Bread-Bakers v100.n002.9

> From: CHAMBERS <captnemo@eagle.cc.ukans.edu>
> Subject: cost to bake a loaf
> Anyone ever figured out what it costs to bake a loaf of bread? I'd want
to
> include a complete list of costs: flour, yeast, (well, maybe not
water!),
> electricity at least.  I've been challenged by a friend who thinks it's

> more expensive to bake at home than buy good bread at a local bakery
shop. 
> I'm thinking here of the costs of baking plain white loaves in a
regular 

As and engineer working w/ a bunch of engineers I've been given this 
argument many times.   The answer is that it depends.
What are you putting into the bread (ingredients)?
and what are you paying for them?

I haven't bought bread in maybe 10 years so i can't give a good 
cost for comparison, but a store brand loaf of junk-white costs $0.50 
around here (Baltimore).  This must be a loss-leader as a name brand's 
junk-white is over $1.

As for home made all you need is yeast, flour, salt and water.
(that makes a decent Italian, tho i usually add 2 TB oil).

the cost formula is:

cost per package of ingredients   
-------------------------------------------   =  cost per loaf (of this
ingredient)
loaves per package

If you buy yeast in the little packages, you get 3 loaves for about $1.35
or 45 cents/loaf
Flour at $1.79 / 5lb bag (20 cups/bag and 3 c/loaf) costs about 30
cents/loaf
Salt, oil and water will be less than 5c together.
So, 45 + 30 +5 = 80 cents / loaf

I was surprised to find that the yeast can be the cost driver.

BUT

You can get 2 lbs of yeast for <$4.00 at Sam's Club.
According to the package it makes 64 loaves/lb or $.03/loaf 
I just bought flour at 66c/bag or 11c/loaf
This brings my cost down to around $0.15 / loaf.

Conclusion:
If you shop carefully any exotic ingredient will dominate the cost of the
loaf,
e.g. dried cherries, imported cheese, even plain old raisins.

As for electricity you'll have to work that one out.  

[All the heat generated by my oven heats my house.
In the winter, at nite, my heat pump efficiency is poor,
so any heat from the oven is heat that i won't need from the heat pump.
therefore my electricity is essential free.]

Pete