While he was in the culinary school, our class was asked to do something that I think most of us hoped to avoid as candidates as chefs: mathematics.
What we were calculating was the real cost of the ingredients, mainly produced, depending on how much of a given article it can be used. Consider inevitable food waste, such as banana peels, peppers, celery, etc.
When you pay for an article by weight, in culinary mathematical terms, the performance or “edible portion” of an article given factors in its real cost, which is necessary for chefs to consider taking into account how to set the price of a dish.
Should each element that enters your homemade meals calculate? Certainly not. (Or rather, right? Given the state of the economy and the Egg priceSome of us may have to do it). But culinary mathematics can help determine what they are really spending in the versus product hall what is potentially wasting.
If it is about keeping cents or saving the environment considering food waste (Or you would like to do both), there are foods that have a lower value considering how much of them you can consume.
Calculation value based on edible performance of fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables offer a very different general value when considered edible yield.
Do not fear, this is not an exercise that really implies measuring the weight of banana peels or trying to assign a percentage to the amount of the ends of the zucchini that you dispose of. Even chefs make use of handy performance graphics that report, on average, how much of a certain element can be used.
Determining the real cost of an ingredient, then, implies calculating the new price based on the edible portion. For example, if a cauliflower head costs $ 1.49 per pound, and only 55% is usable, once it eliminates the nucleus and leaves, then the cost per pound increases almost double for the usable portion. It is possible that you have spent about $ 3 in two pounds of cauliflower, but you can use only a little more than one pound of what you paid. To determine the real cost, then, you take the cost of purchase and division by the percentage of yield, expressed as decimal.
For example: $ 1.49/.55 = $ 2.70
A cauliflower head has considerably low edible performance.
Suddenly, that cauliflower head does not seem like a great bargain. Consider, also, that chefs can use more than several fruits and vegetables than homemade chefs. The broccoli stems can be peel, cook and pulverize in a broccoli soup cream, and onions can go, skin and everything, in a broth pot.
Lemons and liles generally get into ditch before they are exposed, and even pineapple skin has culinary applications. Pineapple leaves can even end how to decorate in the cocktail menu. Watermelon bark can be plus. Are you rolling your watermelon cortes at home? He didn’t think about it.
Produce with the highest performance (most waste)
The next time it is loaded in Bell Peppers in the market, consider that it will only consume about 65% of the total product.
You do not need to buy in bulk to consider how much ingredient you will really use. Understanding the performance of certain items can help you see the price in a slightly different way, as well as considering how much it is directed to the trash.
Here are 12 common items in the grocery store that have the lowest percentages of the edible portion and, therefore, the highest waste. (Garden peas have the smallest usable portion, with 38%, but fortunate for all of us, if you are actually bombing peas at home, you probably cultivated them). Using the current prices that I raised as instacart.
|
Cauliflower |
$ 2.99 each |
55% |
$ 5.43 each |
|
Asparagus |
$ 2.99/lb. |
56% |
$ 5.34/lb. |
|
Broccoli |
$ 2.99/group |
61% |
$ 4.90/Bunch |
|
Fennel bulb |
$ 2.69 each |
60% |
$ 4.48 each |
|
Green Leaf lyrics |
$ 1.99/head |
67% |
$ 2.97/head |
|
Peppers |
$ 1.50 each |
65% |
$ 2.31 each |
|
Pumpkin |
$ 3.37 each |
66% |
$ 5.10 each |
|
Banana |
45 cents each |
67% |
67 cents each |
|
Cantaloupe |
$ 4.99 each |
50% |
$ 9.98 each |
|
Pineapple |
$ 5.99 each |
52% |
$ 11.52 each |
|
Watermelon |
$ 6.99 each |
47% |
$ 14.87 each |
|
Grapefruit |
$ 2.29 each |
47% |
$ 4.87 each |
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (While it still exists), food waste represents 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Even if you are an consummated recycler that always carries your own supermarket bags to the store, if you do not have a way of dealing with food waste (a local food waste recycling program, a backyard compost stack or a countertop food recycling device), the product that buys more frequently can contribute to the problem more than it is wrapped.
The berries may seem faces at first sight, but they are one of the types of higher performance products that you will find in the market.
Read more: I cut the waste from my kitchen by 80% in a week with this small appliance.
Fruits and vegetables with higher performance (less waste)
Maybe the previous graph helps you think creatively about how to use more than you buy, or at least helps you adjust your purchase habits, if you are someone who frequently throws things that have become bad. Perhaps it puts in perspective the extreme cost of buying certain out -of -season items, especially items that have low performance. (Looking at you, watermelon).
The spinach is cheap, good for you and results in a very little waste of food after preparing.
Fortunately, however, there are many articles in the corridor of products that have high percentages of usable portions. If you are worried about food waste, now it is time to increase your consumption from the following:
- Green beans (88% usable)
- Broccoli crowns (95%)
- Button fungi (97%)
- Onions (89%)
- Snap peas (85%)
- Rutabaga (85%)
- Baby spinach (92%)
- Zucchini (95%)
- Tomatoes (91%)
- Blueberries (96%)
- Grapes (92%)
- Plums (94%)
- Strawberries (89%)
#fruits #vegetables #cost
