The cost of food

[chromedome]

I remember Zig Ziglar mentioning in one of his books that a Gulf Coast wedding-day prank in his day was prying the hubcaps from the groom's car, filling them with shrimp, and replacing them. By the second or third day of the honeymoon, in the Texas heat, things would get a bit fragrant...

[liuzhou]

27 minutes ago, lindag said:

When I lived in Portland we often enjoyed fresh Dungeness crab on the weekends, right after the trash pickup day.  So the shells go into the trashcan and fester for many days outside.  You could smell it a block away.

 

I'm confused, as usual. You don't use seafood shells to make stocks?

[btbyrd]

Even if you make stock with them, they still end up in the garbage, no?

[liuzhou]

4 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

Even if you make stock with them, they still end up in the garbage, no?

 

eventually.  as does all food. 

[Anna N]

6 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

eventually.  as does all food. 

Indeed but seafood seems to retain its pungency even when you think there is nothing that could possibly smell left. The only way I found to deal with it was to freeze whatever remained until garbage day. 

[chromedome]

 

[farcego]

On 7/20/2022 at 10:21 AM, btbyrd said:

Even if you make stock with them, they still end up in the garbage, no?

I used to keep a few large and beautiful shells of oyster and scallops. They can be used for cook individual rations in the oven, or present small, individual units of seafood/soups/creams or other stuff in the table in a fashionable way. Specifically, almost all the scallops I had in the past available to buy where processed, out of the shell. So I kept shells from the ones gifted by my predatory friends during the recreational fishing season and used them with the commercial ones.

[heidih]

2 hours ago, farcego said:

I used to keep a few large and beautiful shells of oyster and scallops. They can be used for cook individual rations in the oven, or present small, individual units of seafood/soups/creams or other stuff in the table in a fashionable way. Specifically, almost all the scallops I had in the past available to buy where processed, out of the shell. So I kept shells from the ones gifted by my predatory friends during the recreational fishing season and used them with the commercial ones.

 

They do make a nice presentation. Scallop friends - YES!  My son picked lobster as his sea creature for a report in 2nd grade. We bought a large Maine one. Dog was not amused. After careful m eat extraction I boiled the shellin vinegar water. Not a whiff of sea funk. The report cover held up for years. May be in a storage box somewhere even now. 

[Katie Meadow]

Cherry season on the West Coast has been remarkably long and very good this year; a lot of them coming from WA. Cherries are just about my favorite fruit. The prices are ridiculous. My husband says he paid almost $9 lb for a bag earlier this month. That's like doubling in price over last year. About ten years ago I had a great source for good bings, at $1.69 lb.  I won't buy salmon when wild King filets are going for $30 lb, but I guess I will pay anything for cherries. Actually yesterday my husband came back from a major shopping trip and said that wild salmon was down to $23 lb. I told him he should have bought it.  

[BeeZee]

Cherries have never gone down in price here, the lowest I've gotten is $2.99/lb and they weren't great. In the past, I could buy them on sale at $1.99/lb for about 2 weeks.

[IndyRob]

I seemed to recall that I was able to get 12oz of butter from a pint of cream.  So with butter now at $3.98/lb, I thought I'd stick it to the man by buying a quart of cream for $4.35 and turning it into 1 1/2lb of butter.

 

I only got a little less than a pound though.  So I wasted about 50 cents. Maybe I should've saved the buttermilk for biscuits.

 

Oh well, the butter is good though. 

[weinoo]

I dunno - but I pay like triple for many of those things, and not even always for the greatest product, especially produce coming from 3000 miles away. And taking a week to get here.

 

Even at Trader Joe's, cherries are like $6/lb. And not wonderful. The butter I buy for using on toast or baguettes is ridiculous, though I use  regular stuff for baking/cooking.

[heidih]

Cherries I have been willing to pay for. Really good and I've been pickling the ones I can't finish in time., Ridiculous price but I'd not purchased in a couple years and I do recall even  at Farmers Market they were no bargain. These guys are plump and flavorful. As I have said before, I've just become more selective about what I think I need or "crave". Like yesterday paying for local honey (well Malibu) from a beekeeper versus market.

[kayb]

when the Raniers come in I will pay whatever the supermarket asks for them.

[ElsieD]

59 minutes ago, kayb said:

when the Raniers come in I will pay whatever the supermarket asks for them.

