Back before ground beef doubled in price I would make a huge batch of chili for canning. I did the math in January of last year and it worked out to a 28% savings over buying it but the downside was that it cost $50 to make the batch.

Of course the upsides were knowing every ingredient and here I am two weeks short of a year later eating chili that now costs way more to make because of beef cost increases.

This time I added a can of black beans during the reheat because I didn’t feel like making corn bread.

Cost per person: $3.06

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 days ago

      People keep asking me that. Nope, just an engineer who really likes food. By learning first principles, I can understand what causes certain results to come from various ingredients and the methods that are applied there to.

      If you want to start going down the rabbit hole, Alton Brown had made a lot of this very accessible, especially in his show Good Eats; if you prefer textbooks, Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking is a definitive work.

      • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Well, cooking being both a science and a practical matter, it makes much sense to me that being a curious engineer can get you very far as a cook. And I don’t think it’s a major leap in the slightest to observe that even people who frequently cook can have a very limited understanding of the science of cooking… including the likes of me.

        Hehe, I do happen to like Alton Brown, but usually just enjoy his occasional stuff I bump in to on YT. Right, then-- I’ve pulled up a bunch of his videos on cooking science and stashed them at the top of my “TV” folder. Bingo.

        Hope to run in to you another time, perhaps here or otherwise. I really appreciate how you stayed with the discussion until I properly realised my error. Thank you for that! <3

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
          2·
          3 days ago

          Well, I couldn’t just stand by and let somebody be wrong on the Internet.

          Thank you for hanging in there as well! I’m all over Lemmy quite frequently, so it’s not unlikely we’ll run into each other again, especially now that I’ve got you tagged.