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Cost to bake a loaf

Sackhouse@aol.com
Tue, 4 Jan 2000 10:20:27 EST
v100.n002.17
Don Chambers asked if anyone had ever done a breakdown of
the costs to bake a loaf of bread.  Amy Dacyczyn in the Tight-Wad
Gazette did this study several years ago, and looked at several
variables in the execution of it.

Assuming you are using bulk yeast and flour, baking a loaf
of regular white bread and doing it by hand, not machine,
her estimate was a good home-made loaf would cost about $.30
as opposed to about $1.40 for a store-bought loaf.  That definitely
is a substantial difference!   Of course if you add amenities and
name-brand or specialty flours the cost will go up.  I don't know
if she added depreciation for pans in there, but they did figure
in the kilowatt-cost of using an oven.  Her estimates are pretty
complete.

We can get thrift-store bread for about $.35 a loaf, but that of course
is nowhere near the quality of either homemade or bakery shop bread.

Check out The Tight-Wad Gazette II or, The Complete TightWad Gazette,
 pages 451-455. Hope this helps!  By the way - she has a great
recipe for quick-rising Cuban bread in there my family loves.

Sue Sack