Sauces from a jar, S/D.

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Lately I've been rocking the Lloyd Grossman pasta ones, they're kinda oily though but I find if I use some cream cheese or mix his 4 cheese one with his red pepper one this is less noticeable. Also when I am eventually on Through the Keyhole he can self promote by saying "this person uses MY PASTA SAAAAUCE, WHOOOOOOOO ARE THEY?" Are these bad for you? I'm not sure why I ask because I eat so much junk food anyway but I guess I'm interested to know.

As regards stir fries I use the sharwoods sauces but they tend not to be too nice, and last week I had straight to wok noodles which were DISGUSTING.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:50 (twenty-three years ago)

The best noodles to use for stir fries are the cheapest noodles you can find, you know the 15p ones you buy from the Asian chaps corner shop? You just make em up and stick em on plate next to your stir fried vegetables, luverly. You don't need sauce on yer veg, just some garlic salt and oil.
Suaces from a jar are the best kind, so quick and easy! Do you know how long it takes to make sauce from scratch? Too much hassle!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Lloyd Grossman sauces have a tangy and kind of sour taste that I can't get past. Sainsbury's pasta sauce, on the other hand are CLASSIC, as was their short-lived range of curry sauces. I mourn its passing daily.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 20 January 2003 14:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah I don't know how long, who makes it from scratch, I might try it. I usually put loads of stuff in and only a little bit of the jar stuff, cos once you've put the cheese and all the other stuff in you have enough. I think the best Lloyd one is the chilli one, but sometimes I don't mind a really generic sauce cos you can experiment a bit more. I don't know if there's Sainsburys in Ireland yet, this thread might be useful to me yet since my folks are going to South Africa for 3 weeks in February.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Depends what you're making Ronana but here's another tip from my days in the homeless unit - Bisto makes a brilliant sauce, I'm convinced they use it in Chinese takeaways! Just cut up some chicken, brown it, bung in some mushrooms and onions, cover with Bisto and simmer. Ta-da! Add your faveourite herbs & spices to make it more interesting.

PS - I'm the worlds worst cook, these are just time saving tips really!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I normally only let people call me Ronana after the first few dates.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Gimme a break, I'm at work and it's hell!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Crikey, have you lot never been so entirely broke that all you can afford = a tin of economy brand chopped tomato and an onion? Once you've hit that bottom you realise that you will rarely buy a pasta sauce again, for what you get they are VERY EXPENSIVE! I do however get a bit of an indulgent guilty thrill when I buy one but yes usually make my own. E-wing has a grebt pasta recipe book with how to make sauces in it. Dude! Where is that recipe thread for Tobys pasta sauce recipes?? THEY ROCKED!

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Ronan you are forgiven but I think I shall have to call you Ronana 4evah!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I like buying them for the jars. The sauces are a bonus.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Good point, I need new jars!

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:17 (twenty-three years ago)

They should bring back returnable jars you could use to get into the Cinema, my Gran always went on about that...

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Make your own. It's not hard. It doesn't take very long. Really.

Never, ever use one of those curry suace things. Get some decent paste.

Some ideas -

Sweat some red onions in a pan, add cornflour, milk and seasoning - hey presto Red Onion Sauce. Great with pork. Sounds posh, tastes nice. Add sage as well for dead posh nosh. Go easy on the cornflour though, otherwise it'll end up tasting like glue. Your general rule for a lot of sauces is cornflour / milk + whatever your flavouring is.

Try the old "white wine / stock / cream / whatever" treatment. Fry a bit of meat or a nice selection of veg, add stock and wine, leave for a bit, add cream at the end. Cook your meat or veg with whatever herbs or spices you like and hey presto. Food.

Make a soup. Stock and veg in a pan, leave until you can be arsed sorting it out, rag liberally with a blender and add a bit of cream. Eat. If you've not got a blender use a masher or a fork or just leave it lumpy. Sometimes it's better lumpy.

