Meals for under a quid

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Meals for under a quid
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Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:44 am Post subject:
'Ready, Steady, Cook' rules apply!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:45 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

'Ready, Steady, Cook' rules apply!

You're joking, I'm not playing if Ainsley's involved

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:47 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Right, the cheapest meal for 4 that includes meat gets paid for as a prize.

Am I the only one to register any comment about the generosity of this?

I think the extreme emphasis on CHEAP is precisely what we ought to be avoiding. Is that not what leads the processors to put such muck into their offerings?

Much better to say - what's the BEST you can offer on a limited budget...
And if you want to be competitive, then even let the judges decide what they mean by "best" (most nutritious/tasty/ethical/imaginative - whatever!)

However, since future costings must be hypothetical, why not start now, with whats around today, at today's prices... and then you'll build a resource for the whole year! (And maybe have to issue several prizes - commemorative T-shirts?)

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:48 am Post subject:
The point is that we're talking about the best most ethical meal for under a quid

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 05 11:50 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Quote:

Right, the cheapest meal for 4 that includes meat gets paid for as a prize.

Am I the only one to register any comment about the generosity of this?

At last someone gets the joke!

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 4:38 pm Post subject:

Sounds good to me but do I have to play fair or can I use my commercial costings

OK I will try to stick to what I buy in the shops and markets and have a go, is there a way to try and make a 'meal' standard other wise you can streach 1lb of steak to 6 or 7 people in a stew, I tend to work on 4oz protein, 4 oz carbs and 4-6 oz veg per person in a single course meal, obviously it is not a exact rule and some things will have more of one and less of another but I find it a useful base.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 4:43 pm Post subject:
OK pilsbury how's about a starter, main and pudding with some meat content for less than � 1.00 at retail prices?

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 5:07 pm Post subject:
Wow now there is a challenge, Have to put in some thought on that one and get back to you. Have to be a nice home made soup for starter though, doing Pea and ham tonight with the stock from mondays gammon, split peas and a bit of s & p and thats about it, Whats that about 15p a portion......

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 5:09 pm Post subject:
I'm sure you'll do us proud, look forward to seeing your menu.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 9:38 pm Post subject:

Last nights supper.

1 tin of sardines in brine
1 oz (ish) Butter, (but really enough as you feel to get a nice sardiney buttery mix)
Chopped fresh Parsley
1/2 chopped chilli
Juice of half lemon
Ground black pepper
Bread

Drain sardines well, mash up with the butter, then add the parsley, lemon juice & chilli and mix well.

Season to taste with the pepper.

Toast your bread, smother with the sardine butter and pop under a very hot grill for 1-2 minutes until sizzling.

Sardines work out at about 40p per tin, the bread was home made so I'll be very generous and say 5p per slice. Everything else was storecupboard. But lets say 1 lemon for 30p so 15p for half a lemon.

Thats 65p for two, or 32.5p per person.

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 10:15 pm Post subject:

Just had the soup, delish,

300g sliced onions ( 15 p per kg ) = 5p
500g split peas = 49p
2 gloves garlic (24p per bulb) = 4p
3 litres ham stock free
salt and pepper = 5p
total 63 p and it made about 5 pints of finished soup, at 1/2 pint per portion, makes it less than 7p a portion.
now dessert, how about proffiterols filled with pastry cream and maybe butterscotch sauce........... have to do some more costings tommorow

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 10:36 pm Post subject:
I think you can give yourself seasoning for free!

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 05 10:47 pm Post subject:

Sorry that was left over from my time at college when we had to cost out our recipes, if we left out anything we lost marks and if we didnt include it on our specification sheets of ingrediants when we did a practical we were not allowed to use it, after a couple of weeks everyone puts down salt and pepper 5 pence as a matter of routine,
Just another tip having mentioned pastry cream, for anyone who likes desserts it is well worth investing in some vanilla pods and packing them in sugar, this makes vanilla sugar and is just used instead when a recipe calls for both sugar and vanilla, as the jar runs low just top it up again, It gives a better flavour than essences and because the pods will flavour loads of sugar, all be it a little at a time, it saves money in the end.

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 8:24 pm Post subject:
Can I just clarify. Are we coming up with main meals, or just snacks. Is it the "meat" part of the meal or all three courses.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 8:36 pm Post subject:
Either main, main & pudding, or 3 courses for under a quid. No meat content necessary, we'll be putting all the recipes into a database.

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