The Culinary Works

I watch Food TV from time to time and started noticing the shows focusing on feeding your family for under $10 and my first thought was, that’s not that hard…$10 goes a long way, especially if you give it some thought. I considered the methods chef’s use to manage their costs and wondered if this is something that would help people.

Times are tough right now and anytime you can sit around the table with the ones you love, count your blessings. If you can do it at home while saving some money, you are way ahead of the curve. I really think if people felt a bit more confident in the kitchen and were able to figure out how much they really could save by employing a few chef tactics, they would eat much better.

When chef’s put together a menu, they do what’s called, costing it out. When you cost out a menu, you break down the cost of the food used to make that individual plate. Determining the cost of the food is what will determine how much you need to charge for the dish to make the numbers all work in the end….after all, you have to pay your staff, overhead etc (just like us right?). A cardinal rule is for those dishes where the food cost is high, you want to add something to the menu where the food cost is low…this helps you offer those high ticket items while still ensuring you come out in the black. For example, a New York Strip with Shrimp is going to cost you around $15.00 with sides just to make and you can only sell it for so much. But the grilled polenta dish is going to cost you a couple bucks. As long as they both sell, you will make up for adding the low profit dish to the menu by selling a dish that costs less to make and thusly generates a higher profit. I know this is a lot of menu, math talk….but truly you can apply these principles at home. Here is what I mean.

Meat is expensive but pasta dishes are relatively inexpensive, as are potatoes, rice and veggies. You can pair meat with the less expensive items and include a pasta or rice dish in your weekly menu to balance the budget, while still allowing yourself some hearty meals. Also, using some chef math, you can determine how much a menu idea will cost to determine how often you can use it.

I scanned the Safeway add this week and found one of my favorite meats on sale and will walk through figuring out how much a full dinner will cost.

HINT: You do need to know your standard measures for this.

8 oz = 1 cup

16 oz = 1 lb

I see Pork Loin Chops on sale for $1.48 per lb, a 5 lb bag of potatoes for $2.99 and cauliflower for $2.99 per head. Lets say you have four hearty eaters in your house and want to serve an 8 oz chop each, 6 oz of potatoes and 4 oz or so of cauliflower.

I want four 8oz portions of pork, using my culinary math I multiply 4 x 8 and know I need to buy 32 oz of pork. But they sell pork by the pound, so if I divide 32 by 16, I know I need 2 pounds of pork.(16 oz = 1 lb) At $1.48 per pound, I need two pounds, the pork will cost $2.96 ($1.48 x 2 ), making the per serving cost $.74 ($2.96 divided by 4).

There are 16 oz to a lb and the bag of potatoes has 5 lbs. If I multiply 5 times 16 I know have 80 oz in that bag. That 80 oz of potato costs me $2.99. Remember, price divided by quanity is your magic culinary formula. $2.99 (price) divided by 80 (quantity) is .04 cents per oz. My four oz serving of potatoes will cost $ .16 (4 x .04).

The cauliflower head is$ 2.99. Lets just say, for simplicity sake since the size of a head of cauliflower varies, you encourage your family to fill up on veggies and just split it four ways. My serving of cauliflower will cost $ .75. (2.99 divided by 4)

Now I add my items together, serving of pork = $.74, serving of potatoes = $ .16 and my serving of cauliflower = $ .75. This means each plate of delicious homemade goodness is costing me $1.65 or $6.60 for a family of four. Not bad huh! Gives you some room to add a simple salad or some brownies for dessert!

In reality, to be totally accurate, you do have to factor in your condiments and cooking items like olive oil, salt, pepper etc. In a large kitchen where you go through pounds of it, it makes sense to cost it into your recipes. In the home or small kitchen the costs would be so small it’s not worth the time to do all that math. What I suggest is to add

$ .10 to each plate to cover those items.

So now what!

Pork Loin Chop with Roasted Potatoes and Cauliflower

In the morning or night before, season the chops with salt, pepper and thyme. Put them in a zip loc with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and leave them in the fridge. When you are ready to prepare dinner, chop 5 cups of potato into medium sized cubes. Cut the cauliflower head into medium size pieces. In a bowl, mix the potato’s and cauliflower, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and if you like, a bit of chili flake. Roast them in a 400 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender. About 15 minutes before your potato’s are done, heat an oven safe sauté pan and pan sear the chops. When they are brown, place them in the oven for 8-10 minutes, depending on how thick they are, until they are just firm to the touch. Serve them with a drizzle of olive oil.

Easy, inexpensive and delicious! Let me know if breaking down some costs will help you find new ideas that will fit into your families budget. It is one of those concepts that the more you do it, the easier it gets and I would be happy to do it with the recipes I post to help you get the hang of it.

The most important thing to me is that people realize it isn’t difficult to feed your family on $10 per meal or even less, it’s not cooking show magic! It is something you can do to control your daily budget and hopefully that buys you a splurge every now and then.