Value Range foods compared

[jennyjj01]

A quick note about Sweet & Sour sauce in Jars, something I hold in the extended pantry.

My stores comprise about 1/3 Uncle Ben's, 1/3 ALDI's own, 1/3 LIDL's own.

ALDI's & LIDL's always needs augmenting with bits of onion, carrot and tomato puree to get close to the standard of Uncle Bens. Both are looking paler recently and definitely need puree.

So. Today I picked up a Tesco branded jar. It just looked SO much redder and chunkier.

Wooooo. What a different product. Main Ingredient Pineapple Juice and it contained Ginger?!?

Nothing like the ALDI, LIDL or even Uncle Ben's products in flavour, it was more reminiscent of what my takeaway serves.

I seriously preferred it...
Mr JJ rejected it as too spicy. I guess that was the ginger.

Difficult to decide whether to stock up on it, or not. At £1.20 it's dearer than the others which are currently 99p

ps. I have tried the Tesco Stockwell Sweet & sour product and I don't rate that worthy of reviewing.

[GillyBee]

We stopped buying sweet & sour sauce after discovering how easy it is to make from a small can of pineapple chunks, tomato ketchup, soy sauce and brown sugar plus a bit of cornflour to thicken. All of those are storecupboard so this may be useful if you get a problem with the jarred version anytime.

BBC have a more detailed recipe here but it is flexible - we never used rice vinegar at all.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sweet-sour-sauce

[jennyjj01]

We stopped buying sweet & sour sauce after discovering how easy it is to make from a small can of pineapple chunks, tomato ketchup, soy sauce and brown sugar plus a bit of cornflour to thicken. All of those are storecupboard so this may be useful if you get a problem with the jarred version anytime.

BBC have a more detailed recipe here but it is flexible - we never used rice vinegar at all.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sweet-sour-sauce

Agreed that it's a cinch to make a decent sweet & sour sauce. And the jar ones usually need augmenting anyway. But I've yet to get consistency in my completely made home made ones.

[jennyjj01]

I'm due for a serious replenishment of my tinned ready meals, so time to start sampling.
....

Need to RANT!
I accept that tinned ready meals have shot through £2 a tin, but I nearly fainted in ASDA when I saw Prince's Stewed Steak at £4.24 !!!!! It's only £3.59 in B&M and that was shocking enough.

A quick squint over the tinned ready meals in ASDA had me giddy with rage, especially the Prince's products.

Watch this space for a comparison review with the Tesco 'Stockwell' product which is half the price.

I do want SOME of these tinned ready meals in my extended pantry, but jeez! What inflation they suffer.

[nightowl]

I notice that Aldi and Lidl baked beans came out jointly top in a Which magazine blind taste test over all other brands including Heinz, Branston etc.

[jennyjj01]

I notice that Aldi and Lidl baked beans came out jointly top in a Which magazine blind taste test over all other brands including Heinz, Branston etc.

Saw that, too. Here https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/food-an ... ns-compare

Aldi, Tesco and Lidl have their extreme value range beans at about 29p, but they don't normally get reviewed. I still quite like Tesco's Stockwell at 29p, but totally dislike Aldi's and Lidl's cheapest. Time to retest the 40p(ish) range ones.

Heinz can go take a hike no matter how good they taste, because of their stupid prices.

[Frnc]

I like Heinz lentil soup. Sainsburys do 5 for £5, which isn't bad. I only have half a tin in one go. I use the orange plastic coffee lids to seal them til next day. Sainsbury's do have their own lentil, but it's different. I prefer Heinz. It is a bit high in salt though.

Baked beans I make my own, as all the ready made ones seem to use beans that are very high in oxalates. I use butter beans, which taste about the same. The sauce is a bit tricky, but mine is acceptable.

[pseudonym]

I'm eating/storing Stockwell Chicken Curry and Vegetables atm; along with Tesco Irish Stew


https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... 0KF_ZBGlz-

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/p ... /307734693



Not at the same time I might add

[jennyjj01]

Here's an odd one: Canned Beef Versus Corned Beef

Spotted in B&M was a product I'd not seen before: Hertford Canned Beef. It was on the same shelf as Hertford and Princes Corned Beef. So I got some to try.

FYI. I strongly dislike Corned Beef, which makes me gag, but I have some dozen or so tins set aside for MrJJ to feast on. So, I wondered what's different about Canned Beef?

Thus I come to compare Hertford CANNed Beef with Tesco CORNed Beef.

Ingredients differed in that Corned Beef was virtually 97% beef and just salt and nitrates: The canned beef was 80.6% Beef, some water, potato starch, salt, and some added flavourings. Nutritional Values were similar. Canned Beef was £2.49 for 340g. I don't recall what I paid for the corned beef, but the going rate for corned beef is >£3 for 340g.

Photos to follow, but first impressions on opening, were that the canned beef was softer, just about spreadable, while the corned beef was harder and easier to slice. The corned beef had a bigger lump of fat in top, but not much in it.

Onto the taste test. Both myself and Mr JJ
We first tried the Canned Beef. I found it barely acceptable and beef like, but MrJJ ran off to wash his mouth out.
Onto the Corned Beef. I found it as horrid as expected and almost gagged. Mr JJ didn't like it much but said it was just a poor corned beef ( He usually prefers ASDA's deli corned beef.

To me, the canned beef was reminiscent of thinly sliced pastrami, which Mr JJ also dislikes

[Edit to add]Later, I airfried a slice of the canned meat. It remained very soft and the saltiness was more obvious.[/Edit]

Conclusion
I liked the canned beef much more than the corned beef.
Mr JJ liked the corned beef much more than the canned beef.
The Canned Beef was significantly cheaper.
I'll eat the residual Canned Beef and might try cooking with some. The opened corned beef will be discarded.
I'll stock Canned Beef for me and Corned Beef for MrJJ.... But not much of either
.

Which Reminds me..... Baldie Food Guy did a comparison between Pek tinned pork and Spam on YT. He found PEK to be as good if not better. I personally Despise PEK but like spam.... So, as with all these things try them now before laying them down as reserves.

[jennyjj01]

Here's an odd one: Canned Beef Versus Corned Beef

Thus I come to compare Hertford CANNed Beef with Tesco CORNed Beef.

[Edit to add]Later, I airfried a slice of the canned meat. It remained very soft and the saltiness was more obvious.[/Edit]

LOL..... A fry up car crash
I thought I'd crisp up a few slices in the frying pan..... It doesn't happen. No amount of frying will crisp it up, it just becomes soft mush like a splat of wet tissue. Same for corned or canned beef.
So I stirred in an egg and served with beans. Daftest fry up I ever had. Still . A generous portion of protein.

Photo's to follow.
I felt a little queasy after scoffing this