Batch cooking

GrahamPl1

I'm not sure if the Daily Express misquoted Martin's advice on batch cooking. Surely the main way of making the saving is by cooking say 5 meals in an oven at the same time, saving roughly 80% of the energy if each meal was cooked at separate times? It isn't so much about trying to get on a lower tarrif at different times of the day (although that could help by a small amount).

Brie

Haven't read the Daily Express article but yes batch cooking saves by reducing the amount of time the oven/etc  is on.  Also by cooking more than one thing - putting the cake in the oven at the same time you're roasting some chicken and baking some potatoes.  I don't think there's an easy saving as you state (5 items = 80% saving) because many things will then need to be reheated (microwaved perhaps).  And there's also the prep time which means you're not spending 30 minutes a day prepping so you don't need to be having the kitchen light on, washing up, etc as much on some days.  

DullGreyGuy

This is presumably the article in question?
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/1907640/Martin-Lewis-batch-cooking-British-Gas-EDF-EON-Octopus# 

The article talks about maximising the savings by timing your batch cooking to the lower price energy if you are on a variable rate contract like Economy 7. However it also poopoos it by saying most dont have variable energy prices so the suggest is irrelevant. 

Batch cooking will save energy but its harder to estimate than simply saying you are only using the oven once so its 80% because you are introducing potentially freezing, unfreezing and reheating in most cases which can all add energy costs which you wouldn't have had if you cooked fresh each time. Almost certainly still a saving but not as much as the simplistic view of 80%

Florenceem

There are just the two of us. My oven was full yesterday - one shelf held 2 HM TITH and the other shelf - held a tray of sweet potatoes and a tray of shallots. I have put 3 day's meals of TITH in the freezer.
We ate all the roasted sweet potatoes but I have LO roasted shallots in the fridge.

GrahamPl1

Perhaps a question for an energy efficiency auditor. I agree it's not the same as the simplistic 80% number for 5 meals, especially as they may not all cook for the same time. The freezing and reheating point is a good one. At least it's not as simple as the energy tarrif. Perhaps Martin could look at this as I know there have been previous studies on the energy consumptions of cookers vs microwaves vs air fryers etc. It still feels batch cooking should save energy consumption but the key question is how much? Will it help those struggling the most with their energy bills and how hard is it to do?

DullGreyGuy

GrahamPl1 said:

Perhaps a question for an energy efficiency auditor. I agree it's not the same as the simplistic 80% number for 5 meals, especially as they may not all cook for the same time. The freezing and reheating point is a good one. At least it's not as simple as the energy tarrif. Perhaps Martin could look at this as I know there have been previous studies on the energy consumptions of cookers vs microwaves vs air fryers etc. It still feels batch cooking should save energy consumption but the key question is how much? Will it help those struggling the most with their energy bills and how hard is it to do?

It'll also depend on what you are cooking and how. If you are roasting a large piece of meat the cooking time will be extended due to its size, similarly if you put 2L of beer/wine into something being cooked on the hob it will take up much more energy to bring it to the boil than the 0.5L the non-bulked up recipe called for. Potentially there are other savings too, bulk cooking probably means bulk buying and that can introduce economies too.

You'll probably have to hope some PhD group has already decided to do the analysis rather than thinking Martin would pay for the report to be commissioned himself. 

Personally batch cooking for me is to save time rather than money and for that there is little dispute and not too much complexity

Pollycat

For me, batch cooking means making multiple servings of the same dish e.g. chilli, bolognaise, shepherds pie bases, casseroles and even mashed potato to put into the freezer.
I'll buy a large meat joint even though there are only 2 of us because 1. it cooks better than a smaller joint and 2. I carve the leftovers and that will also go into the freezer to make more dinners.
I also do more roast potatoes than we need and they go into the freezer too.
And I make a whole packet of stuffing balls and they also go in the freezer.

A lot of my batch cooking is done in my large slow cooker.

goldfinches

As many have pointed out above there are an awful lot of potential variables to be considered when you're calculating cooking costs in order to make comparisons between methods and different appliances. 
You might find this Which article comparing the cost of air fryer to conventional oven helpful as it explains their methodology well. Air fryer vs oven: energy usage, costs and cooking results compared - Which? There are also links to other helpful Which pages about calculating how much energy individual appliances use and so on.