two on sale for $1 a few weeks ago, so we bought quite a bit of it for our lazy moments. Homemade mac and cheese is no doubt still less expensive, but cheese is expensive so the savings isn't much. But this example illustrates a principle we try to follow: if you're going to buy prepared foods, at least buy them on sale.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

+1. Is this the Food Channel or the Survival Prep section on GIM? In a SHTF situation, I'd be ecstatic to have even overcooked veggies.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

When TSHTF, you'll take the veggie mush, bones and skin, and add a few more cups of water to it, and cook it a while longer to get yet a few more cups of "2nd pressing" broth from it

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Bob, thanks for this; I do it the other way around, taking the chicken leg quarters or whatnot out of the stockpot, then because it is fall off the bone soft, pulling it apart, throwing out the bones and keeping the chicken meat, which is very soft and perfect for chicken salad, or in a soup.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Wanna save money on you "food engine"???

Make your own hard (that means alcohol) apple cider, country wine, and beer.

It's AMAZING how high the quality of your fermentation ventures will be, and you'll be making it at a SMALL fraction of buying retail.

Just takes a little homework: lots of fun, too! :23_31_2:

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

If you are worried about unpalatable veggies due to overcooking, blenderize them and put the mush back in. Fibre is important and you're eliminating all of it.

If you really want to lower costs and become sustainable, one of the best things you can do is replace your back lawn with a garden. That patch of grass is covering enough usable soil to feed your family for the year and then some. It doesn't have to look like a garden; turn it into a paradise. Plant edible perrennials and other attractive foods. Lasagna layer (gardening technique) to achieve greater density and keep too much soil from showing through. I guarantee you that a backyard garden, even in a poor year, can provide more food than you and your family can consume or even store for SHTF. In fact, it could significantly subsidize your income. It will also subsidize your health. Look into vitamin and nutrient depletion in veggies due to shelf storage and you'll quickly realize much of the benefit in produce is lost before you even get it home from the market.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Food Engine #1:

Make your own noodles. Go to flea bay and buy a pasta machine (they are cheap)!

Recipe: 5 eggs + 1 lb. flour. Put in your food processor and mix until a ball forms (about 30 seconds).

Form into a loaf, wrap in plastic and let rest for 10 minutes then run through pasta machine for any form of noodle you want. Takes a total of 20 minutes to make fresh pasta.


Ultimate Food Engine #2:

Build a chicken coop and get some chickens. We have 7 hens and they produce an average of 35 eggs per week now in the winter. They also make a tasty soup and supply meat too. I can't think of a better food engine then chickens!

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I'm not going to tell you its wrong, but I can tell you that when you roast the chicken first, you caramelize the seasoned skin, and that will give your broth more of a yellow color and a lot more flavor. Also, the meat itself that I pulll off the bones still has all its nutrients and flavor, and I can choose to put it into the soup, or any of the uses you gave. When doing a 3 or 4 lb chicken for dinners, 3 dinners for four plus leftovers from each is about all you are going to squeeze out of one chicken, LOL.

As for the veggies in the broth, I only put in things that normally aren't pretty enough to eat into the stock pot. Don't tell my wife, but I even put in the carrot peelings, LOL. The decent looking parts of the carrots, celery and onions go in the soup and stay in the soup.

Waste not, want not, my Mom used to tell me...

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Here is how I make chicken broth.

Rinse a four pound whole chicken and remove giblets. I cook the liver and heart and gizzard separately and chop them up for the dogs, unless I feel like frying them up for myself. Place the whole chicken in the pressure cooker along with the neck. Quarter an onion, two ribs of celery, and a carrot or two, and throw them in the pot. Add a few whole black peppercorns and two bay leaves. Add two cups of water. Pressure cook for 15 minutes. Turn off fire and let pressure come down on its own.

When the pressure is down, remove the bird from the cooker and let cool. Leave the broth and vegetables in the cooker. When the bird has cooled, debone it and either freeze it or use it in some other dish (chicken salad is a favorite, or chicken and andouille jambalaya, chicken in rice, chicken curry, etc).

