Tag: the taste test

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The Taste Test: Cat Food

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Week after week, Freddie watches me make and photograph recipes for this blog. She’s stared at us plaintively while we’ve done taste tests, protesting vociferously with her accusing eyes and surprisingly loud and expressive yowls at the unfairness of it all. Here we are, cooking and tasting and enjoying all this food. And what does she get? The same boring old cat food. Just out of a pouch, day after day. Well, except yesterday, when she caught a weasel and brought it proudly to us. (True story. It was mildly horrifying.)

So, to lessen her ire and to help protect the lives of the small woodland creatures dwelling around us, we’ve finally, just this once, let her in on the fun. Welcome to the cat food taste test.

(By the way, this is obviously a joke blog post, but it does have a slightly serious kernel – have you read the ingredients list on any cat food product lately!? For the standard brands – Felix and so on – it is literally 4% chicken or whatever meat flavour it’s supposed to be, 82% water and 2.5% crude ash! Among other things.)

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As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, Freddie is doing this in our kitchen and not in a lab and she is not a scientist. These are the opinions of one cat– that said, one cat who is used to the freshly killed mice and weasels of Oxfordshire and expects high quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously each supermarket has, say, eight or nine different types of cat food or whatever the product may be, and Freddie isn’t going to try every single one because her humans are cruel and didn’t buy them all.

Finally, I should highlight that Freddie tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting she didn’t know which product was which. She sat in one room while her slaves prepared the samples. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after tasting, when she learned which brand had made A, B, C, D, E, or F.

The Blind Taste Test: Cat Food

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A – Sheba Fine Flakes with Chicken – £5.88 per kg – 8/10

  • A contender from the start: this is the food I immediately gravitated towards. Strong and meaty. Would definitely eat again.

B – Sainsbury’s ‘The Delicious Collection’ Chicken Breast – £7.06 per kg – 7/10

  • A bit too heavy on the jelly and light on the chicken for my taste, but a good flavour and decent quality meat.

C – Gourmet Perle Tuna and Whole Shrimps in Gravy – £6.47 per kg – 6/10

  • I question the wisdom of putting tuna and shrimp in gravy. Surely gravy is for meat rather than fish? But I did enjoy the whole shrimps.

D – Encore Pacific Tuna & Whitebait – £14.28 per kg – 9/10

  • Delicious. I can’t resist a good fish dish. (Hannah’s note: I am not saying I would eat cat food but if I had to it would be this one. Here are the ingredients: Tuna Fillet 65%, Fish Broth 24%, Whitebait 10%, Rice 1%, Additives: None. No ash in sight.)

E – Gourmet Classic Soup – £22.50 per kg – 1/10

  • This is apparently a ‘delicately refined broth’. I’m not buying it. I’m a cat and we don’t eat soup.(Hannah’s note: she literally would not touch this, even after I took all the other food away.)

F – Felix with Tuna – £5 per kg – 5/10

  • I feel like that cat on the packet is watching me and I do not appreciate it.

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Conclusion

Cats will eat live mice. They don’t really care what cat food you feed them, as long as it kind of looks like some sort of meat.

They do draw the line at cat soup, though.

By the way, technically Freddie isn’t our cat.

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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Have you guys ever done shots of extra virgin olive oil? I’m going to guess not, because really, who does that? I’ve got to be honest: this was not the tastiest taste test ever. I kind of preferred chocolate week.

That said, this was actually not my first time drinking straight olive oil from a shot glass. At culinary school, you do a range of slightly odd things, and one of those things is olive oil tasting. Honestly, before I had to actually taste olive oil as one would taste wine, I didn’t really consider it to be a particularly interesting and complex product.

But I was so wrong! Olive oil is actually fairly analogous to wine in lots of ways. I mean, you’re talking about olives instead of grapes, but all the concerns of origin, climate, method of making, quality, price and so on do also come into play. There are professional olive oil tasters, and olive oil tasting events. It’s a whole new world.

