Cuisines/Meals that are not economically justifiable to cook yourself

Pho. The recipe is really involved too.

I'd say unless you buy a lot of ethnic ingredients, pretty much anything ethnic is expensive to make. Oddly enough, we keep a ton of Asian ingredients on hand, so when I want to be cheap I make an Asian meat recipe and some vermicelli.

quote:

---

Probably depends on for how many you are cooking, but for 1 or 2, going out might be about the same.

---

I'm getting better about shopping for the week on Sunday to cook every night and forcing myself to eat leftovers every day for lunch, but for a while, cooking at home wasn't cheaper. It is inexpensive now because I have a freezer full of meats and veggies that have built up that I can use, but when you're just starting out, cooking is expensive because you often need to buy every single ingredient in a recipe. Building up your staples and being in a routine where they're regularly restocked can be expensive at the beginning.

I was thinking you were going the other way in this thread (too expensive). I think you're basing your decisions more in terms of time/labor and not economical. Surely tex-mex isn't very expensive, but it's usually cheap and easy to find at a restaurant.

Along your line of thinking, I agree with most Asian cuisines. Another I would list is poboys, not sure I've ever made one.

Just my .02.

most desserts

Pretty much anything done using Molecular Gastronomy techniques.

Better off dropping $$$$ at one of those fancy places.

Sushi.

I'm kinda surprised by some of the responses in this thread. But I'm the main cook in my household of two, so I have plenty of practice.
--pho: less complicated than, say, gumbo, and easily made in huge quantities that render it quite time & cost effective. In a pressure cooker, 45 minutes will yield 5-6 quarts of pho made w/chicken legs (cheapest chix part). Garnishes aren't expensive, esp if you plant some cilantro and holy basil in a spare corner of flowerbed or big pots.
--thai curry: like a prev poster said, once you buy a jar of paste, it's easily made from standard supermarket ingredients & scalable, as you can use just a little paste at a time. Canned coconut milk doesn't break the bank. See my first point about growing a small herb patch...
--tex-mex: well, that covers lots of ground. Beans and rice are practically the cheapest things you can cook...and a chicken quesadilla,
--pizza: make your own crust (use Jim Lahey's no knead recipe), use canned crushed tomatoes instead of a jarred sauce (they taste better anyway), and the only real expense is decent cheese & meat.

I'll agree with fancy pastry & cakes, as those can be quite difficult to execute in small quantities & the leftovers/surplus aren't easily frozen or repurposed. A single-layer cake recipe can be baked in two 6" layers for a 4-6 serving layer cake....though there is no efficient way to scale down a croissant recipe.

Not sure about cuisines, but I don't mess with foie at home because it's too expensive to buy retail.

Mole is another thing I would never attempt.

Pizza I find to be expensive because when I make it at home I want to use the Buffalo Mozarella, tipo 00 flour, and high end salamis. Otherwise it is just much easier to go to a place that does neapolitan pies and if they burn it, I don't eat the cost.

Lasagna can be super expensive.