Roast the bones in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. Return bones and skin and scraps back to the pressure cooker. Add two more cups water. Pressure cook for 30 minutes. Turn off fire and let pressure come down on its own. When its cool, strain broth and discard remaining unpalatable glop. (After pressure cooking the carcass and vegetables for this long, the cooked down mush will be slimy, heavily saturated with fat, practically tasteless, and definitely unpalatable. Eat it if you insist, but I just toss it out.)

Now refrigerate the broth overnight, remove and discard the thick layer of chicken fat on top. I sometimes save a little of it if I'm going to use the broth to make a soup. Use within two days.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

The only way I could justify discarding the veggies is if:
1) They were scraps from another meal
2) You feed the strained veggies to the chickens.

Maybe composting but that's a last resort.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I recently bought yeast, bread flour and all the extras. Using a bread machine given to me for X-Mas, I baked three loaves in the past week or two, all of which didn't produce much of a rise.
Well tonight I've got 20 minutes to go on for fourth attempt and its nearly rising out of the lid. Secret was to add more yeast and warm the water a little before adding.

Planted the garden last weekend.
Learning to master fishing a nearby river.
Skinned and processed my first deer this winter. Great jerky!

Becoming better prepared for harder times everyday.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I am no expert, very glad to hear all the feedback... there is a restaurant supply store nearby, will check out the pasta makers they have, as well as eBay and Amazon.com .

Thanks to everyone on the thread!

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I have been baking bread for a few years now, off and on. Not 100% of the time, maybe 30% to 70%, as my schedule permits. I much prefer homemade bread, white, rye, wheat, and multi-grain breads, and occasionally French baguettes (those are more challenging than you might imagine, considering the simplicity of the recipe). I love fresh homemade bread.

Recently, I ordered some of Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter, and I've been making sourdough bread that is more satisfying and that has better structure and texture than any I've ever made before. Carl's starter is phenomenal. It's a family starter that has been going continuously since 1847. Just follow the instructions on the page at the link above, and you'll soon be propagating an amazing and wonderful tasting historical sourdough starter of your own. Conventional yeast breads have their place, but I am never going to go back to relying on conventional yeast breads as my staple.

I actually have two sourdough starters in my fridge. One is Carl's, the other is one I started myself. They are both very good. Carl's is more sour for sure. The one I started is sweeter, and has a less intense sour character. They are quite different tasting, and I use them differently. Carl's starter will make a loaf that is undeniably "sour dough". My own sourdough starter will make an exemplary white bread with a tantalizing hint of sourness, mostly in the aroma. I swap between them each time I make bread so both of them get about two uses and feedings per month.

If you are a bread lover, you owe it to yourself to try Carl's 1847 sourdough starter.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I want some chickens.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I use 1/4 tsp of yeast per loaf, but for a bread machine that probably won't do it. Try the amount the mfr says, maybe 1/2 to 1 tsp, and put it with 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of sugar in a measuring cup, and add hot (maybe 130f) water into it. Putting the water into the cup will cool it some, down to about 115f which is the temp you want. Stir a little with the fork you used to stir the flour and salt in the bread machine, and then let it sit 15 min or so and you should see a foam building in it as the yeast multiplies. This is called "proofing" the yeast. If it doesn't foam, the bread isn't going to rise, and either you have a marginal yeast or its too cold. Once its foamy, pour it onto the fork mixed dry ingredients in the machine, and start the machine. The reason i mix the flour and salt a bit with a fork is so the salt is already well dispersed into the flour before adding the liquid. To be honest, I haven't used the bread machine once since we got into the no-knead bread thing a couple months ago because its so easy to do that way and I prefer the bigger loaf.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

When I make home made egg noodles, I just make enough for that day so I don't have to mess with drying and storing them, etc. The recipe I have works well for that:

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tbsp milk

mix together a run 1/2 at a time thru the pasta machine to its thinnest setting, then flour and run thru the fettucinni die to get noodles. Cut off with scissors into a bowl or plate as each 2 or 3" comes out, and immediately put into salted boiling water.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

If you want to lower your costs.

