- That kind of canister, 18 pounds.
- What?
- Yes.
- Why would you spend 18 pounds on oil?
- For the fans. (kisses)
(upbeat music)
(logo popping)
Hello everybody.
- Hello. - Hey, Mrs. B.
- Hi. - High five.
She's my wife.
What are we doing?
- We are doing a "Cheap Versus Steep" carbonara.
- We are.
Carbonara, one of your favourite dishes.
- I love carbonara.
- So if you don't know "Cheap Versus Steep,"
we've got a playlist,
so do check them out at the end of this video,
and suggest any new ones down below.
I basically went to a budget supermarket last night,
bought the most budget ingredients I could,
and then went to a steep supermarket,
did the polar opposite.
And today, we've got some similar ingredients
we've done before on the playlist,
but the difference is insane,
like absolutely insane.
And I'm really excited about the oil.
- Okay.
- I know that sounds a bit weird.
I'm really excited about the oil.
- I think you're lucky to get a hold of oil.
- Yeah.
We will just go through the price difference as we go,
and it is quite remarkable at the end.
Mrs. B. Ready?
- Ready.
- First ingredient, we are doing
a Delia Smith recipe, by the way.
It's our favourite one for a carbonara.
Worth checking out.
It's optional, it's onions.
- Mm-hmm.
- We have got the cheap one.
You get a big bag there for a kilo, 50p.
The steep, you get two large onions.
So we've got one there and there.
That weighs 800 grammes,
so that is like nearly 400 grammes for the onion,
just under that.
£1.35, which is 3.4 times more,
or 95p more, if you wanted the same weight.
7p just for this recipe for the cheap.
- Yeah.
- 25p for the half of the onion you would need-
- Oh, wow.
- So it is an 18 pence difference
just for the portion to make this recipe.
- And these onions aren't even organic.
- Oh, darling.
They're not even organic.
- They just look like your standard onions.
They don't look.
- They're just onions.
- Onions, they don't look,
there's nothing wrong with them.
Oh.
I do have to say though-
- That is stronger.
I just got a waft of it.
Are you gonna be right cutting that?
- I don't know.
- Do you want me- - I feel like
I'm watching "Titanic."
Wow! - Oh my gosh.
- Oh my gosh.
Why didn't Kate let Leo on the piece of wood in the sea?
- Oh my gosh, I cannot smell anything with these.
There's no, like a really, really faint smell.
And that burns your nostrils.
- That's crazy.
But is it 18p better crazy?
We've got some proper classics
from the "Cheap Versus Steep" today.
Bacon is one that's always like quite controversial
because we've got the vacuum packed bargain bacon,
which is pumped with water.
A whole kilo, £3.79,
but you don't really know how many rashers you got,
hence the fact that I weighed it.
But bearing in mind, that includes water.
So how much of that is actually bacon?
For five pounds and six rashers,
you've got free range, dry cured British bacon.
Five pounds, that's six rashers.
200 grammes.
So you're basically, if you want the same amount
of bacon by the weight there, 6.6 times more.
And just for this recipe alone,
if you wanted to just have enough rashers for that,
you would be paying £2.34 more.
This is the thing that I feel
could make or break this recipe.
My main aim of this whole thing
is to make the cheap be worthwhile, so.
Mrs. B likes the steep.
All right, so this is the cheap bacon.
You can see there's a fair bit of fat
and marbling running through it,
which in the world of steak,
people always say that's a good thing,
but with bacon, not so sure.
Does it feel like any watery?
Like when you're slicing it,
does it feel like slippery and like-
- [Mrs. B] No. - [Barry] A swimming pool.
- [Mrs. B] No, it just feels really thick.
- [Barry] Like thick cut?
- Yeah. - Oh, wow.
- [Mrs. B] This is like one rasher.
- That's quite promising.
But if you look at the difference,
these rashers are thinner, actually.
- They're really thin.
It's almost feeling like parm,
you know that ham?
- Yeah.
- It kind of feels more- - Parma ham.
- Yeah.
It's feeling like Parma ham, it's that thin.