Many of you probably don’t know (or perhaps care) about the difference between olive oil and extra virgin olive oil. I was once like this. It was a cheaper time. Now I have been educated (actually, we probably drank more straight olive oil at culinary school than humans should). Basically, olive oil is graded by its level of acidity. The level of acid in olive oil tells you how much the fat has broken down into fatty acids. If you want the good stuff, you’re looking for an unrefined oil. Extra virgin olive oil is unrefined, has lower levels of acid compared to blended oils (no more than 1%), and higher levels of the vitamins and minerals from the olive. It also has far more flavour than blended oils.

The whole issue of whether or not oil is healthy and which oils are evil and which will save your life is so stupid and complicated and confusing, and I’m not going into it. Personally, for standard cooking (unless I am deep frying or know I’m going to be working at a very high heat, in which case I will go for sunflower or vegetable) I use a cheap extra virgin olive oil. For eating cold, drizzling over dishes, finishing salads, dipping bread, making dressings, or blending into dips or pestos, I use a better quality extra virgin olive oil.

For baking, I sometimes use extra virgin olive oil if I want its flavour in the finished product, but I’ll often use flavourless oils if the taste doesn’t belong in that particular baked good. I don’t much go in for flavoured oils, but I do have sesame oil and truffle oil (I know, I know) around. I keep a few different bottles of extra virgin olive oil in  the kitchen, and am not particularly loyal to one brand: there are so many to try and I like to mix it up.

But this is just me. If you prefer everything to be cooked in organic cold pressed coconut oil, or only buy vegetable oil and eschew all this fancy oil stuff, go on doing you.

As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously there are, say, eight or nine different types of olive oil or whatever the product may be in each supermarket, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money?

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, E, or F.

The Blind Taste Test: Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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Extra Virgin Olive Oil
per 100g
£*
kcal
fat
carb
fibre
protein
salt
Aldi
0.76
824
92
0
0
0
0
Tesco
0.52
900
100
0
0
0
0
Iliada
1.2
823
91
0
0
0
0
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference
1.2
823
91.4
0
0
0
0
Filippo Berio
0.85
822
91.3
0
0
0
0
Waitrose
2.4
823
91.4
0
0
0
0

A – Filippo Berio – 5/10

  • Smells grassy, herbaceous, and reasonably pleasant. The smell doesn’t really come through in the tasting. There’s a nice bitterness to it, but otherwise it’s a bit bland. Fine for cooking, but I probably wouldn’t use it for eating cold.

B – Waitrose – 7/10

  • Smells grassy, a bit spicy, and a little floral. An interesting taste and good flavour – a real kick of pepper on the finish, which is enjoyable, and a bit of fruitiness. I would use it for eating cold, dipping and so on.

C – Iliada – 5/10

  • Nothing particularly interesting in the scent. Tastes fairly bland. No peppery kick on the aftertaste. Not unpleasant but not going to set the world alight.

D – Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference – 8/10

  • Smells lighter than many of the other samples. A herbaceous, grassy tastes carries though in the flavour. A pleasant spiciness on its finish. Would use for salad dressings and so on.

E – Aldi – 7/10

  • No real notable scent, and initially doesn’t seem very interesting, but actually has a very nice flavour and a complex, strong, spicy finish when you taste it properly.

F – Tesco – 6/10

  • The only really visually different oil, looking much lighter and more golden than the others. Smells pleasant. Less body than the others and kind of disappears in the mouth, but has the pepper finish and quite a strong flavour – surprisingly not too bad.

Conclusion

I am not a professional olive oil taster, and it’s a whole skill that people specialise in. I am not one of those people. It’s quite possible that I am missing intricacies and subtleties here, so do remember this is a layman’s opinion. It would have been much nicer to dip bread into the olive oil, to be honest, but I wanted to have the best chance of just tasting the product.

I think what we have here is kind of a triumph of packaging. The Iliada oil, in it’s little can, looked interesting and pretty and very different to the other offerings, but the product didn’t really impress me. The basic Tesco packaging, though pretty uninspiring in and of itself, held an olive oil that had more of a unique taste than some of the other samples.

My favourite extra virgin olive oil from these six was the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference product, but the Waitrose, Aldi, and even budget Tesco options were all nice enough to use in dishes where you’d actually notice the flavour of the oil. The others were also fine, but I’d use them for cooking rather than eating. Please can I stop drinking straight oil now?