FOR GOD'S SAKE PEOPLE COOK SOMETHING. I'm sick of people not being able to cook. Fuck TV Chefs, Fuck cookery books - try getting a whole bunch of stuff that you like and throw it in a pan. Work out how long individual ingredients take to cook - not how to cook a meal out of a book. That way you can make whatever you like whenever you like. It will take very few gos to get good results.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey , some of us are busy running multimational corporations.

Though I find pouring half a bottle of wine of whatever I'm cooking tends to work wonders.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:26 (twenty-three years ago)

And some of us can burn water and need all the help we can get!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.sacla.co.uk/images/pics/jars/olive_tom.jpg

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Lynskey I was so totally with you until you said "fuck cookery books" -- cookbooks R0X0r! How you gonna make potato-pea samosa with spicy coconut chutney without you've got a cookbook, specifically Kurma Das's tremendous "Great Vegetarian Dishes"? Also, good Chinese soups are made in a totally different way than English/American style soups so you gotta get a nice cookbook to teach you. Then once you've learned the methods you can throw the cookbooks away or give them to somebody who hasn't yet learned to cook. Hurrah cookbooks!

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Gareth is SO right, I bought some of that the other day and as usual ended up putting half on my pasta and just eating half from the jar. In fact once I ate a whole jar straight from the jar. It is nummy.

― Emma, Monday, 20 January 2003 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

In fact once I ate a whole jar straight from the jar

So this was, like some kind of Russian dollesque jar inside a jar. Or a jar of jars.

Or - Jar Jar.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:49 (twenty-three years ago)

There are some ace cookbooks - I'm talking about the supermarket ones or the TV chef monstrosities. I think a S/D thread is in order . . .

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I am a bit of a sauce maker, and while I'll often patronise Messrs Groissman, Sacla and occasionally Sharwood, I tend to make my own more often than not. My favourite is my bolognese, which bears little relation to something you might eat in Italy, but which, I reckon, is about the most delicious thing there is. If anyone wants the recipe then drop me an email.

However, what I've been doing lately is buying tortellini/capelletti (pasta stuffed with meat) and serving them with olive oil, parmesan, chopped sun-dried tomatoes and ground pepper. Mmm-mm!

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 20 January 2003 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm starving now!

― smee (smee), Monday, 20 January 2003 16:02 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

anyone tried saclas new coriander pesto?

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

more importantly, have you?

― RickyT (RickyT), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

yes. i think i like it

― charltonlido (gareth), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

dud, because i can't open the fucking thing. lord have mercy, someone help me get this thing open

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

have you tried holding it upside down under hot water?

― ()ops (()()ps), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

oh shit, that worked. but now im not even hungry anymore. fuck you classico four cheese sauce

― phil-two (phil-two), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 07:36 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...

http://www.sacla.co.uk/images/products/extended/fullsize_img/02152.jpg

have sacla discontinued this one? doesnt seem to be stocked anywhere at the moment

― terry lennox. (gareth), Saturday, 10 September 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

sauces from a jar can be very nice if you add things to them (fresh basil, parsley, garlic). great way to use up what's in your kitchen before it goes bad.

― CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD DE MGY MGY (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 10 September 2005 10:24 (twenty years ago)

i'm surprised no one's mentioned the 5 brothers brand.

― CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD DE MGY MGY (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 10 September 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

Rao's is still the bomb. so simple. so delicious. so expensive.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 10:41 (twenty years ago)

"Olive and Tomato stir through"

For the love of God.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Saturday, 10 September 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

The only decent jarred sauce I've found is Victoria brand. They're even better than the $9 Rao's Homemade ones.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

There are sauces in jars?

