Branded ingredients or not?

Mr Bloat

I'm curious about people's ideas of the quality of branded ingredients over no or own brand. To give an example, I was doing an Indian the other day for a group and had to stock up on pretty much everything. I was concious of prices so instead of buying Schwartz or Goodall spices I went for Tesco branded spices and later, when I went to the local health store for one ingredient I couldn't pick up in Tesco, I was amazed to see the range of spices they carried for a fraction of the price. I vowed I would return there to stock up in future. The meal didn't seem to suffer with the cheaper ingredients.

It lead me to thinking about all the dry ingredients I buy and there are many things I could buy cheaper but I don't want cheaper to equal inferior. What are your thoughts on the quality of Supermarket own brand or an unrecognised brand from Aldi/Lidl versus known brand for the likes of flour, herbs, spices and other dry ingredients?

TeletextPear

I do the vast majority of my shopping at Aldi and only go to Tesco for stuff that Aldi doesn't have. I've never noticed a drop in quality in things like spices, flour, etc. A lot of products in the likes of Aldi/Lidl are produced by named companies (there's a thread somewhere on boards about this, I'll link to it if I can find it) so things like Aldi's McGrath's teabags are actually from the same factory as Robert Roberts teabags. The only difference there is that they'll cost you less.

Edit: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056195473 There's that thread I mentioned.

Kintarō Hattori

I bought coarse sea salt in its own grinder and black pepper in a grinder from ALDI recently and both have been superior in taste to what I had been buying in Tesco. They were also both substantially cheaper at €1.99 each.

In my own experience I've generally found that most supermarket own brand goods are at least equal to the branded items. There will always be some branded items which can't be beaten but they are few and far between.

Of course the only thing we could advise you to do OP is to buy the supermarket own items. If they work out- great. If they don't then don't put them in your shopping basket next time around.

huskerdu

There are plenty of dry ingredients that the cheaper equivalent is good value but you have to try them to find out.

One obvious exception is pasta. Cheap pasta tastes cheap.

Read the ingredients before buying to ensure you are comparing like with like.

Tree

Tis a mixed bag alright. I usually buy spices and coconut milk in the asian shops, not aware really of the particular branding. For thai curry paste I insist on cock on the mountain brand (it's veggie friend and good). For rice, asian shop for cheap good jasmine, for regular long grain though I'd get uncle bens or another brand as I find shop-brand long grain can be woeful and have a bizarre fishy taste.

Tinned tomatoes can be from anywhere, aldi ones are good enough for me. Tinned peas has to be batchelors, the others just taste weird. same for baked beans....

For shorter life stuff, milk can be from any brand (i find aldi brand to be particularly good, better than many branded milks) but that many shop brand breads can be a bit dry and crap. Vegetables doesnt tend to make much a diffference, and for meat I tend to buy based on origin (Free range chicken etc) and portion size (butchers for tiny portions for one person). For sausages though, have to get clon ispíní.... For rashers I find own brand can be a bit water filled and crap.

Mostly just a case of trying things and remembering what you liked and what you thought was crap.

confusticated

Tree wrote: »

Tis a mixed bag alright. I usually buy spices and coconut milk in the asian shops, not aware really of the particular branding. For thai curry paste I insist on cock on the mountain brand (it's veggie friend and good). For rice, asian shop for cheap good jasmine, for regular long grain though I'd get uncle bens or another brand as I find shop-brand long grain can be woeful and have a bizarre fishy taste.

Tinned tomatoes can be from anywhere, aldi ones are good enough for me. Tinned peas has to be batchelors, the others just taste weird. same for baked beans....

For shorter life stuff, milk can be from any brand (i find aldi brand to be particularly good, better than many branded milks) but that many shop brand breads can be a bit dry and crap. Vegetables doesnt tend to make much a diffference, and for meat I tend to buy based on origin (Free range chicken etc) and portion size (butchers for tiny portions for one person). For sausages though, have to get clon ispíní.... For rashers I find own brand can be a bit water filled and crap.

Mostly just a case of trying things and remembering what you liked and what you thought was crap.