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Vegetarian Sausages

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Vegetarian sausages are going to be a bit easier to rank than eggs, guys. It’s not a big spoiler for me to tell you that now.

It might seem odd for me to be doing a taste test for vegetarian sausages, as I eat everything, including meat. However, partly inspired by two lovely friends of mine who have been practising six-day-a-week vegetarianism, I have been eating far less meat than I used to. I definitely do still eat meat (and fish), but when I do it’s the happiest, highest quality meat I can afford. It’s now more of a treat than a staple. Thus, I found myself buying vegetarian sausages for the first time at the beginning of this year.

You know what, though? Vegetarian sausages are kind of hard to find. That’s probably no news to vegetarians, but to a meat-eater, it was a bit of a surprise. A few supermarkets I tried didn’t sell them at all. There were only a couple of supermarket own brands that I could see – and I had to head to the frozen section for those – so there are a few brand name vegetarian sausages in here too.

As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously there are, say, eight or nine different types of vegetarian sausages or whatever the product may be, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money?

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, or E.

The Blind Taste Test: Vegetarian Sausages

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Veggie Sausages
per 100g
£*
kcal
fat
carb
fibre
protein
salt
Linda McCartney
0.87
168
6.0
8.7
3.0
18.2
1.3
Cauldron Lincolnshire
0.91
182
9.8
5.5
3.6
16.1
1.3
Sainsbury’s
0.57
181
10.7
3.7
2.3
16.3
1.0
Tesco
0.65
222
15.8
1.6
2.2
17.1
1.0
Quorn
 1.0
155
5.2
15.1
5.5
8.9
1.1

A – Linda McCartney – 4/10

  • A slightly odd orange colour, but crisped up well in the oven, and a nice texture on the exterior. Smells okay – a bit unusual, but not bad. Doesn’t smell or taste like a sausage though. Not an awful texture, and perfectly edible, but very bland and no particular flavour.

B – Sainsbury’s – 6/10

  • Looks more like a real sausage than A: a good colour. Smells nice, and kind of like a real sausage. Texture is actually reminiscent of meat. A bit bland but not bad – a bit of spiciness and flavour, but it doesn’t taste like meat.

C – Quorn – 5/10

  • A bit pale, but has a skin like a sausage and smells quite nice. Very soft and smooth texture, not really like meat. Doesn’t taste bad, but again, quite bland and lacking in real flavour.

D – Tesco – 3/10

  • Pink, thin, with a rubbery texture. The oddest looking of the bunch. Weird, and quite unpleasant, texture and taste. However, does taste quite like one of the fake hot dog sausages you get at theme parks or whatever.

E – Cauldron – Lincolnshire – 8/10

  • Looks the best of the bunch – a nice colour and size, cuts nicely. Smells good. The meatiest texture of the lot. Certainly more flavour than any of the others. Doesn’t taste exactly like meat, but a reasonable meat alternative, and perfectly pleasant to eat.

Conclusion

All the vegetarian sausages looked really different when the samples came out, and it was interesting to see how much variation there was between products. Initially, I wondered how I was going to rank this. Should I score the vegetarian sausages based on how much they taste like real meat, or on how good they are to eat in and of themselves? In the end, however, that wasn’t really a problem. The sausage that tasted the most like real meat was also the most pleasant thing to eat. The Cauldron sausages were the clear winner. That said, the Sainsbury’s own-brand frozen option were surprisingly nice, and much cheaper if you’re on a budget. I wouldn’t buy any of the other three options again, but I do have a pack of the Cauldron sausages in the fridge. Next to the bacon.

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Eggs

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A couple of you asked that I put eggs to the test for this series, and I was only too happy to oblige. It’s actually turned out to be a particularly interesting experience. This taste test has been unique so far among all those that I’ve done: you can see why in my conclusions below.

Firstly though, an introduction. It’s basically my dream to own my own chickens (simple pleasures for simple minds and so on). The idea of having pets that actually produce beautiful, fresh eggs for us to eat is stupidly appealing. However, we don’t have a garden, so it’s a dream I have had to put on hold. Also, I’d need a lot of chickens. I go through a lot of eggs. I am a baker, so it comes with the territory.

