What are the most cost effective foods to make at home?

Brambling

Katiehound said:

I'm told that the blackberries out of the blackberry whisky jar make blackberry & apple pie/ crumble into something rather (decadent??) special! I ate mine with ice cream- sozzled blackberries I mean, without the crumble.

Blackberries seem to be the one fruit that you can  infuse in whisky as it has such a strong flavour. it's good stuff.

I have read that you shouldn't soak for more than 3 months or it can tasty woody. 

Blackcurrant vodka or gin (or as we told my nephews when they were little 'grown up Ribena'  ) the infused blackcurrants make a great vanilla ice cream topping   

Katiehound

no blackcurrant gin here- no free blackcurrants sadly or any other soft fruit come to that.......
In the past I have made limoncello when cheap lemons have been available.

You could have blackberry gin but I had a glut of whisky! How sad was that???

Floss

Damsons that have been in gin can be stoned & either dipped in chocolate or just dolloped onto icecream 😋 

newlywed

I once made crumpets from scratch. I wanted to know how to…. They were nice enough but way too much time and effort compared to purchasing warbs packet!

I had left over cream the other week so tried to make butter in a jar. Erm, bit too messy for me and would rather buy it.

Rosa_Damascena

newlywed said:

I once made crumpets from scratch. I wanted to know how to…. They were nice enough but way too much time and effort compared to purchasing warbs packet!

I had left over cream the other week so tried to make butter in a jar. Erm, bit too messy for me and would rather buy it.

Crumpets can often be found adorned with YS. I have often bought 9-packs in Lidl with the green 20p label towards the end of the day, same with lots of other processed bakery goodies.

I agree, the big money-saver is making soup / curry with YS goodies.  Mushrooms are often reduced any it's easy to make couscous / bulgar wheat / a pilaf with them.

CapricornLass

1I've used raspberries (with vodka), sloes (foraged, and with gin) and cherries with brandy, as well as limoncello and blackberry whisky. 

I do have a sour cherry tree in the garden, though.

PipneyJane

Floss said:

Damsons that have been in gin can be stoned & either dipped in chocolate or just dolloped onto icecream 😋 

I make Sloe Gin Truffles from sloes that have been "ginned" for 3-4 months.  Very moreish. Even my husband, who doesn't like gin, loves them.

The recipe I use comes from the (now defunct) sloe.biz website, but I'm sure any truffles recipe can be adapted.

- Pip

leftatthetrafficlights

All the fruits that I use to flavour alcohol get made into jam - works brilliantly 😁

sillyvixen

My Gran worked for the a Dr in the village, he lived in the big house with loads of land, including plum orchards. She cleaned for him. During the growing season there were always surpless bits and bobs from the kitchen garden which she was given an able to transport home in the basket of her bike. Come plum season my gran would be given a huge tin bath of plums from the orchard dropped off by an estate worker who passed her house on the way home. The plums were divided between my Gran, my Mum and my Nanna. Mum made plum wine, Gran stewed hers and froze to make crumbles, and Nanna turned hers into plum jam. Just seemed to me everyone had different skills to use up the free fruit. Although there was no way anyone would have made so much if they were buying from the supermarket.