What is going on with food prices??

[londongirl12]

A 500g packet of mince in Aldi is now over £5!! What on earth is going on???

Haven't heard of dumplings with pearl barley. Dislike suet andlike earl barley so might give them a run. Will Google a recipe but grateful for suggestions for yours, PP.

Love dumplings and pearl barley!
I haven’t got an, so but a cooked chicken from Asda, let it stew with bones on in the slow cooker to get stock, then take all the meat off. Cook with lentils, Asda soup mix, pearl barley etc and dumplings.
Then put some of it in the soup maker and have fantastic tasty soup texturedm from the dumplings.

Might have misunderstood and it's not dumplings made out of pearl barley instead of suet, Tried Googling but initial links tend to the stew with pearl barley in and suet dumplings. If pearl barley dumplings don't exist....

Lol sorry what I meant was dumplings thrown in at the end. The pearl barley in with the meat and vegetables.

I use suet to make suet pudding to go with roast beef instead of Yorkshires, its a savoury pudding with a crispy crust. Plain but delicious as it soaks up the gravy from the beef and if you make two the second is tasty pudding with golden syrup and ice cream

I can't make pastry, hot hands. So I'd do suet crust pastry as a lid on a pie to fill the kids up.

Winter broth mixes, everyone does them. Really stretches a meal. You do need extra liquid

Well I use all those things but I don't count as I'm not a mum, but if you're trying to say it's not possible to use suet or broth mix then why not?

A big pan of stew and dumplings is lovely healthy winter food (as long as its more veg than dumplings of course) and the stew can be cooked in a slow cooker or left in the oven on low, a small amount of cheaper cuts of meat made to go a long way, even more so with the pulses and veg and you'll have leftovers so it's a perfect suggestion on a thread about reducing food costs.

I know suet is more expensive than it used to be but it's a lot cheaper in B&M than mainstream supermarkets.

so the suet pasrty lid in a tin on its own without out anything under - is a suet crust to go with a roast dinner for the same reason - its delicious and imo far tastier than Yorkshires

@Wilfulignoranceabounds https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/bread-recipes/wholemeal-loaf works well.

Soup and dhal in the slowcooker so just chuck stuff in and leave it. Yoghurt pretty much makes itself in a flask overnight, and whipping cream to butter takes about 10 mins. It's really not that time consuming and leaves plenty of time for activities - I have 3 dcs.

I make dumplings - they are really easy. And I use suet.

I use vegetable suet to make dumplings. I'd forgotten about pearl barley actually but I do like it and will start using it again.

I was just thinking about 70s dinners my mother would make to stretch everything :

Mince and tatties with dumplings. The mince would be stretched out with a lot of onions and carrots and I think she bulked it out with porridge oats. Then topped with dumplings and served with potatoes, kale and turnip. Then pudding would be baked apples and custard or rhubarb and custard.

Mutton stew stretched with every vegetable you can think of plus pearl barley and topped with, you guessed it, dumplings. Puddings were always using up stewed fruit with custard or bread and butter pudding.

It was all about stretching the meat and using up what was in the house. I hated it all 🤣

Now I love it and can actually cook that way of plain British food. I'd just forgotten about it all.

I'm inspired!

This just seems so strange to me. I lived in the States in the early 90s and felt like Charlie Bucket gasping in wonder at how cheap and good the supermarkets were.

Well no, not many do. But I think the days of gaily scoffing artichokes and avocado are over. It's back to Woolton pie.

We’ve given up meat and gone veggie due to this plus health reasons. It’s so much cheaper and just as much protein using lentils / chickpeas tofu etc

No need to apologise, I'm sure I misread too. Might still try and think it's possible to make something dumpling-esque with pearl barley?

I couldn’t believe it! I only buy mince every other shop now, I can’t see how they justify these increases.

I bought 1kg in Lidl

Bread dumplings are an alternative, I used to make something very similar to these from a vegetarian cookbook I had as a student https://www.amummytoo.co.uk/german-bread-dumplings-semmelknodel/

Thank you so much for this! Looks nice and simple, too. Thanks very much for taking the time to post it.

Just reporting back to say “YUM”! Can’t believe I’ve never thought to roast veg for making soup… makes such a difference. Roasted them with cumin seeds which made them delish. Never even knew that celery would survive being roasted. Live and learn. Thanks for the advice😊

I have made my own yoghurt successfully, but I don't find it any more economic to buy milk than to buy yoghurt. Am I missing something, or is this only money saving advice if you own a cow? 😁

My mother did this with lamb. She'd add a bit of sugar and herbs to the flour and suet. It was gorgeous. Stretched out the meal with three hungry children to feed.

Im so glad you liked it! I lt adds a lot of flavour and really is simple.

Thanks to this thread I've added pearl barley to my shopping list, so I'll be using that with my mumsnet chicken.