The Taming of the Stew (Banquet's Crock-Pot Classics™ Beef Stew Challenge)

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Okay, Back to Work:

As promised last week, I made a pot of stew this past Sunday, in order to compare the cost between homemade stew and Banquet’s Crock Pot Classic version (which a reader has pronounced “excellent”). Banquet’s Crock Pot Classic Beef Stew contains 44 ounces (unprepared) and costs $5.99, serving 5 at a cost of about $1.20 each.

I started off with a 2.61 pound rump roast at $2.49 a pound for a total of $6.50. Obviously, I was already off to a bad start, having exceeded the $5.99 purchase price with the meat alone. However, I was pretty certain that I was making a larger pot of stew than Banquet’s version, so I continued to march ahead with the experiment. All told, the ingredients for the stew were:

• 2.61 pound rump roast, $6.50;
• 3 14-oz cans of Swanson’s Beef Stock, at $1.29 each, $3.87;
• 1 32-oz wax carton of Swanson’s Beef Stock, $2.79;
• 8 ounces of fresh mushrooms, $1.99;
• 2 lbs. of potatoes, at $2.49/5 lbs., $0.99 total; and,
• 16 ounces of frozen mixed vegetables, $1.69

I’m not counting the flour to coat and brown the meat, the herbs and spices, or the “sploosh” of sherry I used to heighten the flavor of the stock, because it’s simply too brain-damaging to calculate how much one pinch of parsley costs or how much a splash of sherry constitutes.

So…all in all, the total for the ingredients simply to make the stew came to $17.83, which is three times as much as Banquet’s Crock Pot Classic meal. Did I get three times the yield? Or was the end result three times as tasty?

I trimmed and then cut the rump roast into stew-sized pieces. I seasoned and floured the meat. I seared it, a quarter of it at a time, so as not to crowd the pot. I drained off any excess fat, returned the meat to the pan, and added the stock. I simmered and tasted and seasoned and tasted some more. After about 3 hours, I added the frozen veggies and continued the simmering. A while later, I peeled and chopped the potatoes, adding them carefully to the just-below-boiling mixture. An hour passed, and the stew was complete, after thickening…some 6 hours after starting.

My stewpot is a 6.3-liter pot – about 6¾ quarts. The completed stew filled it to about ¾ of the pot, or 4 ¾ liters (20 cups of stew). Our serving bowls are usually filled to 1-1/3 cups, or 300 ml. (for our Canadian cousins), so 15.38 of our home-style servings. The Banquet version claims 5 servings, each just under 9 ounces (8.80 ounces), so our serving sizes aren’t far apart. To compare apples to apples, using about the same serving size:

Auntie’s Homemade Stew cost about $1.15 per serving; Banquet’s cost $1.20. And with Banquet, you don’t have to chop, dice, slice, peel, season, simmer, trim, or watch the meal. You can simply throw it in the Crock-Pot, leave for work (or shopping or soccer or classes), come home six to eight hours later, and it’s ready.

For a five-cent per serving difference, it’s definitely worth a shot.

Auntie Frugality Tip: Obviously, you can make your own beef stock if you’re so inclined, but one of the easiest ways to save some money and make a delicious stew is to start what I call a “stewpot” in your freezer. Place a Tupperware-type freezer container in your freezer, and every time you have some “schnibbles” left over – that pesky tablespoon of peas, or a small corner of your steak that isn’t enough to make a sandwich from, your kids leave a mouthful of their corn, or you have some beef gravy left over – throw that “schnibble” into the stewpot. Keep adding bits and leftovers to the stewpot. After about 2-3 months, plan to make a pot of stew, and use the contents of the stewpot after defrosting. You’ll be amazed at how many leftover veggies, bits of beef and gravy you can accrue in a short period of time, and it adds a lot of flavor and depth to your stew for essentially no cost. This is a real money-saver. You can use the contents for beef stews or soups, and you can start a second container for chicken-based soups.

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