What ingredient will you not cheap out on?

rawn

I bought a tin of Roma chopped tomatoes last week -usually I just buy Lidl or Aldi brand and don't think twice about it. But I have to say the Roma tomatoes were beautiful, and there seemed to be more in the tin by comparison. ( i know, cool storybro ) It got me wondering -are there any particular ingredients that you will always spend the bit extra on that are worth it?

longshanks

Coffee.

XsApollo

Ketchup.
Cheap stuff is rank.

Colser

Mayonnaise.

theteal

We do the full shop in Aldi. So, none.

MrsTeal would say teabags - it's the only branded food item I can think of in the house.

Meeeee79

Baked Beans, bachelors all the way!

Oasis1974

Not possible to not cheap on ingredients if you shop in Aldis or Lidl.

the beer revolu

Oasis1974 wrote: »

Not possible to not cheap on ingredients if you shop in Aldis or Lidl.

Nonsense. Lots of premium products in Aldi and Lidl.
I recently bought a stupidly expensive sheep's milk yogurt in Lidl as one example. Lots more out there too.

Surreptitious

Roma tinned tomatoes are the best! Coffee also and minced beef preferably Angus. I would say ice cream too, peas and beans liking the premium ones more. Don't like cheap steaks either.

Loon E. Tick

Eggs. I try to buy organic farm eggs where possible.

rawn

XsApollo wrote: »

Ketchup.
Cheap stuff is rank.

Here's the real question - Heinz or Chef?

I love Chef ketchup myself, I find Heinz far too sweet, Chef is more... tomatoey

I agree on teabags, only Lyons in our house!

After my Roma discovery I feel like my weekly shops are going to get more expensice - Roma tomatoes, Roma puree etc

byhookorbycrook

Meat and dairy products.

RasTa

Aldi ketchup does the job, 89c and the same for the mayo.

Coffee and meat for me.

Salt must be Maldron.

No problem spending money on olive oil too.

Birdsong

Flahavans porridge for me. I have tried both the lidl and Aldi versions and they just don't do it for me

John_Rambo

Salt. Achill or Maldon salt all the way. That saxo stuff is for the driveway in winter. (or chips!)

rawn

John_Rambo wrote: »

Salt. Achill or Maldon salt all the way. That saxo stuff is for the driveway in winter. (or chips!)

How does it differ? Do you use more/less of it, or does it just add better flavour?

John_Rambo

rawn wrote: »

How does it differ? Do you use more/less of it, or does it just add better flavour?

Larger flakes or granules and a stronger more intense taste, better flavour for seasoning and table use. I'd use less of it all right.

Mozzarella. The proper stuff is incredible.

The Aldi buffalo mozzarella is nice, too. Leagues ahead of the 80c stuff.

stock cubes

Badabing

Saffron

RasTa

RasTa wrote: »

Aldi ketchup does the job, 89c and the same for the mayo.

Coffee and meat for me.

Salt must be Maldron.

No problem spending money on olive oil too.

Olive oil. Good shout!

rawn

Deleted User wrote: »

stock cubes

Same actually! I use the stock pot jellies if I don't have any of my own put away. The dried cubes just taste like salt to me.

collie0708

Beer I would rather do without than drink some of the cheaper brands

rawn

collie0708 wrote: »

Beer I would rather do without than drink some of the cheaper brands

I only drink the Lidl brand Excelsior! It's not amazing but it's drinkable and cheap. If I'm splashing out it's Bavaria!

downwesht

Kellogs Cornflakes......no comparison.

tickingclock

I had to have a good look in my press to see what was branded. Knorr stock pots, Heinz ketchup and mayonnaise are about the only branded products I wouldn't sacrifice.

Duvetdays

Ketchup has to be Heinz. Beans was also heinz until I tried Tesco own brand. Branded cereal. Mince can't beat butcher mince rather than prepackaged supermarket stuff. Fresh beef burgers Angus preferably. Decent cut for steak and Coca Cola no own brand cola

Autochange

the beer revolu wrote: »

Nonsense. Lots of premium products in Aldi and Lidl.
I recently bought a stupidly expensive sheep's milk yogurt in Lidl as one example. Lots more out there too.

