Tesco Finest

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Joan
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Tesco Finest

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

It's not a marque I usually buy; Tesco is not the place I go for high end food. But the assumption I would have from the packaging it uses the - um - finest ingredients, without fillers. It's clearly not the case.

I remember a few years ago at a weekend away centred around a Keralan banquet, the friend providing breakfast headed to the nearest supermarket and came back with a few packets Tesco Finest bacon. It released so much water in the pan, it had to have been injected with water to plump it up and increase the weight. Looking on the Tesco site, I'd guess it was about 5-7% water.

I was reminded of this when my attention waaas recently drawn to the ingredients list of their pesto, and it's been similarly plumped with bamboo fibre.

That's it.

</rant>

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Sonic Budgie
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Sonic Budgie » 5 years ago

Nice fancy labels though.
I am a fan of Aldi Specially Selected. I've still got some mince pies to plough through and their brie is yummy. Well I think it is but I'm a self confessed philistine and I have no doubt I will be recieve short shrift for being so unsophisticated.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Regulator » 5 years ago

At least Tesco Finest stuff lasts until you get it home...

...Asda stuff (particularly their fruit and veg) seems to go off as you leave the store.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Rocky » 5 years ago

I like the Londis store in Jericho. The food is crap but the owner is really friendly.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Regulator » 5 years ago

Rocky wrote:
5 years ago
I like the Londis store in Jericho. The food is crap but the owner is really friendly.
Only shop that hasn’t banned you?


;D
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Joan
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

Sonic Budgie wrote:
5 years ago
Nice fancy labels though.
I am a fan of Aldi Specially Selected. I've still got some mince pies to plough through and their brie is yummy. Well I think it is but I'm a self confessed philistine and I have no doubt I will be recieve short shrift for being so unsophisticated.
You don't have to be sophisticated to recognise good food. We all know how bacon in a fry pan should behave. If you buy the most expensive variety, and instead of sizzling it releases enough water that it's now steaming/poaching, you know there is a problem. I don't often buy bacon, but I have never experienced that with a cheaper brand. The pesto is more snobbishness. I'm sure I couldn't taste the difference, but bamboo is not a common ingredient amongst the non-panda inhabitants of Genoa. I just like the ingredient list to be simple, and reflect what should actually be in the product the label claims it is.

Sometimes I can't tell. Sunpat Peanut Butter's ingredient list is peanuts, peanut oil, salt and sugar (and a stabiliser because people don't like their peanut butter separating.) Meridian is better, just peanuts. The posh Whole Earth use palm oil, so I never buy that.

Sometimes I can tell. I used to eat Rachel's posh yoghurt and one day a few years ago noticed the texture had changed, and it was a bit like Angel Delight. I checked the ingredients and found they now included tapioca (it's rice starch now). If you want a yoghurt to be thick, you can either add more non-fat milk solids, strain it (both require more milk to do) or you can add a starch to thicken it. It's cheaper, but reduces the nutritional value and can make it gelatinous.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

Regulator wrote:
5 years ago
At least Tesco Finest stuff lasts until you get it home...

...Asda stuff (particularly their fruit and veg) seems to go off as you leave the store.
Rotting may be a good sign. Natural food rots. I am disturbed that the loaf of bread I neglectfully left on the kitchen counter is still tender this morning. A loaf made with flour, yeast water, salt and a bit of fat dries out overnight. What else is in this loaf of bread, and do I want it in me?
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Rocky » 5 years ago

Joan wrote:
5 years ago
Rotting may be a good sign. Natural food rots. I am disturbed that the loaf of bread I neglectfully left on the kitchen counter is still tender this morning. A loaf made with flour, yeast water, salt and a bit of fat dries out overnight. What else is in this loaf of bread, and do I want it in me?
Ah.....Hume’s problem of induction, I think

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Sonic Budgie » 5 years ago

Joan wrote:
5 years ago
Rotting may be a good sign. Natural food rots. I am disturbed that the loaf of bread I neglectfully left on the kitchen counter is still tender this morning. A loaf made with flour, yeast water, salt and a bit of fat dries out overnight. What else is in this loaf of bread, and do I want it in me?
Only if you want to remain tender I'd say.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Regulator » 5 years ago

Joan wrote:
5 years ago
Rotting may be a good sign. Natural food rots. I am disturbed that the loaf of bread I neglectfully left on the kitchen counter is still tender this morning. A loaf made with flour, yeast water, salt and a bit of fat dries out overnight. What else is in this loaf of bread, and do I want it in me?
I'm all for food rotting naturally...

... I'd just like the chance to get it home and eat it before it does so.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Joan » 5 years ago

Sonic Budgie wrote:
5 years ago
Only if you want to remain tender I'd say.
:D

hmm

FORTIFIED WHEAT FLOUR (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), water, palm fat, salt, yeast, emulsifier mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, malted barley flour, soya flour, flour treatment agent ascorbic acid, rapeseed oil

Farmhouse? Maybe yes. I remember following my uncle around the farm, and when he was preparing some feed for the sheep, he went into to the kitchen, and used the blender to mix gum arabic. My aunt was very angry with him doing "again" when she found the dirty blender in the sink. If she wasn't such a good housekeeper, who knows what might have ended up in her bread.

Obviously she bought her bread at the supermarket, but I think my point still holds.


Rocky wrote:
5 years ago
Ah.....Hume’s problem of induction, I think

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/
You're going to have to step me through that, I think.
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Re: Tesco Finest

Post by Rocky » 5 years ago

@Joan ..... sorry its how my messy mind works. I remember reading David Hume's work on induction (making inferences about what will happen in the future based on observations from the past). He uses the example of the fact that a piece of bread has nourished us in the past leads us to the idea that if we eat bread today, it will continue to nourish us.

A better explanation comes from the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: We generally think that the observations we make are able to justify some expectations or predictions about observations we have not yet made, as well as general claims that go beyond the observed. For example, the observation that bread of a certain appearance has thus far been nourishing seems to justify the expectation that the next similar piece of bread I eat will also be nourishing, as well as the claim that bread of this sort is generally nourishing. Such inferences from the observed to the unobserved, or to general laws, are known as “inductive inferences”.

......so having cluttered my mind with inconsequential trivia, I am attempting to do the same for you.
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