The cost of cooking

Andy_Spoo_2

I see their are lots of recipes on this board, to help cut the cost of living down (OK, and to make things that are different and healthier in some cases), but I noticed that some items take an age to cook.

My question to you all is:-

What is the cost of cooking your recipes?

e.g.

Ingedients cost total = £1.56
Cooking time = 1 hour 30 mins
Cost of gas/electricity per unit = ?.??
Total units used = ?
Total cost = ?

Does it sometimes work out cheaper to buy the ready made product when taking into account the cost of fuel?

This is probably too much to ask, but could someone make a calculation program and then people include the estimated total costs to the end of their recipes?

If we're only talking a couple of pence per cooked item, then obviously it wouldn't be worth it, but I'm curious!

Cheers all.


Andy

mah_jong

ahhhhhhhh but any of us will throw in other stuff to cook..... or cook twice as much and have a 'ready made' meal in the freezer for anther time!!! ;-)

squeaky

There are as many different answers as there are cookers and recipes.

To make the best of which ever cooker you are using it's a good idea to make double or triple quanitites and freeze them to have as a ready meal, or the base for one later.

You can make better use of your oven if, for example, you have a major baking session and cook lots of stuff in one go or, when doing a sunday roast, you pop in some jam tarts and or pies (keeping a close eye on them) at the same time.

Slow cookers are very economical, and so are multi-layer steamers...

There is no one answer or set of answers.

Besides - it's not a cost that is ONLY additional to home cooking. If you bought a ready made meal (other than delivered pizza's etc) you would still have to cook them or heat them through and some of those can take longer than a home cooked version!

Anne_Marie_2

Andy_Spoo wrote:

I see their are lots of recipes on this board, to help cut the cost of living down (OK, and to make things that are different and healthier in some cases), but I noticed that some items take an age to cook.

My question to you all is:-

What is the cost of cooking your recipes?

e.g.

Ingedients cost total = £1.56
Cooking time = 1 hour 30 mins
Cost of gas/electricity per unit = ?.??
Total units used = ?
Total cost = ?



Does it sometimes work out cheaper to buy the ready made product when taking into account the cost of fuel?

This is probably too much to ask, but could someone make a calculation program and then people include the estimated total costs to the end of their recipes?

If we're only talking a couple of pence per cooked item, then obviously it wouldn't be worth it, but I'm curious!

Cheers all.


Andy

Not a clue Andy. I like to save money in some ways, but really don't bother with calculating costs of cooking using gas cooker, electric steamer, microwave and other electrical kitchen implements. It's just something I want to do, labour of love and all that. And, as Mah-jong said, bulk cooking comes into it too.
Now if you had asked about tumble drying? That is expensive.

culpepper

If you know the wattage of your coooker,you can work it out with this calculator

http://www.ukpower.co.uk/running-costs-elec.asp

Xbigman

That calculator doesn't include a cooker, probably because its a bit more complicated. An electric cooker heats at full power until up to temperature and then cuts in and out. As an example, if I cook jam tarts I have 20 minutes to get up to tempreture (8p) and then 15 minutes to bake (6p but only 'on' a third of the time so 2p).

Cost of 6 value jam tarts in Tesco is 22p

Flour, baking marg, jam cost is 7p, cooking is 10p so you save 5p. However, I don't cook just 6 and I throw them in with something else AND I do it at night on E7 (3p per kilowatt not 8) which is a pretty big saving. But I didn't just do it for that reason. Baked at home there is very little added colourings, sugar or salt.

I've cut out buying cakes and pies and I make my own. I had to spend about £10 on a couple of baking trays and a piping bag to start plus about £3 on ingredients, most of which are not half used up 3 weeks later.
Regards




X

GreenFingers_2

I would think the costs will vary from cooker to cooker depending on a number of factors, make, model, age, servicing history and so on. My old gas stove is probably not as efficient as more modern ones but it’s still quite good I believe.

You can get a detailed cost of your gas usage in kWh from your gas bill. The ratings for each of the main parts of the gas stove (e.g. the grill, rings and oven parts etc) should be stated in your user manual. These days the ratings should be in kW. If it’s stated in the BTU’s (British Thermal Units) then to convert to kWh multiply the BTU figure by 0.0002931 your answer will be in kWh. To then calculate the rating for each stove part multiply the parts kWh rating with the kWh cost from your gas bill.

As an example, my costs are shown below. I’m assuming the ratings I use are for the gas knob being turned on full. The chart reflects the latest British Gas price hike in my area.

Equipment Running Cost
Gas Cooker - Large Rings 9.37 Pence per Hour
Gas Cooker - Small Rings 5.38 Pence per Hour
Gas Cooker - Oven 8.63 Pence per Hour
Gas Cooker - Grill 10.14 Pence per Hour

Hope this has been of some use.

crana999

I live in accommodation with a shared kitchen and I pay the same amount regardless how much electricity I use

Queenie

Another factor which would complicate the formula a bit ... is the number of people you are cooking for.

At one point, I was cooking for no fewer than 10 each day.

Savvy_Sue

squeaky wrote:

To make the best of which ever cooker you are using it's a good idea to make double or triple quanitites and freeze them to have as a ready meal, or the base for one later.

Oh if only! Yesterday I did a bacon onion and potato hotpot, also threw in carrots and half a cabbage, so there was LOADS of it, would certainly have served 5 of us but as DS1 has now departed to Uni there were only 4 of us.

And I looked at it and thought "There ought to be a portion of this left over so that I can freeze it and feed DH one night when he's late home and I've eaten at lunchtime."

But the gannets looked at it so longingly and hungrily that by the time DH arrived there was definitely only enough left for him!

I have absolutely given up cooking double quantities, it is not moneysaving at all in this house!

squeaky

Well obviously double is no good. It'll have to be quadruple