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?

Spaghetti hoops - only Heinz
Hellmans light mayo - can't even tolerate the regular stuff and def not extra light
Knor stock pots
Marmite
Coca Cola
Fairy liquid

Duracell batteries
Husband likes branded lager/beer
Son likes branded crisps
Cat likes branded cat food
I like Ribina but will drink non-branded as weli recently bought some Quaker jumbo oats and we both agreed they made much nicer porridge than the value oats I have used for the past 10 years

I'm struggling to think of anything else.

Haven’t found any yet.

It's got to be Warburtons medium sliced bread for toast. I'll tolerate Warburtons Toastie bread if I have to. Otherwise, there's no point having toast.

Baked beans - got to be Heinz. Also tinned tomatoes, although some of the Lidl ones are quite good
Weetabix - though I buy the super cheap version for the dogs breakfast.

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.

I agree. During lockdown my regular Sainsbury's tinned toms were substituted with Napolina and I couldn't believe how much better everything I used them in tasted. I've never gone back to own brand.

Also heinz ketchup and Hellman's mayo. Not found any decent own brand versions and Aldis are inedible imo

Just coffee.

crumpets
ketchup
peanut butter

I’m shocked people are saying bisto, it’s absolutely rank! Tried Asda extra special for the first time this weekend and it was much better, no horrible waxy greasy residue left on the jug / roof of mouth.

In all honesty, nowt really. Fairy up liquid possibly but that’s not food. Possibly HP for their “fruity” brown sauce, but I’m not sure that exists not branded. I’d love to try it if it did though.

Mayo
Wheatabix
Tomato ketchup
All grim 🤢

Tesco baked beans though - delish, much prefer them to Heinz!

ketchup, mayonnaise, tinned tomatoes, frozen peas, soy sauce, baked beans, washing up liquid (horrible scents!), licorice allsorts, crisps, cream cheese, yogurt, mixers/soft drinks, gin.

Anchor butter or baked beans. X

I will drink own brand tea and coffee but prefer branded which will i only buy if i can get it on offer.

Baked beans
Marmite
Jaffa cakes
Pesto but that is because I can only eat the original due to ingredients
Weetabix (again only buy if on offer)

Grannies I'm sure you can buy generic "brown sauce". I wonder if it tastes as appetizing as it sounds.

grannies thought so

Cadbury's has pretty much become the cheapo alternative to decent stuff, now. I would actively choose decent own-brand stuff (Aldi standard or Morrisons posh range) over Cadbury's.

You can buy orange 'industrial' Duracell batteries online in larger packs (called 'Procell' or something, but exactly the same) - these always used to represent a decent saving, but the normal ones have really come down massively in price in real terms, when compared to years ago.

Oops missed the "fruity" bit. Ignore me.

Marmite is the food of the gods and the one thing I gently panicked about during the pandemic. Brewers weren't brewing as much as usual so stocks of yeast were low and for a while, you could only get the smaller jars. I'm sad to see a large jar is now over £5 but it's the one thing I just can't compromise on - eaten every day in this house!

@SarahAndQuack

Proper Greek yogurt is strained over a couple of days, the cheap ‘Greek Style’ yogurt is just thickened with cream or whatever. Never tastes the same. But you do have to pay for the real deal.

I agree on the tinned tomatoes - I used to think they were all the same but they're really not.

Birds eye frozen peas are also way way better than the cheap ones.

Orange juice.

Philadephia.

Cheddar.

Me too. Have to have Costa Italia Signature Blend ground coffee.

Oh, and Whole Earth peanut butter. Cheaper brands taste sooo sweet to me now, yuck.

Used to be Diet Coke but I've trained myself on to the aldi own make. It's not quite the same but it's so much cheaper. Other than that absolutely nothing any more. I can no longer afford to have standards haha.

Ketchup
mayo

I forgot fizzy drinks