Sheeps milk yogurt :eek::eek:

Tea(Barry's)
Sausages(Denny's Gold Medal)
Black Pudding(Clonakilty or Rudds)
Pasta(Always fresh pasta, no more dried for me!)
Frozen Pizza(Goodfellas)

I went to a barbecue with some friends a couple years ago and we went to the supermarket to buy some supplies. I'm not exaggerating, they spent more on Olive oil, than I spent on bourbon. So I now always spend a bit extra on Olive oil if its going to be used for salads and things.

clappyhappy

Beef, chicken, pork etc never from a supermarket. Coffee, cornflakes, Cheerios, diet 7up (hate the own brand), Heinz tomato soup, Heinz spaghetti, hp brown sauce & tea bags.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Potatoes, get the good shtuff....

rawn

Keenan Silly Sentence wrote:

Potatoes, get the good shtuff....

Do you mean types of potatoes or actual name brands? I only buy Maris Pipers if I can help it

Space Dog

Pasta. Usually buy De Cecco, Barilla at a push.
I also stick to certain brands of cheese.
Kewpie mayonnaise.
Oh and bread, I get sourdough bread from the local market, it's expensive but I can't stand the breads sold in supermarkets anymore (will make an exception for pretzels from LIDL though!).

Dial Hard

Eggs. I would rather go without than buy or eat a battery one. We get ours delivered from the allotments up the road.

I think the only branded items in the kitchen are Heinz beans (that's my sister, I'd happily eat the own-brand ones), Frank's Red Hot Sauce and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and if Lidl or Aldi did their own versions of those I'd happily give them a spin!

Deleted User wrote:

Pasta(Always fresh pasta, no more dried for me!)

Just on this, fresh isn't necessarily always better. Very much depends on what sauce you're planning to have it with.

gandalf

Garlic can't stand the insipid tasteless mass produced ones the supermarkets push. Also good dry aged thick rashers or black pudding.

Loon E. Tick

gandalf wrote: »

Garlic can't stand the insipid tasteless mass produced ones the supermarkets push.

Chinese garlic is the tasteless one. Spanish garlic is the one full of flavour. For proper garlic you need to buy it in Supervalu. Their fruit and veg is much better quality than Aldi or Lidl although they only have a very small organic section in my local one.

noel100

Milcano or alzzera coffee as instant
Hellman's lighter than light mayo
Connaught gold butter
Digetive coffee thins ( addictive)

Will buy food from all supermarkets but I'd say these are the 4 constant items we buy and wouldn't deviate from.

B0jangles

Dial Hard wrote: »

Eggs. I would rather go without than buy or eat a battery one. We get ours delivered from the allotments up the road.

I think the only branded items in the kitchen are Heinz beans (that's my sister, I'd happily eat the own-brand ones), Frank's Red Hot Sauce and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and if Lidl or Aldi did their own versions of those I'd happily give them a spin!



Just on this, fresh isn't necessarily always better. Very much depends on what sauce you're planning to have it with.

I'm 90% sure aldi do an own-brand hot sauce for wings and I saw a new own-brand worcestershire sauce in Lidl only a couple of days ago

Only stuff I 100% buy the branded version of is imported chinese sauces because I quite frankly don't trust the knock-off versions. Aldi ketchup is very nice - nice and flavorsome + made from fresh tomatoes and spices. Lidl's is awful and is based on tomato puree so it's very stodgy and dense.

Day Lewin

Olive oil, eggs, coffee, butter, and fresh tomatoes: they should smell like a greenhouse in summer-- bad ones are like snowballs. Ditto peaches, apricots...they must be good or not worth the money.
Oh and cheese - cheap cheese is like candle-wax. Wine, of course..

Hell what can i say - I love my food!

Dizzyblonde

Ketchup (Heinz, although the mention of Chef earlier makes me want to try that again), mayonnaise, stock cubes, beans, milk and butter - the branded ones all taste better to me than Aldi's versions. Recently I've stopped buying frozen cauliflower and broccoli in Aldi too because the quality isn't as good as, say Green Isle.

BailMeOut

Tilda Basmati Rice. It is double cost than the other rice at Supervalu but always worth it.

