Not sure I like the sound of Delia's new book, it seems to be going against the trend

[Overrun]

I am bit amazed at all her recommendations, they are so specific, does any one else think she might not be totally unbiased? Most supermarkets are covered.
I admit I haven't read it, but there have been so many articles out about it, I feel as if I had.
Does any one else have any pithy thoughts on this?

I have a copy of the original 'How to Cheat at Cooking'. It's awful. Reckon she just saw an opportunity for yet another retro revival. SHe must be piling up a pension fund.

Oh she is a silly woman, her recent pronouncements on organic food are shite.

This is interesting - does anyone know if it's true that ingredients are going to be labelled as Delia Cheats?

I really don't think Delia is going to be insisting we all stop doing our normal cooking and follow her cheats recipes. Continue as you were! Civilisation will carry on unchanged. Not worth getting your knickers in a twist about.

i got her how to cook book when i first left home , it was basic but at the time i didnt know how to boil an egg! this new one does look strange - cant believe you can or would buy mince meat in a tin?!?

We used to eat mince from a tin when I was a kid. It was yummy.

The list off that link, Hab - interesting blog btw

It's just a bag of shite, isn't it?

Delia is pretty powerful, Maidamess, and so are the supermarkets. She may not be "insisting" on anything, but she'll be encouraging and influencing people to spend shitloads more than they need to on inferior products to create worse meals. Worth getting at least grumpy about.

She's trying to make out she's doing it for "the poor"

i had a book by delia called frugal food before she was fgamous

i used it a lot

and i was young

and it is lots of cooking with offal

i think she has changed changed utterly

and it has been revamped

i think i had it in about 1976

frugal food economic food withelegance

Oh God - didn't get that link, Hunker. It really is crap and pisses me off. I mean, you really can't say that battery farmed chicken is fine if you're "poor" but then include Belazu preserved lemons and lobster bisque in the same list.

Have just waded through that list and most of it looked fine tbh. Like her idea of ready prepared flan cases for quiches etc

Yes, but it is MUCH cheaper and better to make a big batch of pastry, make a load of cases and freeze them. It's not rocket science.

Whats so bad about using some pre pprepared stuff in cooking anyhow? Do you never use a jar of pasta sauce? Or make a jelly using cubes? Please don't tell me you grapple with sheets of gelatine!

How did I miss the hardboiled quails eggs? Is this truly for people who can't boil an egg?

I think there is a lot of food snobbery here!

Maidamess, have you seen the list?

On the one hand, she's saying she's sticking up for "poor people" and trying to make food less complicated - look at that list and tell me it demystifies cooking and is an inexpensive way of doing so, please.

You won't be able to.

Yes of course I could do that, but IRL I'm very unlikely to, so if we want quiche, I'll buy a ready made one. Just seemed a good halfway point, that's all.

Maidamess - cooking is my hobby, so yes, I do grapple, as you say. Although slinging together a basic pasta sauce takes 10 mins tops, and gelatine is pretty straightforward. Not that I make jelly often. And using this kind of thing once in a while is fine, just as pizza/fish and chips once in a while is fine, but you don't need to shell out for a cookbook to tell you to do that, and there's something so insidious about all these things being labelled as "Delia Cheats" in the supermarket - just smacks of cynical money grabbing. especially as it is MORE expensive to buy pre-prepared stuff.

me thinks its easy to do fab food on a budget thats all homecooked. Me , dh ,dd eat freshly prepped food for all meals , we both work ft , its a ? of hwats importat to yuo as a family. food is to us

It's the fact that she's brought out a book to tell us how to cook using expensive ready-made ingredients on the premise that it will save us time (it won't) and money (it won't) that grates me.

Hotbot, what do you cook?

Am in need of inspiration!

Maybe you should do a book

rubbish typing sorry

Ok I've had a look at the list, and yes there are some poncey foodstuffs on there,but I also saw a lot of things that are cheap and available everywhere. Surely people will only follow the recipes they are interested in? And isn't it as much for ease as for cost?