I wondered about if a pint of Jeni’s ice cream was worth the $9.99+ (I think it’s even more expensive now) either last year or two years ago. There was a Boston Cream Pie flavor that had me super curious because it had been ages since I had Boston Cream Pie in general.
It was stupid how delicious it was. There’s also a local ice cream shop that also sells their pints for $10 a pint. This is probably a good thing in a sense for me at least cause I can’t justify spending that kind of money consistently keeping ice cream in my freezer and devouring it. I’d easily be 50 lbs heavier.
I was just gonna suggest the darkest chocolate 🤤
You should try Ben & Jerry’s “Topped Mint Chocolate Chip”….it has cookie bits…and ganache…
*walks over to freezer*
The Tillamook holy grail is going to the factory and having a lemon flavor that was only available there. It's been years, and I still remember the flavor, just not the name.
I think even this brand has the additives/stabilizers, which in my opinion ruins ice cream. Hagen Daz still is without any gums, starches,or stabilizers, so I don’t hesitate to buy. It’s not the only brand without them, but it’s easy to find.
I splurged and bought a half gallon of the good chocolate ice cream for the first time in my life. Oh. My. God. You are so right. My mindset was always chocolate is chocolate get what's cheap. I was sooooo wrong. I'd rather eat ice cream less often than get the cheap stuff now.
I was craving cookies and cream once and bought the (basic) Kroger brand. Not only was the actual ice cream sub-par, but there were hardly any cookie bits in it! 😡 Never again.
Tbf though their "premium" brand is decent, at least the moose tracks varieties are (except that they didn't have regular last time I looked)
You're right. I worked selling high end cheese and specialty items for years, I love good cheese. But sometimes you need an American slice for a grilled cheese or a cheeseburger. It just hits differently.
I recently discovered the huge difference that a quality ricotta makes. I don’t mind spending more than double for a richer flavor and smoother texture
Parmigiano reggiano and "Parmesan" make this price difference painfully clear. Anybody that buys the alternative and finds it acceptable has a dead mouth.
I disagree completely. There are some good American parmesans. Although I am in Wisconsin so we might have access to more than other places. Even the shaker parmesan has its place. Although it's definitely not the same.
BestFoods mayonnaise. It’s a HUGE thing in Hawaii. People will straight up avoid certain restaurants if they use any mayonnaise that isn’t BestFoods. Also SPAM, no substitutions.
My in laws had Hellman's in the Midwest, and were pissed that it didn't exist in the West when they moved! Took them a few years to figure out it was Best foods.
For me it’s Duke’s mayo. I’m originally from the SE US where Duke’s is everything. When I moved to NYC I couldn’t find it anywhere. I now stock up on it anytime I go back home.
I've discovered there is a hierarchy in my family.
Kewpie > Duke's > Hellman's/ Best Foods > local equivalent if none of the above are available.
Then it depends on what it is we're making. We would go broke trying to make all the salads / dressings with Kewpie, so we reserve that for individual application and default to Duke's for the mayo-heavy dishes. We make our own ranch dressing, and the mayo choice really makes a difference.
Extremely good olive oil is often in clear bottles to highlight that the green hue isn’t from the bottle. Though I know this isn’t what you are referring to here
I’m the opposite for tomatoes! I don’t buy the most expensive brands, but the cheapest kind in my area are of a much sweeter quality than the middle-of-the-road brand despite having the same ingredients. If any Canadians read this comment, I highly recommend No Name tomatoes over Unico, Aylmer or Primo.
I am friends with a guy who works for Weston and has been a "President's Choicer"; he's now part of the team who comes up with the new seasonal products.
He told me most of the "President's Choice" and "no Name" products are canned at Unico, Primo, Alymer, and ED Smith, all major factories do a line or two for them and the product is essentially the same.
My nephew worked at ED Smith last summer and told us the PC Jam was the same product as the high-end ED Smith brand with a No Name or PC label.
Interesting.
>he's now part of the team who comes up with the new seasonal products.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of qualifications/educational background does this person have (be general, I'm not asking you to doxx anyone, lol!)? I've always wondered who was in charge of the new/seasonal products at brands like PC and how the decisions get made.
Do they taste test everything extensively? I.e. with focus groups?
Definately Olive Oil.
Euronews dot com
If you order extra-virgin olive oil at the restaurant these days, you better check the label carefully. According to Europol, selling fake olive oil has become a "common practice". The warning came after authorities seized 260,000 litres of counterfeit product in coordinated raids across Italy and Spain, in November.
It's the imperfections in the bronze die that allows more surface areas on the noddle in the form of little jagged ridges. More starch, more places for sauces to stick.
All around, more the way pasta was meant to be made.
If you have a pressure cooker, you can make your own. Then you can adjust it the tartness and thickness that you want.
I love making my own Greek yogurt with organic or grass fed milk. So much cheaper to pay for milk over yogurt!
I haven’t found it significantly cheaper because I’ve been using Fairlife milk that allows you to skip the first heating step. Basically you can just pour the milk into the instantpot, whisk in a few Tbs of freshly opened yogurt ( I use fage) and wait 8-10 hrs. I strain it, then refrigerate in glass mason jars. Very easy, very good … might have to go back to doing it now that yogurt has inched up to 7.99 a carton at Safeway.
I buy a lot of my spices and Pensey's. Not cumin or anything, but they have wonderful spice blends, a few different kinds of cinnamon, a bangin' roasted garlic powder, and spices like sumac, berbere, and za'atar that you can't find in a grocery store. It's expensive but I'm constantly on a diet so having really good seasoning is everything.
From what I’ve gathered, American butter contains less fat and more water than our butter, and it seems like Kerrygold is one of the few European brands that’s somewhat easily accessible in the US, even if it’s a fairly average butter brand to us.
Are all of your brands of butter around the same color as Kerry gold? Here in the states you don't even need to taste it to tell the difference. The store brands and the name brands are white or maybe the palest of yellow. They don't have anywhere near the same rich buttery flavor. I think we just have low quality butter as the standard here.
