What produce is worth going to Lidl for?

[pogofish]

Personal faves are:-

Black Forest Ham

Frikadelen



Cheap Malted Granary Bread

but the coffee's good (if you like instant)

First two - Yup, very nice.

Tried a loaf of that bread the other week when I couldn't be bothered baking any & it was about the worst industro-crap bread I've ever tasted.

No coffee that I have tried yet. Ever - even the premimum stuff is shite.

 

[lang rabbie]

As well as the chocolate and cheap pig meat products, I stock up on the frozen venison when they have it in once a year.

 

[madamv]

A third nope

OK then, maybe the peeps who buy all their chocs and crips and cakes there, just do so cause they love them

 

[Orang Utan]

pancetta? A basic??

Yes, definitely. It's absofuckinglutely essential. I use it at least once a week

 

[Ms T]

Yes, definitely. It's absofuckinglutely essential. I use it at least once a week

They don't sell pancetta, but they do sell smoked lardons, which are a bit of a fridge basic at Ms T towers.

 

[Orang Utan]

No pancetta?

 

[tarannau]

Just use the lardons mentioned above. Don't let the lack of a fashionable Italian name put you of - it's just another fatty bacon product after all!

 

[Orang Utan]

It tastes quite different - and the bacon lardons are chunkier

 

[madzone]

Pancetta and lardons are fucking gross- just pig fat You're all weird.

 

[Orang Utan]

Pig fat is yummy though, you mentalist - it gives flavour to lots of nice dishes

 

[madzone]

Pig fat is yummy though, you mentalist - it gives flavour to lots of nice dishes

Uurrrggh I can see it adds flavour but how can you eat it? I render down fat off the pig carcasses but it's the soft stuff you roast things in, not the horrible chewy hard stuff

 

[tarannau]

It tastes quite different - and the bacon lardons are chunkier

Bollocks. Well it can be cured rather than smoked I guess, but there are so many varieties of both to make such a distinction seem more than a little arbitrary. And surely you can get pancetta as chunky or thick as you like - I just tend to ask the helpful deli bods to hack big chunks off with a knife rather than get little effete slices from the machine. I likes my pancette chunky.

Agree with you about the flavour though. It's very much a staple in my fridge too, great for adding taste to quick dinners.

 

[tarannau]

Uurrrggh I can see it adds flavour but how can you eat it? I render down fat off the pig carcasses but it's the soft stuff you roast things in, not the horrible chewy hard stuff

Get it crispy, same as bacon. Or same technique as belly pork, high heat then very low.

 

[Orang Utan]

Uurrrggh I can see it adds flavour but how can you eat it? I render down fat off the pig carcasses but it's the soft stuff you roast things in, not the horrible chewy hard stuff

It's not chewy and hard though

 

[Orang Utan]

Bollocks. Well it can be cured rather than smoked I guess, but there are so many varieties of both to make such a distinction seem more than a little arbitrary. And surely you can get pancetta as chunky or thick as you like - I just tend to ask the helpful deli bods to hack big chunks off with a knife rather than get little effete slices from the machine. I likes my pancette chunky.

Agree with you about the flavour though. It's very much a staple in my fridge too, great for adding taste to quick dinners.

I think it tastes completely different to bacon
Which deli do you get it from? They refused to cube it at the one I went to and had to make do with slices

 

[zenie]

Just the basics really - oil, butter, veg, pancetta, fresh herbs - ingredients basically - stuff for cooking with rather than ready made munchies

Oil - They only seem to sell the 'extra virgin' olive oild rather than regular, but it's only about 2 quid for a massive bottle

Butter - yeh they sell that!

Fresh herbs - about 60p each (growing)

Veg - Can be hit and miss, some stuff can be cheap but it's not really va supermarket 'for' veg iykwim You'll do better down the market.

The fruit and fruit salad's can be really good though!

The pasta's nice, rice is good (you can get basmati/quick cook/long grain and they even do thai jasmine which is lovely to have!) fruit juices are cheap.

*tries to think what else she bought yesterday*

The muesli bars are to die for although I'd prefer ones that are more nuts

Basically, Lidl is great if you like your meats and cheeses and that's why I started going there, I got a goose for 15 quid at christmas!

 

[tarannau]

I think it tastes completely different to bacon
Which deli do you get it from? They refused to cube it at the one I went to and had to make do with slices

Mainly the Portuguese (A&C) down Atlantic Road, although quite often Nune's and the Italian deli on Northcote.

