How Much is Lemon Zest?
We're continuing to complete our final project worksheets, and this is pretty crazy-making. For example, sugar comes in a 50 pound bag at $18.45. I need to figure out the per-cup price. I divide the price by 50 to get the pound price ($0.369), then I consult The Book of Yields to obtain the conversion factor: in this case, there are 2.25 cups per pound, so you divide the pound price by 2.25 to get the per-cup price of $0.164, or 16¢. I have 35 individual ingredients to calculate, and each is uniquely confusing. Except for eggs. The case price is $10.05, they come 180 eggs to a case, so they're 6¢ each.
Although this is an "in-class" project, I brought my spreadsheet home on my flash drive and I'll be working on the calculations this afternoon. It's easier to focus without all the extraneous classroom hubbub, and with my own personal soundtrack (KT Tunstall, at the moment).
The book doesn't include a conversion factor for lemon zest, and I need 2 cups to make the pancake batter (for 292 pancakes). "Well, go home and grate two lemons. Sometimes the book doesn't include the data you need, so you have to figure it out for yourself."
[pause]
[resume]
So check it out, dawg. I just determined that two "medium" lemons, zested with a microplane, are about 2 tablespoons.
We also know that a case of 165 lemons is $21.75.
To calculate price by volume, we can first determine that one lemon costs $0.131818 (divide $21.75 by 165). To determine the cup price, I calculate the number of tablespoons per cup (=16). Since each lemon provides 1 tablespoon of zest, I'll need 16 lemons per cup of zest, which will cost 16 x $0.13, or $2.11 per cup.
We also learned some other potentially relevant facts: 1 full sheet pan has a 1 gallon capacity. (Some of you might have half-sheet pans — they fit snugly in a home oven — so adjust accordingly.) A standard shallow hotel pan holds 6 quarts. (Those aren't as common in household kitchens.) And an ice cream scoop has a number on it, which refers to the number of full scoops you can get out of a quart of ice cream. That might come in handy some day, don't ya think?
7 Comments:
So, if you are using only the lemon zest, how do you factor in the lemon which is still full of juice?
Good (relevant!) question!
Well, the pricing method I gave above assumes that the rest of the lemon has no value. The Yield Book indicates that the average lemon is four ounces. If that's so, then we should be able to figure out a value for the lemon zest alone.
OK, here goes. One tablespoon of zest weighs .275 ounces (according to my nifty new scale), or 6.9% of the total weight. Above, we calculated the cost of one lemon: $21.75/165, or $0.131818. If you multiply that by 6.9%, the total cost of the rind only, assuming that you'll be using the juice elsewhere, is less than one penny: $0.009095, or (x 16) about 5 cents per cup. And you're right, a smart chef would be using the whole lemon.
But let's be real. The two lemons I used for my experiment were $0.99 each. So the value of the zest, in that case, is 6.9% x $0.99 or more like 7 cents per lemon, or $1.09 per cup of zest.
CORRECTION! I meant about $0.15 per cup for the zest. See, imagine fifteen worksheets full of this kind of math. My head hurts.
um...did you just call me "dawg"?
What Are The Chances ... that you'd write a column about lemon zest on the same day that I have a lemon zest cupcake at lunch?
Hee hee!
Oh, that sounds like a math problem!
Post a Comment
<< Home