Totally depends on the person too - Tesco brand long-grain rice is nice I think!

Darkginger

Schwartz spices would be my very last choice, as they are so expensive, a tiny amount compared to a pack from an Asian grocers or health food shop. Most 'authentic' brands - TRS, Rajah, East End etc. are really high quality.

There's only a few things that I feel have to be a particular brand - Heinz ketchup, tomato soup and beans, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, Kikkoman soy sauce -although having said that I bought a clone version - same shaped bottle, in either Aldi or Lidl last time I was in there, and can't tell the difference.

I can't think of anything else where the brand is important to me - maybe Rose's Lime Juice (not seen that for a while though). Oh, and instant coffee - am rather taken with Carte Noir's new 'whole bean' stuff.

Zuiderzee

With salt I always try to use Maldon from the UK, it is a really distinct and tangy salt, and non iodised.

With butter I cannot reccommend the taste of Cuinneog from Mayo enough, its really really good for cooking with or just on toast.

Other than that, for herbs and spices etc - I grow most of the herbs I need, I prefer russian tarragon to dried french tarragon.

For quick meals, I always go for branded burgers, the economy ones I find terrible.

No prob with tea in Aldi/Lidl but dont like the coffees

Minder

A lack of brand awareness in some ingredients shouldn't be confused with a lack of quality. Asian brands such as Rajah, Bolsts or Natco are not inferior quality products just because of their perceived niche market or rarity. Shop in indian or asian supermarkets and it's easy to discover quality products.

I worked near Greenwich in London for two years. I had two local supermarkets that I visited often. The commonplace Sainsburys and an asian supermarket called Seewoo. Both had a wet fish counter. Sainsburys was the typical jaded fish counter found in so many supermarkets. Fish well past it's prime at premium prices. Seewoo, on the other hand, has an excellent fish counter. It's so busy that there are 3 guys on there full time. The fish is super fresh and the prices are cheap. Yet, I'm often the only non asian person in the queue. Now these two supermarkets are only 500m apart. Why is Seewoo unpopular with a larger cross section of the local population? Ignorance is my guess, people just don't know what they are missing.

Outkast_IRE

One thing i notice a massive difference between brands is COCONUT MILK !!!

have gone through all the brands the worst being 90% coconut water with about 10% cream on top .
Makes a massive difference in a Curry
I would highly recommend the THAI GOLD organic cocnut milk i get it in dunnes but i hear supervalu are doing it now .
bout 50% coconut water and massively really thick cream for the other half , the cream on the top is so thick its like the coconut cream in biscuits makes a massive difference .

The Black Oil

Generally go for a mix of branded and non-branded. There appears to be a sub-category of non-branded ones, though, namely ultra cheap, which I tend to avoid. See bog standard pasta and tinned tomatoes.

pinkdoubleeagle

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

One thing i notice a massive difference between brands is COCONUT MILK !!!

have gone through all the brands the worst being 90% coconut water with about 10% cream on top .
Makes a massive difference in a Curry
I would highly recommend the THAI GOLD organic cocnut milk i get it in dunnes but i hear supervalu are doing it now .
bout 50% coconut water and massively really thick cream for the other half , the cream on the top is so thick its like the coconut cream in biscuits makes a massive difference .

Just got the Thai Gold in Supervalu at lunchtime. Thanks for that

Outkast_IRE

pinkdoubleeagle wrote: »

Just got the Thai Gold in Supervalu at lunchtime. Thanks for that

leave me know what you think in comparison to other brands.

Mr Bloat

Thanks for the tips. Of course I am trying different and own brands bit by bit but, while I consider myself an ok cook, sometimes if something doesn't come out right I'm wondering if it's the ingredients or my dubious skills!:p

rubadub

Darkginger wrote: »

Most 'authentic' brands - TRS, Rajah, East End etc. are really high quality.

East end is very popular, bombay pantry use it, so does another good takeaway near me.

If there are loads of brands, like for soy sauce, I just wait around and see what Asian customers are buying themselves, and guess they know their stuff.