I've never asked anyone to cube pancetta for me - seems a bit cheekily labour intensive in a busy shop - but if they cut thick slices then you can very easily cut it into strips or cubes.

There are loads of different styles/flavours of pancetta and bacon - seems strange to generalise so firmly.

 

[Orang Utan]

There are loads of different styles/flavours of pancetta and bacon - seems strange to generalise so firmly.

Maybe - but they're different from each other

 

[Orang Utan]

Mainly the Portuguese (A&C) down Atlantic Road.

That's the one I go to

 

[tarannau]

Maybe - but they're different from each other

They're not really though are they? What's unique about pancetta. It tends to be salt cured and benefit from slightly more mediterranean spicing. But nutmeg and fennel, for example, aren't unique to pancetta by any means. And in the old days, the rolled pancetta (like a sausage) was unusual, but it's often served very much as 'normal' bacon now.

Pancetta's just a salt cured Italian bacon, no more or no less. It's not made with the pampered flesh of virgin pasta-eating Italian rarebreed pigs or anything.

 

[zenie]

It's not made with the pampered flesh of vigin pasta-eating Italian rarebreed pigs or anything.

 

[Ms T]

Lidl pasta is rubbish, ime. Get the De Cecco stuff from the Portuguese deli.

 

[zenie]

Lidl pasta is rubbish, ime. Get the De Cecco stuff from the Italian deli.

I know you don't like it, but I cook it ALL the time and no-one ever complains?!

 

[tarannau]

The tricolore pasta I had from lidl was ok, as was a giant box of penne.

Agree with you about DiCecco, but the Lidl stuff didnt strike me as terrible. Kept its bite and cooked well iirc.

 

[Orang Utan]

They're not really though are they? What's unique about pancetta. It tends to be salt cured and benefit from slightly more mediterranean spicing. But nutmeg and fennel, for example, aren't unique to pancetta by any means. And in the old days, the rolled pancetta (like a sausage) was unusual, but it's often served very much as 'normal' bacon now.

Pancetta's just a salt cured Italian bacon, no more or no less. It's not made with the pampered flesh of virgin pasta-eating Italian rarebreed pigs or anything.

I wasn't claiming that, I was just saying that it tastes different, cos it does

 

[tarannau]

And you've tasted all the bacon locally have you?

I honestly doubt that you could tell the difference between a decent cured streaky bacon (Try Dove's) and a variety of pancettas in a taste test . FWIW, the pancetta in A&C isn't that typical if you ask me, nor does the cubed pancetta available from Sainsburies for example, taste of very much at all that would identify it as Italian. I'd urge going beyond the labels and just buying the best suitable bacon that you could find locally

I must admit that I like the fact that your much loved spag bol recipe mentions unsmoked streaky bacon rather than pancetta. That Slater bloke's on the money.

 

[Orang Utan]

maybe it tastes the same in a posh butchers, but it tastes different in the supermarket, it's comes in a different form (either cubed, or much thinner slices) and it tastes different from any bacon I've ever tried. Are my tastebuds deceiving me?

 

[tarannau]

You're comparing deli pancetta vs supermarket bacon of a different cure/smoke - an unfair comparison really. Try a dry cured unsmoked streaky bacon for a fairer comparison - pick a variety that's heavier on the fennel and I think you'll be surprised by the similarity.

Pancetta's just bacon is all I'm saying. Unlke chorizo, which is markedly different from British bangers, we've got very similar products over here.

 

[Ms T]

I know you don't like it, but I cook it ALL the time and no-one ever complains?!

That's 'cos they don't know what quality pasta tastes like.

 

[Orang Utan]

You're comparing deli pancetta vs supermarket bacon of a different cure/smoke - an unfair comparison really. Try a dry cured unsmoked streaky bacon for a fairer comparison - pick a variety that's heavier on the fennel and I think you'll be surprised by the similarity.

Pancetta's just bacon is all I'm saying. Unlke chorizo, which is markedly different from British bangers, we've got very similar products over here.

Heavier on the fennel? WTF? I've never seen bacon labelled so that I can tell this.
I'm comparing what I know - that's all - I still do most of my shopping at the supermarket on weekday evenings, and the non-pancetta bacon is not cut in the right way for me to use a substitute for pancetta, AND it tastes different