The Fine Art of Being a Balabusta--Part #3

In Part #2 I laid out all the conveniences available to us today apropos of food: restaurants, take-home food stores, frozen meals, packaged ready to nuke meals. As I mentioned, a person would hardly starve if they had zero cooking skills. But starvation is not what I'm worried about. There are two excellent reasons why cooking skills should be taught, and taught starting young. The first is cost and the second is health/nutrition.

Cost: In a previous posting on what it costs to be frum I covered the expenses involved in providing food. Those expenses were based, however, on someone's basically eating home cooked meals.

I went around to a few grocery stores and markets looking at the prices for frozen and packaged prepared food. Good grief! A one serving frozen package of Meal Mart baked ziti cost $4.69 at Shoprite. One of the kosher grocery stores had it at $4.30. And we are not talking here about a large serving either. The local pizza shop sells the fresh baked ziti at $6.50 for what is a two-person serving according to the government, but which frequently is a one-person dish.

How much is that same baked ziti if I make it from scratch? One box of ziti noodles, on sale at 5 for $2.00. One package of cheese--$3.59, not on sale. One can of tomato sauce also on sale at 4 for $1.00. Spices already in my cabinet and negligible cost--let's add 10 cents. Total cost made at home? $4.34, for 5-6 servings. That's correct--6 times as many servings for the same price. Let's not even mention that my ziti tastes better.

How about one kosher pizza? $16 to $18 a pie in the pizza shop, at 8 slices. Frozen, ready to heat pizza was cheaper--$13.99 for an eight-slice pie. Homemade? Two different prices. Use frozen pizza dough--$5.00 for a package. Cheese--$3.59. Tomato sauce--25 cents. Spices--10 cents. Cost: $8.94. Flour on sale for $2.05 for 5 lbs., sufficient to make 4-5 pizza doughs. Cost for one: 40 cents. Add in the other ingredients and a homemade pie costs $4.34. Have a large family and need more than one pie? $32 in the pizza shop and $8.68 fully from scratch.

How about those packaged foods that only need water added? A whole generation is growing up thinking that the mixture inside those soup cups is actually soup. You're paying for a whole lot of things that you can't pronounce and that come straight out of a chemistry set. The packaged mac and cheese? Can you say blech? Expensive blech? Price them out and you will find that, without exception, the home made version is loads cheaper.

Restaurant meals? Going to eat fairly simply and just get a protein, a carbohydrate and one vegetable? $9 and up, way up, no limit up. Thirsty? Add in the price of a drink. Want dessert? Open the wallet wider. I got online to a few sites where the restaurants post their menus. Talk about shock! A prime rib roast dinner began at $22 and raced up; one place charged $33 for it. Without an appetizer, drink or dessert. A raw rib roast is expensive--my butcher had it at about $35, but that raw roast will serve at least 6 people and more. That's about $5 and change per person. Add in a potato and some veggies and I'll be able to make that restaurant meal for about $6 to $7. I say this with no doubts whatsoever: I don't care what you order--I can make it cheaper at home. Oh yes, the cook at home doesn't accept tips.

So there you have one excellent reason for why people should be taught how to cook--home cooking is loads and loads cheaper then foods purchased outside of the home. And for the most part, in my opinion, home cooked food tastes better, looks better and smells better.

Health and Nutrition: You'd have to be dead not to have heard that Americans are becoming more and more overweight. One estimate is that 60% of the population is overweight or obese. This is a true problem. Unhealthy weight levels lead to all kinds of health problems. Even with all our advances in medicine the killer diseases are remaining steady in number.

Part of the problem is that people are eating fewer meals at home and fewer home cooked meals. They are relying on prepared foods that are loaded with fats, sugars, salt and refined carbohydrates. Food is full of flavor additives and chemical enhancers and food colorants. Pizza shops aren't using reduced fat or no fat cheeses, which cost more, in their products. They aren't springing for the extra cost of canola or olive oils. Caterers and food producers dump truckloads of salt and MSG in their food. Whole grain products cost more and they don't use them. Fried foods are a staple of most take home stores and certainly of the fast food restaurants. For many people french fries are one of the required food groups. Our convenience foods are killing us. Not only do they force feed us things we shouldn't be eating but they do so in portions that are way out of line.

We are supposed to eat in order to live. Our food is the source of the nutrients we require to maintain ourselves in a healthy fashion. Our bodies don't work right if we don't get the right amounts of these nutrients. Some of these nutrients are killed when cooked incorrectly or at too high a temperature. Frying kills many of the nutrients. Ever seen the boiled mess that some restaurants call cooked vegetables? Those vegetables have lost most of their nutrients into the cooking water--you get only the shell. You really think that the restaurants and take home food places are sitting and comparing the nutrient contents on the labels on all the products available to use? Their prime consideration is the cost. And yes, sometimes you have to pay a bit more to get food with a high nutrient content.

Cooking at home allows you to prepare foods so that they lose the least amount of available nutrients. Cooking at home allows you to combine foods for nutrition benefits. When you shop you can compare labels and buy the best-for-you product.

Baked goods can have their recipes altered to more healthful versions. Shortening is not a necessity in most products regardless of what the recipe says. Ditto whole eggs and a whole slew of other ingredients. Whole grains can be substituted for refined grains.

Here's the sad fact: eating someone else's prepared food is costly in many ways. You spend more money and get less bang for your buck. The food's not healthy and the portion sizes are not in line with healthy eating. (Just a note: the few places that do advertise a "healthy" dish jack up the price for that dish beyond belief.) The nutrients are lacking. Buying such food should be reserved for true emergencies or when no other options are available. I admit freely to using the pizza shop before Pesach when I am turning my kitchen. When one of my children had surgery on a Friday I bought a lot of Shabbos ready made because I just plain was not going to be around to cook--except of course for the soup and the cholent and the salad, which no one in my house will eat from a caterer. So yes, I practice what I'm preaching.

When I was teaching English in high school I legislated with the administration to give the girls a formal class in nutrition. I did the research, I designed the curriculum and was truly fortunate that the chemistry teacher was ready, able and willing to teach the course. Okay, so the girls got the nutrition information. What about home economics? From what I can see, the only home ec in the high schools is teaching the girls how to kasher a chicken. Yup, that is going to take them far.

So yes, knowing how to cook and bake is a survival skill, especially in today's times. And given the number of boys who are on their own for a while before marriage, let's give the boys the basics too. Learning how to cook is also about learning how to eat right.

One last note: not everyone who cooks at home is going to be a cordon bleu chef. This is one area where there are some cooks who are better than others. But everyone can be taught to be an okay cook. Part of it is wanting to learn. And part of it is having people who are willing to teach.