Buying cheap pasta is also a silly thing to do, example Roma pasta which is dire. Always get De Cecco or SuperValu sell some excellent Italian pastas which again are at least double cost than say Roma but always worth it.

rubadub

rawn wrote: »

Here's the real question - Heinz or Chef?

I love Chef ketchup myself, I find Heinz far too sweet, Chef is more... tomatoey

They are very different products in my mind, I would see it more like mayo vs salad cream. Chef is very vinegary, I like it on chips for that reason and heinz or heinz-type ketchups on other things. So I would not limit myself to one, I used to have loads of various ketchups in my press, just like I do not stick to just 1 curry sauce, chocolate bar, or beer.

Years ago own brand ketchups were pretty poor, nowadays it is rare I find one I do not like. I think people just grow up with one and are stubborn to change. If everybody grew up with hellmans ketchup and there was never heinz on the market, then if tesco suddenly brought out a "value ketchup" which was actually heinz but sold cheaply and in a nasty bottle I imagine many would baulk at it.

People need to do blind tastes on this, many do not want to appear to have "cheap taste" and so their mind is often made up before tasting.

In the examiner hellmans came out top marks at 9/10. I imagine many would be thinking "hellmans have a ketchup?"

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/healthandlife/dietandfitness/top-8-tomato-ketchup-tested-279603.html

Not sure when it was released, I only noticed it a few years ago. Heinz etc have been around donkeys years. It makes sense that a well established company like hellmans with rakes of chefs & food scientists could come along and make loads of types of ketchup and test them on large amounts of people, and quite easily find several that would score better in blind tastes.

McDonalds ditched heinz a while back making their own brand.


Which? did a survey in the UK and Heinz did very badly.

Red-faced: Heinz ketchup comes BOTTOM in taste tests after being beaten by cut price supermarkets

LEAGUE OF THE BEST
1. Sainsbury's
2. Marks & Spencer
3. Tesco
4. Co-op
5. Branston
6. Kania, Lidl
7. Morrisons
8. Waitrose
9. Asda
10. Hellmann's
11. Bramwells, Aldi
12. Heinz
13. Daddies

molly09

For me it would have to be chef ketchup, batchelors beans, tayto cheese and onion crisps and Brennan’s bread

philderbeast

Olive Oil, Beans, Butter and Chilli Doritos, The cheap ones don't compare

fussyonion

I have tried a LOT of Aldi/Lidl/supermarket own brand versions of the items I buy and a lot have tasted just as good if not better, but there are some that just didn't cut the mustard.

Doritos-I have tried Lidl and Aldi's offerings and they taste of bland cardboard.

Lyons tea-Again, have tried McGrath's by Aldi and Lidl's version too but just didn't like 'em.

Cafe Noire (or L'Or, is it now?)- I don't drink coffee often but this is the only brand I like.

Cheese-Has to be Kilmeadan. Nothing else compares.

Esse85

Kerrygold butter
Knorr gravy

Gloomtastic!

Got to agree that the branded goods I buy are because they are not available in Aldi/Lidl as generics. Interesting to hear Lidl now do a Worcestershire Sauce as it’s on my shopping list at the moment.

Aldi’s Reserve Blend Tea will beat any brand IMHO.

rubadub

fussyonion wrote: »

some that just didn't cut the mustard.

Speaking of which I still buy French's mustard. I have not found any cheaper one remotely like it. I see these "american" mustards, or deli or hotdog mustard but they are nothing like it. French's has no added sugar or oil, lots of these cheaper mild ones have sugar and/or oil in them. I have seen some branded ones which might be like it but never bought as they are often dearer than it.

While with djon or english mustard many of the own brands are fine.

SB_Part2

Mayonaise is probably the only thing. I'm sure I'll think of more.

LirW

Kikkoman low sodium soy sauce or nothing. Especially because you can buy it quite reasonable when you need large amounts.

Maldron salt.

Heinz ketchup.

Skuxx

I'm fairly similar to most here, happy to spend money on good pasta and olive oil. The tinned tomatoes is an interesting one, I'd usually buy supermarket own brand but recently got Mutti brand on offer and I have to say that I really noticed a difference, so much nicer and not as watery!