Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

tr3mor

Jesthar wrote: »

Incidentally, did anyone else laugh out loud at the first round of 'essential' store cupboard ingredients beign several different types of oil and vinegar? :rolleyes: I just have one type of each - veggie oil to stop my pasta sticking and malt vinegar for the rare occasion I have chips!

No. Not if you want stuff to taste like it should do rather than a bland 1960s British version. Vinegars aren't expensive considering you use about a tablespoon at a time.

Butterfly_Brain

We are not lucky enough to have a butchers in our town, the last one closed last year, nor do we have a fishmongers or a specialist cheese shop but we do have a greengrocer but not in town he is on another estate, but his quality is poor and he is very expensive.
So we have no choice but to get a lot of stuff in a supermarket, I do like Aldi because of their offers and most of their stuff is good quality.
We are currently looking for a farm shop near to us.

competitionscafe

Gigervamp wrote: »

That £10 for olive oil was per litre of extra virgin. You wouldn't buy a whole litre of it. I get a 100ml bottle of Tesco's own brand which costs £1, so it's not really expensive.

£1 for 100ml is £10 per litre though - it's cheaper if you buy a bigger bottle and at £10 per litre you can get a really nice quality premium ev olive oil. However I usually get a half litre bottle and that lasts for ages. The big brands like Filippo Berrio (which is actually pretty good) and a Spanish brand (forgot the name) are often on special offer, so worth grabbing when you see them on offer. Even at normal price it's only around the equivalent of around £6 per litre. My local M&S (not sure if it's nationwide) have some of their 'premium' olive oils on offer for half price at the moment - reduced from £6.99 to £3.49 per 500ml bottle (which works out at £6.98 per litre).

Gigervamp

I have several types of vinegar. Red and white wine, balsamic, cider, malt and white. They last for ages and don't cost much and they get used for different types of dishes. I wouldn't want to use malt vinegar in my elderflower champagne for instance!

Butterfly_Brain

The thing that was so obvious to me was that the generation who didn't have cookery and home economics at school are the ones who need the help.
But I was amazed when the in-laws came round at the ages of them - surely they could have passed some of their skills on.
I have made it a point that both of my kids have a good basic knowledge of finance, cooking, ironing and cleaning, that should stand them in good stead for the future.
I worked 48 hours a week and my family still had a home cooked meal on the table, even if it was one that I had prepared and frozen that's what batch cooking is all about.

Gigervamp

competitionscafe wrote: »

£1 for 100ml is £10 per litre though - it's cheaper if you buy a bigger bottle and at £10 per litre you can get a really nice quality premium ev olive oil.

Yes, I know, but I think some people were under the impression that you had to spend £10 on a bottle of oil. I was just pointing out that that's not the case.

competitionscafe

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Thats fine and that's what the programme is aimed at. However I think to assume most of the UK shops this way is a sweeping generalisation. I just don't find these sorts of programmes that realistic and always present worst case scenario.

Yes, unfortunatley that's almost inevitable as they think it makes 'better' television. :rolleyes:

It may be a sweeping generalisation to assume most of the UK shops that way but if you are nosey (like me ) and peek in other people trolleys/baskets it's not that unusual to see some people buying nothing but proccessed food and ready meals. The UK consumption of ready meals is higher than all the other countries in Europe put together* as is our consumption of crisps.

(*From the book Bad Food Britain by Joanna Blythman) And according to this recent (July 2009) article: "Food manufacturers have been boasting in recent weeks that the British public, fearful of recession, is buying more ready meals than ever."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article6675958.ece

Although I am not sure why a recession would make people buy more overpriced ready meals rather than less!?

The amount of money the family was originally spending they could have eaten like kings for that money but they were eating nothing but rubbish (as one of the chefs said at the beginning - you wouldn't want to come round for dinner) - amazing how much the cost of ready meals, takeaways and processed food adds up to!
It's easy to criticise and judge though and I am glad the programme (and the chefs) did not just take the easy 'shock, horror' approach/angle and were generally quite restrained in their comments as well as being constructive and not patronising.

Bongedone

tr3mor wrote: »

Willow is margarine wrapped in paper. It's certainly not butter!

:money:

and they even called it butter. tut tut.

Nargleblast

I enjoyed the programme very much. We have to bear in mind that there are a lot of "ordinary mortals" out there who can't/won't cook meals and exist on microwave ready meals and takeaways. I would say that many of us on this site who cook real food do so because our financial situations forced us to look long and hard at where our limited incomes go. I am still amazed that someone could give a nine year old kid a microwaved mac cheese 3 times a week for his main meal, and a donkey kebab once a week! Having said that, when Jamie Oliver did his series in Rotherham there was one woman there who didn't know that water had bubbles in it when it was boiling! I was pleased to see the family get pleasure out of cooking real food and eating together, and I am sure they will look a whole lot healthier if they keep it up! I learnt one or two interesting tips from the programme which I shall put into action - but I still won't be rushing out to spend a tenner on extra virgin olive oil for a salad dressing though! I usually find a small bottle used with discretion lasts a while and is more affordable on my budget! Can't wait for next week's programme - £17000 a year on food? I shall have my rubber brick ready by the telly.....

ALIBOBSY

Well I actually quite enjoyed it. It was a nice family who went from hardly cooking at all (except in the microwave) to making all meals from scratch, from throw it in the trolley to meal planning and shopping lists.
The 2 chefs were pretty down to earth and it wasn't patronising or insulting to how the family lived before.
All in all a fab start for that family to change their lives, remember they almost halved their budget in one week. Some of the ingredients they bought will last more than one week and it did mention using leftovers and freezing portions as well.

I would say great introduction to the principles of OS. There are alot of people out there who don't/rarely cook from scratch.

Mind you next week will be bizzare 17k on food!!!!!:eek: But it did appear to be a large family with teens.

Be interesting to see if they do some tighter budgets later on in the series.

ali x