- A lot less fat on it.
- Oh, it's a lot easier to cut.
- I was just about to say that.
It does, it looks like it's proper-
- [Mrs. B] Tender.
It's not got that chewy fat to cut through.
- But again, 6.6 times more.
All right, for the eggs, for the sauce,
we're gonna put cream in our sauce too.
That is optional, but the eggs are mandatory.
Two eggs and an egg yolk, okay,
which for the calculation, we'll class as another egg,
'cause you kind of need the egg for the yolk.
- You'd use the whole egg, yeah.
- Yeah.
The last time I used eggs,
I did like the next stage up,
but today, I really wanted to go extreme,
proper budget to the most expensive I could get, okay.
So the eggs, 9p each for the cheap ones,
54p for these like free range, massive ones.
If you wanted the same amount of eggs,
on top of having these,
so if you wanted another nine more eggs,
you would be paying six times more, £4.88 in price.
- Oh, wow.
- So for this recipe alone,
because we need three eggs,
it would cost you £1.36 more.
- (gasps) Wow, that is a big difference just for eggs.
- Just for the carbonara, yeah.
- Oh my goodness.
- You've seen us do this before.
Check this out. (clicks)
Ta-da.
It never, ever disappoints me.
From one egg-treme to the other.
However, we've realised that
when we like made the brownies,
it did make quite a difference in the texture.
But the last one we did, do you remember?
We did the scones.
- Yeah.
- And we did an egg wash with these.
It made hardly any difference at all.
- No.
- But it's a key part to a carbonara sauce, isn't it?
- I know.
I am wondering if this will make a difference.
- Yeah.
Okay, we're gonna put cream in with this.
So the budget brand, you get slightly more in a tub.
You get 300 mils for £1.09.
And you get slightly less,
you get 270 mil of the brand one for £1.75,
which is pretty much double.
Because of the quantity difference in the tubs,
this would be 89 pence more
if you wanted to buy the same amount,
and it probably doesn't sound like much,
but for the same amount of two tablespoons,
it's 10p difference.
So we're gonna put Parmesan in to here,
and then we're gonna put it on at the end.
And it comes to Parmesan,
it's very hard to skirt around it.
It is quite expensive anyway.
In fact, it'd be really interesting
to look back at old "Cheap Versus Steeps"
in a couple of years and be like, oh yeah.
- Do you know what?
That's a really good idea.
Looking back at the first one we did-
- We could revisit it.
- Oh!
Cheap Versus Steep Versus-
- Two. (laughs)
- "Cheap Versus Steep." - Versus Steep.
(Mrs. B gasps)
I actually got some fairly good stuff
from the budget supermarket.
Comes in a block like that.
That Parmesan, 200 grammes, £3.19.
So a fair wedge. Wahay!
Now, for the grated stuff,
this bag here, you get 60 grammes for two pounds.
So you're getting 2.4 more from the cheap,
and also if you wanted to match that,
it would be £3.47 more in price to have it.
And it's not just because it's grated.
They didn't have a wedge of that one.
It was like the price comparison was nuts.
It's because it's quite a good quality brand apparently.
For this whole recipe, we need two tablespoons of that,
a tablespoon for this,
and maybe a tablespoon for garnishing.
And just for that alone,
for the tablespoons, 58p difference.
58p!
- It says it's matured for a minimum of 18 months.
That's the steep.
- Right.
- The cheap, aged for a minimum of 30 months
to deliver a lengthy, powerful finish.
- Ooh, controversy.
- So surely this is how it's meant to be,
the longer it's matured for. - Yeah,
the strength intensity, yeah.
- The better.
- Like a fine wine like myself,
Mrs. B, get better with age.
Smell my cheese, in the words of Alan Partridge.
Smells the same.
But I was always told it is much better
to have a cheese block and grate it yourself.
Something about the flavours and stuff.
I don't know.
A few people have told me that
in comments in the past and now I just believe it.
It could be completely false but.
- [Mrs. B] Like a soft cloud of cheese.
- [Barry] It's like little grated pound signs.
Right, Mrs. B's whisking the cheap.
