“You get what you pay for” is a phrase often used in the context of food. Yet there are exceptions. No one knows better than chefs how to save and when to splurge, so we asked some of the best which ingredients are worth the money — and which can be switched for something kinder to your wallet.
It’s billed as being high in protein, low in calories and a great source of collagen, but is the broth in jars and pouches, which is often hugely expensive (£30 for a 400g pack of Hunter & Gather bone broth at Ocado), any better than one you can make at home? “No,” says Emily Roux, the chef behind the Michelin-starred Caractère in Notting Hill. “For a fraction of the price,” she says, “visit your local butcher and ask for broken-down bones, or if you’re making a roast chicken, never throw away the carcass. You can easily make a homemade broth or stock from [these] with just a long, slow simmer in water for four to six hours, adding a star anise, black peppercorns, any veggies or herbs that are suffering in the fridge and a cinnamon stick to ‘zhuzh’ it up a bit.”
How to make a ‘balsamic’ glaze out of cheap sherry vinegar
“This might get me into trouble,” says Sally Abé, executive chef at the Bull in Charlbury, “but as delicious as sticky, reduced Modena-style balsamic vinegar is, even I balk at the price.” The flavours and texture are so easy to recreate, she says. “You just need to make simple caramel.” To do this, put 50g of caster sugar in a pan with a drop of water and place over a low heat until you have a medium to dark caramel (this should take 4-5 minutes). Then add 100ml vinegar and increase the heat to the boil until you have a lovely, caramelish vinegar. “Any vinegar will do,” Abé says, “but sherry or a fruit-flavoured vinegar like raspberry is best.” You can use this to make a salad dressing, or anything that calls for a stickier, balsamic-style glaze.
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What to use instead of truffle oil
“Truffle is a nice flavour but it’s not amazing. It’s not coveted because it’s delicious, it’s coveted because it’s expensive,” says Itamar Srulovich, one half of Honey & Co, London’s collection of Middle Eastern restaurants and cookbooks. Some truffle-flavoured foods are “actively repugnant”, he says. “Truffle oil, truffle honey, truffle crisps — there needs to be a million less truffle-flavoured things.”
Truffle oil in delis and supermarkets will often set you back between £10 and £30. The chef and Wahaca founder Thomasina Miers says there are alternatives. “People use truffle oil because they think they are adding umami, but you can achieve umami through much more everyday ingredients: garlic, anchovy, chilli or a salsa macha — a delicious nutty chilli oil.” The latter is available to buy from the Cool Chile Co (£6.50, coolchile.co.uk) and is also easy to make at home.
Chefs choose dried beans over those in jars
“Don’t get me wrong,” Miers says. “Bold Bean Co’s pulses in jars are divine, as are those produced by Navarrico and Perello. We should all be eating more beans, and delicious, ready-to-eat jarred beans are a great way to start.” However, at £3.50 to £7 a jar they are expensive relative to dried pulses, of which you can buy “a whole kilo for next to nothing. Soak them and cook them, and they turn into two kilos, which you can freeze in bags for when you need them,” Miers says. Rinse them, cover them in cold water “and forget about them for a day or two. Then, while you’re watching TV or something, cook them with a bay leaf, half an onion and salt for one to two hours depending on the size of the bean.” Freeze them with their precious juices and they’re ready to go.
Try soda bread instead of sourdough
Sourdough may be ubiquitous but it’s expensive — an artisanal loaf from a bakery can typically cost between £5 and £7 — and not always the best choice. “Sourdough toast is delicious, but when it comes to a regular sandwich, sourdough is not the best,” Abé says. “The crust is too crunchy and the flavour often too strong. You want to be able to focus on the flavour of the fillings.” She favours brioche or ciabatta. “Toasted, you still get that crunch, but it’s a little softer.”
Besides, much of the sourdough you see in the supermarket isn’t “real” sourdough, which should be leavened only with a live sourdough starter culture and hours of fermentation time.
An alternative is to make soda bread, which is quick, easy and cheap. “You are just putting flour and salt in one pile, soured milk or yoghurt in another, and mixing it before baking,” Miers says. “Add some sugar and plump raisins or sour cherries, and it’s easy to make it into buns for the kids when they get home from school.”
Buy the cheaper cuts of meat — they often have more flavour
Many chefs agree that it’s easy to spend far more on meat than we need to. The Saturday Kitchen presenter Matt Tebbutt believes that new-season spring lamb is overpriced. “It’s far more expensive and far less interesting than lamb that has had a whole summer to graze outdoors.” Look for hoggets, otherwise known as yearling lambs, he says, which are more than a year old and have been allowed to fatten naturally through spring and summer. “The flavour is far more complex.”
For anything braised, such as curries and casseroles, lamb neck is best — or the shoulder with the bone in, says Karan Gokani, co-founder of the restaurant chain Hoppers. “The bone means it cooks more evenly, and adds a lot more flavour, because it creates stock alongside the meat. It’s also usually cheaper.”
“I absolutely love a beef fillet,” says Tom Kerridge, of the two Michelin-starred Hand and Flowers. But, he adds, there are many more cost-effective beef cuts that are “every bit as equal as a fillet and which some would argue taste even better”. His favourite alternatives include short rib, brisket or beef shins that have been “slowly braised or gently roasted. Cooked properly, [they are] packed full of flavour, melt-in-the-mouth delicious.”
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You don’t need expensive salt
There is no doubt that “some people pay too much money for salt”, the chef José Pizarro says. “How much you spend should depend on what you’re doing [with it].” Chemically, most salts are almost identical, no matter how much they retail for. To throw some beautiful Himalayan pink salt, or fleur de sel — the extra virgin olive oil of the salt world — into stews or pasta cooking water is a waste. For seasoning and finishing touches, you might want to pay a little extra (fleur de sel can cost anything from £5 to £14) — though there is little that the widely available, quality Maldon sea salt flakes can’t do; it’s the salt that many chefs use at home. “What you can buy from the salt flats of Cadiz is unique,” Pizarro says of the beautiful fleur de sel that is hand-harvested from Andalusia. “But we have very good sea salt in the UK.”
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Fish eggs don’t have to be caviar
If you want fish eggs then caviar is an expensive way of going about it, Srulovich says. “If this is something you enjoy — and I do — they are all as delectable as the other.” What appeals is the texture, richness and butteriness. “I don’t think caviar is materially better.” He says he gets the same joy from mullet roe (about £18 for 100g), trout roe (about £20 per 100g) or herring roe (often sold as Avruga caviar, about £16 per 100g) as he does from sturgeon caviar, 100g of which will retail for at least £120. “All the fish eggs are on equal footing,” he says.
Dining and Cooking