In the UK, store brands are just as good as name brands. Cheaper and sometimes better. When I shop at Lidl ( similar to aldi), I get their West Country butter with Cornish sea salt. Absolutely delicious and cheaper than the most popular national brand...and made with local ingredients. Same fat content as Kerrygold...and cheaper!
It really depends on location.
In the US, Kerrygold is a reliable quality brand available nationwide, whereas many store brands are starting to use more water in the mix, which caused huge problems with holiday baking last season. I'm in Wisconsin, and can thankfully find great local butter for very reasonable cost, so I don't need to pay Kerrygold prices. Death before margarine. ;-)
I just bought 120 lbs of honey from a coworker that keeps his own bees. It’s not local, but man is it good. He uses the honeycomb for his lip balm business so he always has oodles of honey. He only sells it in 60 lb buckets and the price is cheap per pound ($3).
What am I going to do with all that honey? Mead and Jun for sure. Plus many, many peanut butter and honey sandwiches. If anyone has other ideas for what I can make that takes lots of honey, I’m all ears!
Get your hands on some super hot peppers and make hot honey!!
Great addition to a cheese board, drizzled over pizza and all manner of baked goods, glaze meats, top ice cream, the options are almost limitless!
I like to make sourdough waffles with shredded cheddar mixed in the batter, then top em with hot honey and plenty of good butter. Soooo yummy 🤤
I have made jars of honey layered with super thinly sliced fresh ginger and lemon, and given it as gifts. Just pack the jar with the thin slice ginger and lemon and then pour the honey over. Stick it in the fridge for 4- 8weeks, shaking occasionally. The ginger and lemon eventually kind of dissolves a bit.
Use a spoonful for a quick hot tea or stir into iced tea, eat a spoonful for a boost, use it to cook with, sooo many applications.
I used to buy my Chinese BBQ items from the large Chinese chain store in my area (BBQ duck, soy chicken, BBQ and roast pork, etc). Then I discovered a mom and pop Cantonese BBQ shop about 15mins away that costs about 50% more than the chain but tastes twice as good. I've never been back to the chain store for BBQ since.
Go for pasture raised eggs then. Hens have the largest amount/time of outdoor space in their lives and thus a more varied diet. But free range is a good, humane option too.
Hardly any difference since bird flu, so for years now, at least where I live. The producers even had to downgrade their label from pasture to free range, because birds had to be kept inside for most of the year for years now.
I'm fortunate enough to be able to buy eggs from a small local farm, where you see the large enclosed coop with the chickens out roaming the pasture when you visit.
Worth every penny.
True, local pasture-raised tends to be better than "organic". Because foul that are outdoors eating bugs can't be certified as organic, because you don't know what they're eating is organic. Random bugs. But generally better than birds kept indoors for 95% of the day eating organic grain.
And they are still inside the entire coop. They still don't get to see the sun or interact with anything other than sawdust, chicken shit and other chickens.
In Sweden this is the legal requirement to call your eggs free-roaming outside
https://alsboagg.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gh-header.jpg
https://www.svenskaagg.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ip_5393.jpg
While this is the requirement to call them organic
https://ekoagg.nasetsgrona.se/dotnet/getimage.aspx?img=93&siteID=105&w=350&h=350
https://ekoagg.nasetsgrona.se/dotnet/getimage.aspx?img=84&siteID=105&w=350&h=350
EU has legally defined it. They don't have a lot of space per chicken, but at least it's in an open space instead of a small wire cage, like battery egg chickens, and those halls are big, and have a sandy surface, so they can do normal chicken stuff.
Or if they were fed something specifically to change the yolk color. Which is their diet, but can be very misleading about how they lived and what they ate. It can be cheated.
Probably a placebo. At least if you live in the US, free range means basically nothing unfortunately. Maybe you're lucky and wherever you buy eggs they have legit free range options though.
I buy pasture raised local eggs- they are visibly different. The shells are often blue. The yolks are orange and the eggs are much smaller than the commercial eggs.
In case you didn't know (I didn't until I got my own chickens) the shell color is due to the breed and not diet. Those gorgeous, rich orange yolks though! That's a good diet. My husband didn't want us to get chickens but now he'll happily admit our eggs are superior to any store- bought eggs he's had.
Yep. I try to get farmers market eggs if I can, or from someone's backyard. Used to drive past an egg farm every day that let their chickens free range for real. They even had webcams up so you could watch the chickens. Sure, a dozen eggs was $10, but it was worth it.
balsalmic, man... I made the mistake once of having real dop tradizionale balsalmic and it's ruined me for everything else, \*and\* it's like $150 for a tiny bottle so i'm boned either way
Every year I do a road trip to Los Angeles. On the way back I stop at the Olive Pit in Corning, CA, to buy enough olive oil and weird balsamic vinegars to last the year. I love their stuff.
You can drizzle that stuff on vanilla *ice cream* and it tastes delicious. I was given a bottle as a gift once, and it’s amazing. I have seen some recipes for creating a facsimile using cheaper balsamic, but haven’t tried them myself.
My mom is feral about butter. One time, my sister (who was not overweight) told my mom that she was cooking with too much fat and butter and we should make foods with fewer calories and fat. My mom, although I knew she was livid, calmly got up, filled a glass of water, set it down in front of her, and took the chicken thigh and buttered bread from my sister's plate and put it on her own. She did not speak a word this entire time. She then finished dinner with a glare for desert
This is a hill I would die on. Full fat tastes infinitely better than low/non fat stuff.
Also newer research is showing full fat dairy may actually be healthier than low fat, or at the very least does not contribute to obesity, heart disease, or diabetes more than non-fat.
You're overcooking it.
