The Beef Stroganoff Experiment: Scratch vs. the Box

Beef Stroganoff: Which is better in the categories of cost, ease, nutrition, and taste - Hamburger Helper or Scratch?


The Experiment

DH wanted beef stroganoff last night. I’m in charge of the food budget and cooking, so I get to decide whether to buy the box or try from scratch. I’ve always used the box, so I look up Paula Deen’s recipe on foodnetwork.com. DH hates the texture of mushrooms and onions, so I quickly make a few modifications. The ingredients I don’t have but need are: sour cream, egg noodles, and cream of mushroom soup. So the first step of the experiment is to determine whether I can get enough of these ingredients for one batch for less than the cost of one box of the cheapest Hamburger Helper or store-brand stroganoff mix. The second step is to determine whether the work involved is less, the same, more, or prohibitive for the scratch recipe as compared to the boxed recipe. The third step is to evaluate the final result in terms of its taste and nutrition. Lastly, I will score each in these categories and announce the winner.


Step 1: Cost

The total scratch recipe, modified from Paula Deen’s:

0.75 lb ground beef

½ onion

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp flour

½ can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 beef buillion cube

½ lb egg noodles

½ c sour cream

Salt to taste and water to cover


The hamburger helper recipe, modified slightly from the box:

0.75 lb ground beef

Box

Water (we leave out the other ingredients, because it makes it better when reheated and doesn’t significantly affect the taste)


The box was on sale for $2.59 (usually $2.99). The ingredients I needed to purchase were $1.29 for 1 lb of egg noodles (0.65 for the recipe), sour cream $0.99 for 8 oz ($0.50 for the recipe), and $0.79 for a can of cream of mushroom soup ($0.40 for the recipe). If I account $0.30 for ½ onion and $0.10 for a buillion cube, the total cost of the scratch recipe is $1.84, about $0.75 cents less. So I decided on the scratch recipe. I’m leaving the cost of beef out of this, since it’s the same for both recipes.


Step 2: Work Involved
Box Recipe

Brown the beef. Stir in sauce mix. Add water and egg noodles. Cover and simmer for 12 minutes. Eat.


Scratch Recipe

Brown the beef in olive oil and butter. Chop the onion finely, add to beef as its browning and cook until beef is completely browned. Stir in flour. Add buillion, soup, stir. Add noodles, add water to cover, stir. Simmer uncovered 12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and salt to taste.


Evaluation

The extra work is mainly finding the ingredients. Chopping the onion was no big deal, since I usually hover over the beef while it’s browning anyway. A decent substitution for those averse to chopping onions would be onion powder (not onion salt). This recipe is recommended as a “try it once” for those averse to assembling ingredients or planning to use the remaining mushroom soup and sour cream in future meals.


Step 3: Taste and Nutrition

The taste was surprisingly equivalent to the boxed recipe. I was mildly disappointed because I hoped to decide to never go back to the box based on taste alone. However, DH gets attached to one flavor, and since this was identical, he was enthused.


I think the nutrition information is a bit misleading. First, one serving of the home-made stroganoff was almost double the size of a serving of the box stroganoff. Second, we never add butter or milk to our box recipe, so if you do these things your boxed meal is going to be worse for you. Third, I used whole wheat noodles with higher fiber than the noodles listed on Spark Recipe’s recipe nutrition calculator. Based on these numbers and these conditions, I would say there is not a huge difference between the nutrition involved in either recipe. However, if you are on a low-sodium diet, choose homemade so you can control your salt intake. Here is the nutritional breakdown (assuming each batch makes 4 servings, given the caveats above):


Box:

Calories 273

Fat 7 g

Sodium 938 mg

Carbohydrates 28 g

Fiber 1 g

Protein 22 g



Scratch:

Calories 507

Fat 22 g

Sodium 572 mg

Carbohydrates 46 g

Fiber 2 g

Protein 28 g




Final Evaluation

Cost: Box 4/5; Scratch 5/5

Work: Box 5/5; Scratch 4/5

Taste: Box 5/5; Scratch 5/5

Nutrition: Box 3/5; Scratch 3/5

Total: Box 17/20; Scratch 17/20


Summary:
Scratch ingredients are cheaper, but some people may find it’s worth the extra $0.75 to have all the ingredients in one place and non-perishable. There was no change in taste or and only minor differences in nutrition, but nutrition in the scratch recipe can be further improved by leaving out the oil and butter and substituting (for a mild cost) fat free sour cream. Since I enjoy cooking and when the box goes off sale the price differential will be higher, I will probably avoid the box and make this dish from scratch in the future.