I saw the most ridiculous thing in Sainsburys today...

[clary]

A pot of gravy - the size of one of those plastic pots of posh soup - for £2.60! And this was a special offer - it's normally £3-something.

Gravy - that's some meat juices with flour and a bit of veg water, right? How the dickens is a portion for about three people worth three quid?

frasier Bisto "browns, seasons and thickens"!

I took toilet roll out of the weekly shopping list this week because I couldn't fit it within budget so the gravy is definitely too expensive for me!!

So did I miss where toadinthehole revealed the secret of what to serve with lamb?!

I have never used Bisto powder. I thicken my gravy with flour only. What does the Bisto do?

It makes gravy when you add boiling water.

JessFine

Yep - no Bisto. The liquid you get from deglazing the pan is your stock.

Ok I never said anyone was lazy. I've never bought frozen mash but I have bought ready made soup, but itvwas, like, £1?

My horror (not really) was at the price! £3? £3??? Gravy costs erm roasting tin bits (free); stock from veg (free); tablespoon of flour (10p?). At least the £1 soup is not much more than making your own.

I have no issue with ready made stuff, I buy it too.

Well you've obviously not seen the Manuka honey selling at a mere £35 a jar.

I thought this was going to be about seeing an empty shelf where artichoke hearts should be

My heart sank when the artichoke hearts shelf was bare.

THE INHUMANITY!!!!

How disappointing, I thought someone had been seen fan dancing in the freezer aisle at the very least.

Ready to be flamed here, but I don't even work and still buy ready made mash and pre-chopped veg. If it means less time in the kitchen I'll take it, at least until DS2 grows out of his Evel Knievel stage.

You’ve forgotten the healthy splash of wine OP. That’s at least 50p. Actually if I’m doing roast pork I’ll sometimes go out and buy a small bottle of cider to put in the gravy. Now that is extravagant.

Ready to be flamed here, but I don't even work and still buy ready made mash

Same! I really hate making mash...I mean REALLY hate it. It's so time consuming... Peeling, chopping, boiling, mashing. Just so many steps to go through. My mash always has lumps too. It's just crap. Frozen mash is only £1 a bag. I don't think making your own is even much cheaper.

I have never bought (or made) gravy, bisto will do me just fine.
I have however bought ready made mash (once) it was so salty, and I'm a lover of salty food.
And I do on occasion all the time buy them joints of meat in a tray that are all prep'd you just bang them in the oven for an hour.
They are more expensive, but so much easier after a day at work, especially when i don't know what i want. 😁😁

I know people bash these ready made items, but for some disabled people they are an absolute life saver and allow them to live independently.

Don't assume that only lazy people buy them - some people don't have the mobility/dexterity to make things that you consider ridiculously easy.

Yup. And bloody Michael Pollan with his whole 'don't eat anything that your great grandmother wouldn't recognise as food' nonsense. Well, I used to work with a lot of great grandmothers and they were reliant on highly processed, single portion prepared foods including frozen mash, roasters etc in order to still cook for themselves. They valued that independence.

Ok. Confession time. I bought frozen avocados last night AND frozen leaks to make potato and leak soup. Don’t shout at me! 🤗

I love me a pre-chopped onion. 20p per bag in Asda.

I recently went through my Nan's old recipes and there's a strong reliance on tins and pantry items like Oxo, lard and trifle cakes, not much fresh fruit and veg mentioned. These people were in the war. They weren't squeezing kumquats at the farmers markets.

We don’t know how much gravy costs to manufacture.

Making mash takes 25 mins or so if you include peeling time. Many people who like mash and have money do not have or wish to spend that time.

If there was no demand for the products at the prices offered then the prices would be lower or the products no longer on the shelves.

Where did the lamb lady go?! What do you serve with your lamb???!!!

Those pots of gravy taste horrible. The price isn’t the issue. The taste - Oof. No.

But I’ll happily use microwave mash, or whip up a boiling water bisto gravy for midweek. Sometimes you have time to labour over something. Sometimes you need to just plate up and eat. It’s not lazy.

My gravy - my laboured gravy - is bloody delicious. I love making it too. But I don’t think it’s cheap when you factor in the veg trivet and the wine and the mustard or redcurrant jelly or whatever. If you don’t have the stuff in anyway - the cost adds up.

My best mash tip is to do the peeling/boiling/mashing while the meat is roasting, then line your slow cooker with tinfoil and put the mash inside on low, until you need to serve. Keeps it warm, avoids that last minute mashing while making gravy and putting the Yorkshires in panic.

I’m pretty sure my great grandmother would recognise a pot of ready made gravy as gravy. She’d probably be delighted with it.

I'd say a lot of our great grandmothers would be only fucking delighted with frozen mash and pots of gravy. Can you imagine, after decades of cooking dinners with no microwaves, no convenience foods, no gadgets, and never going out to eat either?
They'd be in heaven!

I have found my people, long live frozen mash!
Prediced onions can do one after giving me food poisoning though

I haven't been able to get frozen mash in Sainsburys since the snow....we need to stop telling people about it!

No one will hand you a medal at the end of your life because you could be bothered to make mash from scratch. Don't waste your time doing shit you don't need to.

I buy gravy when we have haggis. Dry haggis is sad.