I'll whisk the steep,
unless you wanna do it, Boston.
No. All right.
- Look at the colour difference.
- That is crazy.
And I actually, this is gonna sound weird.
I feel a lot more comfortable
with the colour of the cheap right now.
- I know what you mean.
- [Barry] Yeah?
- That's like a bit too orange.
- Really excited for this bit, okay.
Oil.
We only need a small amount of olive oil,
but I bought the canister.
I bought the canister. - You went there.
- I teased this before.
- You went there.
- Yes.
We only need one tablespoon of oil.
We need 15 mil, roughly, okay.
Oil.
You get a litre in the cheap supermarket,
which will last a long old time, £3.49.
- Okay.
- That canister-
- Oh gosh.
Let me guess.
£8.50.
- 18 pounds.
- What?
- Yes.
- I was not expecting that.
18 pounds.
- Yes.
- Versus, how much was this one?
Three pounds. - Three pound,
which is still, you know, not that cheap.
I thought olive oil was cheaper than that.
- What?
What is so special about an 18 pound tablespoon of oil?
- Which is 10.3 times more.
And if you wanted the same amount,
'cause you get 500 mil versus a litre,
so half of that, right?
- Oh my gosh. Yeah.
- You would pay 32 pounds more.
- That's insane. - Isn't that crazy?
We only need a tablespoon.
Are you gonna kill me? No.
Love you.
- Why would you spend 18 pounds on oil?
- For the fans. (kisses)
You're gonna take a tablespoon of olive oil, 5p.
Tablespoon of this, 54p.
54p!
That's a difference of 49 pence
for a tablespoon of oil.
That is obscene.
Obscene.
- I am speechless.
I really cannot believe
they could charge that amount for oil.
- They're both extra virgin as well.
So that's basically gonna cook our onions
and bacon up with that.
Just says it's "Very high quality method
of cold extraction.
An identical blend of varieties harvested in Europe.
A secret recipe jealously guarded
for more than 100 years."
There we are.
Spaghetti, this is our easiest
and final ingredient to calculate,
'cause you both get 500 grammes, right?
So we've got a packet of budget,
made to a classic Italian recipe, dry spaghetti.
This branded spaghetti with durum wheat.
"Pasta made in Italy with Italian flour
and Alpine water."
Very nice.
Same amount of weight.
69p for that 500 grammes.
For this-
- Yes?
- Three pounds.
- So you are paying,
because it is the same amount,
you're don't even get anymore.
You are basically paying £2.93 more,
or 4.34 times the price.
- Oh my goodness.
That better taste different
to justify that cost.
- It's not this brand,
but there is another one that I've tried before.
I think they were called Dumo or Domo
or something like that.
It's the best pasta I've ever, ever had.
So I don't know.
This could swing it for me.
- Yeah.
- All right, so that is all of our prep done,
all of the ingredients.
We're gonna cook away now,
and at the end, I'll reveal the actual massive comparison.
But I think if we do it as we eat it,
I think that'll really give it that impact.
So we're gonna cook up the bacon
and the onions with the oil.
- And then we're gonna cook the spaghetti
in some boiling water.
- Very nice.
Cheap water or steep water?
Steep.
Does it feel any different to you?
- Oh my gosh, yeah.
That feels really thin and flimsy,
but this feels quite thick.
- [Barry] Yeah, and like quite floury?
- Quite rounded as well.
- Yeah, yeah.
Double the thickness,
and this just feels more like straw or hay,
like it wants to just snap at any moment.
Cheap onions and steep onions.
- Cheap bacon. - Cheap bacon.
And the steep bacon.
All right.
- Bit of water appearing in the pan.
- There is, and there's nothing in this one.
So the water that's been added
is slowly releasing as it's cooking
and hopefully simmering off.
- This is like gamon kind of territory, this bacon.
It's really different to that.
- Yeah, this is actually cooking much quicker as well.
I might take that off the heat in a minute.
But anyhow, our spaghetti is on,
and that cooks in about eight minutes both of them.
Chick-ching.
Folks, there's been a bit of a plot twist.
