Everything we have cooked and costed

Every recipe on the internet tells you what to buy. Almost none tell you what it costs once the pack sizes are done properly.

Four bananas, not two. The loaf costs 36p a slice to make and it is the recipe most often asked for on this site.

Buckwheat gives a savoury, almost nutty pancake. Burning the honey for ninety seconds is the whole trick.

One base, six finishes, and a cost per portion low enough that the shop-bought pots stop making sense.

Poach the fish in milk, then cook the rice in the milk. Nothing is thrown away and the whole dish tastes of smoke.

Three and a half hours, one cheap cut, and six portions. The arithmetic is the reason to make it, not just the taste.

The counter is cheaper than the chiller cabinet, and the person behind it will tell you what is good today if you ask.

Jarred butter beans are worth the extra over tinned, and this is the dish that proves it.

The bread sauce is not a garnish. It is what turns a roast chicken into a meal worth the ninety minutes.

A wet dough, a cold night in the fridge, and more olive oil than feels reasonable.

Rye flour makes a cookie that tastes of something other than sugar. Twelve of them, and the maths is on the page.

A cabbage, some anchovies and a very hot pan. Under two pounds for four people and it eats like a main course.

The side dish that turns into lunch. Keeps four days and improves on the second.

No cheese, no flour, no shortcut. Cream, potato and seventy minutes.