Ready-prepared ‘cheat’ products can save money

publication date: Feb 19, 2008

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author/source: Fiona Beckett

Following the publication of Delia’s new book ‘How to Cheat at Cooking’ last week, I’ve been wondering how useful it would be to students. My first reaction was that it wouldn’t. Most of the recipes use at least one time-saving product and time-saving products are more expensive, right?

Well, not always. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a jar of sauce  than make a dish from scratch. If you’re making a Thai curry or a pesto, for example or, as we did last night, spaghetti puttanesca (see today’s Frugal Cook post) you’d be hard pushed to do it cheaper unless you already had some of the ingredients.

On the other hand ready-made sauces or soups, for example, rarely taste as good as ones you make yourself . . .

Delia’s answer is to tweak her recipes, adding other ingredients to make them taste home-made. Often that’s simply a question of adding a little extra garlic or freshly squeezed lemon juice (both inexpensive) or fresh herbs (more costly but affordable provided you buy them in an ethnic shop).

Of course, not all products are more economic. Jars of ready made pasta sauces are frequently more costly than making your own and pre-prepared products like bagged salads, cut up fruit and ready-grated cheese always cost more than the raw materials involved.

But sometimes time-savers are worth it, especially if you find them on special offer. Here are some you might look out for if you haven't already got them.

Indian and Thai curry pastes
Tapenade (olive paste)
Garlic and ginger paste
Jars of roasted peppers (Hungarian or Polish ones are cheapest)
Ready-rolled puff pastry (only a masochist would make puff pastry from scratch)
Thai sweet chilli sauce (the thinking student’s alternative to ketchup)
Stuffed tortelloni
Instant mash (the French kind, based on flakes is best)
Frozen spinach
Frozen peppers (for cooked dishes not in salads)
Meringue nests (again M & S does the best I’ve tasted)

Worth buying on special offer
Fresh soups (like New Covent Garden)
Good quality pasta and curry sauces (like Patak’s, Sacla and Loyd Grossman)
Good quality pesto (cheap pesto isn't worth buying)
Jars of antipasti vegetables like mushrooms and artichoke hearts
Chilled or frozen gratin dauphinoise (but then I love potatoes . . . )
Gu chocolate puds

NB: the more people you’re cooking for the more costly it generally is to use ready-made products.