We did say how the more expensive spaghetti was thicker,
and I've just double checked,
the cooking time is about five minutes longer
to allow for that.
So it gives us time to actually make one carbonara,
so the cheap first, because the cheap meat
has actually really started to get some colour on it now.
So basically, we drain off the spaghetti.
Does look quite thick and gammony, doesn't it?
- It does.
It smells quite fatty as well.
- [Barry] Smells fatty.
- Yeah, you know when you get that smell?
- Every day.
We're just stirring the sauce,
and the heat from that now
should cook the eggs and flavour it.
Mingle it up.
So giving it a good season of pepper,
and now some more of that Parmesan going down on there.
- That looks good.
- It is, and the plate is hot,
so it's gonna keep it nice and warm,
and you wanna eat it now.
Unfortunately for us, we've got another one to do,
and by the time we take a thumbnail,
it might be slightly cold,
but we will take that into consideration, folks.
You know the kind of small print
that they have on adverts and stuff?
That was kind of our declaration there.
Ooh!
I don't know, mate.
That smell is good.
- The spaghetti just feels a lot smoother to mix.
- [Barry] Oh, nice.
- [Mrs. B] Right, in goes the egg.
- [Barry] All right.
So that egg goes in again.
Neon eggs.
(Barry gasps)
- [Mrs. B] It does smell good.
- That has suddenly gone a bit mac and cheesy.
- [Mrs. B] Mm.
- Oh, wow.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, this is gonna be a struggle.
Steep Parmesan on top.
(pepper cracking)
Wow!
Two very, very different carbonaras.
- Oh my goodness.
I can't believe how different they look.
- That's crazy, isn't it? (laughs)
Right, we'll do the final totals and have a taste test,
and maybe if there's a mix of the two, we'll let you know.
But before, I've got three different totals for you.
The cost comparison on average
from the receipt was general,
if you just take it across the board, five times more.
- Wow. - Okay,
just if you average it all out.
Some were way more than others.
If you wanted to buy from the supermarket
the same amount of food in weight,
the quantity, you would've paid an extra 65 pounds.
- Oh my gosh.
That's horrendous. - Just to have
the same amount.
- That's awful.
- To round it up.
So you've already got some,
but 65 pound more.
So there was things like the bacon
and the oil and the eggs
that were the key thing there.
And going back to the portion,
which is the last calculation,
to make just the ingredients for that,
just to buy those ingredients and not have it,
and you know, if you could buy the perfect amount alone,
this one is £6.09 cheaper than that.
We've got a little bit left over.
Maybe feeds four people.
But £6.09 just, just for the recipe.
- I don't think that's justifiable,
especially with everything at the minute,
that's just insane.
- Let's try the cheap first, yeah?
That is amazing.
- Mm.
- That is outstanding, is it not?
- That is really nice.
- In that one bite, I can't find anything wrong with that.
- No.
You got the flavour of the cheese, strong,
which I think really helps.
- Yeah.
The bacon's fine.
- It's a little chewy.
Not really fan of fatty bacon,
but in something like this,
I think for the price difference,
I think I would tolerate it.
- No other words, that is-
- No, that's really nice.
- That is really good.
- Mm.
This better blow my socks off now.
- Oh my gosh, mate, it does look tomatoey.
- This one's like glossy.
- You would go to restaurant.
The camera might not be doing it justice,
but this does look absolutely gourmet.
- But to be fair, if someone gave me
this as carbonara in a restaurant,
I'd be like, "This isn't carbonara."
- "I didn't order the bolognese."
You can tell it's good quality.
- I like the spaghetti.
- Yeah.
That is a really thick spaghetti,
like eating scaffold poles.
- This feels like richer.
- Yeah, it does.
It's richer, but then also it's really creamy,
and just tastes really dairy.
- Yeah.
- Do you know what I mean?
Whereas here had like loads of salt and tang.
Could be the fat in the bacon.
That might just be all of it,
it's just like fat.
- It's a tricky one.
- It's not a tricky one for me.
- Do you know what?
I would make one adjustment.
