M&S 'posh cheesy beans on toast' - waste of money or worth a try?

pumpkin89

Sandtree said:

I'm certainly not suggesting there is a vast saving to make but it was more to illustrate a point that its slightly odd to say its expensive to buy something ready made when you can make it yourself from other ready made components when most of those components can be made cheaper themselves.

I see your point, but there is a considerable saving in time and effort by using ready-made components vs making them from scratch.

The difference between a completely ready-made option and assembling from ready-made components is much smaller, but in this case is commanding a much greater cost premium.

Sandtree

pumpkin89 said:

Sandtree said:

I'm certainly not suggesting there is a vast saving to make but it was more to illustrate a point that its slightly odd to say its expensive to buy something ready made when you can make it yourself from other ready made components when most of those components can be made cheaper themselves.

I see your point, but there is a considerable saving in time and effort by using ready-made components vs making them from scratch.

The difference between a completely ready-made option and assembling from ready-made components is much smaller, but in this case is commanding a much greater cost premium.

If we broadly ignore the matter of which is more tasty...

It depends what value you place on the other aspects rather than just cost/money... its always much cheaper to buy a full size quiche and cut it down into two-bite sized chunks but many people buy canape sized quiches because they look prettier on the plate, they're more practical to have has finger food, normally more effort to make sure each one is equal etc. 

Making them yourself will probably save a tiny amount of money -v- a full size quiche and will require investment in time but will achieve the other aspects of the high cost canape version. 

With the M&S version the brioche has 4 sides of crusts making it look like a miniature beans on toast and "professional" plus I suspect the crusts will help hold it together after the first bite. Cutting down full size slices wont have that. Not sure my baking knowledge is good enough to get the bake time right on a mini loaf first attempt but it would be achievable. 

MrsStepford

Marks & Spencer scored a PR triumph. They've had newspapers, TV stations, Twitter. Facebook and MSE all discussing the product and it's firmly in the brain of thousands of people. It's typically M&S, overpriced tat, but so embedded in the national psyche that any M&S food product gets a halo, whether it deserves one or not. If this product came from Iceland, it wouldn't get a tenth of the publicity and John Lewis types would be sneering at them. 

Rosa_Damascena

MrsStepford said:

Marks & Spencer scored a PR triumph. They've had newspapers, TV stations, Twitter. Facebook and MSE all discussing the product and it's firmly in the brain of thousands of people. It's typically M&S, overpriced tat, but so embedded in the national psyche that any M&S food product gets a halo, whether it deserves one or not. If this product came from Iceland, it wouldn't get a tenth of the publicity and John Lewis types would be sneering at them. 

That is so true. Kerry Katona just doesn't appeal to the same demographic.

Jazz92

defo not worth the money - the chicken donuts were disappointing last year too  

sammyjammy

Girl_Overboard said:

I would love to be served this at a party! It's a bit of a novelty and I bet it tastes delicious. And it's good for vegetarians like me (the choice in vegetarian party food is usually a bit lacking). 

But no, I wouldn't pay £5.75 for a pack. If it works out a lot cheaper in the party food deal I might buy it. Or if I see it reduced to half price or cheaper in M&S I'd definitely get it.

Is it made with vegetarian cheese then?

Mnoee

sammyjammy said:

Girl_Overboard said:

I would love to be served this at a party! It's a bit of a novelty and I bet it tastes delicious. And it's good for vegetarians like me (the choice in vegetarian party food is usually a bit lacking). 

But no, I wouldn't pay £5.75 for a pack. If it works out a lot cheaper in the party food deal I might buy it. Or if I see it reduced to half price or cheaper in M&S I'd definitely get it.

Is it made with vegetarian cheese then?

https://www.google.com/search=is+barber's+mature+cheddar+vegetarian

GaleSF63

sammyjammy said:

Girl_Overboard said:

I would love to be served this at a party! It's a bit of a novelty and I bet it tastes delicious. And it's good for vegetarians like me (the choice in vegetarian party food is usually a bit lacking). 

But no, I wouldn't pay £5.75 for a pack. If it works out a lot cheaper in the party food deal I might buy it. Or if I see it reduced to half price or cheaper in M&S I'd definitely get it.

Is it made with vegetarian cheese then?

