I'm making a "hearty ragu" tomorrow, which will take all day in a slow cooker. I've made essentially the same recipe before, but this time I decided to figure out the nutritional value. Actually, that's not 100% accurate; I decided Claude should figure out the nutritional value, and spit it out as Markdown:
Recipe Cost & Calorie Breakdown
Total cost: $52.94
Estimated total calories: ~4,250 kcal
Estimated finished volume: ~3,550–3,750 mL
| Ingredient | Weight | Cost | Est. Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato puree | 800 g | $4.99 | ~255 |
| Italian sausage | 450 g | $6.92 | ~1,460 |
| Ground beef (90/10) | 390 g | $8.16 | ~685 |
| Onion | 390 g | $2.74 | ~155 |
| Wine | 350 g | $5.99 | ~300 |
| Carrots | 340 g | $2.49 | ~140 |
| Celery | 340 g | $3.29 | ~55 |
| Water | 250 g | — | 0 |
| Mushrooms | 225 g | $2.99 | ~50 |
| Tomato paste | 170 g | $1.99 | ~140 |
| Pancetta | 110 g | $6.69 | ~580 |
| Garlic | 110 g | $2.50 | ~165 |
| Basil | 28 g | $4.19 | ~5 |
| Cane sugar | 20 g | — | ~77 |
| Fennel seed | 20 g | — | ~69 |
| Butter | 15 g | — | ~108 |
| Celery salt | 10 g | — | ~3 |
| Bay leaves | ~1 g | — | ~3 |
| Total | $52.94 | ~4,250 kcal |
Nicely done, Claude. Since the entire recipe makes about 3,500 mL of sauce, and each serving is about 250 mL, that gives us 14 servings of 300 calories each at $3.78 per serving. That'll go into 6 Mason jars (at 65°C or so) and into my freezer, except for the portion that will go straight into mah belleh!
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