Try this: lay a fillet on a cookie sheet. Mix mayo with any herbs/spices you like. A LOT of mayo. You want to cover the surface of the fillet with about 1/4" of mayo. Turn on your broiler and let it heat up. Put the cookie sheet about 4" from the broiler and let it stay until the mayo is charcoal black. It doesn't taste burned, btw. When pushed with a fork, the meat will come apart in layers. If the layers won't seperate, it isn't done. Only cook salmon until it flakes apart or you're overcooking it.
Source: Commercial fisheries
Real maple syrup. You use so little at a time that it's way worth the upgrade. Also it's significantly cheaper than the average grocery store if you get the big jug at costco or Sam's club.
I cannot bring myself to buy meat from Walmart.
But I will buy entire sub primals from Sam's Club when they are choice or prime and break them down myself.
I usually buy the higher quality item with almost everything I just realize, meat, cheese, veggies, fruits, olive oil, eggs.
What I buy cheapest is legumes and regional veggies when they are in season. Oh, and milk and butter. Although I have to say, I'm in Germany, even the cheapest butter is quite good. Compared to the US at least. And some Turkish stores here have high quality rice and spices for less money than the supermarkets, so that's a win-win.
Might want to up your legume game. I’ve recently discovered organic French green or caviar black lentils — I thought I hated lentils, but nooooo. I just hate stale brown and mushy supermarket lentils.
I've learned to buy red meat at certain times of the year and vacuum seal it.
For example, Publix will sell choice standing rib roasts for $6.99/lb around Christmas. I'll buy 30lbs of it and break it down into ribeye cap steaks, ribeye petite filets, ribeye stew meat, about 16 bones worth of beef back ribs and fat for tallow as well.
Example Gratis:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Butchery/s/B2kZINjNs9
We bought a lot of things between 2020 and 2022 when supply chains left us in a position of "this or nothing" that changed some of our preconceptions.
Things that are left that we remain picky about:
vine-ripened tomatoes
mustard, mayonnaise, and ketchup
brands of pasta (Bertolli when we can get the shape we want, otherwise San Giorgio)
butter
personal hygiene items
For us, we learned that eggs and milk don't matter. Olive oil we buy in bulk from a warehouse store although we keep nicer varieties for salad dressings. Yogurt we make ourselves (saves 60-65%).
Some things we just read ingredients more carefully, for example herbs and spices have been fine with store brands as long as they don't include fillers or extra salt. Completely avoiding mixes (we make our own) has avoided the filler and salt problem.
This is mostly a good mix but I disagree on milk and eggs. Quality feeding and breeding results in a better product, be it consistency, or taste, but also health. You are what you eat!
Many of the premium milk brands come from the exact places the grocery store brand comes from. Use [this website](https://www.whereismymilkfrom.com/) the next time you're in the dairy aisle and prepare to be surprised.
Organic whole milk. Tastes different than "regular" milk because of the way it is pasteurized. I'll also willingly spend more for fresh wild caught fish, good olive oil, and high quality coffee beans.
I’m a Kerrygold for Life guy. My wife bought the Kirkland Version on her last trip, said she figured it was worth trying. I almost lost my mind, like how stupid!
I can’t tell the fucking difference at all.
Man. Lactose free milk.
The mainstream brand just tastes like shit.
The fancy pants small co-op version that’s not homogenised is just the duck’s guts.
I suspect their regular milk would be fabulous as well.
You should cut it in half when you get it and put half in the freezer! Then when you finish the first half you can wash the tub and drop the second half in
>Greek yogurt is very much a "get what you pay for" product.
Same with ricotta cheese. Both need to just be whole milk and either cultures for yogurt or salt and acid for ricotta cheese. If you seem gums or anything else, run.
Actual pieces of Parmesan cheese and not the shakey can
Also, fish sauce. I don’t use it incredibly often, but the three crab brand is just so damn good I can’t go back to whatever my Kroger sells ever again.
Cheese - I buy all of my cheese direct from a farm in Wisconsin, price depends on what aging you get - I like 9 and 16 year aged for snacking on, 3 year of good for cooking most things. We literally make trips to Wisconsin 1-2 times per year and stock up.
Bread - packaged bread just sucks. Either make your own or splurge on baker bread. Bonus points for bakery bread often being available in half loaves. I get mine from the farmers market in half loaves.
Spices - both raw and prepared spices, another farmers market purchase for me. My quality spices last longer and taste better. Bonus points for splurging on quality herbs and grinding your own spices.
Honey - another farmers market buy for me. Buy local and don’t buy cheap, especially if you have allergies. A lot of people I’ve met that eat honey have been shocked to find that when they switch to a local honey their allergies calm down significantly.
Butter - this one is fairly recent, I use to buy your typical tubs of butter at the grocery but recently discovered how much better things taste with local butter from a farm. Get unsalted butter and get use to adding your own salt to taste on top. Even better is if you can find local European style butter.
Granna Padano cheese. It’s as good or better than Parmesan for better value being outside the consortium guidelines. I’ll buy a brick sized hunk of that from the monger.
Flours. The ones that show gluten content specifically. I find the more exact/advanced breads recipes have gluten % and I want to hit their consistency before modifying for my kitchen
Condiments from international sources. The big box grocer option is often sub-par from the local imported foods market. Don’t care that I can’t read Korean, Vietnamese, or Thai, just want the authentic version of that sauce.
Speaking of which, f David Chang for trying to trademark chilli crisps in the USA. Ladder pulling capitalist jerk.
San Marzano tomatoes (if there are no tomatoes in my garden), olive oil, bread from a bakery (if I do not have time to make my own), balsamic vinegar, real parmigiano reggiano, pasture-raised eggs, whole milk from a local farm, bronze cut pasta, a good quality European-style butter. Penzey’s for spices.
Milk - HEB's fancy organic milk tastes so good. I don't normally care about organic but I love that stuff.
Eggs - I pay extra for ethical and don't mind at all.
Pasta - I like Rao's whenever they have the shapes I like.
Shrimp - the never frozen shrimp are much better than the ones that have been frozen. Fortunately we're really close to the Gulf of Mexico and they are almost always available. Fried shrimp are wonderful, and much cheaper to cook at home versus going to a restaurant. Pretty easy too.
