Ready Meals

[story]

Thinking back to your post yesterday when you noticed that all the percentages of the ingredients they gave a percentage too only added up to about 35%, I'm wondering if they chose only to put a figure on the ones they wanted to highlight and the other 65% comes from the ingredients with no percentage next to them.



If you notice there is no percentage figure given for water but I reckon it must have been 30% of the product, but not a good selling point for a fairly expensive product.

Maybe they only note the percentages of the things they've labeled it for?

So it's a Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole: they then give percentages of the lamb, the chickpea, and the apricots (cos it's the dried fruit that makes it "Moroccan").

If it was a water and onion soup, they would have noted the percentages of the water and onions...?

 

[og ogilby]

That's what I do do, although I make huge vats of stuff like soup, spag bol, beef and red wine pie etc.

So if you put it in packets and sold it in supermarkets it would be classed as a ready meal and therfore an inferior product?

 

[Chairman Meow]

So if you put it in packets and sold it in supermarkets it would be classed as a ready meal and therfore an inferior product?

Errr no, not at all. Freezing doesn't do any harm to most food. Its the addition of a whole lot of preservatives and additives that makes ready meals inferior to home cooked, as I've said before.

 

[og ogilby]

Maybe they only note the percentages of the things they've labeled it for?

Having just checked another product in my fridge I think you're right.

 

[tarannau]

That's rubbish surely. They'd be labelled as artisan or bespoke products and would be sold with the social kudos and price tags to match.

The local society butcher's wife makes her own award-winning pies and freezes them, all sold at near extortionate prices to eager Claphamites. Expensive perhaps, but they're a world away from the preservative and padder-filled 'meat' pies made in an industrial estate somewhere near Coventry.

 

[og ogilby]

Errr no, not at all. Freezing doesn't do any harm to most food. Its the addition of a whole lot of preservatives and additives that makes ready meals inferior to home cooked, as I've said before.

So why can't someone just prepare good food, like you would at home, and then freeze it without having to fill it full of additives and preservatives?

 

[Chairman Meow]

So why can't someone just prepare good food, like you would at home, and then freeze it without having to fill it full of additives and preservatives?

They do at my local farmer's market, but the stuff is pricey. Also, most ready meals are designed to last for aeons, and be able to put up with transportation, long storage etc. When I freeze stuff its used up within a few months, and it doesn't have to travel at all.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

So why can't someone just prepare good food, like you would at home, and then freeze it without having to fill it full of additives and preservatives?

You can - but only on a very small scale.

Once you get into mass production, I imagine preservatives come into play and then additives because you will no doubt be using the cheapest ingredients possible which will no doubt taste rubbish and so need "enhancing".

E2A: There's probably laws and stuff about having to include certain preservatives when you sell to a mass market.

 

[mr steev]

insect body extract was one of the additives discussed on the programme this morning in a tin of baked beans.

What brand?
I've never come accross cochineal in baked beans

 

[og ogilby]

You can - but only on a very small scale.

Once you get into mass production, I imagine preservatives come into play and then additives because you will no doubt be using the cheapest ingredients possible which will no doubt taste rubbish and so need "enhancing".

But would it be possible for a company to buy quality ingredients and make a large amount of meals without using any shite?

If something is frozen imediatley and transported in freezer vans, why do you need preservatives?

 

[story]

Cochineal is pretty expensive, isn't it?

 

[og ogilby]

What brand?
I've never come accross cochineal in baked beans

A few beetles perhaps, but never any cochineal.

 

[story]

Having just checked another product in my fridge I think you're right.

It was just a guess... but it makes sense, eh?

 

[Mrs Miggins]

But would it be possible for a company to buy quality ingredients and make a large amount of meals without using any shite?

If something is frozen imediatley and transported in freezer vans, why do you need preservatives?

1) Yes but I imagine the product would be very expensive
2) Dunno i'm afraid!

 

[Chairman Meow]

But would it be possible for a company to buy quality ingredients and make a large amount of meals without using any shite?

If something is frozen imediatley and transported in freezer vans, why do you need preservatives?

Of course its possible, but most companies are more concerned with mazximizing profit margins over nutritional benefits, so they will want to minimise ingredients costs, which means using cheap ingredients, fillers, flavourings etc.

And I've no idea why frozen food needs additional preservatives - probably to prevent spoilage in less than optimal conditions (like being stored in a cold chill cabinet with people opening the doors all the time). Or perhaps to extend product life over the normal 3-6 months that you are advised to keep home made frozen goods?

 

[og ogilby]

Eating healthy food is my main concern and no one has convinced me yet that home cooked food would be healthier than the mass produced stuff, bearing in mind that people who cook food tend to go for taste in their cooking by using butter, salt and sugar in order to satisfy their families expectations.

If I cooked the Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole myself I would expect it to taste better than the one I bought to justify the time and money I had spent on it. Another lump of butter should do the trick and don't hold back on the salt.

 

[Roadkill]

Eating healthy food is my main concern and no one has convinced me yet that home cooked food would be healthier than the mass produced stuff, bearing in mind that people who cook food tend to go for taste in their cooking by using butter, salt and sugar in order to satisfy their families expectations.

Emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavour enhancers, colourants etc etc ad infinitum. And lots of them used to disguise low-quality ingredients.

