Ready made sauces?

notatvstar

I buy all my spices, soy sauce, sesame seed oil and (as the OH refers to it as) 'ethnic stuff' at oriental/Indian supermarkets, but I do recognise that not every town will have them. Ours do huge bags of flour and rice - and really cheap squid!. My Mum used to have to catch a train to the nearest largest city (1/2 hour away) to get what she needed (my family never had a car) - and she still does! More often she gives me a shopping list so I can buy the stuff for her and deliver it when I visit. I could never eat ready made stuff. I still can't and OH found it difficult to cope with at first as I refused. He used to think I was snob. After a couple of years of eating HM pasta sauces, stews, curries etc he now can't stand 'shop-bought'. Now he insists on HM.

For curries you don't have to freeze down the completed sauce. You can make your own spice mixes/pastes and a big tip is to fry a massive batch of onions and potion those out before freezing. That cuts down the cooking time immensely. (I suppose that depends on how you cook your curries, but I take about 30 mins to fry my onions - try it! the taste difference will amaze you).

It may be cheaper in the short term to buy in ready-made, but you do get what you pay for. It's like all those people in the states that exist on take-away and all-you-can-eat-restaurants - sometimes cheaper isn't necessarily better. With careful planning and selection of menus I'm sure HM will work out cheaper (if bought and prepared for in bulk and with a aid of a large freezer) but for many I fear that it's just too inconvenient and time consuming.

Reverbe

good point nota.. as I dont have access currently to a fridge or freezer I had forgotten about batch or bulk cooking..

loucroft

Hey, great thread. I have to say that I rarely buy pasta sauce, and when I do I end up using half of it just to flavour every other ingredient I put in it - can't help it, just want it to be tasty!

It just feels like a waste of money when you can whizz up something really easy and cheap from scratch, though I have yet to get a large freezer so I can make in batches

YORKSHIRELASS

I needed to stock up on herbs and spices for my homemade curries recently and was horrified by the prices! I live in the middle of nowhere so only have big supermarkets: 26g Cardmon Pods for £2.48!!! OK a jar of these goes a long way but still. Cinnamon Sticks £1.29 etc.

I always have a jar of ready made curry sauce, sweet and sour sauce and pasta sauce in the cupboard just as an emergency stand-by. I agree that a lot of Pasta Sauces are horrible, I buy Lloyd Grossman if its on offer. My family prefer home made every time though.

meritaten

I do buy readymade sauces from Aldi or Tesco to keep as 'standby'! If possible I make my own - and you can make it cheaper than even Aldi by making it in bulk! but, that means taking up room in the freezer or sterilising jars and sometimes the faff is just toooooo much! I am careful to use sauces which dont list too much salt and sugar and if poss - no e numbers or stabilisers. I find the cheaper sauces actually use more wholesome ingredients (all those chemicals are expensive!).
I have to confess that my beef bourgignon is usually made with a 'Homepride Cook in Sauce - Red Wine). Why? cos I aint paying £4 plus for a bottle of cooking wine when a can of sauce is around a £1! chuck in some freshly sauteed mushrooms and onion and no-one realises its canned sauce! I also use a cup of boiling water and a beef stock cube ,and it does taste nice (with the addition of the formentioned mushrooms onion and a bit of bacon).

brokenant

If you want to make in bulk and freeze it try and get in to a cash and carry, 2.5kg tin of chopped toms for £1.50.

lollipopsarah

I make a mean chilli, just a carton of tomato stuff (value ) kidney beans mince (frozen is good).
I dry fry mice and onion, drain add loads of powdered garlic/herbs etc. beans and tomato juice stuff, a bit of extra water and cook slowly for ages - yummy.
(you can cheat and grate a carrot in it too), a couple of packets of rice (lidl is the only one I can get right) and you have a great meal, and usually an extra bowl for the fridge for the fairies with some bread the next day.
x

ubamother

spike7451 wrote: »

......they compared a Carbonara microwave meal against a scratch made one.They de-constructed the ready meal & had the same amount of fresh ingredients & priced them,to make it fresh was IIRC 80 pence CHEAPER over the ready meal.Fresh was also quicker to cook by about 20 seconds,& the fresh tasted far better than the ready meal.

I think this is where being an OS cook is so valuable - while you probably wouldn't be able to buy the exact amount of ingredients, because you can't necessarily buy 3 eggs, or whatever, you have to buy the pack so it feels more expensive when you first buy ingredients. I think non-OS or less confident cooks may look at the total cost of the ingredients as bought and think it's more expensive, whereas confident cooks can see the potential in the unused parts of the ingredients. I think it would be wonderful if cook books for those new to cooking had a recipe, then put underneath a few ideas of how to use the unused portions of ingredients, or leftovers - in a rubber chicken kind of way.

"Economy Gastronomy" does a bit of this and I think it's a great way of writing recipes.

loucroft

lollipopsarah wrote: »

I make a mean chilli, just a carton of tomato stuff (value ) kidney beans mince (frozen is good).
I dry fry mice and onion, drain add loads of powdered garlic/herbs etc. beans and tomato juice stuff, a bit of extra water and cook slowly for ages - yummy.

x

yum, and thats what I do expect for more flavour I add stock instead of water, and a bit of sugar, chocolate or a tiny bit of redcurrant sauce - whatever you have in the cupboard - adds a sweet depth to it...

I'm hungry

mardatha

I'd love a thread or advice on making sauces. I am not used to using herbs in cooking and have bought loads of wee jars and now dono wot to do with them!