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Things to look out for in Lidl and Aldi

I'm not sure that Sainsburies etc higher prices is just naked profiteering.

It does bother me how cheap food is in Aldi/ Lidl. Is it just the "no frills no choice" model that means it's so cheap? For instance I'd be loath to buy meat there.

Aldi and Lidl each have,Europe-wide, about 5 times as many outlets as the major British supermarket chains. This gives them the ability to contract farmers etc on fixed terms and fixed prices in a way that the British supermarkets avoid doing, plus they don't insist on "premium" (washed and size-sorted) veg.
As for their meat, the everyday stuff is no better nor worse than you'll find in a British supermarket (I bought a 3kg rolled pork loin from there, cut it into 4 separate joints, and all of them roasted beautifully, with the meat full of flavour. As the son of a sometime butcher, I've been taught that if an outlet sells good pork, the rest is generally good too!) the pre-packed deli meat is up there quality-wise with most German high st delis, and the frozen speciality meats (the venison, kangaroo, reindeer etc) are of excellent quality.
I won't claim that they're miles better ethics-wise than UK supermarkets, but they don't go in for some of the sharp practices the UK chains do.

When in Germany, Greebo and I are happy to shop in most of the German chains (Edeka, Lidl, Penny, Aldi, ReWe etc) because we can be sure of decent quality at a fair price.
 
To my knowledge, all steam-baked and sliced bread, as in the dreaded Chorleywood method, is called "toast-brot" in Germanyland. As that's all it's good for. Apart from chucking it in the bin where it belongs. This could be down to pure prejudice as a branch of my German family own and run a local bakery. I'll be visiting the fam in May and am looking forward to eating decent bread that doesn't require a second mortgage. As well as more than my fair share of brotchen, kase und Niederegger echtes Lubecker marzipan. And maybe a few beers, too. Prost!

No Kassler? No Bismarck herring? barbarian! :D
 
Oh I did NOT need to know that! Actually maybe freezing it will stop me from eating a little bit every time I open the fridge :hmm:

Sorry!
I was like that with their "Deluxe" range liver pate. Every time I opened the fridge it tempted me to bung a slice of bread (or two!) in the toaster, and then smear the toast with pate. :oops:
 
Aldi and Lidl each have,Europe-wide, about 5 times as many outlets as the major British supermarket chains. This gives them the ability to contract farmers etc on fixed terms and fixed prices in a way that the British supermarkets avoid doing, plus they don't insist on "premium" (washed and size-sorted) veg.
As for their meat, the everyday stuff is no better nor worse than you'll find in a British supermarket (I bought a 3kg rolled pork loin from there, cut it into 4 separate joints, and all of them roasted beautifully, with the meat full of flavour. As the son of a sometime butcher, I've been taught that if an outlet sells good pork, the rest is generally good too!) the pre-packed deli meat is up there quality-wise with most German high st delis, and the frozen speciality meats (the venison, kangaroo, reindeer etc) are of excellent quality.
I won't claim that they're miles better ethics-wise than UK supermarkets, but they don't go in for some of the sharp practices the UK chains do.

When in Germany, Greebo and I are happy to shop in most of the German chains (Edeka, Lidl, Penny, Aldi, ReWe etc) because we can be sure of decent quality at a fair price.
They don't go in for the kind of contracts that you hear about where farmers are tied into one supermarket on a contract that's very unfavourable to the farmer?

I know a lot of their cost cutting is around the frills, I was just curious if it all was.
 
To my knowledge, all steam-baked and sliced bread, as in the dreaded Chorleywood method, is called "toast-brot" in Germanyland. As that's all it's good for. Apart from chucking it in the bin where it belongs. This could be down to pure prejudice as a branch of my German family own and run a local bakery. I'll be visiting the fam in May and am looking forward to eating decent bread that doesn't require a second mortgage. As well as more than my fair share of brotchen, kase und Niederegger echtes Lubecker marzipan. And maybe a few beers, too. Prost!
Just because Chorleywood bread is done that way, it's no reason to knock steam-baked, sliced bread. France is full of fantastic bread done exactly that way. It's not the cooking or the slicing that makes white toast bread so awful.
 
Sorry!
I was like that with their "Deluxe" range liver pate. Every time I opened the fridge it tempted me to bung a slice of bread (or two!) in the toaster, and then smear the toast with pate. :oops:

You're pretty cowardly aren't you? Attacking me on a thread where you know I can't respond.
 
Sorry!
I was like that with their "Deluxe" range liver pate. Every time I opened the fridge it tempted me to bung a slice of bread (or two!) in the toaster, and then smear the toast with pate. :oops:

No, thanks :D I might go back for more.

