To ask which cooking ingredients you would never use own brand for?

[Babadookie]

I buy own brand for about 80-85% of our weekly shop, but I switched from supermarket tinned tomatoes to a more expensive brand last year and I swear I'll never go back. I find that the difference in the end result is night and day, and the dearer ones go so much further with flavour. I'm a cheapskate with everything else though 😁

What product would you never cut corners with?

We've switched to basic ketchup and it's grim.

Hmm. Ketchup? And chicken stock.

I don't mind the shops main brand but the budget range Mayo I bought the other week is awful. I'm going back to Hellmans in utter disgust!

Own brand stock cubes are not nice nor gravy granules

Philly cheese for cream cheese frosting is a must! The texture is so much better. The NYC bagels are also much better than other supermarket bagels. Proper deli ones still beat those hands down though!

I've never noticed much difference between tinned tomatoes.

Worcestershire sauce, I find own brand thinner than Lea & Perrins.

Own brand gravy Granules are grim.

Our kids prefer the value ketchup.

I'm happy to try value/basic anything. Things we haven't liked are the weetabix and coffee.

Butter
Mayo

Definitely coffee, I'm a coffee snob. Own brand just doesn't cut it

Tea. Yorkshire is the lowest grade I'd go. I'd rather a whole leaf of either a singalong variety or blend.

Single* although singalong tea sounds fun too.

Butter. I can not see past lurpak or graham's no matter how much it rips me off.

I buy very few branded foods but I do get these:

Hellmann's mayonnaise (full-fat, I'd rather have no mayo than low-fat)
Heinz tomato ketchup
Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce - unique
Marmite (there is no possible substitute! there'd be a riot here if it was even mooted)
Bisto gravy powder - I only use it occasionally but I don't want to risk ruining my gravy with anything else
Tate & Lyle's golden syrup - I don't even know if anybody else makes it
Lyle's treacle (ditto)
Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder
Fever Tree tonic water because it doesn't have artificial sweetener

Waffles! Got to be birdseye, although now they are double the price I did give own brand a go again recently- still nope!

Coffee is my main one .. I only like ground Colombian beans .

Pasta - value pasta or even supermarket brand is grim, I like De Cecco. But I don't begrudge spending money on food ... I only shop in charity shop for clothes, have a £5 haircut twice a year and am not fussed about holidays. But I won't give up my coffee .

Sandwich pickle too - tried morrisons own but it’s nothing like branstons and had an odd aftertaste

Yorkshire tea. Not negotiable. I take the teabags when we go away to be sure.

Fevertree tonic
Heinze beans and ketchup
Weetabix
Marmite
Bristo

That's the only brands I buy. But I don't buy the cheap tinned toms, no brand loyalty but the basic ones are a bit more watery.

I clicked on this to say tinned tomatoes! I always wait until Napolina is on offer and buy it - otherwise you're just paying for water, IMO.

Coffee and butter I'd also rather do without than buy cheap.

Not quite the same as I'd totally buy own brand because money is tight and I don't care that much, but I can really see the difference between cheap greek yoghurt and something lovely like Longleys. OTOH their creme fraiche seems to me no nicer than own brand, for the price.

Tea bags and diluting juice.

I agree and I'm really not bothered about brands. Too dry for my liking.

Weird rec, but, have you tried Aldi's pasta? I also like De Cecco, and I am spoilt with a DP who is into hand-made pasta and who has friends who run an Italian deli ... but, I swear, Aldi basic fusilli pasta is surprisingly good! It's chewy in the right way, not floppy like a lot of cheap brands.

I have never heard of Graham's butter.
Has to be Anchor for me.

I will only buy Jackson’s bread .