If you're not convinced by that, you're just determined not to be.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavour enhancers, colourants etc etc ad infinitum. And lots of them used to disguise low-quality ingredients.

If you're not convinced by that, you're just determined not to be.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

.....bearing in mind that people who cook food tend to go for taste in their cooking by using butter, salt and sugar ...

Thing is, there is nothing intrisically wrong with butter, salt or sugar and if you are intereted in monitoring your intake of any of the above, you stand a far better chance if you cook yourself than if you buy something off the shelf, the exact ingredients of which you can never be sure of.

Plus all the other shite that goes into processed food (as Roadkill states above)

 

[mrsfran]

I think you're making the mistake of thinking that home cooked food should taste like the processed food you're used to, but more so. That is, that it should be just as salty and buttery because that's what makes it nice.

Once you stop eating ready meals and processed foods, your tastebuds adjust. I used to live on pot noodles and ready meals and now, they just taste like salty, chemical crap. Not because my home-cooked food is incredibly wonderful, but because my tastes have changed. I know what a real carrot tastes like now, and a tinned, mushy carrot that's been preserved in salt and sugar is not good.

I very, very rarely cook with butter or excessive fat and I don't add loads of salt. And I'd go so far as to say the food I make tastes very good. The flavour isn't compromised. And because I know exactly what's gone into it, I can be 100% sure that I'm not being conned by hidden ingredients or misleading nutritional information.

 

[Roadkill]

Once you stop eating ready meals and processed foods, your tastebuds adjust. I used to live on pot noodles and ready meals and now, they just taste like salty, chemical crap..

exactly.

 

[pogofish]

What brand?
I've never come accross cochineal in baked beans

Heinz for one. Many other brands also contain pork byproducts.

Cochineal can also be known as Carmine, Carmine Red, Carminic Acid, Carmines, E120 and Natural Red. Also common in industro-curries.

 

[xenon]

I believe cochineal fell out of favour at some point relatively recently but then had a bit of a renaissance when people started to rebel against "E numbers" - it is a natural product after all!

Ah natural = wholesome. Like nightshade.

 

[og ogilby]

Emulsifiers, stabilisers, flavour enhancers, colourants etc etc ad infinitum. And lots of them used to disguise low-quality ingredients.

If you're not convinced by that, you're just determined not to be.

To be fair I didn't see any of the things in your list in the ingredients of the Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole that I purchased.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Ah natural = wholesome. Like nightshade.

LOL!! Exactly

 

[Mrs Miggins]

To be fair I didn't see any of the things in your list in the ingredients of the Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole that I purchased.

And they probably make up a fair proportion of the 65% we are missing in the ingredients list!

 

[mrsfran]

But that's the point Og! They don't list them! Or they call them other names. Which is home-cooking's greatest advantage - you can be 100% sure of what's in it. If you really do care about healthy your food is, there is absolutely no better way than to prepare your own meals.

 

[story]

Eating healthy food is my main concern and no one has convinced me yet that home cooked food would be healthier than the mass produced stuff, bearing in mind that people who cook food tend to go for taste in their cooking by using butter, salt and sugar in order to satisfy their families expectations.

If I cooked the Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole myself I would expect it to taste better than the one I bought to justify the time and money I had spent on it. Another lump of butter should do the trick and don't hold back on the salt.

I use more olive oil than I do butter.

I never add sugar, even if the recipe asks for it (except for baking/puddings, of course, in which case I'll often substitute jaggery, unrefined sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup or similar).

I very rarely add salt to anything (I noticed yesterday that a pack of Maldon sea salt in my kitchen in more than 10 years old).

I contend that the taste is not just about the extra lump of butter: it's also about the intention and experience of the cook, the love or soul or whatever.

Two equally proficient cooks, working to the same recipe, will turn out different dishes. Some of this will be down to material variables, to be sure. I reckon some of the difference will also be down to the intangible differences between the cooks as people.

 

[beeboo]

Maybe they only note the percentages of the things they've labeled it for?

So it's a Moroccan lamb and chickpea casserole: they then give percentages of the lamb, the chickpea, and the apricots (cos it's the dried fruit that makes it "Moroccan").

If it was a water and onion soup, they would have noted the percentages of the water and onions...?

Exactly! I had to read the whole thread to check that someone got the point!

Basically, ingredients are listed in order from the greatest proportion of the content to the smallest. Within that, any items which are specifically promoted on the label, either with words or visually, must have the % stated.

Grabbing something at random from my cupboard, there's a jar of pasta sauce labelled "Tomato and Wild Mushroom" with in smaller print "sun-ripened tomatoes with mushrooms, garlic and oregano".

So the label gives the % for tomatoes (62%), tomato puree (16%), wild mushrooms (5%), Garlic (2%) and oregano (0.2%). Other listed ingredients including sunflower oil and parsley are not accompanied by a %.

 

[aqua]

by using butter, salt and sugar

when I cook (and I do every night) I never add extra salt, nor sugar unless baking, and very very rarely use butter on anything else other than toast

i think you're comparing ready meals with someone who can't cook in the first place

I'm happy, I refuse to buy ready meals, they're always a disaapointment and taste weird, so I cook all the time. If you don't want to then don't but having read all of this thread you haven't once considered what someone has said which suggests what you want is for us to say "nooo that's fine, we're all kidding ourselves that our cooking is better than ready meals"