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?

Tea (Yorkshire Gold)
Marmite
Heinz Ketchup and Beans
Maldon salt
Pasta (De Cecco or similar)
I do sometimes buy own brand basmati but Tilda is far nicer
Bread (from bakery)

Otherwise happy to go own brand

SanFranBear · 19/10/2022 23:38
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!“

we’ve swapped to the Morrisons own version, actually prefer it now and quite a lot cheaper.

I don’t think there’s much where it has to be the brand. I’m generally happy with the supermarket own brand for most things, although there’s some things where it has to be the standard own brand not the value range.

The exceptions are some treat food - Magnums (I will happily eat an own brand version but it’s not the same as a proper Magnum), Coca-Cola (although that’s because I buy the caffeine free version and my local Tesco doesn’t sell an own brand caffeine free one, otherwise I would try that). And chocolate - I like Cadbury’s so would always choose that over an own brand.

We do always buy Fairy washing up liquid though as we haven’t found an own brand that’s as good.

Heinz salad cream
Amoy soy sauce
Kellogg's bran flakes. Tried the Sainsbury's version (nearly half price) and they were rank with a weird aftertaste. Never again!

I use the pizza sauce too. I wait until it goes on offer for £2 then buy 2-3 tins. One tin will do 3 large pizzas easily and it freezes really well.

Mutti tomatoes are the absolute best & Rummo pasta