 

Me too.  I had some recently.  They were $9.99 a pound.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, kayb said:

when the Raniers come in I will pay whatever the supermarket asks for them.

 

Same.  Which reminds me, check the hydrator.  I wish cherries came in smaller bags.

 

[heidih]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Same.  Which reminds me, check the hydrator.  I wish cherries came in smaller bags.

 

Here they are deceptively marketed. Price per pound, bag is wide open - so theoretically could move some to another bag. I have not done that but will check next time if they weigh the bag. The mind games marketing "geniuses" play

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Today Shoprite sold me non-organic green cabbage for $3.99/pound.

 

The clerk rang it up as lettuce.  Perhaps I'll go back again tomorrow.

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

On 7/28/2022 at 12:17 PM, heidih said:

Here they are deceptively marketed. Price per pound, bag is wide open - so theoretically could move some to another bag. I have not done that but will check next time if they weigh the bag. The mind games marketing "geniuses" play

This is frequently the practice locally, and, yes, it is weighed at checkout.   I often take some handfuls of produce from one of these bags and put them in an ordinary rip-off bag when the quantities offered are more than I can use.    Never a  question.  Just charged as weighed.

[Annie_H]

Bananas, grapes, cherries, etc. I only take a few and what I will use reasonably. Priced by weight at checkout I have no issue taking a smaller amount even if they are packaged in big bags in the bin. 3 green bananas, two ripe-ish. One very small bunch of grapes. Or three small bunches if they have a variety, a bit of each. (serious eats roasted grapes are amazing)

DH had issues for years about following grocery rules. Respect the product in front and if we all play along, less waste. F that. If a dairy product in front has a 3 day shelf life and one in the back has two weeks....

Years ago we shopped together and I pointed out by weight and priced by 'bunch'. --and checking dates. 

[haresfur]

On 7/27/2022 at 10:33 PM, farcego said:

I used to keep a few large and beautiful shells of oyster and scallops. They can be used for cook individual rations in the oven, or present small, individual units of seafood/soups/creams or other stuff in the table in a fashionable way. Specifically, almost all the scallops I had in the past available to buy where processed, out of the shell. So I kept shells from the ones gifted by my predatory friends during the recreational fishing season and used them with the commercial ones.

 

My parents had a half-dozen carefully kept scallop shells for baking some sort of scallop au gratin for dinner parties. Wouldn't be too surprised if my brother still has them.

[rotuts]

@ MarkerBasket this AM :

 

scallions :  $1.69 a bunch

 

this time of the year they used to run $ 0.49 to $ 0.69  

 

never $ 0.59 for some reason.

 

a bunch

[heidih]

 Two nice values that hold pretty steady. Yesterday Argentinian wild shrimp for $9/lb. and small avocados $6/bag. They have correspondingly small pits so lots of flesh each. My bag had 8.  Scallions were awfully skinny and 89 cents

[JoNorvelleWalker]

13 hours ago, rotuts said:

@ MarkerBasket this AM :

 

scallions :  $1.69 a bunch

 

this time of the year they used to run $ 0.49 to $ 0.69  

 

never $ 0.59 for some reason.

 

a bunch

 

Scallions at Shoprite tonight were $1.99.  As I recall that is the usual Shoprite scallion price.  Scallion prices could depend on how big a bunch and whether or not they are organic.

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

First some backstory:  I went to make my monthly recipe of orgeat, batch 21 if anyone is counting.  There were not enough Marcona almonds in the bedroom, likewise insufficient organic apricot kernels from Turkey.  How could I have let this happen?

 

I have pounds and pounds of almonds in house with which I am sitting here feeding my almond addiction as we speak, but they are not the same.  This is about orgeat.  Without which my evening mai tai cannot happen.

 

Immediately I logged onto nuts .com.  Resisted the offers of caramel corn* and Jordan almonds.**  Reordered Marcona almonds and Turkish apricots, and snagged a free pound of pistachios while I was at it.  Delivery is tomorrow.

 

All of which is to say nuts.com has instituted a temporary service charge of $0.98 per order.  I do not hate them for this.  They have not otherwise raised prices.  The county has just awarded me and my colleagues a 3% cost of living increase, which may be thought of as a service charge upon the taxpayers of our fair county.

 

 

*Oh how I wish I had some now.

**That too.