I think a lot of people buy free range eggs nowadays, knowing vaguely that it’s a good thing. In the UK, 2% of eggs purchased are organic, 47% of them come from free range hens, 48% are from caged birds and the rest are from barn hens.

Sadly, though, ‘free range’ isn’t such a high welfare standard as it sounds. In the EU (sob, let’s not get into it right now), free range hens have constant daytime access to the outdoors. Standards also dictate a maximum stocking density of 9 hens per square metre of ‘usable’ space. There are a few other requirements, which you can check out on good old Wikipedia if you’re interested.

However, organic eggs must meet all the basic free range requirements, and then many more. Here’s a handy summary from the Soil Association (the whole article is very useful):

‘Organic chickens are raised to organic standards, which not only means free-range but a whole lot more. Organic standards cover not only the animals housing and the amount of space they have, but also the way they are treated, what they are fed and how they are transported and eventually slaughtered. They are not allowed to be fed on GM feed (which is common in free-range and non-organic hens). Chickens must not have their beaks trimmed to try and prevent feather pecking and are given plenty of opportunities to express their natural behaviours such as – foraging, bathing in the dust outside and pecking at insects and worms on grass fields.’

In summary: organic eggs come from happier chickens. With that in mind, I set out to taste test some of the happiest eggs I could find, to see if budget versions that conformed to high standards were any different from the fanciest of them all.

As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously each supermarket has, say, eight or nine different types of eggs or whatever the product may be, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money?

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, or E.

The Blind Taste Test: Eggs

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Eggs
£ (6 eggs/328g)*
General Info
Aldi – Merevale
1.39 (328)
Organic, RSPCA Assured, Lion, Class A
Lidl – Woodcote
1.39 (328)
Organic, RSPCA Assured, Lion, Class A
Sainsbury’s – TTD
1.85 (328g)
RSPCA Assured, Free Range, Lion, Class A
Tesco
1.80 (328g)
Organic, Free Range, Lion, Class A
Waitrose – Duchy
2.75 (6 large)
Organic, Free Range, Lion, Class A

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Now, I haven’t done all of the usual nutritional information this week because they’re eggs and it doesn’t really work like that. I have, though, noted what the packaging states about the eggs’ standards. You’ll also see from the photos that the sizes of the eggs vary quite a bit. That’s because some of the half dozens I purchased were of mixed sizes and some were large. All had to meet a minimum weight of 328g though.

You’re also not getting any tasting notes this week. You know why? They all tasted like decent boiled eggs. Really, pretty much exactly the same – or so close to it that I couldn’t taste a difference.

A – Sainsbury’s – Taste the Difference

B – Lidl – Woodcote

C – Tesco

D – Aldi – Merevale

E – Waitrose – Duchy

I’m far from an expert, but here’s a very basic guide to the classifications.

  • Class A simply means the eggs meet the basic standards for retail in the UK – size, cleanliness, basic quality and so on.
  • The Lion mark is about food safety and legal requirements, not hen welfare.
  • RSPCA assured means the farms where the eggs were produced meet the RSPCA’s welfare standards. These are less stringent than organic standards, but still higher than basic free range (and the products are often cheaper than organic options).
  • Organic and/or a Soil Association mark represents the gold standard of welfare.

Conclusion

The conclusion this week is pretty simple. All the eggs taste pretty much the same, so if you’re going to buy high welfare eggs, you may as well buy the cheapest ones that meet the standards you are happy with. The Aldi and Lidl eggs were marked organic and thus met the welfare standard, but are almost less than half the price of the Waitrose eggs.

Although if I have to pick a winner, I pick Aldi. You can just about see in the picture above that the Aldi egg I tried (D) has a double yolk. I’m pretty sure that means I get to be lucky forever or something like that.

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Dark Chocolate

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Anyone who has spent any time with me will know that I am a chocolate person. I know it’s a stereotype (women and chocolate, blah blah blah), but I love it. There are so many chocolate related posts on this blog that I couldn’t even begin to link to them all.

I’m the person who will always gravitate towards chocolate as a treat rather than crisps or pizza. I will always choose the chocolate dessert in a restaurant. I make brownies upon brownies upon brownies. To truly mark the obsession, I just did a chocolate workshop. This is my bag, basically.

