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I get the feeling a lot of people here on "Hacker News" don't do a lot of their own cooking. So here is some information on the topic of Home Economics. For e

I get the feeling a lot of people here on "Hacker News" don't do a lot of their own cooking. So here is some information on the topic of Home Economics. For example, if you want to eat bread, it is 40 cents a pound for the base ingredient, flour: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-All-Purpose-Flour-10LB-Bag/122814298 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-All-Purpose-Flour-10L... That 4 dollar bag has ~16000 calories in it, so at 2000 calories a day, this works out to about 50 cents a day, for a base level diet that will prevent hunger, as the word "hunger" is understood by us readers-of-dictionaries. If you prefer cake over bread, you will primarily need this other base ingredient: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Pure-Granulated-Sugar-25-Lb/10403009 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Pure-Granulated-Sugar... ...and that is a bit more--55.9 cents a pound. Now, you may say, "Cake is not good enough." If you thought that, you share a very common sentiment. Ask anybody who actually works at Walmart about what is being purchased on EBT cards, and it is not flour and sugar for making cake. If people just wanted cake, they could pay using their own money and not even notice the expense. But that is not what they want.

vkou 4y ago
Bread takes so much labour at particular timings spread out over the day to make that it's not a practical solution for someone with a day job. There's a reason a loaf is $3-8 at the grocery (And it's hard to, with a straight face, describe most of the $3 ones as bread.) It's not the 17th century, or the 1950s anymore, most households don't have someone spending 24/7 on domestic chores. You could have picked a million better cooking examples, I don't understand why you went with bread.
- jodrellblank 4y ago
  Soda bread is easy and quick to make: get the oven on very hot gas 7-8 with a saucepan or casserole dish in it. Get a a bowl, 450grams flour, half to one teaspoon salt, heaped teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, optional teaspoon sugar, mix, ~350ml milk, mix until dough, shape into blob with hands, dust the hot saucepan with flour and drop the dough in it. Bake until crusty and done, 30-60 minutes ish. Voila, delicious soda bread. No kneading, no rising, no yeast, no proving, no loaf tins, no mixer, no added time, no work surface, just mix and cook. Optionally swap ~50-75g of the flour for oats, or some-all of the milk for plain yogurt. Yes yeasted bread takes more time but soda bread is really good and way more convenient.
- reddog 4y ago
  Not true — it takes 5 minutes of effort and about 40 cents to make very good bread out of salt, flour, yeast and water. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU
- tbrownaw 4y ago
  > Bread takes so much labour at particular timings spread out over the day to make Mix everything together, let rise for a while (for most recipes; the pizza dough I've made a few times only wants to stand for 10min), and bake. Surely things can be adjusted to have it rise for 6-8 hours (overnight) rather than for 2-3 hours?
  - kcb 4y ago
    > Surely things can be adjusted to have it rise for 6-8 hours (overnight) rather than for 2-3 hours? Yes, some would even argue that it gets better if you leave it for several days.
- giantrobot 4y ago
  > You could have picked a million better cooking examples, I don't understand why you went with bread. They picked bread because the ingredients are simple. They've likely never baked bread in their life and have no idea what a time/effort sink it is. It's not the hardest thing to make from scratch but as you say it's not practical for someone with a day job. This is all besides someone subsisting entirely on bread would end up very malnourished. It might carry a lot of calories but it's missing a lot of important necessary nutrients. But hey the math is simple! Therefore people shouldn't go hungry!
  - kcb 4y ago
    > They've likely never baked bread in their life and have no idea what a time/effort sink it is. It's not the hardest thing to make from scratch but as you say it's not practical for someone with a day job. I really don't understand this to the point it feels comical. It's not practical to make bread if you have a day job???? There's like 20 minutes of work in making bread and the timings are actually extremely forgiving not "particular" at all. Seriously now what a bizarre conversation.
    - bhhaskin 4y ago
      I think part of the problem is a lot of people either lost these skills or never had them to begin with. So it's something that is perceived as a complex time consuming task. And it is; if you are doing it on a large scale. Most people have also gotten used to being able to eat whatever they want when they want it.
  - tbrownaw 4y ago
    Back in the beforetimes, I'd sometimes make banana bread in the morning to take in to the office with me. I'd only have to get up an extra hour early for that, even if it is probably closer to cake than to "normal" bread.
AnimalMuppet 4y ago
You can get 2000 calories from bread. You can't get adequate nutrition, though.
- nitwit005 4y ago
  For most of history, most of humanity lived off of simple meals that primarily delivered calories: Bread, rice, potatoes, etc. You do need other things, but far less than people tend to assume.

