Jamie Oliver's Low Cost Meals

[carolegif]

Watched this for two weeks now and can't believe how out of touch he is! Last week he paid £18 for a joint. This week he paid £28 for a half shoulder of pork! He said it would feed 8 people with some over, but how many days would you be eating pork? Does he also not realise that £28 is over half of what some families have to spend on their entire shop for the week?

[Tilly2]

I haven't seen it, carole but that does seem a lot to pay. Does he always cater for eight?

[LyndaB]

I can't stand the guy, although some of his recipes are good. I'm going to save myself £12 right away by not buying the book.

[vakayu]

Hi carolegif,as far as I can see all the tv chefs live on cloud cuckoo land,they do not realise the budget an awful many people have to work with plus their leftovers are usually a thing to behold!

[Buenchico]

While my finances are a little better now, I've spent most of the past few years trying to live on £10 per week for food (with £15 being regarded as a 'luxury week'). I don't usually watch JO's programme but I just caught a snippet while channel-hopping yesterday. He was completing what appeared to be a quite expensive meal by topping it off with roasted caraway seeds and adding some mixed leaf salad. It occurred to me then that the cost of a packet of caraway seeds, or of a bag of mixed leaf salad, was probably more than I often had for an entire day's food budget!

[carolegif]

No Tilly, last week it was for six people at a dinner party, this week it was for a family lunch. It all seems a bit middle class!

[Tilly2]

I don't have to scrimp and save but when I buy a joint of meat I make sure there is enough for three days' meals.

[carolegif]

He said you need a store cupboard, but it was bigger than my kitchen! He made Chinese dumplings with some of the pork (strong flour, chilli sauce, soy sauce), then steamed them in two of those bamboo steamers - how much would that cost.

[viv38]

He's rich isn't he - probably lives in a different world to the rest of us !

[vakayu]

Buenchico many people would never last on such a limited budget,it is a good lesson learnt,though not very pleasant at the time,but it is great how imaginative it makes you when trying to stretch the money.

[humbersloop]

Jack Monroe knocks spots off Mr Oliver - there's a huge difference between being really skint and something that just looks like poverty tourism to me

http://www.theguardian.com/business/video/2013/aug/12/jack-monroe-cooking-breadline-video

[petal54]

If I bought a larger joint,I not eat meat,so only for 2)baby bigs would still finish it off,so not leave enough for another meal

[LyndaB]

I always buy a joint a little bit bigger than we need - if I get one just big enough for the two of us it would shrivel up to nothing. So I have become very good with leftovers, if I don't think I will use the meat for anything the next day I slice it, cover it with gravy and stick it in the freezer for when I can't be bothered to cook! Today I have made pasties for tea using leftover beef, leftover potatoes and leftover pastry lol!

[Octavius]

We buy very good meat from our local butchers, proper stuff, but there is never much leftover from a joint that would be edible afer one sitting.

[Mattk]

I saw a bit of this and found it laughable that he was freezing down an enormous joint of meat.
If you are on a tight budget how the deuce can you afford that in the first place?
You would buy just enough to make a meal.

I find him extremely tiresome nowadays with his preaching.

[carolegif]

I always make a joint last at least two days. With chicken it makes meals for 3 days as I make a soup with the carcass.

[sherrardk]

I think his idea of budget and most other people's are miles apart. Also, for some reason it really irritated me last week when his frozen stuff was taken out of the freezer and it had a peg to seal the top.

[humbersloop]

Knowing - or learning- how, for example, to get six meals plus stock from a whole chicken is one thing, talking about "low cost" meals that come in price per portion at some people's total daily food budget is quite another. And that's assuming you can afford the fuel to cook it, and or freeze stuff.

[zebo]

The one I can't stand is Nigel Slater with his "supper from fridge left-overs" most of which are in pristine unscrumpled paper bags, left-overs my left wottsit. He needs to try shrivelled bits and pieces, a few spoons of cooked cabbage and potato, greenish cheese and half a lime, the left overs in my fridge at the moment.

[AB Editor]

My problem is the portion costs - I didn't see a single portion cost under a pound which is mad. I can do meals with a large serving cost of around 30p. This comes from bulk bought veg, rice etc. I was saddened when this whole exercise seemed to be another middle-class "thrift" show...

In fairness to Nigel, that is more of an aesthetic thing for the programme, half the fun is this hushed voice speaking into a cupboard with a camera in it. I think the concept of the food works because it's "use it up" rather than "buying advice" which is where Jamie has fallen down.

[sherrardk]

Just watching this week's episode - he has even managed to make a recipe using mince into a non-budget meal, numpty.