Food Economies Too Far

[Ham]

Over recent months, conscious of my newly retired status, I've been broadening my horizons beyond my default go-to that was Waitrose for quality. Aldi, Asda, Coop, Lidl, Morisons, Sainsbury, Tesco, Waitrose, (in careful alphabetical order) I'm dead loyal to 'em all.

Generally, my experience has been positive. I've noticed that quality can be more variable in non-waitrose, but in a liveable with way for the most part. I buy very little prepared food, and non-branded over branded every time. But I have found some things that are simply an economy too far.

Cheap tinned tomatoes - skin and poor flavour. At the moment about 50p/tin is the minimum to pay. Passata appears more forgiving.
Sainsburys economy oats - 35p cheaper than the Waitrose but much less gloop and needs longer cooking
Flour. Hit and miss, been getting inconsistent poorer rise lately and hadn't associated it with the flour I was using. however, I just baked Asda vs Waitrose wholemeal with breathtaking difference.

Any others to beware of?

[Regulator]

Asda fruit and veg... guaranteed to start rotting as you walk out of the supermarket.

Lidl bakery goods... if you're going to indulge in carbs then pay to have something decent from M&S or Waitrose (or your local baker) - and that hasn't been handled by every sticky-fingered, snotty-nosed brat in the district.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Beer

I will not drink discount cans of lager.

[Snakehips]

Does anybody (else) use Trolley to compare supermarket prices?

[rafletcher]

Does anybody (else) use Trolley to compare supermarket prices?

Nope, but then there's little point where I live, which is not an urban area with a several of supermarkets to visit. We have Tesco and M&S in our local town.

[Andy W]

An easy one for me. No pun intended but i go for low hanging fruit at home. Mrs W whilst being wonderful by by most metrics one area we disagree on is food waste. We share cooking , i probably carry out 35% of this activity and work out what we and out daughter will consume and cook accordingly. My wife cooks enough to feed a platoon and leftovers are placed in fridge for anothet day, except it never comes. That is unless i root through the fridge looking for leftovers and out of date food. I make it my mission not to waste food. Patronising as it might seem, i do think of hungry people the world over and just cant throw food away with the same wanton disregard as my Wife. She thinks its a miracle ive not had food poisoning. BTW,
I have my own flaws, none spring to mind though.
Just dont waste food its criminal !

[barakta]

Aldi veg are mostly tasteless and gross, if you do buy the less-bad ones, use on same/next day or they'll have gone off. Their stirfry veg inna packet is OK but rather large and can be a challenge to eat in time (I'm the only one who eats it).

Sainsbury's medium range brand humous is disgusting, just don't bother.

Agree with Ham the OP about tomatoes. Usually the cheaper ones are more tasteless and watery so need more cooking.

Whoever the cheap pot-noodle style brand were, they weren't very nice.

[Ham]

Does anybody (else) use Trolley to compare supermarket prices?

Yes, but I don't find it especially user friendly.

[hellymedic]

On Mum’s advice, I stick to Birds Eye Petits Pois.
They cost MUCH more than Sainsbury’s but do seem smaller & sweeter.
I also stick with Green Giant tinned sweetcorn.

I’m happy to cook Sainsbury’s ‘Daily’s' or 'Stamford Street' porridge oats for another 30 seconds in the microwave and quite like something a bit more chewy. I eat my oats raw but cook a porridge for D. The saving mounts to nothing in the big scheme of things anyway.

Sainsbury’s Stamford Street bacon looked rubbish. It’s hiding in my freezer, waiting for the day I get the tuits to molish some sort pulse and bacon soup with it.

I like Stamford Sreet rice pudding. We had one very watery batch but subsequent batches have been fine.

Stamford Street Yorkshire puddings are 15 for 44p and good if you want to limit your portion size. They’re small.

[Snakehips]

Just dont waste food its criminal !

I totally agree. As I read your post I was finishing off a bar of Smooth Orange Galaxy with something about 17/04/2022 written on it. Slightly less than two years ago.

[rr]

Lidl bakery goods... if you're going to indulge in carbs then pay to have something decent from M&S or Waitrose (or your local baker) - and that hasn't been handled by every sticky-fingered, snotty-nosed brat in the district.

I disagree I find Lidl pastries as good if not better than the other supermarkets and considerably cheaper. They do need to be fresh though.
In France they have a neat system to maneuver the goods out of the bin and down the shooting to your bag, I would welcome them here.

[Regulator]

Lidl bakery goods... if you're going to indulge in carbs then pay to have something decent from M&S or Waitrose (or your local baker) - and that hasn't been handled by every sticky-fingered, snotty-nosed brat in the district.

I disagree I find Lidl pastries as good if not better than the other supermarkets and considerably cheaper. They do need to be fresh though.
In France they have a neat system to maneuver the goods out of the bin and down the shooting to your bag, I would welcome them here.

