Carried Away with Caraway Seeds

There is no question that rye bread is better when it contains caraway seeds. I wouldn't think of making it without them. They are, on the other hand, kind of pricey. At first I bought the seeds in the normal McCormick spice rack.

This little jar is a little under an ounce and costs $5.99 at my local grocery store. It was kind of fun to see the unit pricing sticker on the shelf. It showed that this spice costs $100 per pound.

My recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds for a loaf of bread. This little jar only contains about 4 tablespoons of caraway seeds. So, this crucial ingredient adds about $1.50 to each loaf of bread. That's not really a big deal. A loaf of bread lasts me a week, and the caraway seeds make the bread taste delicious. The annoying part was that I was always running out of caraway seeds.

I looked for a larger sized jar, but this was the only one in the normal McCormick spice section at the grocery store. Then, I wandered to the adjacent fancy "organic" spice section. I wasn't expecting any bargains here, but I did find a larger jar.

This jar is about twice the size, and surprisingly, even though this is McCormick's "Gourmet Organic" caraway seed, it is only 20 cents more than the small jar.

Well, this solved my problem of the jar that only lasted for 4 loaves, and it brought the cost per loaf for this essential ingredient down to under a dollar.

Then, last week, I was shopping for something unrelated on Amazon. I needed to add about $10 to my order to qualify for free shipping. Well, I only had about a tablespoon left in my caraway jar, so I thought I'd look to see if I buy $10 worth of caraway seeds. Imagine my delight when I found this one pound jar of caraway seeds for $12.

I haven't tried these in a recipe, yet, but estimating that 1 tablespoon of caraway seed is about 1/4 ounce, I can make 64 loaves of bread with this jar. Now, my essential rye bread flavoring is only 19 cents per loaf.

That is your Home Economics lesson for the day.
You're welcome.