A decent "best buy" reccomendations from Trusted Reviews.

[alexhoovers94]

Asda, Lidl and Aldi are bellow me. I refuse to shop there, it is just so cheap and nasty, at Sainsbury's you get anbetter class of people and that is the truth, as the riff raff can't afford to shop there. I have a big Sainsburys about 5 minutes from my house. Thankfully there is not an Asda in my town, Denton.

 

[sebo_fan]

Frankly anyone who ignores a shop brand in the UK are fooling themselves.

In my experience it doesn't matter what brand it is; at the end of the day if a supermarket rivals another on price, then perhaps it is worth looking at.

In the UK we have only become accustomed to the term "trailer trash," in maybe the last ten years.

I really dont mind where I shop; a pint of milk is still the same from any one of the brands mentioned here.

 

[turbo500]

Well I slightly disagree there Nar. The milk farmer scandal last year was a perfect example. To you, that pint of milk may not make any difference, but some supermarkets were robbing the farming industry with the low prices they were paying for the produce.

I like both Aldi & Lidl. They do some great products. In my experience, people who complain about them being too cheap & nasty have a. Never shopped their and are making a sweeping generalisation or b. Don't have to do their own shopping and have no idea how to manage a budget.

In reality, Aldi inparticular is becoming very middle class. See link.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sho...d-Lidl-shoppers-is-upper-or-middle-class.html

 

[sebo_fan]

Hate to say it Chris, but in my experience THEY all rob local producers with only a few exceptions. I know from experience about the farmer down the road who sold off his dairy farm years ago when our local Morrison's were selling milk far cheaper than his own prices and Morrison's had the cheek to buy in FROM HIM for his buttermilk product because of locality when their own products were known to go off.

In Scotland we have other sub-supermarket brands but they are far and few between from the major suppliers such as ASDA or Tesco who sell vacuums. Other Tesco outlets take into consideration what regions have already in terms of local producers but some other supermarkets dont.

 

[sebo_fan]

In addition, the supermarkets near me dont stock half the stuff that their counterparts in England sell, so its very much a shop "around" job if you are looking for something in particular that local shops don't have.

 

[vacerator]

Sebo, Turbo500,

Do they have Costco over there, or other warehouse type membership stores?
We also have small, or family owned gourmet and ethnic food stores, mostly Italian, polish, and some mid eastern. No Scotch eggs to be found here though.
Walmart here mainly sells all low end stuff. Anything quality the carry costs as much there as in an upscale store.

 

[sebo_fan]

I wondered when the name Costco would come about...From memory when I had a card, the vacuums on sale were good value as well as several types of household appliance.

Costco are good but you need to buy a trader account or card to gain entry to their stores. This means in reality businesses only although in recent years Costco invite private consumers who may not own a business to join but are an employee of a company.

 

[alexhoovers94]

I remember Costco right back to the early 2000's.

 

[sptyks]

Who buys only a pint of milk at a time?


I buy milk a gallon at a time. 1 gallon lasts me about 7-10 days.


 

 

[alexhoovers94]

7-10 days? Are you crazy? once it is open, it will only last about 3-4 days!

Most people, myself included by 2 pints of milk, the biggest ones are 4 pint bottles.

 

[sptyks]

Alex, What temp in degrees fahrenheit, do you keep your fridge set at? I keep mine at 38f.


Also is your milk pasteurized?


My milk is stamped on the plastic jug a "sell by" date but it is expected to last 1 week past the sell by date. I buy my milk at least a week before the sell by date so it should last at least 2 weeks from the date that I buy it.


 

 

[turbo500]

We get Yeo Valley milk in a 4 pint bottle. Lasts around a week.

Stan, the expression "a pint of milk" is a British term. It doesn't necessarily mean a pint, it usually means 1 bottle regardless of the size. It comes from the days of doorstep milk delivery which used to come in glass pint bottles, so one would order it in X pints, which meant X bottles.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Fridge is kept at 4 degrees cent and the freezer is -18 degrees cent, dunno about fahrenheit, we don't use that.

 

[alexhoovers94]

It actually has a USE BY date and one opened, it will say on the bottle use within x number of days, any fresh perishable produce has a "use by" and "once opened use within" information.

I did food safety and hygiene at college I am a fully qualified baker

 

[vacerator]

Frige temp, Alex,

I know many British kitchens have small refrigerators, so daily trips to the market are necessary.
As opposed to here, ours is a large side by side of 26 cubic feet. Most have more than one frige even, in the basement , or garage. Plus, a deep freezer.
Those are needed for the annual deer hunting takes.