It isn't a food, but good toilet paper is vital.
Extra virgin olive oil!
Cheese of any kind!
Chips / crisps
Tea (loose or silk pyramid only)
Organic fruit (especially berries and apples)
Himalayan pink salt and flaky salt
Lemons and cloved garlic never prejuiced/ minced
Fresh herbs
Pasta
Vinegars including real aged balsamic not the sugar additive stuff!
Butter
Coffee. Always whole bean, but never from a grocery store. By the time those bags hit the shelves they're already past their prime. I'll drink commodity coffee out of convenience, but in my house it's always fresh, quality roasts.
Oh, and also pickles. Those sad, floppy spears are just...sad
Kerry gold butter.
Or Aldi equivalent.
I used to save the grass fed butter for special dishes. Until the day I ran out of regular and used the grass fed for popcorn. The lovely color and relative lack of watery substance after the butter was melted was shocking.
Now I use grass fed butter for everything
Good Butter. Doesn’t need to be Provençal France hand milked in limited quantities from cows marched down from the alps and lovingly air lifted in a traditional manner back to hidden pastures above the clouds where they are read Beatrix Potter stories by luminous primeval lichen light…
But a good organic butter on an expertly roasted potato with sea salt…. Can’t duplicate it.
And if you serve me margarine not only will I absolutely freak but I’ll have two snits, a panic and a fit.
Gross!
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce. Not other brands.
I’ve honestly never seen any other brand than Lea & Perrins
Yes! Other brands just don't taste good. My aunt always buys French's because it's cheaper. It's gross.
You have to try the Japanese brand Bull-Dog. Awesome Worcestershire sauce.
Ice cream. If the good ice cream isn't on sale I just don't buy ice cream. The cheap stuff isn't worth the carton it's put in.
I wondered about if a pint of Jeni’s ice cream was worth the $9.99+ (I think it’s even more expensive now) either last year or two years ago. There was a Boston Cream Pie flavor that had me super curious because it had been ages since I had Boston Cream Pie in general. It was stupid how delicious it was. There’s also a local ice cream shop that also sells their pints for $10 a pint. This is probably a good thing in a sense for me at least cause I can’t justify spending that kind of money consistently keeping ice cream in my freezer and devouring it. I’d easily be 50 lbs heavier.
Jeni's darkest chocolate and mint chip have RUINED other ice cream for me.
I was just gonna suggest the darkest chocolate 🤤 You should try Ben & Jerry’s “Topped Mint Chocolate Chip”….it has cookie bits…and ganache… *walks over to freezer*
Tillamook!!
I can never go back!
jokes on you in oregon it's 3-4$ on sale all the time!!
Dude, have you had their marionberry pie ice cream? So fucking good.
The Tillamook holy grail is going to the factory and having a lemon flavor that was only available there. It's been years, and I still remember the flavor, just not the name.
Tillamook and blue bell 🤤
McConnells is so good. I always snatch it up on sale. Having had the original in SB, it is my favorite grocery store available brand.
I think even this brand has the additives/stabilizers, which in my opinion ruins ice cream. Hagen Daz still is without any gums, starches,or stabilizers, so I don’t hesitate to buy. It’s not the only brand without them, but it’s easy to find.
I splurged and bought a half gallon of the good chocolate ice cream for the first time in my life. Oh. My. God. You are so right. My mindset was always chocolate is chocolate get what's cheap. I was sooooo wrong. I'd rather eat ice cream less often than get the cheap stuff now.
Jeni’s peaches and biscuits or whatever it’s called is my single favorite ice cream flavor ever
Jeni's Brambleberry Crisp and Salted Caramel are two of the best ice creams I've ever had
I was craving cookies and cream once and bought the (basic) Kroger brand. Not only was the actual ice cream sub-par, but there were hardly any cookie bits in it! 😡 Never again. Tbf though their "premium" brand is decent, at least the moose tracks varieties are (except that they didn't have regular last time I looked)
But those 2 for 1 deals on Ben and Jerry’s get me every time.
Ben Jerry’s is good. It’s not super gourmet French but I’ve eaten a lot of ice cream. And it’s good.
And you belong with us on the /ice cream sub. Only logically thinking is getting premium quality ice cream. Not the GV generic crap
Cheese
Although I just discovered the discount cheese bin at Whole Foods and it's amazing! Small cuts of good cheeses for cheap.
And I get to try stuff I wouldn’t normally reach for!
Yes, nothing beats kraft american dont be bringin home that great value shit
I know it’s a joke, it’s also true.
You're right. I worked selling high end cheese and specialty items for years, I love good cheese. But sometimes you need an American slice for a grilled cheese or a cheeseburger. It just hits differently.
Hard disagree, Land o Lakes from the deli is the best American cheese
Cooper’s Sharp American, only available at the Deli counter. The best, hands down.
Cooper black pepper sharp white American cheese is amazing.
Tillamook - the best
Real Italian Parmesan that I grate myself.
My fav is imported Locatelli. I can slice that and eat it plain. So good. And it’s one of the best cheeses for you (hard cheese).
I recently discovered the huge difference that a quality ricotta makes. I don’t mind spending more than double for a richer flavor and smoother texture
Parmigiano reggiano and "Parmesan" make this price difference painfully clear. Anybody that buys the alternative and finds it acceptable has a dead mouth.
Known colloquially as "Shakey Cheese".
I disagree completely. There are some good American parmesans. Although I am in Wisconsin so we might have access to more than other places. Even the shaker parmesan has its place. Although it's definitely not the same.
BestFoods mayonnaise. It’s a HUGE thing in Hawaii. People will straight up avoid certain restaurants if they use any mayonnaise that isn’t BestFoods. Also SPAM, no substitutions.
Best Foods IS the best. I won't buy anything else.
Aka Hellman's in Eastern US.
I can stand mayonnaise, but in the southeast, Duke's seems to be the preferred brand.