Lidl in France is very different to Lidl in the UK.  The French are far fussier about their baked goods, which means a higher standard to start with.

[grams]

Waitrose in-store bakery stuff is consistently crap in my experience. Ditto M&S. I've had perfectly good stuff in Lidl and Aldi.

The biggest problem isn that pastries and a lot of types of fresh bread have a shelf life of a few hours at most, which bakeries in the UK (supermarket or otherwise) don't give a shit about. I don't have that problem in France.

In France they have a neat system to maneuver the goods out of the bin and down the shooting to your bag

Every Lidl in every country that isn't the UK (that I've been to) has this system. Either they think we're more trustworthy or they think we prefer snot on our donuts to a minor intelligence test.

[Jurek]

Teh Graun did a review a few years ago of which of the supermarket own-brand tinned tomatoes were best in terms of tomato vs water content.
Waitrose came out top with Lidl following as a close second at around half the price of the former.

[Flite]

Cheaper tinned chopped toms tend to have 60% or less toms.
Better ranges seem to have 65%
Co-op is good enough for us.

[Kim]

Lidl bakery goods... if you're going to indulge in carbs then pay to have something decent from M&S or Waitrose (or your local baker) - and that hasn't been handled by every sticky-fingered, snotty-nosed brat in the district.

I disagree I find Lidl pastries as good if not better than the other supermarkets and considerably cheaper. They do need to be fresh though.
In France they have a neat system to maneuver the goods out of the bin and down the shooting to your bag, I would welcome them here.

Lidl in France is very different to Lidl in the UK.  The French are far fussier about their baked goods, which means a higher standard to start with.

Yeahbut the BRITISH standard for baked goods is pretty much "this brick/sponge-like object was made by baking, or a Chorleywood approximation thereof".

Lidl and Waitrose are the only supermarkets around here that are capable of making a half-decent baguette.  Neither are particularly convenient.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Of three local Lidls, one has the best baked goods of supermarkets, one is mediocre, and the third I haven't tried the bakery but the range looks slightly different from the other two.

[Kim]

I think we can probably conclude that baked goods at supermarkets are a bit like bike mechanics at Halfrauds, and the quality is entirely down to the individual store.

[hellymedic]

Back in prehistory, one of my treats on finishing the night shift was a freshly baked croissant from the in-store bakery at Tesco.
There was no chance staleness at 8.30am…
That Tesco has long gone.
Of course...

[citoyen]

I think we can probably conclude that baked goods at supermarkets are a bit like bike mechanics at Halfrauds, and the quality is entirely down to the individual store.

Exactly this.

[citoyen]

Sainsbury’s Stamford Street bacon looked rubbish. It’s hiding in my freezer, waiting for the day I get the tuits to molish some sort pulse and bacon soup with it.

Nearly all supermarket bacon is rubbish. Aldi bacon is particularly bad. M&S bacon is acceptable.

Much the same applies to sausages.

[Ham]

One to add:

One of the few pre-prepard products I buy in are frozen pizza, children for the feeding of (with added cheeses)

By accident we had to get a chicago stuffed crust which was a Big Hit. Not wishing to spend > £4 (where the normal one is <£1) I tried the "Tesco! Takeaway! Cheese! Meltdown! Cheese stuffed crust!"

Just don't, ever. I have NEVER seen the little'un concerned leave pizza, I don't blame him.

(and for bacon,   Waitrose dry cure is OK, as is - surprisingly - the Asda posh dry cure, similar price)

[citoyen]

I remember what we were fobbed off with labelled as "pizza" by supermarkets back in the 70s/80s. I doubt anything can be that bad. We have higher expectations these days, even littl'uns.

M&S "stonebaked" frozen pizza is pretty damn good for £4. At least, it actually resembles pizza.

[andrewc]

I recently bought packs of "best bacon" from both Aldi & Lidl.  Back to M&S I'm afraid.   


Lidl's Gnocchi with rosemary, thyme & oregano is good though, as is their frozen pork schnitzel.  Both cook nicely in the air fryer. 


Mutti chopped tomatoes are my usual base for sauces etc.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mutti-Finely-Chopped-Tomatoes-400g/dp/B0BLNHYJSW/ref=rvi_d_sccl_1/260-9735880-8548808

[Flite]

I remember what we were fobbed off with labelled as "pizza" by supermarkets back in the 70s/80s.

I was spoilt. In the late 60s/70s I had to commute to work in Sunderland.
Tucked in a back street was a tiny delicatessen (Austrian owners, I think) who made proper pizza and sold big slices.
When a friend came to tea without notice, we shared some with him.
His verdict: "That's a reet high-class pasty".
High praise from a lad from the land of the chip buttie.

They also made lovely linzer torte....