spaghetti sauce math
I spent an inordinate amount of time figuring out the following:
My ex-mother-in-law’s spaghetti sauce recipe calls for 36 oz. of tomato paste plus an equal amount of water. 72 ounces of tomato ‘sauce.’
Contadina tomato paste, my favorite, costs $1.79 for a 12 oz. can, and thus $5.37 to make a batch.
Contadina tomato puree consists of half tomato paste, half water (information gleaned from comparing nutritional guidelines on the backs of the cans). The puree costs $1.29 for a 15 oz. can. 5 cans would makes about 72 oz - 75 to be exact - but close enough for spaghetti sauce. This would cost $6.45, so it isn’t a good deal.
At Costco, they have industrial cafeteria size cans of tomato puree: 106 ounces. That is roughly half again as much as the recipe, so it’s easily dealt with in actual cooking. Cost: $2.65.
Tomato paste cost per ounce: $0.0746
Cafeteria sized puree per ounce: $0.025
Savings on a regular sized batch: $5.37 - $1.80 = $3.57