Yes it is. Unlike not so many years ago, the vast majority of British cheeses sold by supermarkets and other sources now are suitable for vegetarians. 

Murphybear

Mnoee said:

Sandtree said:

Mnoee said:

Sandtree said:

MSE_Laura_F said:

The MSE Social team spotted that M&S is selling 'posh cheesy beans on toast' for £5.75 as part of its new party food range.

If you want to take it the whole way though, why are you comparing it to buying a loaf of brioche bread? It's cheaper to make your own bread

I was with you right up to 'it's cheaper to make your own bread' - a loaf of brioche uses about six eggs and 200g of butter at a cost of about £2 - plus flour, yeast, milk... Or you can buy a loaf of brioche for £1.49. Making bread is rarely cheaper. Tastier, maybe! 

I'm personally hoping this becomes a massive trend, purely for the inevitable headlines saying that Zoomers can't buy homes because they spend too much on mini cheesy beans on toast. The eldest ones are early 20's, it's only a matter of time. 

Would have compared mine to the only one Tesco's sells which is 400g loaf, Tesco Finest for £2 but we were talking price alone. 

Most recipes I've seen suggest 4 eggs + 1 yoke for a bread to be made in a 900g loaf tin. I'd certainly concede the loaf wont be 900g when baked but without doubt will be more than 400g given it typically has 450g-500g of flour plus the fat and other wet ingredients. 

Clearly there are budget loafs out there but they arent as enriched etc and so you should equally make a poorer quality loaf using less of the more expensive ingredients and cut your price too.

I'm certainly not suggesting there is a vast saving to make but it was more to illustrate a point that its slightly odd to say its expensive to buy something ready made when you can make it yourself from other ready made components when most of those components can be made cheaper themselves... I am assuming we are attempting to make something of comparable quality to the item we are criticising the price of.

I think you're straying into cheese-making there.

I've found there's a fair few 'anomalies' where making it at home just isn't cheaper - quiches, pastry itself, baked beans... And was just pointing out that it's a common misconception that making 'it' at home always saves money.

In the case of this entire product in this size? Yes, cheaper to make it at home - but you'd better have a use for most of a block of posh cheese, half a tin of beans and most of a brioche loaf. Same for using 1.5 eggs, 2/3rds of a bag of flour, 50g of butter etc if you're baking! Either way you're spending a fiver (or more for baking) on ingredients, and while a Warburton-own brand cheese and beans version could be had for less making THIS product for drastically less at home once again isn't really possible - unless you're counting two slices of brioche as your costs, even though you don't really want or need the rest of the loaf. I'm all about food waste being minimal and half an egg costs the same as an egg if you throw the white down the sink after it's sat in your fridge for two days.

When you look at some of the ingredients in prepared food these days you are going to get a much nicer product when you make it yourself.  Here’s a list of ingredients for the M & S cheesy beans

Ingredients

Haricot Beans (20%), Wheatflour contains Gluten (with Wheatflour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Water, Mature Cheddar Cheese (Milk) (13%), Full Fat Soft Cheese (Milk) (5%), Tomato Purée, Double Cream (Milk), Whole Milk, Demerara Sugar, Cornflour, Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, Honey, Vegetable Stock (Water, Onions, Carrots, Leeks, Seaweed, Shiitake Mushrooms, Yeast Extract, Salt, Lemon Juice, Bay Leaves, White Peppercorns, Thyme), Cider Vinegar, Salt, Unsalted Butter (Milk), Vinegar, Yeast, Potato Starch, Dried Fermented Wheatflour (contains Gluten), Dried Skimmed Milk, Black Treacle, Dried Onions, Dried Garlic, Wheat Fibre (contains Gluten), Emulsifier: E471, Ground Spices (Black Pepper, White Pepper, Pimentoes, Ginger, Paprika, Cloves), Concentrated Tamarind

i make my own with beans, cheese and bread 

pumpkin89

Murphybear said:

When you look at some of the ingredients in prepared food these days you are going to get a much nicer product when you make it yourself.

I'm not sure which of those ingredients you're taking issue with?  The only thing you definitely wouldn't use if you made it from scratch is the emulsifier, but E471 is in almost all supermarket breads.  Other than that, everything is there to add flavour.