Home made pie. Why bother??

Pink.

Hi flyer,

For me OS cooking is more about quality rather than price (although I do try to get the best value ingredients for my money).

We don't have a Somerfield here so I haven't tried their pies but I bet your homemade pie was much tastier than any pie you could buy in a supermarket. Homemade food tastes so much better and as previous posters have mentioned you know exactly what's gone into it.

There's an older thread on this topic that might interest you:

Is OS *REALLY* cheaper?

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep all the replies together.

Pink

liz545

As you've already bought the fat & flour etc, why not make several batches of pastry and freeze them? I usually only make top-crust pies, because it's a bit healthier that way; and I use stewing beef/shin etc which is inexpensive and suited to long, slow cooking. Then you just need onions/carrots/mushrooms, stock or ale. There's really no point buying a very expensive cuts of meat for pies or stews, leftover roast meat or cheap cuts give a great result!

moanymoany

If you buy a Somerfield pie and take it to pieces, you should get a better idea of the quantity of ingredients to use in your own. Just take off the top, pick out all the bits of meat and any veg. You can either count the bits or meat or weigh them. The same with the vegetables, if there are any. Put it back together and eat it.

What you will get is an idea of how much meat to how much gravy. This will mean you can make pies that are the same price. I would be surprised if it worked out more expensive.

Anyhow, if it does, I would keep buying the Somerfield pies.

Penelope_Penguin

flyer wrote: »

Yesterday, I thought I would do the right thing and make a steak and ale pie for the family. The ingredients cost about £5 in total and, whilst the pie was very nice, I can get the same thing at Somerfield for £1.60!!

Can someone explain to me why I should do it again?

If it really is *the same thing* then buy the shop pie. However, I bet your pie is much better, and as others have said, you may well have ingredients left as basis for more pies.

Penny. x

LuciferTDark

Home made always tastes better to me, mostly because I know exactly what's going into it & can adjust the flavouring to my taste, shop bought are "static" in flavouring & not always what I want at the time.

jcr16

if it is just the cost , then go for shop bought if that makes u happier.

but the main thing about making your own is , you know excalty what is in it. there are no added yucky extra's. no additives or things with long names that u just don't know what they are.

being cheaper dpesn't always mean it is better. i expect u prob had more meat in your pie, and proberly a nicer quality of meat.

Pipkin

I make homemade chicken pie (never tried steak) , and it is way cheaper and nicer than anything in the shops.

I reckon for the price of a pie for each of us (one of those individaul slice things), if I was paying full price, I could make at least 12 individual single portion home made ones, maybe more if I put less filling in them.

Steak would be more expensive though I think.

flyer

Wow. Never expected so many replies! The meat wasn't overly expensive, but the can of Guinness was about £1 :rotfl:

I guess the bottom line is I'm paying for the quality and knowledge of what's going in.

I have to say, it was good.

Actiongirl_2

flyer wrote: »

Wow. Never expected so many replies! The meat wasn't overly expensive, but the can of Guinnes was about £1 :rotfl:

I guess the bottom line is I'm paying for the quality and knowledge of what's going in.

I have to say, it was good.

Marry an Irishman like I am doing... there are always residual cans of guinness in the fridge, particularly during the 6 Nations! He always gets steak in guinness at this time of the year!!

lindab15

I've always tended to cook from scratch, but like many before me am sometimes tempted with the cut-price ready meals / pies / snacks in the supermarket, both to make the food budget stretch a bit further and as a handy stand-by when we're rushed or when the kids are whinging they don't want what I've planned for tea that night.

I don't stress about it if it stays the occasional lapse (or indulgence, depending on what I've found in the mark-down section !). HOWEVER, after seeing bits ('bits' being the operative word - yuck) of Jamie Oliver's programme last night, it's re-emphasised the importance of knowing what's in your food.

The scenes with the German Pathologist (or whatever he was) doing an autopsy on the 25 stone man, and the frozen-then-sawed-through bodies of a thin and a fat corpse, to compare the inner layers of fat and damage were some of the most horrible things I've seen for a while. And me who's too scaredy-cat to watch re-runs of Dracula !! :eek:

The amount of hidden fat, sugar and salt in pre-prepared and junk food is truly scary. I think it's to bulk out products so they look bigger, and to disguise poor quality, tasteless ingredients to keep their costs down.

I bought some sandwiches today as I'd been too rushed to make my own (usually do - honest !) and I couldn't believe the fat content on some of them - some would practically have wiped out my recommended intake for the day ! In view of last nights viewing, it's made me reconsider the relative meanings of 'cost', 'price' and 'value'.

I definitely need to grow more veg and herbs and stuff this year. And follow even more of MSE's great tips about freezing meal 'building blocks' and HM 'ready' meals.
I LOVE MSE ! :T