vkou 4y ago

Bread takes so much labour at particular timings spread out over the day to make that it's not a practical solution for someone with a day job. There's a reason a loaf is $3-8 at the grocery (And it's hard to, with a straight face, describe most of the $3 ones as bread.) It's not the 17th century, or the 1950s anymore, most households don't have someone spending 24/7 on domestic chores. You could have picked a million better cooking examples, I don't understand why you went with bread.

jodrellblank 4y ago
Soda bread is easy and quick to make: get the oven on very hot gas 7-8 with a saucepan or casserole dish in it. Get a a bowl, 450grams flour, half to one teaspoon salt, heaped teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, optional teaspoon sugar, mix, ~350ml milk, mix until dough, shape into blob with hands, dust the hot saucepan with flour and drop the dough in it. Bake until crusty and done, 30-60 minutes ish. Voila, delicious soda bread. No kneading, no rising, no yeast, no proving, no loaf tins, no mixer, no added time, no work surface, just mix and cook. Optionally swap ~50-75g of the flour for oats, or some-all of the milk for plain yogurt. Yes yeasted bread takes more time but soda bread is really good and way more convenient.
reddog 4y ago
Not true — it takes 5 minutes of effort and about 40 cents to make very good bread out of salt, flour, yeast and water. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU
tbrownaw 4y ago
> Bread takes so much labour at particular timings spread out over the day to make Mix everything together, let rise for a while (for most recipes; the pizza dough I've made a few times only wants to stand for 10min), and bake. Surely things can be adjusted to have it rise for 6-8 hours (overnight) rather than for 2-3 hours?
- kcb 4y ago
  > Surely things can be adjusted to have it rise for 6-8 hours (overnight) rather than for 2-3 hours? Yes, some would even argue that it gets better if you leave it for several days.
giantrobot 4y ago
> You could have picked a million better cooking examples, I don't understand why you went with bread. They picked bread because the ingredients are simple. They've likely never baked bread in their life and have no idea what a time/effort sink it is. It's not the hardest thing to make from scratch but as you say it's not practical for someone with a day job. This is all besides someone subsisting entirely on bread would end up very malnourished. It might carry a lot of calories but it's missing a lot of important necessary nutrients. But hey the math is simple! Therefore people shouldn't go hungry!
- kcb 4y ago
  > They've likely never baked bread in their life and have no idea what a time/effort sink it is. It's not the hardest thing to make from scratch but as you say it's not practical for someone with a day job. I really don't understand this to the point it feels comical. It's not practical to make bread if you have a day job???? There's like 20 minutes of work in making bread and the timings are actually extremely forgiving not "particular" at all. Seriously now what a bizarre conversation.
  - bhhaskin 4y ago
    I think part of the problem is a lot of people either lost these skills or never had them to begin with. So it's something that is perceived as a complex time consuming task. And it is; if you are doing it on a large scale. Most people have also gotten used to being able to eat whatever they want when they want it.
- tbrownaw 4y ago
  Back in the beforetimes, I'd sometimes make banana bread in the morning to take in to the office with me. I'd only have to get up an extra hour early for that, even if it is probably closer to cake than to "normal" bread.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago

You can get 2000 calories from bread. You can't get adequate nutrition, though.

nitwit005 4y ago
For most of history, most of humanity lived off of simple meals that primarily delivered calories: Bread, rice, potatoes, etc. You do need other things, but far less than people tend to assume.