About a year ago I got curious on how to best buy broccoli.

As a math nerd, a writer, and scientist, my lovely husband gave into my need for an experiment. And so, late on a Sunday evening, we went to the grocery store.

I bought whole raw broccoli from stem to stern (crown) $1.99/lb and a bag of florets in their own steam bag $3.99/lb.

Then, I figured how long it took me to chop broccoli…which reminds me…

I then weighed the entire piece. Then weighed the stem. Then weighed the Raab (the gross stemmy bits that are still connected to the florettes that your mom would hide in cheese sauce as a kid)…and lastly, the florets.

I compared the price of my favorite florettes in the steamer bag $3.50 versus the crown, the time it would take for me to chop the florettes from the crown, and the cost of a Ziploc steamer bag $.30.

And of course you know I had a spreadsheet while I was doing this…

The result was this lovely pie chart handmade by yours truly.

Basically, buy the crown, leave the stem behind.

Unless you like cheese sauce…