I've noticed recently that several UK supermarkets are trying to attract Christmas shoppers by advertising 'Lowest ever prices'. I heard one (I think it was the Co-op) offering 1 lb of Sausages and a bag of frozen chips for £2.50.
To me this spells cheap food, rubbish food, food you really wouldn't want to eat. This is not celebratory fare. A tube of 'mechanically recovered meat' mixed with powdered skin and breadcrumbs, plus plenty of E numbers, isn't my idea of a sausage; and Potatoes cost nothing..
Am I alone in wanting quality over price? If they were offering the finest quality, at the correct price, I might be tempted (actually I wouldn't), but simply trying to attract the poorest in society by offering everything 'cheap' seems thoroughly wrong.
My own supermarket occasionally offers fruit and vegetables at 'Cost Price', but even then I only buy if it's already on my list; I'm never tempted by price alone.
Christmas should not be about spending lots of money, nor should it be about buying cheap rubbish. In my opinion it should be about families, and enjoying being together. The exchanging of small gifts and the enjoyment of special foods should not be at the expense of either quality or debt.
Have nothing to do with 'Lowest ever prices', they mean that farmers are probably being swindled, and the public are being fed trash.
I think you have to be quite discerning. You are absolutely right about not putting rubbish in our bodies. It's not nutrition its just a filler. But if you are poor and hungry then it's what you need. The trouble is a lot of today's generation can't really cook. It's easy to make inexpensive, nutritious food for pennies, if you can cook.
ReplyDeleteI have just taken advantage of an offer at my local supermarket. Fresh, whole salmon down to £5 a kilo. I bought two. It cost me £26 and the fishmonger boned and trimmed it. I got it home and cut it into 32 portions and froze it.That's good value.
You're quite right, except I think the 'poor and hungry' would do better to buy some potatoes and butter, and make some delicious baked potatoes for almost nothing. I do it, and am neither poor nor hungry; I do it because it tastes so good.
DeleteIt's a great shame that ALL children are not taught basic cookery at school, I'd love to see an end to all those young mums who fill their shopping trolleys with ready meals. OK, once in a while is fine, but all the time is not only expensive, but probably not too healthy.
I have been in the position of struggling to feed my children so cheap sausages were better than none but I would buy potatoes and make my own chips rather than buy frozen ones
ReplyDeleteIf you'd read the ingredients on those economy sausage packs, you would probably have bought the better ones; they really do contain the scrapings off the floor (off the bones). It's a cynical way of selling what would otherwise have been thrown away.
DeletePoor ingredients, a lack of cookery knowledge, and cheap kitchen ware that means food burns more easily, and people lose heart when it comes to learning to cook. I wince every time I see someone on TV use a knife on a glass 'chopping' board.
ReplyDeleteI still have a wonderful 70s Terence Conran cookbook that stresses the importance of a good batterie de cuisine. Very few gadgets, just good quality basic kit!
Elizabeth David used to say the same, and listed addresses where such things were available.
DeleteFor the inability of two generations to cook I blame the invention of the microwave.
ReplyDeleteI have a microwave which I use exclusively for re-heating Couscous, or my last night's curry for breakfast.
DeleteWe are making our Christmas time much smaller, it's now not about gifts and who got the best item, it's about people, grandchildren, family together. These days Christmas is oh so much better.
ReplyDeleteI wish everyone would do that. I would love to see a big cut in commercialisation. You wouldn't believe the new temporary Chocolate sector of my supermarket.... it's obscene.
DeleteBefore I met my OH I was struggling to pay my mortgage and have enough money left over to eat. My weekly grocery shop usually consisted of potatoes, milk and a packet of semolina. All cheap and filling but not much in the way of vitamins!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a student I survived on chips. Goodness knows what my body thought about it, but it didn't complain.
DeleteI spent a long time having to set off quality against price, often by too much and regretting it. My rule now: decide the best you can afford, then buy the next level up so long as it's not above the silly ceiling.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had a roast Chicken for weeks. I've always bought good quality birds, but preferred to wait a while before buying a really top quality one; which I roasted last night. It was expensive, but superb. I shall continue to do the same in future.
DeleteFarmers here are given a hard time by supermarkets, like milk for $1. Oddly they used have co-operatives to negotiate prices for them but they were privatised and corporatised and then destroyed. Farmers killed their golden goose that bought in their income for thirty pieces of silver.
ReplyDeleteYou can just imagine what the supermarket buyers say to the multi-national meat processors who make their sausages. 'We want less meat, more gloop, and more pink'. Nasty.
DeleteCompletely agree Cro, they should never have stopped cookery classes at school. I must have been one of the last ones to have them and I am eternally grateful for that. I make my own sausages.Skinless, a pound of minced pork, the ground up slices of crust off the ends of our homemade bread, a few herbs, sometimes a bit of bacon as well and bingo, sausages to put in the freezer. At least I know what's in them.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sue. I think they stopped cookery classes at school just after I left (along with needlework, woodwork and metalwork - for both boys and girls) but I was lucky that the interest was always there for me. I love cooking. Can't wait to have grandchildren to show them how it's done!
DeleteAt this very moment, Lady M is showing Boo Boo (grandson) how to make a Christmas Cake. Start 'em young!
DeleteSue, our sausages here are just Pork with salt and pepper. Not made by me unfortunately. They are sold in one long piece.
I agree with you is that the best part about Christmas is time spent with family and friends. This will be an especially wonderful one for you and Lady M this year. Enjoy every moment.
ReplyDeleteThey're all getting excited already. I think it's going to be a very good Christmas.
DeleteWhen I was strapped for cash I used to hunt for good quality out of date products - many I got for half price or less. The amount of perfectly good food thrown away is staggering.
ReplyDeleteI'm always hearing about UK supermarkets that sell off fresh products for nearly nothing on Friday evenings. Unfortunately I've never been there to take advantage. A big joint of Beef for a fiver sounds very inviting; even if it is past its sell by date.
DeleteCouldn't agree more Cro - quality over quantity any day for me. I have just bought sausages in the Co-op this morning (a very good Co-op here in our little town) £4 for four outdoor reared, rare breed pork - mixed with several cheeses - they were fat, large and a joy to look at - expensive maybe but one was ample with lots of veggies - can't wait for another tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really good. Here they are decidedly unadventurous with sausages; always plain Pork. They don't consider that they could be improved upon, but I don't suppose they've tried.
DeleteI do look for special offers but only buy stuff that is good quality and something I want anyway. I only buy legs of lamb when they are on 'special'. And I can't resist Bassetts Liqorice Allsorts when they're half price!
ReplyDeleteI usually buy frozen legs of lamb for the freezer when they're on 'special', but with lamb the quality is never compromised; nor I imagine would it be with Liquorice Allsorts.
DeleteI'm amazed at young people who can't cook even the simplest of meals from scratch and rely on cheap, low quality "bargain" food. It's not a bargain if it destroys your health, and often the cost is actually much higher than it seems. As you said, nothing is simpler than baking a potato, or to cook a pot of rice or pasta and add some veggies or small amounts of meat. It's not rocket science but you'd think it was.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed seeing 'young Mums' buying piles of packaged ready meals at the supermarket. I feel like giving them a good talking to.
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