- Right.
I'm interested to know what this is,
'cause I wouldn't at all.
I literally would save six pounds per recipe five times.
65 quid for the same.
- You probably know what I'm gonna change.
- I don't actually 'cause I genuinely, I look at this,
I think maybe it could be a visual thing as well.
I'm tasting it.
I'm getting all these different umami.
- I would go cheap, but I'd swap the bacon.
- Okay, but I get why you said that,
but in my opinion, you don't have to.
- No, you don't have to.
- You don't have to. - That's just
my personal taste but-
- Because it was not the greatest bacon,
but if you got served that, that's bacon.
- Yeah.
- It's bacon.
- This does not justify that amount,
six pounds, whatever it was, 9p extra per portion.
- Yeah, even the spaghetti-
- Not at all. - Is actually,
I think it's just nicer, it's finer.
- I don't know if it's just 'cause we never buy these ones.
- Yeah, it's just really luxurious.
- To me-
- Too thick.
- Yeah, that's not spaghetti.
- Yeah.
So, in Mrs. B's words,
pay a little bit extra for your bacon and that's it.
So the eggs, although we don't endorse it
and you can get the next tier up
for about an extra 4p an egg that are free range,
I would definitely go for that.
- I would. - Did not make
a difference there.
- No.
I would, yeah.
I would just pay a little bit
more for the eggs maybe.
- Yeah.
- To make sure they're not-
- But I think general,
the feedback with these videos
are people do that anyway.
Folks, this is the dream.
This is what I really want.
I always wanted to get a cheap
where I loved all of it.
The brownies was possibly it,
and then I went on this crazy journey of like mixing it.
But for this, 100%,
that is so, that's fine.
- Yeah, it is absolutely fine, really is.
- Yeah.
- I think that's the first time
I've actually gone for cheap.
- The conclusion, save yourself five times the price.
65 quids or six pound for this recipe alone,
and just do it cheap, if you wish.
Or just try it out for yourself
and let us know what you think.
Any suggestions for future "Cheap Versus Steep,"
do let us know down below.
Roast dinner is very highly rated,
so we might do a chicken roast dinner,
like a one pan one.
That's quite fun.
- I'd be up for doing a one pan one.
Nothing else.
- Yeah, it'd be quite intense, wouldn't it?
But there is a one tray one that I've done on the channel,
which is really, really good.
But if you've got any other ideas,
please do let us know down below.
We've had like pizza suggested,
and other cakes and stuff.
So we'll try and do an alternate of sweet and savoury,
but do check out the rest of them.
I hope you enjoy this playlist as much as we do.
Do you want some oil for Christmas?
- Oil, oh yeah.
We need to use that now. - We will.
We will use it all, which is the good thing,
obviously, about the channel.
But I think, like I say,
that's the other thing we talked about.
Thank you so much for watching, folks.
Remember to subscribe if you're not already.
Make sure your notifications are turned on,
so you get told about all new uploads,
and tell your friends about the channel.
And yeah, we'll see you very soon.
Ciao. - Bye!
♪ 'Cause cooking is nice ♪
♪ Nice, nice, nice ♪
- Folks, just to say, I mean,
this is literally our lunch now.
We're gonna probably have, well, a lot of carbs.
But a lot of you said-
- Carbs. - Could you do
a blindfolded taste test at the end?
The girls are at school at the moment,
but what we are thinking with this,
by the time we try and reheat it,
it might not have that right balance.
It might just both taste like cold pasta.
But if we do a sweet one next time,
it could be cake and it'd be baked,
kept in a nice sort of airtight container
that would probably, when we blindfold them,
be a much better comparison.
So yeah.
- Or we could do it blindfolded.
- Oh.
Well, one of us would have to be,
otherwise we'd just be like that.
- Oh no, we do it one at a time.
- Oh. Oh.
- So I go first, close like this.
- Yeah, yeah.
Well, we can talk about this-
- Then you do it, close your eyes and go. (chews)
(Barry laughs)
- Right, folks.
(both laughing)
Thanks so much for watching.
We'll see you later. - Bye.