I often hear, “You should never cheap out on a good office chair, shoes, underpants, backpack etc…” but what are some items that you would feel OK to cheap out on?
This can by anything from items such as: expensive clothing brands to general groceries.
It depends. Cheap salt is just fine. And flour, unless you’re into baking. But some things can make a difference and you don’t necessarily have to pay a lot more for it.
Pasta, for example. Bronze cut pasta absorbs sauce a lot better than “normal” pasta. It looks dull, rough, and pale as opposed to shiny and smooth. It usually only costs a buck or two more. I find it’s a big step up taste and texture-wise.
Or butter. The ones without natural flavor taste better. Sometimes it’s the store brand that doesn’t have added flavor.
And eggs. Orange yolks are way better than the pale yellow ones. But those you do have to shell out for.
Wait wait wait. Your butter has flavouring added? Like, I realise I’m spoiled here in Ireland, but fuck mei can’t even picture what that might be
That was my exact reaction! But butter is literally nothing but churned cream and possibly salt added? If there’s anything else added, such as water or any kinds of oils, it’s no longer butter. I get more scared every time I learn something new about US food culture…
Gotta check the ingredients on damn near everything here, or just make everything yourself :P.
Homemade unwashed butter = best butter (although spoils very quickly when not washing, like a day or two). I would eat that shit by itself if it wasn’t so unhealthy lmao
Irish butter is sold in a lot of grocery stores at least around me in the U.S. and my God it’s night and day compared to our shit sicks of fuck
diacetyl is typically used as butter aroma
For bronze cut pasta, De Cecco is the brand to look for
This has been my favorite dried pasta! I used to get it off Amazon before my grocery store carried it, and I can still get more shares online. I like three orrichetti and radiatorre(sp?)!
Eggs I always buy free-range because yeah it makes a difference to taste (and is so much kinder to the chickens), but in the UK butter is butter. I know in the US you have butter that’s practically white but here’s it’s all yellow and tasty. Flour every brand has plain, self raising and bread flour and those categories are pretty similar across brands.
Milk, the filtered stuff (Cravendale or similar) is nicer but not much nicer so it’s not worth the upgrade IMO
Just to reply to “it’s so much kinder to the chickens”, I hate to break it to you but “free range eggs” is a scam. Here’s a (very opinionated) article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/30/free-range-eggs-con-ethical
“Free range eggs” at the grocery store is a scam.
“FREE RANGE EGGS” on a sign by the side of the road are the best eggs you’ll find
TBF he said kinder, not kind. I don’t buy eggs myself except for occasionally from rescue hens, but if I was I’d feel a lot better knowing they saw daylight occasionally.
I still pick those, even though I know it’s a scam. When you have 9 chicken per square meter though, not sure they often find their way outside.
When I did buy eggs I bought woodland eggs with a story on the side. Also a scam, but like, slightly better… kinda?
https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/sustainability/plan-for-better/our-stories/2017/woodland-hens-roam-free-for-cracking-eggs
Like even in the ads you can see they’re packed in, but I bet there’s some bugs to eat there, and they can scratch dirt.
I dunno, commercialising animals is just all a bit grim really.
Oh I know it’s not great, but I don’t pretend to be vegan. It is definitely better than battery though
To be clear, it is kinder. Not much, but it absolutely is kinder. Pasture raised is what free range should have meant… But fortunately we have a word for it now.
Oh yeah, the yellow European style butter was a revelation when I found out about it. It tastes way better and is less watery than the pale American butter.
I never heard of filtered milk. Milk is milk for the most part, but once I made the mistake of buying it on clearance. Grabbed it without looking because the price for a normal gallon freaked me out. It wasn’t spoiled, but it was super watery and had a weird color.
Agreed. The store brand pasta at my store sucks. It’s sticky and falls apart. It used to be fine but something changed recently.
Eggs isn’t true. The only thing you’re buying is for sound of mind for ethically raised chickens and the orange color of the yolk specifically for things where you need that nice orange color.
Nutrients aren’t statistically significant. Taste has no difference. Especially if you aren’t eating them plain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YY7K7Xa5rE&start=930
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Chicken wrangler here. This may be true of supermarket eggs but should not be taken to imply that all eggs are the same.
Perhaps there isn’t a huge difference between the different labels available at the supermarket.
However, I’m incredulous that there is no difference between an egg laid by a backyard chicken who is well cared for and has a varied nutritious diet, and that which you’ll find at the supermarket.
I realise you (and youtube guy) are not talking about backyard eggs, but just because “pastured eggs” are not significantly different to cage eggs, that does not mean that it’s not possible to buy proper eggs.
Agree no difference as an ingredient in some baked dish.
But if you are eating the egg by itself or as the primary item, there is definitely a difference in taste. Not a revolutionary change your life difference, but still a difference.
In my experience the difference is pretty small amongst the options in the grocery store, but fairly noticable for eggs I get from the farmers market.