Informative thread reveals best ways amateur chefs can shop for and store food: 'Cooking at home is WAY cheaper than eating out'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jun 3, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

We have a lot to think about when it comes to cooking for ourselves. It's a practice that goes much deeper than our skills in the kitchen; we also have to think about our dietary requirements, personal preferences, and how to shop for groceries in a way that is both economical and tasty. No matter how long we have been doing all of this, it can sometimes be an overwhelming task. The cost of living crisis also doesn't make it any easier.

As a result, it can be a relief to have some helpful pointers on the topic. This is exactly what was provided in a recent Twitter thread, where a skilled cook explained the best ways to shop for food and how to store it in order to have a happy and healthy kitchen. Even if you feel like you are accomplished at cooking, this could be worth a read.

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    Cheezburger Image 10356177664
    via Kevin McCutcheon
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    (cookin) donkey from... ❤ @choosy_mom Follow a ton of people struggle to get better at cooking bc they don't know how to *shop* here is why/how to do it right:
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May Replying to @choosy_mom ok first things first. cooking at home is WAY cheaper than eating out. ive seen a bunch of nonsense takes abt this online but if you disagree about this you are wrong. also skill issue
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May if you're good at cooking it can also be tastier, healthier, and much more fun to cook at home. but today i want to talk about MONEY
    via choosy_mom
  • 05
    . (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May as with all skills, if you want to get good at cooking you have to practice. and to practice cooking you need equipment. most people already have a kitchen and basic cooking supplies. so 95% of the time, the variable cost of cooking is just the ingredients
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre....18 May there are two main mistakes people make when buying ingredients: 1) buying stuff at a bad price 2) letting their ingredients spoil
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... • 18 May ok so what do i mean when i say "bad price”? this is not about being cheap, it's about *value per dollar*-practically speaking, you mainly need to be looking at UNIT PRICE and QUALITY
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May 99 unit price is just the price PER POUND (or piece or gram or ounce, whatever unit you're buying) many people just see something that costs like $3 and buy it just because number small but they often forget to ask "wait, how much am i getting for my $3?"
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May trader joe's FEASTS on shoppers who think like this. i dont hate TJs, imo they offer pretty good value and carry decent stuff. but they make a killing off their private label prepared foods. like the microwave dal or the little boxes of frozen dumplings that they sell for $4
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May ok let's talk about ingredient QUALITY quality is about freshness, seasonality, and rarity (basically how difficult or unusual is it to make the ingredient)
    via choosy_mom
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    . (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May as a rule of thumb you want to be eating and preparing mostly fresh foods. fresh foods are more filling, taste better, and are usually healthier since they don't have a bunch of preservatives and stabilizers
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May you also want to be eating mostly foods that are in season wherever you live. historically seasonality was an unavoidable constraint on people's diets, but modernity has graced us with industrial food production/ refrigeration/rapid global distribution
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May you also want to be eating mostly foods that are in season wherever you live. historically seasonality was an unavoidable constraint on people's diets, but modernity has graced us with industrial food production/ refrigeration/rapid global distribution
    via choosy_mom
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    . (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May in the 21st century you can purchase most common types of produce year round. this is a deeply underappreciated feat of science and human organization. however, it is not what you should be doing as a sophisticated grocery shopper
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre....18 May as you gain experience buying groceries you can start to build an intuition for what is good and when buy citrus in the winter, tomatoes in the summer, pears in the fall, and so on seasonal foods are extra tasty compared to their off season equivalents, and often cheaper too
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... . 18 May there's a whole subskill to develop around knowing when different kinds of produce are in season, and selecting the best and freshest specimens when you go to the store or market. how do you pick a good pineapple? how do you know which watermelon will be fresh and sweet?
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May when you get into the higher tiers of seasonal/regional ingredients, you sometimes stumble across transcendent foods once you discover this joy, shopping can start to feel exciting, like a treasure hunt. chefs will spend all day at the farmers market playing this game
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May while we're on the topic of professional chefs, i wanna make a note about luxury ingredients. im talking about like sea urchin, japanese beef, caviar, exotic mushrooms, foraged greens. expensive stuff that you normally only get at the nice restaurant for $100+
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May luxury ingredients are expensive and will increase your grocery bill and price per meal. they are also awesome to prepare and eat at home for special occasions. its relatively affordable too-for a lot less $ you can eat way more than the baby portions they serve in restaurants
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May alright so you've mastered the art of grocery shopping. you just got home with a big load of amazing fresh seasonal groceries. now you have to put them away. this too is a skill that you must develop
    via choosy_mom
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    • (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May storing your food well is possibly even more important than buying good food. a lot of people get discouraged from cooking because they don't want to "buy too much" and watch their food go bad. but they just don't know (yet!) how to store it
    via choosy_mom
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    . (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May the rules for storing food are: - if it's dried or otherwise stays good at room temperature, it goes in the pantry - it goes in the fridge if it's fresh !! AND YOU HAVE SPECIFIC IMMEDIATE NEAR TERM PLANS TO USE IT!! - if it's perishable and you don't have plans for it: FREEZER
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May i cannot emphasize enough how important it is to freeze everything you don't plan to use in the next ~3 days. the freezer keeps your fresh basically forever, so you can put it in there and forget about it until the next time you need it
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... • 18 May cooking noobs always buy more of an ingredient than they plan to use (totally fine, often unavoidable) but fail to freeze it. so they end up using half the container for the recipe they're making, then they forget about it in the back of the fridge until it starts to smell bad
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... 18 May a lot of people consistently waste food and money this way. it's demoralizing and guilt inducing to throw out food, and it discourages them from cooking more often. "well i always end up wasting so much so might as well eat out”
    via choosy_mom
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    (cookin) donkey from shre... . 18 May i could add a lot more detail here re: portioning, thawing, storing specific foods, non-freezing preservation methods, types of grocery stores, buying in bulk, assessing relative quality to value. but the scope of this thread is already too big so i'll just call it here
    via choosy_mom

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groceries informative twitter cooking Twitter Thread information kitchen food eating grocery shopping budget
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