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By Root 535 0

first homemade butter. Then, for comparison, I tasted a bit of unsalted butter from the supermarket and it was also smashing. I made cultured butter, which entails ripening the cream with yogurt, and it was delicious as well. Homemade butter is good, but because it costs so much more to make it, unless you have a cow, I don’t see the point.

Make it or buy it? Buy it.

Hassle: With a mixer, little

Cost comparison: A $3.39 pint of cream yields a half pound or so of butter, which you can buy for $1.75.

1 pint heavy cream

Pour the cream into a large bowl and beat hard with a mixer. Over the course of 10 minutes it will go from liquid to softly whipped to stiffly whipped to overwhipped, then grainy and curdled, then shrunken, and suddenly you will hear liquid sloshing around the bowl, which will contain two distinct entities: clumps of butter clinging to the whisk, and thin, cloudy buttermilk. Pour off the buttermilk (it’s sweet and drinkable if that’s the kind of thing you like), whisk some more, and drain off any additional buttermilk that accumulates. Take the butter in your hands and rinse it under ice-cold running water. Pat it dry. Use immediately if possible—it’s at its most exquisite right now—or pack in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for a week.

Makes ½ pound

BREAD CRUMBS

You can make bread crumbs that are the size of Grape-Nuts to add crunch to pasta or the crust of a casserole, and you can make bread crumbs with the consistency of sand to plump up a hamburger patty or line a cake pan. At the store you can usually find only sandy bread crumbs and panko—the wispy, flaky Japanese bread crumbs used for coating foods before deep-frying. Panko you should buy, but all other bread crumbs you should make.

Make it or buy it? Make it.

Hassle: None

Cost comparison: Homemade bread crumbs cost nothing if you make them from bread you would otherwise throw away. Store-bought crumbs range from $2.50 to $6.00 per pound, which is more than ground beef and completely insane.

Every time you find yourself with some bread—baguette, whole-wheat, bagel—that’s starting to get stale, break it into smallish pieces and put them in a bag in the freezer. Keep filling the bag as bread accumulates. One day when you’re heating the oven for some other purpose, spread your stale bread collection on a cookie sheet and pop it into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. When the pieces of bread are golden and toasted all the way through, take them out of the oven and grind in the food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, place in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.) Store in the freezer indefinitely.

RYE BREAD

Unless you use a high-gluten flour (see Appendix), this seedy rye bread will be very tender, not quite as sturdy as supermarket rye. If you’re making a burly sandwich like a Reuben, you might want to go with store-bought.

Make it or buy it? Your call. Better flavor or stronger crumb?

Hassle: Easy

Cost comparison: Homemade: $0.13 per slice. Oroweat: $0.19 per slice.

2¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping

1⅓ cups rye flour

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons instant yeast

¼ cup neutral vegetable oil, plus more for the bowl and pan

1¼ cups warm water or whey from making yogurt

1 egg, for brushing

1. Whisk together the flours, seeds, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Add the oil and liquid and stir until you have a shaggy dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, until it is smooth and firm. Form into a ball, remove it from the bowl, lightly oil the bowl, and put the dough back in. Cover with a clean, damp dish towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

2. Oil a 9 by 5-inch metal loaf pan. On a lightly floured surface, shape the dough into an 8-inch log and place in the pan. Cover with the same damp towel and let rise until it reaches the top of the pan, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.