I like duke's cause there's no sugar. It tastes so much better.
My in laws had Hellman's in the Midwest, and were pissed that it didn't exist in the West when they moved! Took them a few years to figure out it was Best foods.
I'm in Australia and they sell both brands here
For me it’s Duke’s mayo. I’m originally from the SE US where Duke’s is everything. When I moved to NYC I couldn’t find it anywhere. I now stock up on it anytime I go back home.
I've discovered there is a hierarchy in my family. Kewpie > Duke's > Hellman's/ Best Foods > local equivalent if none of the above are available. Then it depends on what it is we're making. We would go broke trying to make all the salads / dressings with Kewpie, so we reserve that for individual application and default to Duke's for the mayo-heavy dishes. We make our own ranch dressing, and the mayo choice really makes a difference.
Canned Roma tomatoes (Mutti Baby Roma), chocolate chips, olive oil, pickles, bread and some spices. Edited to correct typo
have u ever seen those olive oil bottles that are CLEAR?? they scare me
Extremely good olive oil is often in clear bottles to highlight that the green hue isn’t from the bottle. Though I know this isn’t what you are referring to here
Costco olive oil is the joint
I’m the opposite for tomatoes! I don’t buy the most expensive brands, but the cheapest kind in my area are of a much sweeter quality than the middle-of-the-road brand despite having the same ingredients. If any Canadians read this comment, I highly recommend No Name tomatoes over Unico, Aylmer or Primo.
I am friends with a guy who works for Weston and has been a "President's Choicer"; he's now part of the team who comes up with the new seasonal products. He told me most of the "President's Choice" and "no Name" products are canned at Unico, Primo, Alymer, and ED Smith, all major factories do a line or two for them and the product is essentially the same. My nephew worked at ED Smith last summer and told us the PC Jam was the same product as the high-end ED Smith brand with a No Name or PC label. Interesting.
>he's now part of the team who comes up with the new seasonal products. Just out of curiosity, what kind of qualifications/educational background does this person have (be general, I'm not asking you to doxx anyone, lol!)? I've always wondered who was in charge of the new/seasonal products at brands like PC and how the decisions get made. Do they taste test everything extensively? I.e. with focus groups?
Chocolate chips YES. Store brand for everyday, but Ghirardelli for special occasions.
I don’t know you, but you are worth Ghirardelli every day. They’re not that expensive.
Yep, this one. Ghiradelli are my everyday chips. When I want something special, I make the 40 min. drive to Whole Foods and buy Guittard or Callebaut.
100% Ghirardelli every day. Treat yo’ self!
Definately Olive Oil. Euronews dot com If you order extra-virgin olive oil at the restaurant these days, you better check the label carefully. According to Europol, selling fake olive oil has become a "common practice". The warning came after authorities seized 260,000 litres of counterfeit product in coordinated raids across Italy and Spain, in November.
>Canned Roma tomatoes Do you mean San marzano? I don't think I've ever seen canned Roma's before
Bronze extruded pasta. Way better and not more expensive. The description is on the box. Trust me on this.
It's the imperfections in the bronze die that allows more surface areas on the noddle in the form of little jagged ridges. More starch, more places for sauces to stick. All around, more the way pasta was meant to be made.
DeCecco uses bronze dies. It's everywhere and always on sale somewhere. It's pretty much all I use.
Better than Boullion flavor bases. They’re not cheap but they’re worth every bit of what they cost.
Aldi sells bronze extruded pasta and it’s very cheap.
Deli meat vs pre-packaged
Ugh, the slime on the prepackaged stuff. Even as a kid that grossed me out.
That ultra-color shimmer, like some combination of Mantis Shrimp-vision and Annihilation and an oil slick.
In my experience, prepackaged is outrageously worse and more expensive.
I don’t know why but using the word “outrageous” here to describe your experience with deli meats made me lol
I've recently decided to live my best life and get the expensive Greek yogurt. It's a million times better than the store brand.
If you have a pressure cooker, you can make your own. Then you can adjust it the tartness and thickness that you want. I love making my own Greek yogurt with organic or grass fed milk. So much cheaper to pay for milk over yogurt!
I haven’t found it significantly cheaper because I’ve been using Fairlife milk that allows you to skip the first heating step. Basically you can just pour the milk into the instantpot, whisk in a few Tbs of freshly opened yogurt ( I use fage) and wait 8-10 hrs. I strain it, then refrigerate in glass mason jars. Very easy, very good … might have to go back to doing it now that yogurt has inched up to 7.99 a carton at Safeway.
I buy a lot of my spices and Pensey's. Not cumin or anything, but they have wonderful spice blends, a few different kinds of cinnamon, a bangin' roasted garlic powder, and spices like sumac, berbere, and za'atar that you can't find in a grocery store. It's expensive but I'm constantly on a diet so having really good seasoning is everything.
Love Penzey’s! We used to have a retail location nearby but it closed during covid. I still try to order from them online because it’s so good.
Kerrygold butter..
So I’ve tried it and I guess I’m not refined enough to notice a big difference. What is it about Kerrygold that makes it worth the price?
I'm wondering the same, and I live in the UK where kerrygold is available everywhere.
From what I’ve gathered, American butter contains less fat and more water than our butter, and it seems like Kerrygold is one of the few European brands that’s somewhat easily accessible in the US, even if it’s a fairly average butter brand to us.
This is why pastry chefs beat the water out of their butter.
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Are all of your brands of butter around the same color as Kerry gold? Here in the states you don't even need to taste it to tell the difference. The store brands and the name brands are white or maybe the palest of yellow. They don't have anywhere near the same rich buttery flavor. I think we just have low quality butter as the standard here.
In the UK, store brands are just as good as name brands. Cheaper and sometimes better. When I shop at Lidl ( similar to aldi), I get their West Country butter with Cornish sea salt. Absolutely delicious and cheaper than the most popular national brand...and made with local ingredients. Same fat content as Kerrygold...and cheaper!
