What are the most cost effective foods to make at home?

Brie

leftatthetrafficlights said:

Condiments, jams, chutneys etc are also cheaper to make depending on your access to raw ingredients.

I think the main thing is looking at the time things take and also storage - part of the savings with cooking things yourself is the ability to make lots at once from a relatively small amount of ingredients which is no good if you can't store the stuff! I once bought a ys sack of onions and made onion marmalade- absolutely fabulous and very cheap but I ended up with 15 jars of it - managed to get it in the cupboards but it certainly impacted what else I could make! 🤦‍♀️😂

That's the problem - cost of ingredients!!  a friend makes jam every year but has to buy everything and so each jar of jam ends up costing 3 or 4 times the price of good quality stuff from Tesco.  And, unfortunately, is no where near as good.  

But for those that can make good stuff the secret is to find like minded individuals with different stuff so either you are exchanging ingredients or end products, i.e. trading a couple of onion marmalades for some strawberrry jam.  I'm keeping an eye on freegle and next door for anyone with too many apples so I can make sauce, chutney and cake.  I'd be happy to give some back to the tree owner if necessary.

-taff

I traded some sewing for a friends jars of jam and chunteny so barter is a good option too. I know this particular post is about food but developing a free is better if it's economical is a good mindset to have.

There is a site online that will tell you where the fruit trees in your area are or other things you might want to pick, can't remember the name of it though but I expect a google will bring it up.

Floss

Brie said:

That's the problem - cost of ingredients!!  a friend makes jam every year but has to buy everything and so each jar of jam ends up costing 3 or 4 times the price of good quality stuff from Tesco.  And, unfortunately, is no where near as good.  

Possibly because the fruit isn't super fresh if it is being bought in.

Brie

@bupster
re black bananas.....if you do have time to bake but not when the bananas are going black the thing to do is to peel them and pop in a plastic bag and put in the freezer.  I do this in proportions needed for my banana oatmeal muffins.  when you do have the time thaw them in a large bowl as they will release a lot of their liquid (to be included in the recipe!) and the banana itself will look like something, ah, nasty.  But they blend easy so that's ok.  Oh and label them going into the freezer so their not mistaken for sausages or something.

@Floss - the fruit is fresh as he makes a point of buying from a farm shop where it's picked daily.  he's just not good at making jam.  Anyone else I would trust to get it right - if there's a WI or church "ladies" group selling their stuff I'm in there like a shot.  

bouicca21

A lot depends on capital cost of any equipment, whether you cost your time and storage facilities.

When I had a family to cater for I regularly made whisky marmalade.  Way cheaper and nicer than shop bought - but now I’m a singleton, a single batch would last me years, so not worth it.

Based on running costs alone my hm bread is good value - but I’m crap at kneading and there is no way I will ever recoup the capital cost of the robust mixer with dough hooks with which I make it.

The slow cooker OTH was a charity shop bargain and has paid for itself many times over.

My hm falafel is cheap - but it’s a faff to make so I prefer to use my time making something else.

joedenise

@bouicca21 - what falafel recipe do you use?  I make mine with soaked dried (but uncooked) chickpeas and find them a faff at all.  It doesn't take long to blitz the ingredients together.  It's the couple of hours in the fridge to firm the mixture up that takes the most time!

I also bake mine rather than frying so it's a case of making little balls and putting on a baking sheet and then cooking for about 15 minutes.

Lovely warm or cold.

Katiehound

I know you said food but hm elderflower cordial is incredibly easy to make. I can't remember the quantity (lots!)  that you get but I think the cost equates roughly  to one bottle of a good named brand. You can also freeze the flowers if you haven't time to make when they are in season.
I made it for the first time during lock down & it was simple. The only drawback is that you need to save clear glass bottles with screw tops. i had comments that it was better than those posh bought ones!!

katkin

I make bulk sauces to freeze in portions instead of buying jars. Things like tomato sauces for pasta and the myriad of variations on that theme, and basic bechamel that can be reheated, whisked up with cheese, herby or the like.

 My favourite is a curry base gravy type of sauce that can then be used to create a wide variety of dishes. The curry sauce base is magic - you can make a huge vat very cheaply. It's forgiving too, you can add / change the base ingredients around what you have in stock. I started out using this recipe:

https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/12/31/make-indian-restaurant-style-curry-sauce-large-batch/

Great site if you are a curry lover and want to make Indian takeaway style dishes at home. 

These have been useful swaps for me and are definitely cheaper than jars of Lloyd Grossman / takeways! You also know exactly what's in them.

Same with nans, chapatis and flatbreads   - all much cheaper and easier to make yourself and freeze well.

bouicca21

@joedenise i think the recipe came from BBC good food.  It was a way of using up beetroot (can’t stand the stuff).  The end result was quite nice - but not nice enough to justify the amount of time it took me to make the mix and the roll into balls, which I then put in the freezer.  I shallow fried them - they were much too dry when I did them in the oven.

 It’s a lesson in time investment isn’t it and how different it is for different people - for me it was just too much faff, for you clearly not.  I probably wouldn’t have minded the faff if the result were amazing or even nearly amazing but it wasn’t.  I have added the recipe to my standby ‘really hard up has to be a cheap month’ list though.

jackrabbit123

I make a lot of kidney bean hummous, everyone loves it in our house it gets all sorts chucked in and  it lasts in the fridge over the week. I only wish I could find a recipe that would last longer!! I was once many moons ago given a yogurt maker so I do use it overnight and that lasts in the fridge for my work lunches. We use left over bread for garlic bread or breadcrumbs. Tortillas I make from left over plain yogurt and flour mixed together and fried on the stove till brown. filo pastry is a no no for making at home too time consuming! Now what would be good is  a long life recipe for mayonnaise as we go through lots either in sandwiches or cooking ...  !!