Feb 21st 2012, 15:48 by The Economist online
The cost of making pancakes around the world
IN CELEBRATION of Shrove Tuesday, some Christians (and many indulgent atheists) cook pancakes. The tradition derives from the practice of using up all the fat in the cupboard in a great binge, before the 40-day fast of Lent began. To honour this we have constructed a comparison of the costs of pancake ingredients across the world from data compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company. Delia Smith, a British cookery writer, recommends the use of 110g of sifted flour, 2 eggs, 200ml of milk and 50g of butter to make 12-15 pancakes. Roughly scaling this up by ten shows how expensive a generous pancake party (consisting of around 130 pancakes) might be. The data are all from cities, and so should be taken with a pinch of sugar and a squeeze of lemon.
Correction: The original blog post mistakenly omitted France’s flour costs. It also referred to the Big Mac index as being adjusted for purchasing-power parity. This is not true. We use the price of a Big Mac as a purchasing-power tool to look at exchange rates. Sorry for these mistakes. This was corrected on February 21st 2012.
On this blog we publish a new chart or map every working day, highlight our interactive-data features and provide links to interesting sources of data around the web. The Big Mac index, house-price index and other regular features can be found on our Markets & data page
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surely there are better ways to use up the fat before lent than fried cake... maybe not
I'm quite curious how the milk cost was calculated in US.
Was it the cost of a 2-litre carton or a cost of 1-gallon divided down to come up with the cost of 2 litres?
I mean, in US 2-litre cartons can cost almost the same amount with gallons.
This chart ignores the rampant expensification in places like San Francisco, where I live. Technically, we fall under "United States" in the chart above, but you'd be hard-pressed to find ingredients at that price in SF. It would be better to split the United States into two countries:
United States (Pompous):
Butter (from grass-fed cows who do yoga in the mornings) $8
Hand-milled-whole wheat flour and almond meal: $4.50
Milk (again, from grass-fed cows): $5.50
Eggs (from happy hens in a minimum-security facility, who practice alternative medicine): $8
United States (Other) for prices see chart:
Butter (from cows on a diet of grain, soy and magic antibiotics to hold them together).
Chlorine-bleached white flour. With some additives so it can be labeled "enriched".
Milk (from cows who don't practice yoga).
Eggs (from chickens you'd rather not see).
I'm sorry, but your post is full of grass-fed BS.
Even in places that have "controlled supply" like Ontario the prices are lower than hipster-targeted BS that you fed.
And, heck, I'm sorry, but you're outright disrespectful.
yeah, the internet is no place for irreverent humor, shape up
In Japan, I wonder if okonomiyaki would be an appropriate substitute for pancakes? In that case, the key ingredients would be flour, eggs, water and cabbage.
What? Cabbage? Good God no that would not be appropriate. Not in a pancake.
You just never tried them. Cabbage in okonomiyaki is cool.
The problem with American "Japanese" cuisine is that no Japanese set foot near one for the last few decades, so staples like takoyaki, okonomiyaki and things are replaced with "fusion" dishes.
I don't know the prices of butter or white flour because few people will cook pancakes in South China,but in Guangzhou,1kg (20×50g)egg is about USD 1.5 in supermarkets now,not about USD 3.5.
What, no syrup for those pancakes?
Because in England the favoured one is sugar and lemon juice - hence the final sentence: 'taken with a pinch of sugar and a squeeze of lemon.'
That said I do like a bit of Maple syrup or Nutella and Bananas but they can't beat the classic S&L in my mind!
Canada is not even on the list.
And we have the proper syrup cornered.
The "proper" syrup would likely dwarf all of the other ingredients in price as well. Quick search shows (proper NH) Maple syrup running ~$0.50+ /fl oz. figure 1 fl oz per 4 cakes, and your at $16.25+ for the 130 pancakes priced above...
Hmm, with just a quick scan of the chart, seems to me in the right ball park.
Milk, butter and eggs aren't cheap in Japan, while they are in the states.
Interesting about the Netherlands' position, but it is a major trading state of Western Europe with Rotterdam (maybe even an entrepot).
Would have thought Brazil to be cheaper, but just recollecting from travels prior to 2001. Similarly, would feel sorry if the Chinese do pay that much for the ingredients considering the average wage/income is much smaller than say those of an American (even if the wage gap may be decreasing - http://www.bcg.com/media/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-75973 )
Then again, a substantial portion of the Chinese population is in the countryside (I think the Economist recently showed that it just dipped below half of the surveyed population), so maybe self-sourcing/cultivation is still an alternative to going to the market..?
Netherlands position has nothing to do with their trading ties. Netherlands by itself has a highly productive agriculture, particularly specialising in dairy cattle (Dutch cheese, anyone?). That's why milk and butter there is rather cheap, meanwhile eggs are relatively cheap in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Philippines were poultry farming is very popular.
It´s great to have a lighthearted approach for basic goods, but I think the recipe should fit reality in order to serve as a good proxy.
According to http://allrecipes.com/recipe/good-old-fashioned-pancakes/detail.aspx a pancake for 44 people should contain:
1 kg all-purpose flour
65 g baking powder
35 g salt
70 g white sugar
2 liters milk
5-1/2 egg
235 g butter, melted
So that is about 4 times as many eggs and twice the butter as needed.
What do you mean when you say the Big Mac Index is adjusted for PPP? The whole point of the Big Mac Index is to calculate PPP, so how could it possibly be adjusted for it?
Also, the flour data for France deserves a quick explanation.
"The data are all from cities and, unlike the Big Mac index, have not been adjusted for purchasing-power parity, and so should be taken with a pinch of sugar and a squeeze of lemon."
Isn't this exactly how PPP is calculated? By measuring the cost of goods across different countries?
Is flour given away in France, or do the French eat formless pancakes?
Evidently no only the smell of good things baking but also ingrediate are quite literally "in the air" in France.
Is flour free in France?
I was wondering the exact same thing!