Pasta:Cheap, Cheaper, Cheapest?

[jennyjj01]

OK, canvassing opinions.

My food stockpile is coming along: Generally concerned about major and medium-long term disruption to food and energy supplies.
I have several Kg of dried pasta, rice and dried spuds for carbs and some assorted sauces to make it edible.

But Pasta seems to come in an absurd range of prices.
20p for 500g Durum wheat spaghetti at Lidl, or 49p for 500g in standard range, or 1.28p for napolina, or more. I could empty my local lidl of their 24kg for less than a tenner and that's a lot of carbs!
To an extent, price also varies for shape with twirls and fusilli being twice as dear as ordinary spaghetti.

Now, I'm no snob and these are to be survival foods eaten with spam or pigeon when SHTF. Is quality really so different? I can barely tell even when served with Dolmio.
Can anyone make a case for buying better than the cheapest? I CAN afford the better stuff at the moment, but why increase my 'insurance' spend 6-fold on some food that I might just end up giving to a foodbank.

Same applies to tinned spuds. 19p at lidl 35p or 65p at tesco etc. Surely the crap from lidl will keep me alive just as well as the better Tesco Stuff which is still pretty crap?

My objective, for now is to build up and sustain food for two people for 6 months for less than a rolling £500 pa or so and, of course ignore best before dates.
I have a stash of modest luxuries like Jam and chocolate, coffee and tea, and nice bog rolls. I'll post my list later for comment.

[unsure]

pasta in my mind is just pasta
makes no difference if its shells or twirls or strings.
i can`t say ive ever noticed the difference in branded [ expensive] to none branded [ cheap] .
its all down to what you put with it .

try pasta with a can of condensed soup , throw in some shredded chicken . for a quick easy one pan meal .

[jennyjj01]

pasta in my mind is just pasta
makes no difference if its shells or twirls or strings.
i can`t say ive ever noticed the difference in branded [ expensive] to none branded [ cheap] .
its all down to what you put with it .

try pasta with a can of condensed soup , throw in some shredded chicken . for a quick easy one pan meal .

Thanks,
I mostly agree. Other half prefers twisters or whatever, but when it's for stash, it's minimum physical volume (Spaghetti or lasagna) and max calories per £.
As I say, I COULD spend more and barely notice, but 40p per kilo for almost pure calories has to be the way to go. Money saved on pasta is diverted to essentials like Jack Daniels and chocolate. Plus a few oxo cubes and dried milk.

I've bought a HELL of a lot of food at these super low prices. Isn't that how it should be. Mountain House my ar5e. Give me Lidl and Tesco Value ranges and bring it on!!!

[jennyjj01]

try pasta with a can of condensed soup , throw in some shredded chicken . for a quick easy one pan meal .

Tesco is shut because their tills are down. Will shredded pigeon do?

[Brambles]

You're getting into personal preference territory here. Store what you normally eat and you can't go far wrong.

[Arzosah]

You're getting into personal preference territory here. Store what you normally eat and you can't go far wrong.

When I first found out about "prepping" rather than just being careful, I stocked a load of stuff I wouldn't normally buy, including very thin strands of spaghetti, rather than my normal fusilli. I did it because it takes less space to store, and its a lot, lot cheaper. But I didn't do it again! And its exactly personal preference, and personal foible. I don't *like* the whole "wrap the spaghetti, and finish up by sucking" thing. And I don't like heating a pan of water hot enough to fit spaghetti in - chucking fusilli into the bottom of a pan, then pouring hot water over it and letting it come to the boil with me out of the way - yes, thats my preference, no matter how aesthetically norty that is :mrgreen.

So now, instead of durum wheat spaghetti at 19p per 500g, I store gluten free fusilli at £1.09 per 500g (and thats a really, really good price!). I also store a few tinned tatties, and I'm seriously thinking of adding quinoa - I feel better on a fairly high protein diet.

Jenny, as far as "whats the difference" - check it out. It probably comes down to size of spaghetti circumference too how well does the sauce stick to it, how fast does it cook, whether you've stirred

[Arwen Thebard]

How long would you expect "pasta" products to last, assuming kept dry etc?

[Brambles]

It depends on how it's stored, Arwen. Somewhere on here I posted a link to the still tasty website, I'll post it again http://www.stilltasty.com

and there's defo a link to long term storage of foods on here somewhere. Try the LDS or Utah State University website, they are the experts in food storage.

I gave up the long term storage some years ago now and work on the rotation system. I still have the same amount stored, but it's used and it's everything we normally eat. In the long run it has saved a lot of money as I now don't have any waste by either by it going bad or we don't like it or (insert any other excuse) that sees it going to the food bank.
Like Arzosah, when I first started this prepping thing, I bough a shedload of the cheap stuff expecting to be able to have a jolly meal. A lot of it was miserable, a lot of it was henceforth consigned to room 101. The lesson learned was try before you buy(lots of it). Don't get me wrong, a lot of our day to day food is from Sainsbugs basics range, I store what we like to eat. Not long ago some of us were lamenting the loss of Sainsburys basics dried milk, it was the best tasting dried skimmed milk, now it seems to be their basics instant mash that's gone another blow to my cupboards.

As I said in my first reply, it really is personal preference.

[Deeps]

You're getting into personal preference territory here. Store what you normally eat and you can't go far wrong.

^^^^ Wot she says works for me. My 'waste' from my food preps is when the UHT goes off, by preference neither of us drink it so most of it goes down the plug eventually. Apart from that there's not much that I can think of that doesn't get used or will keep long past its sell by date. I try and stockpile what we use. I make my own dehydrated meals for hill walking so I suppose in the unlikely event of having to 'bug out' I've usually got some to hand.

A large chunk of the worlds population get by on carbs and veg and are fine, it might be boring but that's where the herbs & spices come into their own. Simple recipe books especially veggie ones might be handy to change things up a bit, meals might become very 'samey' over a period of time.

[ukpreppergrrl]

My understanding of the development of different pasta shapes in Italy is to do with the sauce that is usually added to those pastas. The basic pasta dough recipe is the same regardless. Some sauces are runny and require a greater or rougher surface area to hold it (e.g. fusilli or linguini); other sauces are thicker and are better with a thinner pasta so so much sauce doesn't adhere (e.g. spaghetti). A meaty Bolognese sauce on fusilli makes for quite a big mouthful Personally I have ended up using fusilli (the twists) for pretty much everything (mostly because I could buy it in giant economy packs) unless it's a meaty Bolognese sauce in which case, if I have it in stock, I will use spaghetti, but I'm quite happy to shove in a load of fusilli and use that. Though I also will stock penne (tubes) or conchiglie (shells) if it's on special as they have a similar "mouth" feel. I quite like a big meaty mouthful!!! The exception is macaroni cheese - I ALWAYS use macaroni for that. Just a texture preference! It would work just as well with fusilli or penne but somehow it's just wrong! My personal bête noir of pasta is farfalle (butterfly) pasta. I don't like it because I always end up with the outside "wings" being overcooked, whilst the inner crimp or "body" is still crunchy. Even if it were the cheapest pasta shape around I wouldn't stock it. So stock what pasta shape works for you and buy in bulk to get the best deal.

Bog standard white pasta stores for 20+ years if kept correctly, brown wholemeal pasta for fewer years owing to the oils in the wholegrain. The green pasta has spinach added and the red pasta has tomato added (I do like to use tricolore for pasta salads as it looks so pretty!). "Pasta" is now being made from all sorts of things including red lentils - I suspect it started with the gluten free pastas and has possibly now become fashion thing.