To think if I order paneer I don’t want bloody feta!

[Sexnotgender]

Why are supermarket substitutions not sensible?

I was so looking forward to my paneer makhani and now I can’t make it😔

First world problems I know.

Ps I am an Indian though so my view on feta as a sub may be on the dramatic side

I have a feeling the person who subbed paneer for feta might be from a part of India / Pakistan where paneer is made from goats or sheep’s milk. It can definitely be substituted in dishes that don’t need the paneer to be fried first.

I am Indian by the way and my gran was old school. She made paneer from goat’s milk and it tasted similar to feta.

Asda took back my subs last week. Did you touch them?
No, I asked the driver when he pulled up but he said I couldn’t return anything.

"Elmlea isn't even cream"

Wait.... What?!

It’s a blend of buttermilk and vegetable oil... boak

You can request a refund on Asda within 2 days I do it with the subs I don't want and they won't take back.

Oh good lord, how have I made it to 30 without knowing this?

Feta is crumbly and salty and paneer is mild and spongey

Depends. Hot feta definitely isn't crumbly and saltiness varies.

I got chicken thighs instead of breasts, not so bad for me but dh won't eat meat on the bone.
And a 600g bag of satsumas was out of stock so they sent me 2 800g bags of clementines. My fruit bowl is overflowing.
Going to make marmalade

My local supermarket had the giant cartons (2 litres?) of full fat milk for 29p so I couldn’t resist as it will make a lot of paneer.

I get it that feta isn’t the same, and you can refuse to accept it, but that’s the problem with home deliveries. Unless you specify a suitable substitute, they’ll risk getting it wrong to try to help you. Not many people have heard of paneer and they don’t know how to use it, so the feta was a fair guess.

Sexnotgender sounds amazing! I'll have to try it next week for paneer Thursday

Well Sainsbury's have just substituted my vegetarian gyoza with a Thai green chicken curry and a spatula for a ladle! They also apparently removed a box of malteezers because I am too greedy (I had ordered two small packets of sweets for the kids and a bar of cooking chocolate for baking). I wasn't forewarned of this. I only do a food shop every 3-4 weeks (we get, veg and milk delivered), so now I have to wait another 3 weeks for the chocolate that I had been craving!!

It’s quite easy to make although you do need a lot of milk.

I can’t believe they subbed feta for paneer - haloumi at a push but feta? I like all three but there’s and time and a place for each.

This is why I like the fact that I can put specific instructions for substitutions or request none at all for tesco. They've followed them a couple of times so it seems to work, e.g. I'd ordered gluten free oatcakes and in substitution notes I put 'any gluten free cracker type things' and got some nairns crackers instead.

I once got a grocery order for my house bound sister about 2 years ago. The subbed chocolate for a bag or oranges (she is still annoyed). The upside is she discovered her love of smoked bacon.

I’ve asked for a refund. I double checked with the driver when he arrived just now and he said they’re still not accepting returns.

Need to do something with 2 blocks of feta now... ideas welcome! Vegetarian please

Usually the subs come out of a computer algorithm, but the pickers can overrule the computer choice.

Trouble is the pickers have no way of knowing what you care about, except from any substitution notes you put. And every picker can't be expected to know the ins and outs of food from every different culture.

Chocolate (Not even a Terry’s chocolate orange) - oranges. Nah.

The Elmlea/ cream reminds me of a glorious arguement between my grandparents.DGM is partially sighted so was at the mercy of DGD's trips to the supermarket. It was a long and happy martiage based on not hoarding up and repressing all these little annoyances

I like feta in a salad, but would not appreciate it in a curry.
Where can you get paneer, I've never spotted it in my boring provinical supermarkets.

Where can you get paneer

I’ve seen it in Morrison’s, Asda and Waitrose.

Was it asda? I have the same frustration we now have 8 packs of feta. Yuk

Damn I love cheese. I'm just reading this thread for the cheese talk.

Elmea however is deeply grim. My area has amazing local shops but fresh cream is one of the few things I have to visit a big name supermarket for.

As someone who has worked in the online department of a supermarket as a student I can confirm it's the shopping system that picks a substitute. It's not the picker unless they have cycled through the substitute list because there is poor stock availability. It's possible at the moment that there is very variable stock availability, particularly on fresh items. It may be that the only similar cheese was feta (I'm thinking wet or non-British cheeses) so that was the nearest option even though normally there would have been closer alternatives.
The online system has several categories that it matches to select a substitute including brand, size and price. So I can see why someone may have gotten bio rather than non-bio washing tablets. The system doesn't have the same understanding of nuance as a person. It's also important to remember that many pickers at the moment are new and are still getting to grips with it all.
So poor stock availability, a system that doesn't understand the difference between feta and paneer and new staff as led to you getting a substitute that your don't think is appropriate.