Now, I will very happily eat white, milk, or dark chocolate. I know white chocolate isn’t technically chocolate and so on, but a very good quality white chocolate is a thing of beauty, and don’t even get me started on caramelised white chocolate, which is the food of the gods (I will do a post on how to make it, if you are interested). But, for the sake of fairness here, I had to go for something simple, so that I could get equivalent samples. Hence, five types of plain 70% dark chocolate.

70% dark chocolate is what I use in baking all the time, so I am pretty attached to it, and always have a few bars in the cupboard for short-notice baking emergencies (happens more often than you might think). Usually, though, I go for whichever name-brand is on offer at the supermarket. Often, I end up with Lindt 70%. So I was curious to see how other 70% dark chocolates measured up.

As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously each supermarket has, say, eight or nine different types of dark chocolate or whatever the product may be, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money?

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, or E.

The Blind Taste Test: Dark Chocolate

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Chocolate
per 100g
£*
kcal
fat
carb
fibre
protein
salt
Aldi
1.03
574
43.0
30.0
14.0
9.8
0.01
Lidl
1.03
547
40
33
12
7.8
0.03
Sainsburys
1.45
547
40.2
31.9
12.2
8.4
0.02
Tesco
1.50
577
41.9
37.0
9.7
8.1
0.01
Waitrose
2.19
565
41.0
34.0
12.0
9.0
0.02

A – Lidl – J.D. Gross – 6/10

  • Good texture – a nice snap when broken. Creamy when eaten. A fairly sharp, bitter flavour with hints of coffee. A decent dark chocolate I’d happily eat, but not surprising or very special.

B – Aldi – Moser Roth – 7/10

  • Slightly softer and less bitter than the first sample, but still strong. A hint of fruitiness in the taste. A bold and dark flavour, and a velvety texture when eaten.

C – Tesco – 7/10

  • Another good texture. Tasted sweeter and softer than either A or B, with a less obvious bitterness. A slight orange/fruity taste in the background, and fairly creamy when eaten.

D – Waitrose – 8/10

  • Tasted somehow more chocolatey than the first three samples (sounds silly, but it did). Fruity and soft, and not too bitter – very mellow, especially in comparison to A and B. Tasted definitely different to the others, with a distinctive fruitiness.

E – Sainsbury’s – 5/10

  • Very distinctive flavour: maybe a hint of coconut. Hard to describe, but not as pleasing as the first four samples. Not too bitter, and quite soft and sweet in flavour. For me, the least appealing.

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Conclusion

This was an interesting taste test, and somewhat different to any of the others I have done so far. I don’t think any of the products I tried were bad. Even the offering from Sainsbury’s, which I liked the least on balance, was perfectly fine. Whether or not you like each type of chocolate will depend very much on personal taste and what you are looking for. Aldi and Lidl’s offerings were of a different style to the others. Neither supermarket did their own named-brand, and instead stocked J.D. Gross (made for Lidl) and Moser Roth (made for Aldi).

Even though Aldi and Lidl’s products were 70% cocoa dark chocolates, as were the rest, they were notably darker and tasted more bitter. You could even see visually that they looked darker. So, for those who like their dark chocolate to be pretty strong and not too sweet, these would be perfect. The others were all mellower, sweeter, and tasted like they were a lower cocoa percentage than the first two, even though they weren’t.

Personally, I would eat or use any of these products. Now that I have more experience of the range available, I might use the Aldi or Lidl darker chocolates for baking something rich and with a distinctive dark chocolate flavour.  The others might do better in something designed to be more accessible; perhaps for people who don’t have such a taste for serious dark chocolate.

So, for the first time, I am not going to pick an official winner this week. If I was just eating the chocolate, unadorned, I’d probably go with the Waitrose offering. However, I don’t think it’s necessarily better than the others. The Aldi and Lidl products were clearly of a different genre, and trying to do a different thing. Which chocolate would be best of the bunch would be entirely dependent on your personal taste, and what you wanted to use it for.