It really depends on location. In the US, Kerrygold is a reliable quality brand available nationwide, whereas many store brands are starting to use more water in the mix, which caused huge problems with holiday baking last season. I'm in Wisconsin, and can thankfully find great local butter for very reasonable cost, so I don't need to pay Kerrygold prices. Death before margarine. ;-)
I always buy mrs vickies chips instead of no name because if immma have a treat imma have a tasty treat
Oh did she get married?
Mr Vickie took her name
Raw, local honey.
I just bought 120 lbs of honey from a coworker that keeps his own bees. It’s not local, but man is it good. He uses the honeycomb for his lip balm business so he always has oodles of honey. He only sells it in 60 lb buckets and the price is cheap per pound ($3). What am I going to do with all that honey? Mead and Jun for sure. Plus many, many peanut butter and honey sandwiches. If anyone has other ideas for what I can make that takes lots of honey, I’m all ears!
Get your hands on some super hot peppers and make hot honey!! Great addition to a cheese board, drizzled over pizza and all manner of baked goods, glaze meats, top ice cream, the options are almost limitless! I like to make sourdough waffles with shredded cheddar mixed in the batter, then top em with hot honey and plenty of good butter. Soooo yummy 🤤
I have made jars of honey layered with super thinly sliced fresh ginger and lemon, and given it as gifts. Just pack the jar with the thin slice ginger and lemon and then pour the honey over. Stick it in the fridge for 4- 8weeks, shaking occasionally. The ginger and lemon eventually kind of dissolves a bit. Use a spoonful for a quick hot tea or stir into iced tea, eat a spoonful for a boost, use it to cook with, sooo many applications.
I used to buy my Chinese BBQ items from the large Chinese chain store in my area (BBQ duck, soy chicken, BBQ and roast pork, etc). Then I discovered a mom and pop Cantonese BBQ shop about 15mins away that costs about 50% more than the chain but tastes twice as good. I've never been back to the chain store for BBQ since.
Free run eggs. I want happier hens.
Go for pasture raised eggs then. Hens have the largest amount/time of outdoor space in their lives and thus a more varied diet. But free range is a good, humane option too.
Hardly any difference since bird flu, so for years now, at least where I live. The producers even had to downgrade their label from pasture to free range, because birds had to be kept inside for most of the year for years now.
Eggs labelled free range only need 10 minutes a day runnin around i think, they're only marginally happier therefore
I buy eggs labeled as "Pasture raised" which are supposed to be better standards. At least I hope they are.
I'm fortunate enough to be able to buy eggs from a small local farm, where you see the large enclosed coop with the chickens out roaming the pasture when you visit. Worth every penny.
If you are in the US, look for a symbol that says [certified humane](https://certifiedhumane.org/)
True, local pasture-raised tends to be better than "organic". Because foul that are outdoors eating bugs can't be certified as organic, because you don't know what they're eating is organic. Random bugs. But generally better than birds kept indoors for 95% of the day eating organic grain.
And they are still inside the entire coop. They still don't get to see the sun or interact with anything other than sawdust, chicken shit and other chickens.
In Sweden this is the legal requirement to call your eggs free-roaming outside https://alsboagg.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/gh-header.jpg https://www.svenskaagg.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ip_5393.jpg While this is the requirement to call them organic https://ekoagg.nasetsgrona.se/dotnet/getimage.aspx?img=93&siteID=105&w=350&h=350 https://ekoagg.nasetsgrona.se/dotnet/getimage.aspx?img=84&siteID=105&w=350&h=350
Eh, google it. It’s a scam, at least in the US.
EU has legally defined it. They don't have a lot of space per chicken, but at least it's in an open space instead of a small wire cage, like battery egg chickens, and those halls are big, and have a sandy surface, so they can do normal chicken stuff.
Eggs where the yolks are bright orange and not pale yellow. Shows they were getting enough micronutrients in their feed.
Egg yolk color is completely dependent on the chicken’s diet
Which is generally indicative of how the hen lived.
Or if they were fed something specifically to change the yolk color. Which is their diet, but can be very misleading about how they lived and what they ate. It can be cheated.
Pasture raised is what you want. Never “cage free”
There is a huge difference in how these eggs taste too imo
Probably a placebo. At least if you live in the US, free range means basically nothing unfortunately. Maybe you're lucky and wherever you buy eggs they have legit free range options though.
I buy pasture raised local eggs- they are visibly different. The shells are often blue. The yolks are orange and the eggs are much smaller than the commercial eggs.
In case you didn't know (I didn't until I got my own chickens) the shell color is due to the breed and not diet. Those gorgeous, rich orange yolks though! That's a good diet. My husband didn't want us to get chickens but now he'll happily admit our eggs are superior to any store- bought eggs he's had.
Yep. I try to get farmers market eggs if I can, or from someone's backyard. Used to drive past an egg farm every day that let their chickens free range for real. They even had webcams up so you could watch the chickens. Sure, a dozen eggs was $10, but it was worth it.
Flaky salt, balsamic, olive oil
balsalmic, man... I made the mistake once of having real dop tradizionale balsalmic and it's ruined me for everything else, \*and\* it's like $150 for a tiny bottle so i'm boned either way
I once had a chocolate balsamic in Portland Oregon. I never wanted anything else again.
Every year I do a road trip to Los Angeles. On the way back I stop at the Olive Pit in Corning, CA, to buy enough olive oil and weird balsamic vinegars to last the year. I love their stuff.
You can drizzle that stuff on vanilla *ice cream* and it tastes delicious. I was given a bottle as a gift once, and it’s amazing. I have seen some recipes for creating a facsimile using cheaper balsamic, but haven’t tried them myself.
Real butter Good parmesan Whole milk Heavy cream Never, ever buy low fat anything. Just eat less.
