Economy (and not only) of home baking

Home baking was prompted by the disappearance of bran and iodized loaves from the sale. As it turned out, the city bakery has reduced their output and supplies them only to kindergartens ("the bloody regime has reached out after all"). The reason is low demand in the trading network due to the fact that the price of this product is 20 percent higher than that of ordinary loaves.

In addition, the composition of the factory bread was somewhat strained - I try to eat everything natural whenever possible. Bran is needed, iodine is needed (see Galicia), whether baker's thermophilic yeast is harmful or not - I have not finally found out and am not going to agitate here. But I know one thing for sure - even ten thousand years ago, bread was baked with sourdoughs containing natural, natural yeast, and only for the last 50 ... 70 years, using yeast specially developed for this. So it won't get any worse from a return to the "origins".

Well, in the end, it's just interesting to me - after all, there are no two identical loaves, every time there is something new. And new knowledge and skills, incl.

So, 5 years ago, a branded bread machine (HP) was bought - now I would not buy one for a number of reasons. After small dances with a tambourine, the "eternal" rye sourdough was brought out and the process of baking wheat-rye sourdough bread began. I stopped at this recipe because it is good both with cabbage soup and with a butter-cheese sandwich, and it's just not bad. About 170 loaves a year, about every other day, when and more, when less. Each outlet weighs 1040 ... 1060 grams.

And now - we consider the costs for one loaf. To simplify calculations, the cost of ingredients will be rounded up.

1. Wheat flour for general use (or grade 1) - 22 rubles / kg x 0.38 kg = 8.36 rubles.

NOTE_1. You can reduce the amount of wheat flour by 50 ... 100 grams, and instead put the same amount of buckwheat \ oat \ whole grain \ amaranth \ sunflower-pumpkin-cedar-linseed \ muesli \ flakes \ rye malt \ nuts \ onion-carrots, etc. . etc. - but! This will increase the cost of a loaf by 0.5 ... 20 rubles, and in this article we consider only simple wheat-rye bread.

2. Peeled rye flour - 30 rubles / kg x 0.21 kg = 6.3 rubles.

3. Tap water smiley - 20 rubles \ 1000 liters x (0.5 liters for bread + 3 liters offhand for washing dishes) = 0.07 rubles.

4. Wheat bran weighed out, I take on the market 20 rubles / kg x 0.05 kg = 1 rubles.

NOTE_2. It was not possible to buy iodcasein for iodization, since it is sold in bags of 100,500 loaves - I won't eat / bake that much. I have to lean on seafood.

5. Table salt - 10 rubles / kg x 0.01 kg = 0.1 rubles.

6. Sugar - 45 rubles / kg x 0.01 kg = 0.45 rubles.

7. Sunflower oil - 80 rubles x 0.015 kg = 1.2 rubles.

8. Ground coriander (you can not put it) 100 rubles / kg x 0.0015 = 0.15 rubles.

9. Electricity. HP power - 550 W. We consider that this is the power of the heating element, which is constantly turned on / off during the baking process for 1 hour 05 minutes. In total there will be no more than 0.3 kW * hour. Plus, the motor during kneading works for a total of 10 minutes. Total for the baking cycle, well, no more than 0.5 kW * hour x 3.8 rubles \ kW * hour = 1.9 rubles.

TOTAL: 8.36 + 6.3 + 0.07 + 1 + 0.1 + 0.45 + 1.2 + 0.15 + 1.9 = 19 rubles 53 kopecks. For a kilogram of bread. Hey, Karl!

In fairness, it would be necessary to calculate:

- labor costs - 5 minutes in the morning for kneading the starter culture and about 25 minutes in the evening: for laying the raw materials in the CP, preparing the mixture for the next loaf (usually I cook 3 servings for 3 loaves at once - conveyor belt, thank Ford (C)), washing dishes - only 0 , 5 hours. The average price of a person * hour in our area is probably 125 rubles.So the loaf costs me 62.5 rubles of my invaluable time, which I could spend on the Internet, on the stock exchange, in the gym or with children;

- depreciation of HP - purchased 5 years ago for 5500 rubles, the current average price is 12000 rubles. In just 5 years, 850 loaves were baked (oh yes I am!), 12,000 are baked for one loaf: 850 = 14.12 rubles.

I don't even know if it is necessary to include labor costs and depreciation in the cost price. We do not consider labor costs when we cook a barbecue for ourselves. And the price of the barbecue is not taken into account. It's for fun. And an amateur fisherman buying sophisticated tackle is not going to "beat off" their price at the expense of the catch.

For reference: in our regional center (Volga region) the cost of a similar one, but with bakery yeast, bread from a bakery is 35 ... 45 rubles / kg, the cost of sourdough bread from private bakeries (and there are already at least 3 of them, and this pleases - a small business! ) - from 80 rubles / kg.

In any case, the bakery has paid for itself in 5 years - the cost of a kilogram of bread plus depreciation over a five-year period: 19.53 rubles + 14.12 rubles = 33.65 rubles - less than the price of bread in the store (from 35 rubles / kg).

And what is the smell in the house ...

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More on the topic:
Is it worth buying a stove? Bread price
Electricity consumed when baking bread
Why do we bake bread at home?