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Mature Cheddar Cheese

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Last week I told you that the taste test this week would be looking at chocolate, which, I suppose, proves I am a filthy liar. This week, I am looking at mature cheddar cheese. I decided that after the massive chocolate-fest that was my Paul A. Young review a couple of days ago, it was time to mix it up.

In the interests of fairness, I tried to choose cheeses here that were as equivalent as possible: all of these were rated 5, so you’d expect a sharp and mature cheese with a strong flavour. That said, there isn’t that much regulation. These days, cheddar cheese doesn’t actually have to be from Cheddar, as it’s not a protected term, although this tasting process has made me quite keen to actually go to the town of Cheddar and see how their cheese compares. Because that’s the kind of thing I find fun. Because I’m quite sad.

As before, I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously each supermarket has, say, eight or nine different types of cheddar or whatever the product may be, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money?

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, or E.

The Blind Taste Test: Cheddar Cheese

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Cheddar Cheese
per 100g
£*
kcal
fat
carb
fibre
protein
salt
Aldi
0.60
416
35.0
<0.5
<0.5
25.0
1.8
Lidl
0.92
410
34.4
0
0
25.0
1.8
Sainsburys
0.74
410
34.4
<0.5
<0.5
25.0
1.68
Tesco
 1.33
416
34.9
0.1
0
25.4
1.8
Waitrose
1.25
416
34.9
0.1
0
25.4
1.8

A – Sainsburys – 5/10

  • Soft, pliable texture – not very crumbly, a bit plastic-y. Perhaps good for melting, but not ideal for grating, as it’s quite soft. Decent flavour. Sharp taste, seems like a standard mature cheddar, but nothing exceptional and a disappointing texture.

B – Lidl – 8/10

  • Crumbly, firm: a good texture with a little bit of delicious salty crunchiness from tyrosine crystals, which you can often find in matured cheeses. A lovely strong, interesting flavour – sharp, but not sour. My favourite.

C – Tesco – 3/10

  • Another crumbly cheddar with a decent texture, but no crystals from maturation. Not a great flavour – almost sour, and a bit unpleasant. Not a fan.

D – Aldi – 4/10

  • On the soft and bendy end of the cheddar cheese spectrum. Weaker and milder than the first cheeses, which is a shame for a mature cheddar. A rather strange aftertaste, almost like melon, which isn’t unpleasant in itself but seems odd for cheese.

E – Waitrose – 7/10

  • Another cheddar that’s nicely firm and crumbly in texture, not at all plastic-y, with a lovely crunchiness to it. Strong and sharp in flavour: a decent cheddar that I’d happily eat on its own. The only cheddar that came with a resealable pack, which is handy.

Conclusion

The cheddar from Lidl was so tasty that I absent-mindedly continued to eat it after I’d finished the actual taste test. I was surprised by how much the cheeses varied in taste and texture, because if you look at them in terms of caloric content and the levels of fat, protein, salt and so on, they are nearly identical. I rarely buy supermarket cheddar cheese to eat on its own: if I were buying cheese as a treat for the sake of eating cheese after a meal I’d get it from a the Jericho Cheese Company if possible. Cheddar cheeses like these in this house tend to be an ingredient in another dish rather than the star of the show. That said, I’d definitely buy the Lidl cheese just for the sake of eating it.

*Prices correct at time of writing.

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The Taste Test: Houmous

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A couple of weeks ago, I read an article that has to be a pretty strong candidate for ‘most first world middle class problem ever‘. Customers at Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco complained of strange-tasting houmous, and many products had to be withdrawn. The company that supplied all three supermarkets, Bakkavor, warned the supermarkets that there had been an issue with the manufacturing process.

I am a fairly loyal Sainsbury’s shopper, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is a large Sainsbury’s five minutes away from where I live. Secondly, when I was growing up in London there was a large Sainsbury’s five minutes away from where I lived, so that’s what I have always been used to. Thirdly, it always seems like the mummy-bear moderate choice, in terms of supermarkets: not the cheapest; not the most expensive – about right. Sure, I’ll go to Aldi or Waitrose occasionally, and sometimes to the fishmonger for fish and the butcher for meat if I am looking for something special, and I shop quite a bit at small independent stores on Cowley Road for obscure fresh exotic ingredients, but basically, I’m a Sainsbury’s girl.