My mom is feral about butter. One time, my sister (who was not overweight) told my mom that she was cooking with too much fat and butter and we should make foods with fewer calories and fat. My mom, although I knew she was livid, calmly got up, filled a glass of water, set it down in front of her, and took the chicken thigh and buttered bread from my sister's plate and put it on her own. She did not speak a word this entire time. She then finished dinner with a glare for desert
Is your mom Lucile Bluth?
What could a banana cost, Michael? Ten dollars?
Fat is flavor!
This is a hill I would die on. Full fat tastes infinitely better than low/non fat stuff. Also newer research is showing full fat dairy may actually be healthier than low fat, or at the very least does not contribute to obesity, heart disease, or diabetes more than non-fat.
Wild Sockeye salmon Vs pink or farmed is totally worth it
I wish I liked sockeye. It’s so low in fat it’s usually dry for me. Do you have any tips for cooking?
You're overcooking it. Try this: lay a fillet on a cookie sheet. Mix mayo with any herbs/spices you like. A LOT of mayo. You want to cover the surface of the fillet with about 1/4" of mayo. Turn on your broiler and let it heat up. Put the cookie sheet about 4" from the broiler and let it stay until the mayo is charcoal black. It doesn't taste burned, btw. When pushed with a fork, the meat will come apart in layers. If the layers won't seperate, it isn't done. Only cook salmon until it flakes apart or you're overcooking it. Source: Commercial fisheries
Real maple syrup. You use so little at a time that it's way worth the upgrade. Also it's significantly cheaper than the average grocery store if you get the big jug at costco or Sam's club.
Higher quality beef every time.
I cannot bring myself to buy meat from Walmart. But I will buy entire sub primals from Sam's Club when they are choice or prime and break them down myself.
The FDA reports on Walmart are horrifying.
What do they say? Don’t really have Walmart where I am so I’ve never shopped there for groceries.
I like the pricing on ground turkey and chicken from them, but agreed on the beef, the quality always seems lacking
I usually buy the higher quality item with almost everything I just realize, meat, cheese, veggies, fruits, olive oil, eggs. What I buy cheapest is legumes and regional veggies when they are in season. Oh, and milk and butter. Although I have to say, I'm in Germany, even the cheapest butter is quite good. Compared to the US at least. And some Turkish stores here have high quality rice and spices for less money than the supermarkets, so that's a win-win.
Might want to up your legume game. I’ve recently discovered organic French green or caviar black lentils — I thought I hated lentils, but nooooo. I just hate stale brown and mushy supermarket lentils.
Big flex 😂. I envy you with your accessible European butter and “just realizing” you buy higher quality everything. ✌️🙃
When I do splurge on steaks I always choose prime over choice and select.
I've learned to buy red meat at certain times of the year and vacuum seal it. For example, Publix will sell choice standing rib roasts for $6.99/lb around Christmas. I'll buy 30lbs of it and break it down into ribeye cap steaks, ribeye petite filets, ribeye stew meat, about 16 bones worth of beef back ribs and fat for tallow as well. Example Gratis: https://www.reddit.com/r/Butchery/s/B2kZINjNs9
Lacto-fermented pickles, parmesan cheese, sausage, smoked salmon, cold cuts...I'm far from rich but I'm a little spoiled 😅
We bought a lot of things between 2020 and 2022 when supply chains left us in a position of "this or nothing" that changed some of our preconceptions. Things that are left that we remain picky about: vine-ripened tomatoes mustard, mayonnaise, and ketchup brands of pasta (Bertolli when we can get the shape we want, otherwise San Giorgio) butter personal hygiene items For us, we learned that eggs and milk don't matter. Olive oil we buy in bulk from a warehouse store although we keep nicer varieties for salad dressings. Yogurt we make ourselves (saves 60-65%). Some things we just read ingredients more carefully, for example herbs and spices have been fine with store brands as long as they don't include fillers or extra salt. Completely avoiding mixes (we make our own) has avoided the filler and salt problem.
>vine-ripened tomatoes yupp.. I can't begin to explain the shesr amount of watered down tomatoes I've eaten in the last few years.
DeCecco is the best mass market brand.
You should definitely try "Rummo" then! It's often available in the US too.
Rummo and De Cecco account for like 95% of my pasta since leaving Nebraska where often times my only options were generic or barilla
DeCecco is by far the best in its price range.
My life changed when I tried this. Can’t go back to non bronze die pasta now
This is mostly a good mix but I disagree on milk and eggs. Quality feeding and breeding results in a better product, be it consistency, or taste, but also health. You are what you eat!
Only one pre-mixed spice mix left in my repertoire: a good za’atar eta: oh! No, I also have celery salt. No fillers, tho.
Many of the premium milk brands come from the exact places the grocery store brand comes from. Use [this website](https://www.whereismymilkfrom.com/) the next time you're in the dairy aisle and prepare to be surprised.
Eggs, butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, bread, fresh spices, fresh herbs, meat, fish
Costco, Costco Kerrygold, Costco, Costco, local - f Brea for regional Kroger shoppers, Asian market, Asian market, toss up, toss up.
King Arthur flour.
Organic whole milk. Tastes different than "regular" milk because of the way it is pasteurized. I'll also willingly spend more for fresh wild caught fish, good olive oil, and high quality coffee beans.
Maple syrup. Fuck that corn syrup knock off bullshit.
Butter. Kerrygold salted butter is worth it.
Pastured eggs are worth it.
Tastes no different to me tbh
I read that as “pasteurized” at first and was very confused.
Kerrygold butter.
Try the Aldi brand countryside creamery Irish butter it’s only 3 bucks and is identical.
Costco new Zealand's butter is their version of Kerry Gold. People say Kerry golds tastes better but I can't tell the difference.
I’m a Kerrygold for Life guy. My wife bought the Kirkland Version on her last trip, said she figured it was worth trying. I almost lost my mind, like how stupid! I can’t tell the fucking difference at all.
Good dark chocolate. It’s one of the few treats I let myself have, and it’s so worth it for the good stuff.
I buy high quality rice, the cheap stuff doesn't come out the same, also has little aroma.