I bought the tete de moine cheese at Christmas. That was a similar burden on my heart. (Till my daughter started saying the kitchen smelled of poo every time I opened the fridge so I had to bin it. It was a bit off-putting)
 
That's why normal people read the whole thread before responding.

Nice.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, just once, that you're not aware of the fact that I have deteriorating short-term memory (poor enough that it requires medical treatment), and that I respond to threads the way I do because it's the only way I can without losing track.
Strangely, many other regular posters are aware of this, have been for a couple of years and act accordingly.
Now stop shitting up threads with your whining, there's a good boy!
 
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, just once, that you're not aware of the fact that I have deteriorating short-term memory (poor enough that it requires medical treatment), and that I respond to threads the way I do because it's the only way I can without losing track.

Alright then. When someone attacks me, I always respond. So do you I might add. I couldn't do it there, so I did it here. That's all, as you were.
 
Once opened........ never saved.

£1.99 cherry liqueur's...(lidl).... 25% kirsch........yes there is a whole cherry inside , and yes , I did lick that wrapper....Got that nice buzz on the tongue of real alcohol .. The chocolate's good too .....but then I rather like JD Gross ........ particularly the single estate 70% cocoa Ecuador .

So many tick boxes of rightness
 
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Got this on a whim ..... Not had this before.......but it looks like a kabanos ( lidl , forget the price , sorry)

Got to luv a sausage's that's made with 101g pork plus 11g beef per 100g of finished banger

6 servings apparently ....that may be wrong

Some serving suggestions anyone ?

Kabanos I often chop into a frying pan with peppers onions and chilli then into a toasted pitta with some hot tom salsa on top for a quickie .....
 
<snip> Kabanos I often chop into a frying pan with peppers onions and chilli then into a toasted pitta with some hot tom salsa on top for a quickie .....
But enough about your food sex kink. *gets coat*
 
Cooking all done sans coat....

A miss though ...lidls Oaties..... a pale imitation of hob knobs...now that I've eaten the pack I feel qualified to answer.... If that was the target clone ?.... the textures just not there and the taste is bland ......which is a shame as their rich tea and digestives are bang on the money....
 
Aldi and Lidl each have,Europe-wide, about 5 times as many outlets as the major British supermarket chains. This gives them the ability to contract farmers etc on fixed terms and fixed prices in a way that the British supermarkets avoid doing, plus they don't insist on "premium" (washed and size-sorted) veg.
As for their meat, the everyday stuff is no better nor worse than you'll find in a British supermarket (I bought a 3kg rolled pork loin from there, cut it into 4 separate joints, and all of them roasted beautifully, with the meat full of flavour. As the son of a sometime butcher, I've been taught that if an outlet sells good pork, the rest is generally good too!) the pre-packed deli meat is up there quality-wise with most German high st delis, and the frozen speciality meats (the venison, kangaroo, reindeer etc) are of excellent quality.
I won't claim that they're miles better ethics-wise than UK supermarkets, but they don't go in for some of the sharp practices the UK chains do.

When in Germany, Greebo and I are happy to shop in most of the German chains (Edeka, Lidl, Penny, Aldi, ReWe etc) because we can be sure of decent quality at a fair price.

I thought you were Jewish for some reason?? Didn't realise your dad was a pork butcher, that must be weird?

When you say about Lidl not engaging in sharp practices presumably you're not referring to the way they treat their workers??

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/every-lidl-hurts/

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/21/foodanddrink.supermarkets

http://lidl.verdi.de/schwarz-buch/black_book_on_lidl_in_europe
 
I thought you were Jewish for some reason?? Didn't realise your dad was a pork butcher, that must be weird?

Mum a (non-observant) Jew, father C of E.
As for weirdness, you'd be amazed how many people who are religiously-proscribed from eating pork, surreptitiously(or even openly!) do.:D


I mean (and said) with their suppliers. None of that "and now you can give us back 10% of what we paid you, as a sweetener for us to renew the contract" bullshit, so you're right when you say that I'm not referring to their employees.
 
fair enough, it was just the G_d stuff that confused me I think.

I'd be interested to find out more about how Lidl treat suppliers, where did you get the info from?
 
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O m geeeeee!
 
I somehow bought a bag of wasabi peanuts and two bags of wasabi cashews the other day. I haven't opened them yet though coz once I start eating I usually can't stop, even if I've had so much wasabi that I'm in actual physical pain. :oops:

Also bought the cheese one of these and it's just as addictive.
5500490_01_f.jpg
 
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