Saturday, September 27, 2008

The value of bread



An interesting thought occurred to me the other day... how much is good bread worth? We buy sandwich bread for $3.99 at the grocery store, yet here is a rough breakdown of how much home-made bread costs:



















































































IngredientMeasurePurchase WeightPurchase CostCost per GramPer Loaf Cost
Salt15737$1.00$0.0014 $0.02
Buckwheat Flour10907$3.28$0.0036 $0.04
All-Purpose Flour504536$5.79$0.0013 $0.06
White Whole Weat Flour502268$5.49$0.0024 $0.12
Bread Flour3402268$5.49$0.0024 $0.82
Water3253780$1.00$0.0003 $0.09
Sourdough Flour (AP)
504536$5.79$0.0013 $0.06
Sourdough Water503780$1.00$0.0003 $0.01





$1.23



So the costs of the ingredients is clearly less than the store-bought bread, but what about the actual baking? My Kennmore 96413 is rated at 10 - 13.5 kW. Running at 450 degrees I'm going to assume I'm using 13 kW of juice, though the insulation on this oven is incredibly efficient so I don't think it's pulling the full load for my entire bake cycle. Power in our area goes for 7 - 9 cents per kWh, so at the worst case scenario I'm probably using $0.18 of electricty, bringing the grand total up to $1.41.

I don't drink coffee, but I'm fairly sure that's less than your average cup of joe.

-Matt the weekend baker

1 comment:

Molly Malone said...

what a steal to DIY. cheaper ... and nothing tastes better than a loaf of home-baked bread. probably one of the items/services that really should be in-sourced again into the household.