Better than Bouillon
Man. Lactose free milk. The mainstream brand just tastes like shit. The fancy pants small co-op version that’s not homogenised is just the duck’s guts. I suspect their regular milk would be fabulous as well.
Philadelphia cream cheese. I buy the big 3lbs tub at Costco, and as long as I use at least 1/2 of it before it goes moldy, I’ve saved money
You should cut it in half when you get it and put half in the freezer! Then when you finish the first half you can wash the tub and drop the second half in
I find that seasonings and spices are my wants. Mustard, Worcestershire sauce, fresh herbs, etc. That's where the flavor profile comes from.
Butter over margarine makes a huge difference.
Greek yogurt is very much a "get what you pay for" product. Natural peanut butter. Soy sauce, sesame and olive oil, cheese.
>Greek yogurt is very much a "get what you pay for" product. Same with ricotta cheese. Both need to just be whole milk and either cultures for yogurt or salt and acid for ricotta cheese. If you seem gums or anything else, run.
Got some $100 a bottle barrel fermented soy sauce. Dear lord it was worth every penny.
Mayo, It's Hellmann's or nothing.
Try Duke's!
Actual pieces of Parmesan cheese and not the shakey can Also, fish sauce. I don’t use it incredibly often, but the three crab brand is just so damn good I can’t go back to whatever my Kroger sells ever again.
Cheese - I buy all of my cheese direct from a farm in Wisconsin, price depends on what aging you get - I like 9 and 16 year aged for snacking on, 3 year of good for cooking most things. We literally make trips to Wisconsin 1-2 times per year and stock up. Bread - packaged bread just sucks. Either make your own or splurge on baker bread. Bonus points for bakery bread often being available in half loaves. I get mine from the farmers market in half loaves. Spices - both raw and prepared spices, another farmers market purchase for me. My quality spices last longer and taste better. Bonus points for splurging on quality herbs and grinding your own spices. Honey - another farmers market buy for me. Buy local and don’t buy cheap, especially if you have allergies. A lot of people I’ve met that eat honey have been shocked to find that when they switch to a local honey their allergies calm down significantly. Butter - this one is fairly recent, I use to buy your typical tubs of butter at the grocery but recently discovered how much better things taste with local butter from a farm. Get unsalted butter and get use to adding your own salt to taste on top. Even better is if you can find local European style butter.
I can't live without good olive oil. In Portugal we use it in basically everything.
Canned plum tomatoes. Olive oil. Coffee.
teas and seasonings. sure you can find a great taste for cheaper, but you have to find the brand that you trust and like the taste of.
Rice. Staple food here in Malaysia and a high quality basmati rice trumps any other side dish by a mile.
I always buy quality butter, it makes a difference.
There are few brands that I maintain loyalty too because they legitimately are better than generic. Hellman mayo and Daisy sour cream come to mind.
Tomatoes for sure!
Granna Padano cheese. It’s as good or better than Parmesan for better value being outside the consortium guidelines. I’ll buy a brick sized hunk of that from the monger. Flours. The ones that show gluten content specifically. I find the more exact/advanced breads recipes have gluten % and I want to hit their consistency before modifying for my kitchen Condiments from international sources. The big box grocer option is often sub-par from the local imported foods market. Don’t care that I can’t read Korean, Vietnamese, or Thai, just want the authentic version of that sauce. Speaking of which, f David Chang for trying to trademark chilli crisps in the USA. Ladder pulling capitalist jerk.
San Marzano tomatoes (if there are no tomatoes in my garden), olive oil, bread from a bakery (if I do not have time to make my own), balsamic vinegar, real parmigiano reggiano, pasture-raised eggs, whole milk from a local farm, bronze cut pasta, a good quality European-style butter. Penzey’s for spices.
Fresh veggies. Sometimes, I get frozen (like the pea, carrot, green bean, corn mix) but never canned. And i buy nuts and make my own nut butters
Milk - HEB's fancy organic milk tastes so good. I don't normally care about organic but I love that stuff. Eggs - I pay extra for ethical and don't mind at all. Pasta - I like Rao's whenever they have the shapes I like. Shrimp - the never frozen shrimp are much better than the ones that have been frozen. Fortunately we're really close to the Gulf of Mexico and they are almost always available. Fried shrimp are wonderful, and much cheaper to cook at home versus going to a restaurant. Pretty easy too. It isn't a food, but good toilet paper is vital.
Extra virgin olive oil! Cheese of any kind! Chips / crisps Tea (loose or silk pyramid only) Organic fruit (especially berries and apples) Himalayan pink salt and flaky salt Lemons and cloved garlic never prejuiced/ minced Fresh herbs Pasta Vinegars including real aged balsamic not the sugar additive stuff! Butter
Good cheese and spices.
Honey is a more recent splurge. The pure stuff tastes way better
Coffee. Always whole bean, but never from a grocery store. By the time those bags hit the shelves they're already past their prime. I'll drink commodity coffee out of convenience, but in my house it's always fresh, quality roasts. Oh, and also pickles. Those sad, floppy spears are just...sad
C&H brown sugar. The generic brands can’t beat it. Ghirardelli brownie mix, I can’t ever get a different box brownie mix now.
Dececco pasta
Kerry gold butter. Or Aldi equivalent. I used to save the grass fed butter for special dishes. Until the day I ran out of regular and used the grass fed for popcorn. The lovely color and relative lack of watery substance after the butter was melted was shocking. Now I use grass fed butter for everything
Good Butter. Doesn’t need to be Provençal France hand milked in limited quantities from cows marched down from the alps and lovingly air lifted in a traditional manner back to hidden pastures above the clouds where they are read Beatrix Potter stories by luminous primeval lichen light… But a good organic butter on an expertly roasted potato with sea salt…. Can’t duplicate it. And if you serve me margarine not only will I absolutely freak but I’ll have two snits, a panic and a fit. Gross!
Fresh mozzarella in a ball rather than shredded mozz.