But how much difference is there really between the own-brand products of the various big supermarkets? Of course, a KitKat you buy from Tesco will taste the same as a KitKat you buy from Waitrose, but what about Marks & Spencer own brand houmous vs. Tesco own brand houmous? Do they actually taste different? And, if so, is the more expensive brand any better? If several products for different supermarkets are coming from the same suppliers, are different ingredients of varying quality used?

This series is not going to be particularly scientific and, of course, it is necessarily subjective. But, out of personal curiosity as much as anything, I’m going to have a look at some supermarket own-brand products and taste them comparatively. I admit, I would assume that an expensive houmous from Waitrose would be tastier and of better quality than a budget version from Lidl. But is that simply years of being exposed to supermarket marketing and in-built prejudice working their magic on me? I’d like to challenge my own assumptions and break down my associations between fancy brands and superior quality.

I feel I need a rambling disclaimer: obviously, I am doing this in my kitchen and not in a lab and I am not a scientist. These are the opinions of one person – that said, one person who has been trained to taste for quality. Also, the products used in this series are just examples – obviously each supermarket has, say, eight or nine different types of houmous or whatever the product may be, and I’m not going to try every single one because what am I, made of money? So I’ve tried to buy roughly comparative products from each shop.

Finally, I should highlight that I tasted all the products blind, and at the time of tasting and making my notes I didn’t know which product came from which shop. I sat in one room while my glamorous assistant (er, my husband), prepared the samples in another. Any notes added regarding packaging and so on were only done after blind tasting, when I learned which supermarket had made A, B, C, D, or E.

So, since I’ve been going on about it so much, I will start with houmous.

The Blind Taste Test: HoumousDSC_0010-2-1024x683

Houmous
per 100g
£*
kcal
fat (g)
carb (g)
fibre (g)
protein (g)
salt (g)
Aldi
0.28
346
29
12
3.3
7.7
0.64
Lidl
0.28
351
30
12
3.1
6.6
0.58
Sainsbury’s
0.57
278
22
10.6
5.3
6.7
0.63
Tesco
0.55
306
24.6
11.4
4.9
7.2
0.8
Waitrose
0.46
284
22.7
11.6
4.1
6.3
0.80

A – Aldi – 5/10

  • Notably loose texture, smooth. Taste-wise, very sharp with an almost vinegary aftertaste, but can taste the chickpeas, and I wouldn’t say there’s no flavour. Not ‘sealed for freshness’ with the extra plastic collar seal around the edge of the tub.

B – Sainsburys – 6/10

  • Firmest and driest texture of the group, held its shape on the spoon. Also roughest in texture so tasted less processed. Not too sharp, quite mild, pleasant enough but not very flavoursome – can’t really pick out much in terms of lemon, garlic etc. The lowest in calories of the group – seems likely it has less oil than some of the others, hence firmness.

C – Tesco – 7/10

  • Moderate in texture, smooth and creamy. Mellow, not too sharp, and easy to eat straight off a spoon unadorned (which can’t be said for all houmous, I have learned). Can taste tahini, but not much in the way of chickpea flavour.

D – Waitrose – 8/10 

  • Fairly firm texture – the next firmest after Sainsburys, and the next lowest in calories. Again, probably a lower proportion of oil. A good balance of richness and creaminess, with a hint of sharpness and a good chickpea flavour. My favourite.

E – Lidl – 3/10

  • Also a loose texture, sliding around on the tasting spoon. Didn’t taste very fresh, and actually had quite an unpleasant aftertaste – it tasted notably different from all the other examples. Also not ‘sealed for freshness’, as with Aldi.

Conclusion

This time, it seems, no surprises: I found the budget branded products less enjoyable than the premium products. However, worth noting that the Waitrose houmous was actually not the most expensive of the lot, gram for gram, though I think most people would expect to pay more at Waitrose than at other supermarkets. If you’re buying the Essential Waitrose brand, it’s actually cheaper in this case than the mid-range options from Sainsbury’s and Tesco. A tasty product that I will buy again.

Next week: chocolate…

*Prices correct at time of writing.