Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

sillygoose

I can't help wondering if food safety is high on the list with their minimal staff levels. you do see pallets of stuff sat in the isle for ages, especially if its gets busy they abandon what they are doing and go man the tills for a while.

I opened a 'fresh' pack of Lidl cod fillets last night, still 2 days in date to cook in a home made Parsley sauce. The smell was odd to start with but then vacuum packed stuff sometimes is initially. As it cooked it still smelt odd so I binned them in the end, can't risk being ill. There is still a lingering odd smell in the house this morning. Won't be touching anything out of that end fridge again!

Never had problem with milk but I buy the long life stuff by the tray loads when its on offer, we are used to the flavour and you can store it in the garage until needed.

nickyhutch

holidaysforme wrote: »

Any experiences of aldi or lidl steak? I have some steak from aldi in the freezer (aged something or other). Also bought some of the aldi fillet steak last Thursday on their special offer.

Cooking for friend on Thursday night. Which one do you reccomend I cook. I can't remember the last time I cooked steak( not a big red meat eater?
Any tips on how to cook it?

We've had the 28 day aged rump from Aldi and it was surprisingly good. I'd get it again.

Take it out of the fridge an hour before you're cooking it to get it to room temperature. Brush it with olive oil on both sides and season with proper salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan (no oil) til it's hot. Slap the steak in and let it seal for 30 seconds on each side. Cook each side for as long as you like it done (always less than you think!). Chuck a knob of butter in the pan, being careful not to burn it, and when it's melted, spoon it over the steak. Remove the steak from the pan, put it on a plate and cover with foil. Let it rest for 5 minutes while you make some sauce for it. It wont go cold, don't worry.

dandelionclock30

One of my friends is in management at a supermarket and he told me that a lot of Aldis foodstuffs are higher in sugar and salt than the equivalents from other supermarkets and leading manufacturers. Thats why things tend to taste nicer.
I think its something to bear in mind if your slimming or on a low sodium diet. I have noticed myself that they dont have many low sugar items.

GwylimT

I went into our local one on Monday evening, it's a fairly new aldi, unfortunately the broccoli was sprouting and the cauliflower was also gone so I didn't contemplate buying any other fruit or veg. I did get some mayonnaise so I will see what that's like when I try it.

Doc_N

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

One of my friends is in management at a supermarket and he told me that a lot of Aldis foodstuffs are higher in sugar and salt than the equivalents from other supermarkets and leading manufacturers. Thats why things tend to taste nicer.
I think its something to bear in mind if your slimming or on a low sodium diet. I have noticed myself that they dont have many low sugar items.

I think that's extremely unlikely, and I'd like to see some evidence for the claim. I do know, however, that some of the major supermarkets are attempting to 'brainwash' their staff into thinking that their products are better than Aldi/Lidl products in the hope that they'll push that message out more generally. It's in their own interests, too - jobs are at stake.

holidaysforme

nickyhutch wrote: »

We've had the 28 day aged rump from Aldi and it was surprisingly good. I'd get it again.

Take it out of the fridge an hour before you're cooking it to get it to room temperature. Brush it with olive oil on both sides and season with proper salt and pepper. Heat a frying pan (no oil) til it's hot. Slap the steak in and let it seal for 30 seconds on each side. Cook each side for as long as you like it done (always less than you think!). Chuck a knob of butter in the pan, being careful not to burn it, and when it's melted, spoon it over the steak. Remove the steak from the pan, put it on a plate and cover with foil. Let it rest for 5 minutes while you make some sauce for it. It wont go cold, don't worry.

Thank you for the tips. I have a proper heavy pan for steak which hasn't seen the light if day for ages, so I'll use that. My mouth is watering already. Going to make mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese and sweet potato fries to go with it.

holidaysforme

Called in to Aldi this morning for a few bits. Just made a veggie curry, and used their coconut milk. Never tried it before, usually stick to branded. I'll report back.

maman

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

One of my friends is in management at a supermarket and he told me that a lot of Aldis foodstuffs are higher in sugar and salt than the equivalents from other supermarkets and leading manufacturers. Thats why things tend to taste nicer.
I think its something to bear in mind if your slimming or on a low sodium diet. I have noticed myself that they dont have many low sugar items.

I think I'd take that with a pinch of salt (and a spoonful of sugar)!;)

Feral_Moon

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

One of my friends is in management at a supermarket and he told me that a lot of Aldis foodstuffs are higher in sugar and salt than the equivalents from other supermarkets and leading manufacturers. Thats why things tend to taste nicer.
I think its something to bear in mind if your slimming or on a low sodium diet. I have noticed myself that they dont have many low sugar items.

Completely untrue! I check the ingredients of everything I buy, especially salt and sugar as OH had high blood pressure and is diabetic. If anything I've found that stuff from Aldi has less salt and sugar in it than many of the main leading brands in other supermarkets. Maybe that's why they don't sell "low sugar/salt" stuff as it's already low in sugar and salt.


Care to mention which supermarket your "friend" works for? Not a bit of sour grapes to put people off shopping at Aldi by any chance?

Doc_N

Overcharged yet again in Aldi yesterday. Same old story - more items charged for than were bought.

All the usual excuses. Nothing to do with till speed targets, just a retraining need. Again. Mistakes like this are 'inevitable' according to the manager, and necessary to keep prices down.

So that's 5 or 6 separate overcharges in as many months, shopping just once a week at Aldi - a pretty high 'mistake' rate.

Given the number of other people just in this one thread referring to Aldi overcharging on a regular basis, I'm starting to think there might be a deliberate policy here:

Just stick a few extra items through, and 99% of customers won't notice. Tell the 1% who complain that it's just a mistake.

The odd mistake I can accept. Persistent overcharging like this, though, looks like either not caring, or, worse still, downright deceit.

Either way, I've now lost all trust in Aldi. If we can't trust them not to overcharge, what else are they trying to get away with? Sadly, it looks as if they're actually worse than Tesco after all.