0. shop the sales, stocking up on things you will use up when they are on sale, not at regular prices. shop once a week, using the sales as a guide, and come up with an eficcient route to take yourself past each of the stores with things you need worth buying, which you make a list of by store noting item and price before you go.
1. make your own bread, cookies, cakes and desserts
2. make your own pizza dough and sauce
3. make your own noodles
4. make your own corned beef from lean roast
5. make your own granola for cereal
6. make your own yogurt
7. make your own jerky
8. make popcorn from scratch, not a packet
9. grow your own salads
10. make your own salad dressings
11. buy things in bulk, not little convenience packets, like meat, rice, oils, oatmeal and other hot cereals. you can always repackage to more convenient sized containers and prep for storage what isn't needed soon
12. eat less high cost per servings food and instead eat more lower cost per serving food
13. don't buy soda, make your own ginger ale, or drink water or tea brewed from bulk packed loose tea
14. regrind your coffee to expresso like powder, and use 1/3 less to make just as strong a brew
15. instead of buying canned soups, make enough for dinner + enough to fill the pressure canner with quart jars, and use them up in the next yr or 2
16. lift lids off canning jars carefully so they can be washed, sterilized, and reused

the 1/2 or 2/3 that you save can easily buy the preps over time without spending anything extra at all in total.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I'm going to give a go at making some Granola Bars. All the ingredients are cost effective and keep well. Plus I dont think I'd ever get tiered of eating em.

Also, its pretty shocking how easy it is to make Homemade Ginger Ale and I just so happen to have ginger growing outside. Can you say Ginger Whiskey? I know its not a survival requirement, but I can see myself needed a drink. Plus, I don't care for how much Coke I consume with my Jack. Ginger Ale will be better and cheaper.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

mmmmm, granola bars...

me LOVE granola bars, too

thats a great idea

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

I've been slowly accumulating the knowledge and equipment for greater self sufficiency in this area. Over the past few we've been experimenting with vegetable gardens an growing methods, purchasing food grinders, canning equipment etc.

While the wife approves of this its been tough to get her actively involved and actually doing the hands on portion. Oh well, at least we are gaining the knowledge and equipment.

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

We eat a lot of salads.
Come winter the lettuce is done.
Cabbage & carrots store a little while longer (root cellar if you are lucky)
But eventually, fresh veggies come from the supermarket.

An exception is sprouts. A 1lb. bag of alfalfa seed costs a couple bucks & makes a years worth of sprouts.
In a large mouth quart size canning jar, put 1 tbs. alfalfa seed & soak 24 hours. (I put it next to the coffee pot so I don't forget)

Next day start rinsing & draining 3-4 times a day. (they'll rot if you don't rinse) In a few days the jar is full of sprouts. Refrigerate.

I know sprouts will probably label me as a grainola head, but I have really learned to like them. Added to a chopped cabbage & shredded carrot mixture you get a cheap fluffy not stuffy salad mix.

There are a lot of health benefit facts & figures connected to sprouting that I won't bore anyone with.

When I first started this I used a panty hose piece & canning jar ring to cover the jar & strain the water out.

Eventually I was convinced to spend a couple more bucks & get a 3 lid set that has increasing size mesh which is easier & helps to get out the seeds & hulls that don't sprout.

Looks like this:

http://www.dietobio.com/dossiers/en/sprouts/what.html

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

i'm still trying to figure out what to do with the Indian corn I grew last year.

i'm glad the kernels are viable seeds as well as being potentially edible.

but when i cook it ... the seeds stay hard.

i'm thinking - i have to get a grinder and make corn meal. the kernels are blue-purple so i guess it might be some wild looking corn bread.

anybody ever use a coffee mill to grind corn kernels ?

Re: Setting up your "food engine" for lower costs
 

Good thread.

I recently made some home made chicken soup for the first time. I bought a roasted chicken from the deli at my local grocery store, ate some of the breast meat on a sandwich, then used the carcass to make some stock.

I put the whole carcass in a crock pot, covered with hot water, added 1 whole onion, a few celery stalks and a couple of carrots, and some whole peppercorns. Put the crock pot on high for eight hours, then put the whole pot in the fridge overnight. Next day, I took the crock out of the fridge, warmed up in a water bath, then I poured through a strainer. I threw away the veggies, as they were pretty well mush. Took the bones out of the chicken, put the meat back in with the broth.

Then I made sauteed a mirepoix (chopped onion, celery,and carrots) in some olive oil, put that in the broth, cooked 1 hour, then added some noodles.

It was the best chicken soup I've ever had, but it was a lot more work than opening a few cans.

I'm thinking of making a beef broth next, I'll have to see if I can get some beef bones from the butcher.