In article >,
"Vox Humana" > wrote:
> I remain unconvinced. You need flour for a lot of non-baking endeavors. It
> is used to dredge meat and vegetable before frying and to thicken sauces.
> Sugar goes into drink and over cereal. Salt - who doesn't use salt at the
> table? Sugar and salt don't go bad. Flour will keep for an extended time
> in the refrigerator or freezer. Salt costs about 40 cents for a container.
> Sugar sells for about 30 cents a pound around here - less on sale. Baking
> power is also very inexpensive and while it does go bad after a year, that
> is in incentive to use it. The cost of mixes will far exceed the price of
> the raw ingredients you would have to buy, even taking into consideration
> that you will toss the tin of baking power each year and start over. That
> bag of flour for $1.70, the sugar for $1.50, the salt for $.049., and the
> baking powder for $1.89 all adds up to less than $6.
Oddly enough, I always have baking ingredients around, but not for the
reasons above.
I don't fry often, and tend to use matzoh meal when I do (I made fish
cakes last week); I also don't like flour-thickened sauces.* I don't add
sugar to drinks or to cereal, and I never add salt at the table.
Then again, I *always* have this stuff on hand for baking purposes or
candymaking. I feel no pride in workmanship if I make something from a
mix. Over the last week and a half, I've made coffee brittle,
chocolate-peanut brittle, butternut squash-walnut bread, and skillet
apple cake. I don't recall the last time I purchased cake mix--certainly
not within the last decade.
* the way I learned things growing up, *the* turkey gravy consisted of
roasting a turkey with carrots, onions, and a little celery, along with
some stock or broth. When the turkey was ready to be sliced, the
vegetables were removed with some broth, and the vegetables put through
a food mill (or blender). Cook down in a saucepan with the broth until
thickened (1/2 hour or so on low heat, stirring occasionally) . For me,
nothing else tastes right for gravy.
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