Tesco confirms it has discontinued selling cornflour due to "lack of customer demand"

[mandolinwind]

If you are going to be very inconvenienced by this decision please reply to the Twitter thread and tell Tesco what you use cornflour for in your kitchen:

twitter.com/croakinggoat/status/1592468320443592705

Why, what's it like?
I wouldn't know where to start with the quantity of flour for a white sauce with cornflour.

This takes me back - I used to be the buyer for Homebake at Tesco.

Cornflour was never a big seller, much, much less than other flours - only really bought by confident cooks. The volume and sales of this product never justified its place on the shelves. It was only there as it was classed as a 'unique' product as in you couldn't really substitute it for anything else. Cream of tartar and arrowroot would also be in this category.

I suspect it will come back in some guise in the future.

I had wondered if the war in Ukraine might have affected supply. I suspect it will come back in some guise

We've been lapping all tescos nearby (country person here so literally travelling miles and miles) trying to find the bloody stuff. Now I see why. Amazon it is, again.....

Honestly we are really trying to buy local/not online shop but it's getting harder and harder.

They're lovely and the recipe makes a load!

@motleymop I probably put too much in and it was very gluey, you also don't get the flavour from the butter in a roux.

Agreed. There is no comparison between homemade pesto and jarred (especially the cheap jars, the better quality ones can be ok when just an ingredient, rather than the 'star' of the meal). Homemade white/cheese sauce is a million times better and doesn't really take that long (that said I don't use cornflour in it).

Wrong thread, @goodadvice1

Think you are in the wrong thread! This is a thread about Tesco discontinuing cornflour 😀

NGL, never bought cornflower in my LIFE! (Over 50 years.)

I am not sure making your own pesto is more expensive than buying a jar. Sure you can buy a cheap jar for a quid from Asda but the better brands are more like 3.50. A pot of fresh basil is 75p at Lidl. Yes, you also need to have olive oil and cheese and nuts but not much.

The pine nuts would be the deal breaker as they are very expensive to buy – then again, I doubt the cheap jars (or even the expensive jars) contain many actual pine nuts.

I get through loads because I follow a gluten free diet. That's a bugger because I shop at Tesco. Aldi stock it though.

'I also replace an ounce of plain flour per 12 ounces with cornflour or with fine semolina when making shortbread.'

Me too! My gran thinks I'm mad 😁

tesco have pretty sophisticated systems to work out what is worth giving shelf space, and what isn't, so I would guess that they know better than you do whether they should stock it or not.

I buy cornflour maybe once a year, and will not be incovenienced as I can buy it pretty much anywhere. Tesco is a business, they want to make money, not make your life convenient.

I'm sure that when I looked, the bog-standard supermarket pesto jars were mostly cashew nuts instead of pine nuts.

Just go to Aldi and stop making such a meal of it...

I buy gravy browning. Although this is one of those things that only needs buying like once every couple of years I would be sunk if i couldn't get it. Tescos stopped for a while so i bought like three bottles on Amazon and then suddenly it reappeared. I bet they sell ore cornflour than they do gravy browning. I reckon it'll reappear.

I use it to make crispy beef/chicken. Much easier than making a batter. It’s my kids favourite dish.
always keep a box and a back up box in the cupboards.
home bargains sell it ridiculously cheaply compared to any other supermarket.

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton

do you use it for kids goop?

if not, how the hell do you use that much?

looks like other supermarkets are doing the same.

I wonder if you can get huge bags at Costco?

Our Aldi has recently started stocking cornflour, it never has in the past. But I can’t get cream of tartar in our local aldi or tesco anymore so had to get that from Amazon.

i use cornflour at least weekly, in gravy and stews to thicken. Also some baking recipes need it. I wouldn’t know what to use if not cornflour. If ever I’ve run out and try to thicken gravy with plain flour, it seems to always go lumpy.

Yeah thanks for that helpful tip 🙄

No Aldi anywhere near us. Not everywhere is fully furnished with all supermarkets you know......

@SkylightSkylight DH uses a tablespoon or 2 most times he cooks - and that is several times a week.
DS's favourite biscuits have a cupful in.
We just cook with that amount.

I think the addition of a small amount of cornflour makes the shortbread taste crisper and lighter.

Not made it for years, but I used to make a shortbread with wholemeal flour or 85% wholemeal flour but would replace some of the flour with ground rice for that (6oz flour to 2oz ground rice). Makes an earthy, rough, slightly gritty shortbread which I used to serve with whipped gooseberry fluff or gooseberry fool type deserts.

If you have several Tescos as you say, there are other supermarkets too. There is nowhere that has multiple Tesco but no Aldi, or Lidl, Or Sainsbury etc etc etc.