While in the culinary school, our class was invited to do something that most of us had hoped to avoid as budding chiefs: mathematics.
What we calculate is the real cost of ingredients, mainly products, depending on the quantity of a given article usable. Consider inevitable food waste such as banana peels, pepper nuclei, ends of celery, etc.
When you pay an article in weight, in terms of culinary mathematics, the yield, or the “edible part” of a given article, the factors of its real cost, which are necessary for the chiefs to take into account when taking into account how to assess a dish.
Should you calculate each element that goes into your homemade meals? Certainly not. (Or rather, let’s not hope it? Given the state of the economy and the egg priceSome of us could do it.) But culinary mathematics can help determine what you really spend in the product aisle compared to what you are potentially losing.
Whether you are in the economy of money or to save the environment by considering food waste (Or you would like to do both), there are foods that have a lower value given the quantity of them that you can consume.
Calculation of value based on the edible yield of fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables offer a very different overall value when the edible yield is taken into account.
Do not be afraid, this is not an exercise that involves really measuring the weight of banana peels or trying to assign a percentage to the quantity of the zucchini that you throw away. Even chefs use at hand yield graphs This information, on average, the quantity of a given element can be used.
The determination of the actual cost of an ingredient therefore consists in calculating the new price according to the edible part. For example, if a cauliflower head costs $ 1.49 per book, and only 55% can be used – once you have removed the nucleus and leaves – the cost per book increases almost double for the usable part. You may have spent about $ 3 for two pounds of cauliflower, but you can only use a little more than one book of what you paid. To determine the real cost, you therefore take the purchase cost and divide by the percentage of yield, expressed in decimal.
For example: $ 1.49 / .55 = $ 2.70
A cauliflower head has a considerably low edible yield.
Suddenly, this cauliflower head does not seem to be a good deal. Also consider that chefs could regularly use more various fruits and vegetables than home cooks. Broccoli rods can be peeled, cooked and sprayed in a broccoli soup cream, and the onions can go, the skin and everything, in a jar of broth.
Lemons and files are usually zesting before making juice, and even pineapple skin has culinary applications. Pineapple fronds can even find themselves as a garnish in the cocktail menu. Watermelon bark can be marinated. Do you cut your watermelon bark at home? I didn’t think it.
Produce with the lowest yield (most waste)
The next time you take care of the market peppers, consider that you will only consume 65% of the total product.
You do not need to buy in bulk in weight to consider the amount of ingredient that you can really use. Understanding the performance of certain elements can help you look at the price a little differently, as well as to consider the amount of waste.
Here are 12 current items in the grocery store that have the lowest percentages of the edible part, and therefore the highest waste. (Garden peas have the smallest usable portion, at 38%, but lucky for all of us, if you bomb the peas at home, you have probably cultivated them yourself.) Using the current prices that I collected at Instacart.
|
Cauliflower |
$ 2.99 each |
55% |
$ 5.43 each |
|
Asparagus |
$ 2.99 / lb. |
56% |
$ 5.34 / LB. |
|
Broccoli |
$ 2.99 / Bunch |
61% |
$ 4.90 / Bunch |
|
Fennel bulb |
$ 2.69 each |
60% |
$ 4.48 each |
|
Green -leaf lettuce |
$ 1.99 / head |
67% |
$ 2.97 / head |
|
Pepper |
$ 1.50 each |
65% |
$ 2.31 each |
|
Musk |
$ 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 (Although it still exists), food waste represents 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Even if you are an accomplished recycler that always brings your own grocery bags to the store, if you do not have a way to deal with food waste (a local program for recycling food waste, a rear compost or a Food recycling device for counter), the products you buy most often can contribute to the problem more than the way it is excited.
The berries may seem expensive at first glance, but they are one of the highest types of products that you will find on the market.
Find out more: I cut my kitchen waste by 80% in a week with this small device
Fruits and vegetables with the highest yield (less waste)
Maybe the above graphic helps you to think creatively in the way of using more what you buy, or at least help you adjust your purchasing habits, if you are someone who frequently throws things that have been wrong. Perhaps this puts into perspective the extreme cost of the purchase of certain items excluding season, in particular the items that have a low yield. (Looking at you, watermelon.)
The spinach is cheap, good for you and cause very little food waste after preparation.
Fortunately, however, there are many items in the alley of products that have high percentages of usable portions. If you are concerned about food waste, it is now time to increase your consumption of the following elements:
- Green beans (88% usable)
- Broccoli crowns (95%)
- Button mushrooms (97%)
- Onions (89%)
- Snap Peas (85%)
- Rutabaga (85%)
- Baby spinach (92%)
- Zucchini (95%)
- Tomatoes (91%)
- Blueberries (96%)
- VAIERS (92%)
- PRUMS (94%)
- Strawberries (89%)