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 10 September 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

I use Barilla Al Forno, which is pretty sweet, combined with their basic marinara for the perfect sugar balance. It's cheap and yummy. I wish the organic brands tasted better, but they're all so shy of adding sweetener, which I believe is essential to spaghetti sauce. Balances the wine. I've tried adding sugar to them, but it's never enough—it's always still too acidic. I think the amount Barilla puts in is probably appalling, I don't even want to know.
I add some minced fennel, wine, Spike and ground beef with the fat well strained out. It's the best. We eat it at least twice a week, with lots of grated parm.
Don't use bad wine. If you can't drink it, throw it away.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

I dig Barilla. They have some good ones. I either buy that or newman's or classico. they are all pretty good and cheap. i go thru a lot of sauce.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

I still stand by my Rao's love though. it's so yummy and it really does taste homemade. or restaurant-made. better than i could make. (not that i try, really. too lazy.) I've never heard of Victoria. patsy's is pretty good. or the one with the whole chunks of garlic in it. i'm blanking on the name. i used to sell all that stuff in the store i worked at years ago.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

The Marks and Spencer bolognese is surprisingly good, considering how often preprepared bologenese is dreadful.

Search: Buitoni Toscana
Destroy: Ragu. All of it.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

and yet, i'll take ragu over prego! talk about your razor-thin distinctions. but it's true.

WORST SAUCE I EVER BOUGHT ANECDOTE BY SCOTT SEWARD:

Don't ask me why I did this. It was years ago. I was young and foolish and cash-poor. But that still doesn't excuse it. I bought marinara sauce at...the...dollar store! And it was from...Canada!!! It was LESS than a dollar. I took it home, cooked up some pasta, threw it on top and knew instantly that I had made a grave error in judgement. Oh the smell! It was so foul. I have no idea what was in it. I have no idea how it could be THAT bad. But it was. I only took one bite and it was in the trash. I shiver just thinking about it.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

you can get Rao's for $6-7 in the right stores (like, er, Bed Bath and Beyond)

the best sauce consists of raw heirloom tomatoes and good olive oil and maybe some parmesan

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

I've never heard of Victoria.

Dude, I'm telling you. It's the closest thing I've had to actual Italian kitchen sauce. There's another brand called Paesana that's kind of similar, and similarly packaged (it almost looks as though one is trying to mimick the other).

The Victoria website claims wide availability in NYC:

http://www.victoriapacking.com/where.html

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

I THINK WE SHOULD ALL APPLY FOR A SPAGHETTI RESEARCH GRANT.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

I miss pasta. I do not have a stove.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)

Get a sterno stove like the guys who live under the bridges.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

beth, don't tell the people at reliable, but they got in a case of rao's (by accident, i guess. they don't sell it there.) and they were mistakenly selling it for the newman's own price of 2 dollars and change. i must have bought 12 jars of it.i felt like i was robbing them. a guy has to do what a guy has to do to feed his family on this island, you know what i mean? some people go swordfishing, i fish for the bargains.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

I have never had Rao's, unless that's what you made your fabulous sauce out of the night we came over. Your chunky sauce.
We finished up a batch of meat sauce last night. SO GOOD. We're going to eat down-island before Buckner and Brokaw. If I eat AT home there's no way I'm going to be able to make it to a show. After dinner at home the bed's just too close. I can hear it calling to me: "Beeeeeeth! Sheets and blankies!!!! Squishy pillows! Book! Mmmmmm."
A friend of mine once said about his wife, "When she goes to bed at night she's already looking forward to going to bed the next night."

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

and yet, i'll take ragu over prego!

OTM.

the truth is that a lot of the cheaper sauces are salvageable (sp?) if you're willing to fancy them up a bit. although once in a moment of dire poverty i bought some weird off-brand sauce that was so rancid and vile i had to throw it out after one bite and i couldn't get the aftertaste out of my mouth all night.

― CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD DE MGY MGY (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

The biggest problem with most jarred sauces is the excessive sweetness.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

rao's IS good, but it's SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE OMGWTF!!!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

OMGWTF OTM!

