Lorraine Pascale 

Supermarket economy brands: taste test

Lorraine Pascale tastes and rates essentials from tinned soup to sausages and sliced white
  
  

Lorraine Pascal
Lorraine Pascale. Photograph: Pål Hansen for Observer Food Monthly Photograph: Pål Hansen/for the Observer Food Monthly

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

 

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