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Bargain Basement

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Renee » Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:05 pm

Sakkarin, I've used butter to make dumplings and it worked well.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:41 pm

That was quite an old post Renée, I'd tried it since using flora and it was OK, but didn't quite have that texture of a suet dumpling. So it'll have to be suet for special occasions...

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby jeral » Sat Nov 23, 2019 2:19 pm

Half price Christmas crackers at Waitrose:
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/feat ... =466144425

Surely when at full price they are for people with more money than sense. There's also a conscience issue now over the unnecessary wastage for 10 seconds' delight.

A friend in France was saying they just didn't have fancy Christmas cards there, so I sent him a fancy one to enjoy and got told off for wasting trees :oops:

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Nov 23, 2019 6:11 pm

I have found TK Maxx to be a very good source of [youtube][/youtube]posh crackers in the past

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Gillthepainter » Mon Nov 25, 2019 11:16 am

I'll have a look at TKMaxx then.
The Waitrose gifts aren't particularly good, although the (half price) crackers do look rather fine.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby jeral » Tue Nov 26, 2019 1:57 pm

Morrison's lucky dip boxes £3.09 from today via app:.

"Customers can purchase the boxes of unsold fruit & veg, bakery and deli items worth at least £10 for £3.09 through the Too Good To Go app. The contents of the boxes will be revealed when picked up from stores."

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/food-waste/ ... 78.article

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Nov 29, 2019 5:33 pm

Lidl "Thai Red Curry Paste".

I apologise if I said it looked like a bargain at 68p. It's not authentic Red Curry Paste at all.

The first two ingredients are water and tomato paste.

The eighth ingredient on the list (given that they're supposed to be listed by quantity, highest down) is "Red Curry Paste"!!!! Below "modified maize starch". There is less curry paste in it than there is maize starch and rapeseed oil. How many recipes for red curry paste have you seen that include tomato paste or maize starch? Or water as the primary ingredient?!?

The worst thing about it is that I thought it was a "Thai Taste" product, which is recognised as a superior brand. It's not, it is designed to mimic their packaging, and is branded "Taste of Thailand". I see that Lidl have their office in Wimbledon. Taste of Wimbledon maybe. The label does say "produced in the UK".

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Nov 29, 2019 6:46 pm

The worst thing about it is that I thought it was a "Thai Taste" product, which is recognised as a superior brand.

Really? I've always though Thai Taste was pretty poor, especially the gritty shrimp paste.

Though not as bad as the slight similar looking brand "Al-Hafez" for middle eastern/North African foods. The first ingredient in their ras-el-hanout is that well known exotic Moroccan spice, bouillon powder. Steenberg's is good but £££, might try Waitrose Ingredients,

I tend to stick to Mae Ploy and Healthy Boy for Thai as far as possible, but that doesn't get you everything, And of course Squid brand fish sauce,

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby jeral » Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:37 pm

Sodastream are offering their Genesis model at £49.99 again "while stocks last" (which probably means you'll get one despite being Black Friday).

http://email.sodastream.co.uk/public/vi ... 31a6ec09d7

I bought one of these around July and have used it almost every day (after it being recommended on here). Mine came with a £10 voucher but NB it was printed on the box it came in so easy to miss. An email to them gives a voucher code that you can apply to your next gas cannister refill, which cost 12.99 (+£10 returnable deposit) and makes c 60 litres.

Generally, I use mine almost every day. One snag was that I found the 680ml bottle lost fizz easily so shelled out some more for a pair of the smaller bottles which do retain the fizz better. I tried the grapefruit essence flavouring which tasted like petrol to me, so don't go berserk and order different flavourings until you've tried at least one.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby jeral » Fri Nov 29, 2019 7:49 pm

I bought some avocado oil pan spay which is 30%, so 70% other. I knew it was that from the reviews but I question the labelling, flashed "with Avocado Oil"

The name is Frylight, but I thought the flashed ingredient had to be the primary ingredient. Apparently not.

I can't say how good it is as I can't get any to come out of the nozzle even for first use, so presumably can't be gunked up yet. Not one of my better purchases it seems.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:04 pm

"Blended" sesame oil winds me up too, which is 50% anyotheroldoil, and "blended" in tiny type.

And that Clarks "Original" Maple Syrup which looks authentic but is 50% carob.

I can't remember where I saw it Sue, but I recall Thai Taste pastes getting good reviews. It always pays to read the label. Most Thai curry pastes miss the mark nowadays.

EDIT I was thinking of getting one of those fill-it-yourself oil sprayers, but not sure where to start. Anyone got one they can review? Is there any reason I can't just use a 50p water sprayer similar to the one I use to spray my rolls before they go in the oven??

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:19 pm

Possibly "primary ingredient" is the largest single ingredient? So 30% avo, 25% something else and so on.. mind you I got caught by Lee Kum Kee's Sesame dressing, it's 5% sesame, quite nice, but a few extra drops of oil help if you actually want to dress a salad with it,

I'm not a great fan of Frylight either, I think the emulsifiers cling to some pans, especially those ceramic Green Pans and ultimately burn on

I have a spray bottle that I fill with sunflower oil and it works just fine

Sesame oil and Clark's annoy me too, I spent ages in Morrison's trying to explain to a Hebrew speaking lady why it was so much cheaper, she spoke little English and her Yiddish didn't follow my German (not that I know the German for maple syrup of course, it's basic schoolgirl stuff). I think I got across echt (genuine) and ersatz (sham) eventually

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby jeral » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:44 pm

Stokey Sue, I should have added that the avo oil states 53% rapeseed so 30% avo is definitely not the largest ingredient. Not to worry.

As you were...

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Pampy » Fri Nov 29, 2019 9:05 pm

I bought an oil sprayer from Lakeland and it was carp - just shot out a stream of oil, not a spray. For the cost of a cheapo plastic sprayer, it's worth giving one a go before thinking of paying more for a custom-made one.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:48 pm

I'll give one a try I think.

Butter or Marg?

I just bought a 210 gram pack of shortbread from Lidl. I didn't expect much, as it was only 42p. However it was so unbuttery that I thought I'd check to see if it had ANY butter in it (i.e. most readymade pastry contains no butter), and it claimed it was 32% butter!!!!

I did a calculation, and worked out that if that was true, it had 67 grams of butter. I did a second sum, based on the current price of butter of £1.50 (and up...), and worked out that 67g of butter costs 40p. So my 42p pack of not very buttery shortbread contained 40p's worth of butter!

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby strictlysalsaclare » Sun Dec 01, 2019 6:36 pm

I find that most ready made shortbread is made with unsalted butter nowadays so its tasteless.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Dec 01, 2019 6:59 pm

I brook some proper all butter shortbread to an event at the Berlin office

It was ignored

Then Juergen took one to have with his coffee and said something like “oh, but it doesn’t taste plain!” The feast vanished in about 20 minutes and it was a big pack

If it’s not flashed All Butter, don’t bother. Paterson’s is pretty much all palm oil now.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby WWordsworth » Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:04 pm

Bombay Sapphire, £18 for a litre in Aldi this morning.

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:00 pm

Loads of Christmassy stuff in the shops, but my fave today was Mini Pannetone for 39p at Lidl, I wonder how long I can save them for special treats?

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Re: BARGAIN BASEMENT

Postby WWordsworth » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:40 pm

Sorry, the gin offer is at Tesco not Aldi.

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