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Methinks it a classic case of the "snob effect"

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

The biggest problem with most jarred sauces is the excessive sweetnes
I TELL YOU! BARILLA!!! Ragu is way too sweet even for me.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

well, i think early on, Rao's didn't have such wide distribution and their batches were smaller.That would explain a higher price back then. That is NOT the case now. So, they have no excuse. Other than they like being rich. But then their restaurant is the very height of snob effect, what with the 5 year waiting lists or whatever the hell it is.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

I do like Barilla too. I have been impressed by some of their different sauces. The one with olives is yummy. I will look for the Victoria stuff though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Victoria runs $4-5 a jar in my local A&P

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

people were talking curry up above. I have tried some of the ready-made indian stuff in jars at the supermarket and a lot of it is pretty good. Yes, I can buy curry paste and all that, but i found it really handy to throw some of that stuff in a pan and just add veggies and chicken and have an (almost) instant meal. Tastes great. ( i cook dinner for maria and rufus 5 or 6 nights a week and i'm really really lazy, so sometimes quickness wins out over everything else.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Patak's! The lighter curry, rather than the Madras. You can always heat things up with their fabulous Brinjal Eggplant Relish. We haven't found pappadams on the island, though, and for a while they were hard to find in Cambridge. Something about the FDA banning them because they were made on the sidewalk in India. Newsflash FDA dudes: We immerse them in boiling oil!!!!!
Now you can get them again, but they aren't usually packaged as pappadams. They use other names. Papad, etc. FDA not too swift.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, patak's. although curry paste and coconut milk with veggies and chicken is just as easy and yummy. meanwhile, we have all these tomatoes from the garden and they are really begging to be made into a sauce. my grandfather used to sell his own sauce on long island in the 50's. he wanted to be italian. that's why my middle name is tony, despite my being almost completely anglo/irish. he called it Mrs.Dano's Marinara Sauce. (His name was "DAN O"'Connor. Get it? So, I guess he wanted to be a little old italian lady. He was actually a huge scary irishman.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Now I'm hungry.
I'm at raw-tomato overload, my system can't take any more. Even Donald is getting sores in his mouth. This happens every year. So sauce. Yes! Cook it up, S. Tony. Stony?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 21:11 (twenty years ago)

Let's commandeer every thread and turn them all into FOOD threads.
We're going out to the Slice of Life NOW. Sirloin tips on ciabatta with caramelized onions, OH YES!!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 10 September 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

Have fun!

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 10 September 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone seen those totally outdated imperialist-looking curries and sauces with the British explorer-type on the label? Can't remember the name, but I tried a Tikka sauce - wasn't very good.

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 11 September 2005 02:25 (twenty years ago)

The only Indian jarred sauce I've liked is this korma one. Either Patak's or Taste of India, I think?

At first I used Classico's pesto by itself on pasta, and didn't like it at all. The flavor is way off. Was about to throw it away after it languished in the fridge for a good while, but decided to throw a bit in with 5 Bros. stuff, and that made both sauces taste much better. Also now spread the pesto on a grilled tuna-n-cheese sandwich.

― oops (Oops), Sunday, 11 September 2005 05:21 (twenty years ago)

i'm surprised no one's mentioned the 5 brothers brand.

oh i love five brothers, it's always a component of my bolognaise..

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Sunday, 11 September 2005 05:45 (twenty years ago)

patak's butter chicken is awesome

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Sunday, 11 September 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

Joe T Garcia's salsa in Medium . Indispensible.

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Sunday, 11 September 2005 06:09 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone seen those totally outdated imperialist-looking curries and sauces with the British explorer-type on the label
I just went to see if the Patak's chutneys etc in the door of my fridge have an explorer. They don't. But I stepped on the hem of my dress when I squatted down to look, and when I tried to get up I sort of fell over.
This is dangerous!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Sunday, 11 September 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

Sacla Olive and Tomato stir-through still on sale in my local Morrisson's for what it's worth, anyway.

I forgot to give a shoutout to the Homepride mushroom stir-through. That's surprisingly nice.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 11 September 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

xpost No it was some other brand with a quasi-british sounding name like "Colonel Wallace's" or "Pentworth's"

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 11 September 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

Trader Joe's has wonderful jar sauces.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 12 September 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

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