Interlude: Musings on the Cost of Egg Substitutes

I've been thinking about something lately. I don't know why. It happens sometimes. I hope you'll humor me. I figured if you did when I had too much to say about corn flakes, you might hear me out on egg substitutes.

A lot of people say vegan food is too expensive. There are plenty of things that are pretty expensive, although I think you could say the same thing about non-vegan food--some stuff is just expensive! There are also things that are cheaper. So I went down a rabbit hole investigating the cost of vegan egg swaps as compared to the cost of chicken eggs--one of the cheapest things of all. And then I decided to try making some infographics. 

Of course, after making the first infographic, it was necessary to make more.

And there were so many possibilities...

I've never tried some of the specialty products, but had to include them because they were there, and apparently I am Napoleon. 

And then I needed to summarize. Of course.

I may have needed to stick with one infographic. This is probably too many infographics. Maybe I need to make a full-sized poster or something. But here is a more fleshed-out take on the vegan egg substitutes that wouldn't fit into my summary.

Vegan Egg Substitutes in Order of Cost

Options that are cheaper than chicken eggs

• 0¢
• Aquafaba
• 2¢
• Baking soda & vinegar
• 5¢
• Seltzer
• 6¢
• Flax egg
• Ener-G Egg Replacer

Options that are the same price as chicken eggs

• 11¢
• Applesauce

Options that are more expensive than chicken eggs

• 12¢
• Mashed banana
• Chia egg
• Chickpea flour & oil
• 13¢
• Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer
• 17¢
• Pumpkin puree
• 29¢
• Vegg Uncaged Baking Mix
• 36¢
• Neat Egg
• 38¢
• Tofu
• 50¢
• JUST Egg
• 67¢
• VeganEgg

From this I took a few things away.

Things used to substitute for scrambled eggs or omelets and the like, i.e., tofu, JUST Egg, or VeganEgg, are generally way more expensive than chicken eggs (or at least the cheapest chicken eggs). The notable exception would be chickpea flour and oil, which is just slightly costlier, assuming the prices at my local markets when I ran the calculations. But things used to substitute for eggs in baking cakes and holding a fritter or a chickpea loaf together and whatnot are cheaper, sometimes drastically so.

So let's imagine I bought a dozen eggs and used them in all the places people use eggs. I never primarily ate eggs as eggs themselves, but instead put them in things as binders, too--maybe half and half? Frankly, I often made eggs as a meal simply because I had a full dozen of them and needed to use them up before they went bad. I mostly use flax eggs for baking and such now, which are a full nickel less per egg. That would save me 45 cents, if I used them to replace just the eggs I used to use in pancakes and such, and was using them by the 18-pack used in these calculations.

I could then use that 45 cents to apply to my other egg preparations, and I would note that I tend to eat a lot fewer "mainly eggy" things now--I love a tofu scramble or JUST Egg but I have them as occasional treats, not as a regular thing. So I suspect I am not actually spending more on these things than I did, once upon a time, although one definitely could do that.

But I also wasn't buying the cheapest eggs possible, as the calculation presumes. First of all, I never bought 18 eggs at once, only a dozen, and that tends to be a bit more expensive even on the cheap side of things. Chicken eggs could be as much as 42¢ each if you buy the name brand cage free organic ones, which is more along the lines of what my pre-vegan practices were actually like for the last few years I was an omnivore and had the income to support that kind of discretion in how I spent my money. So realistically, I started spending far less on egg-type things after becoming vegan. I just never ran the calculations before now.

If you are a person needing to shave your budget, I hope this analysis helps. You have a lot of options for replacing eggs. Some options are far less expensive than others are. Heck, if you're still eating chicken eggs, you might even find this helpful in replacing them where that will help you save money. 

Making infographics was a nice diversion for me, in any case. Tomorrow, we return to the more typical content on Food for Dissertating, but if you like this kind of cost analysis, let me know. I've been pondering milk as well, and could see myself making plant milk infographics, too.