 

[alexhoovers94]

Our fridges are actually bigger in terms of storage space than a lot of the US ones. I have a large fridge in the kitchen and a chest freezer in the garage.

 

[parwaz786]

We have 2 fridges, both of which are large! I am currently 6 ft tall and both my fridges are taller than me, we have a British design fridge frezer and an American style Samsung fridge freezer

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

Pretty inaccurate assumption of our fridges and freezers you have their Vacerator. One thing that windows me up is when some Americans think that everything in the US is bigger than anywhere else when in fact we do have 8, 9 and in some cases 10KG washing machines and as mentioned, large fridge freezers.

I have a standard size Bosch bridge freezer which is 6'4 inches tall, sot people here do shopping weekly, some do their once fortnightly.

Even things like milk; Americans seem to assume we buy only 1 or 2 pints at a time, which may have been the case when milkmen were more popular, but most people here buy 4 pints at a time. There are also 6 pints you can get but 4 pint cartons fit in fridges better and are easier to pour.

 

[marks_here]

Yes & to further this thread off topic

I can't wait to get an AGA my neighbor just got one & reminds me of the one I used when I was over there a long time ago. Nothing like have heat at the ready anytime. I can't stand what's here

 

[vacerator]

Aga, friges, etc.

Oliveo, maybe I've only seen movies, shows, and photos of smaller British kitchens then. I wasn't trying to window you up.
The house I grew up in, although fully detached, had a tiny kitchen. But with a family of 7, we had a huge frige.
SMEG's aren't small.
Does the tall European Bosch, etc. ones's hold a gallon of milk in the door though?
Mark, AGA cookers are great! I'd get a cobalt blue one, but they cost about $10,000 over here. I have a nice 30 inch built in dual fuel convection range, and a vintage Tappan gallery gas in the basement with the electric glass warming shelf, burner with a brain, integral ventilation fan, self clean oven, and waist high broiler.

 

[sptyks]

RE: Reply #130

Chris, thank you for explaining the term "pint" to me. It all makes sense now

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

Don't be scared by the term pint either. It is still an imperial measurement ! 1 US gallon is around 6 pints.

My Bosch will hold 4 4 pints in the door or 2 6 pints.

 

[vacerator]

Pints, etc.

oliveo, is an imperial pint close to ours? I wish we'd just progress and go on the metric system.
Here, two pints make one quart. Four quarts make one gallon.
Two cups make one pint.

 

[oliveoiltinfoil]

Im not too sure to be honest. Britain is a hybrid of imperial and metric, like India for example. We use litres to measure our fuel for example, but all our road signs are in miles and yards. In fact a sign post was put up using meters in a town centre not far from me and the council got in trouble for it.

Thing is, things like cups we dont use, but I dont hear of Americans using yards or acres either, yet they are both imperial measurements.

Ask someone here their height or weight and they will more then often reply in feet, inches, stones and pounds.

 

[alexhoovers94]

We do use cups, cup measures are very readily available on the home isle in most shops.

 

[countryguy]

Here in Canada we put another twist on buying milk. As well as buying milk in different sized cartons, we also get milk in plastic bags. A purchase consists of 3 bags totaling 4 litres so each bag is 1.33 litres.

Gary

 

[sptyks]

we also get milk in plastic bags.

How do you pour milk out of a bag?


Our milk comes in 3 sized plastic jugs, quart, half gallon, and gallon.


 


 

 

[vacerator]

Milk in bags, etc.

I'm not surprised Gary, Wine comes in bags in boxes, why not milk?
Yes, the once needed milk man. My first house had a milk chute next to the side door. I removed it and pout in a beaded glass block.
In England, they had milk floats which were either electric or gas powered.
The milk man rode those all over, and even on the various floors of "streets in the sky" housing estates like Park Hill in Sheffield. I guess they had a large lift?

 

[countryguy]

The milk bag is inserted into a milk jug...usually plastic or ceramic that is reusable. The one I use is ceramic.

 

[sebo_fan]

Actually we used to get bagged milk in Scotland in the 1980s. Not sure if it was a national thing.

The local cats (including mine) had a field day as it was thin plastic and they could paw open the milk and drink from it!!

Plastic bagged milk. I have never quite forgotten it. The primary schools also had mini sachets of milk provided with mini plastic holders.

Every household got a myriad of stock matt coloured plastic holders at a cost of 50p or something like that - an oval shaped open plastic narrow bucket that held the plastic bag in and allowed it to remain upright when poured.