Cheddar cheese
Tesco Everyday Value Mature Cheddar
£7.29/kg
The flavour could be stronger: mature cheddar should have more of a kick. But there is a touch of sour, which is nice.
★★★
Sainsbury's Basics Full Flavour Cheddar
£7.29/kg
The sourness is there but it's lacking any real flavour. Although it's less salty than the others, which is good.
★★
Waitrose Essential English Cheddar
180g, £1.59
This is too salty, so salty that it's by far the strongest flavour that's coming through.
★★
The Co-operative Simply Value Mild White Cheddar
800g, £5.88
Definitely a mild cheddar. It's too mild though, so there's not nearly enough flavour.
★★
Tomato soup
Waitrose Essential Cream of Tomato Soup
400g, 59p
Oh this is nice! It's very rich and tastes like it has butter in it.
★★★★
Sainsbury's Basics Creamed Tomato Soup
400g, 24p
A velvety smooth soup. I can actually taste the tomatoes in it too.
★★★
Tesco Everyday Value Tomato Soup
400g, 24p
This one has a lovely smooth texture but I'm not really getting much of the tomatoes coming through.
★★
Morrisons M Savers Tomato Soup
400gp, 30p
This one has a good flavour but unfortunately it's far too sour.
★★
Sausages
Tesco Everyday Value 8 Pork Sausages
454g, 61p
These are well-seasoned so have a really rich flavour. They also have a chewy outside, which I like.
★★★★
Morrisons M Savers 20 Thick Sausages
1kg, £1
These are very nice. There's not as much flavour but they have a lovely texture.
★★★
Budgens Daily Basics 8 Sausages
454g, £1.09
Not much flavour going on here but with a bit of ketchup you'd never know.
★★
Waitrose Essential British Pork Sausages
454g, £1.39
Salty, far too salty; it's all I can taste. Not good.
★
Strawberry jam
Waitrose Essential Strawberry Jam
454g, 80p
I really like this one: it's fruity, rich and not too sweet. BEST BUY
★★★★
Tesco Everyday Value Strawberry Jam
454g, 35p
This isn't bad – you can actually taste the strawberries.
★★★
Sainsbury's Basics Strawberry Jam
454g, 29p
This is both sweet and sour. Would be good with pork, I'm not sure about on toast though.
★★
Morrisons M Savers Strawberry Jam
454g, 60p
Super sweet, and not in a good way. Not sure there's any fruit going on in here.
★
Baked beans
Marks & Spencer Simply Value Baked Beans
410g, 41p
Definitely my favourite. The sauce is nice and rich and the beans aren't too grainy.
★★★★
Tesco Everyday Value Baked Beans
420g, 28p
These aren't quite as tomatoey as I would like but the beans are OK.
★★★
The Co-operative Simply Value Baked Beans
410g, 28p
The beans are a lovely texture but they are pretty flavourless.
★★
Sainsbury's Basics Beans in Tomato Sauce
420g, 28p
The beans are bigger, which is good but the flavour is bad, and tastes slightly astringent.
★
Sliced bread
Waitrose Essential White Medium Sliced Bread
800g, 80p
Best of a bad bunch, only because it's less salty, but none of these loaves really seem like bread to me.
★
Sainsbury's Basics White Sliced Bread
800g, 50p
Completely tasteless, though no more than the rest of them.
★
Tesco Everyday Value Sliced White Bread
800g, 47p
The dough is awful, sour and claggy.
no stars
Morrisons M Savers White Loaf
800g, 50p
This is horrendous. I don't know what else to say.
no stars
Lorraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food (RRP £20) is available for £16 with free UK p&p fromthe Guardian Bookshop