- [Mike] We are Sorted.
A group of mates from London exploring the newest
and best in the world of food,
whist trying to have a few laughs along the way.
(Laughter)
We've got chefs, we've got normals
(beep)
And a whole world of stuff for you to explore
but everything we do starts with you.
- Ho, ho, hello. I'm Jamie, this is Mike,
and this is fridge cam.
- And today, our chefs use their chef-y knowledge
to help us discern which ingredients
are worth spending money on at Christmas.
(bells jingling)
(funky music)
- Now we've done similar before with kitchen utensils
where James and I, as chefs,
kind of pick an expensive and a cheaper option
and then we have a conversation with two normals
to see where they attribute the value to the products.
- And today we're doing the same thing,
but with Christmas ingredients.
- Woop, woop.
(upbeat holiday music)
(laughing)
- I think it's going to be really interesting conversation.
So, give us a spin.
- Aw, yeah, boy.
Good.
- [Jamie] I do not like this.
- [Barry] One's high end and one's not.
By the looks of it I think I can work it out.
- Oh, straight off the bat.
Which do you think is more expensive?
- As the non-smoked salmon eater of the pair of us.
I would say this one is more expensive.
- [Barry] I too would agree. It has a shine to it.
Also, it's got more depth in color.
- I think though, both have been cheapened
by the addition of a parsley leaf.
(laughter)
So you can just get rid of them.
- If you'd both like to have a taste.
Maybe start with the one nearest Barry.
- Why are you using your fingers?
Cause then the fishiness is gonna get on your fingers.
- Look, two hands, innit?
Okay, it's quite mild.
Quite mind smoked salmon.
- It falls apart, it's not overly fishy.
That's the sort of thing I could imagine
putting on top of my scrambled egg.
- Jamie, what do you think of it?
- For me, what I don't like about smoked salmon,
is a bit of a mixture between the taste,
the texture, and the smell.
(laughs)
- Already it's less flaky, it's holding together better.
On that one you're left with a touch of fishiness.
With that, you're just left with pure, smokey flavor.
- I'm not gagging at that one.
That one is far less fishy.
It has a firmer texture to it, which is nicer.
I could eat that.
- One of those is three times
more expensive than the other.
It's not the way you think.
It's the other way 'round.
- What?
(laughter)
- The oak smoked salmon, the smokey one
that you are more a fan of,
with some of the darker meat, is the cheaper of the two.
It's still a good quality salmon.
- [Jamie] What?
- [Ben] But it is a third of the price.
That one, that is less greasy, and more expensive,
is smoked for longer, better sauced, than the other.
- If they're there in front of me,
already been bought, I'd go for the cheaper one.
But if I'm out buying it, I'd probably go for
one that I know has been sourced properly.
- I was interested, your comment about
the browner meat, as well.
That tends to go off quicker than the rest,
and will drag the rest of the salmon down with it,
so generally is cut off to prevent that,
because smoking is a form of preservation,
however, they often keep it on the cheaper cuts
because you can sell it, and it's sold by weight.
So that's another thing that sometimes
you can look out for between the two.
- I like cheap smoked salmon.
(laughter)
And not good smoked salmon.
- You should be far more offended by this.
- Who am I?
(laughter)
(jingling bells)
(fast-tempo Christmas jingle)
- Ooh there's a cloche this time.
- May we?
- [Ben] You may.
- Ooh, Christmas cheer.
- [James] Happy Christmas!
(laugher)
- [Jamie] So it looks to me like
we've got sea salt and table salt.
- [Barry] Yep.
- Big flakes.
- [Both] Little flakes.
- They serve different purposes.
James gets angry at me when I put sea salt in everything.
(laughter)
Cause I think it's posher.
(laughter)
What are you doing, what are you doing?
- Merry Christmas.
(gasp)
- Ooh.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Straight away, I'd go for sea salt.
- [Jamie] Definitely sea salt.
- [James] Two different batches of roast potatoes,
one has used sea salt throughout
the entire cooking process,
one has used table salt throughout
the entire cooking process.
- [Jamie] Smart, smart.
You've just uncovered a beauty!
(laughter)
- Yeah.
- Look at that one.
- Cheers.
- Nice tats.
Right.
Oh, don't do that!
(laughter)
- Oh.
All right, this is obviously the sea salt one
because I can see the salt on it.
- [Jamie] No, no, it's S-E-A.
(laughter)
They don't call it sea salt because it's
bigger flakes that you can see.
(laughter)
- Yeah, yeah, it is, it definitely is.
(film beep)
It's not too salty.
- No, the best thing about the salt
is it enhances the flavor of what's already there.
So it turns a roast potato into a banging roast potato.
- [Barry] Well let's see, let's have another potato.
- [Both] Cheers.
- While you're chewing on that,
one of the things you've already mentioned Baz,
is a valid point, is you can see the sea salt flakes,
and a visual appearance, whether it's for decoration
on a plate or when you're picking something up,
is an important factor of sea salt.
- In the table salt potatoes, they tasted salty,
whereas in the sea salt potato,
it tasted more of potato with a mangetout of salt.
- So what you're saying is you get a better coverage
with a fine, granular table salt.
- Yeah but because of that it tasted saltier.
And I don't want my food to taste saltier,
I just want it to taste more of what it's
supposed to taste of.
- Yeah, I'd agree.
- Holy, look at that one.
- That's a tastier potato.
- There is no point in using a sea salt
if it's going to go into something that will dissolve.
So a pan of pasta water, a pan of water to parboil veg,
stocks, sauces, mayonnaise, those kinds of things,
use table salt.
For texture, for appearance,
and for flavor on some things like a tomato salad,
or a bit of roast beef that you've sliced,
or steak that you want to finish, with sea salt.
So you both preferred the sea salt version,
those two you've got there,
the sea salt is 13 times more expensive.
- So only if you wanna see the salt, use sea salt.
(laughter)
- Throwing a generous pinch of sea salt into a pan
to boil pasta in is insane.
- Okay, lesson learned.
Sorry.
(jingling bells)
(bass-heavy christmas music)
- One of my favorite courses,
give us a spin.
- Oh baby!
- Oh what?
- Yes!
- [Ben] Two cheese boards, in front of you.
Where do you spend your money at Christmas?
- This is gonna be tough.
- [Ben] The drinks are identical
and they're just two nice conversation points
that you can enjoy alongside.
- Looks really fizzy, but there's hardly any fizz to that.
- It's honey, it's got honey.
- It is a sparkling mead.
- They used to make mead
when you were a child, you know.
It's quite popular.
- What the hell is mead?
- A fermented, honey based drink.
Friar Tuck used to drink it.
- That was Ben's mate when he was in school.
(laughter)
- That went down smooth, Baz.
You having trouble at home?
(laughter)
(beep)
That's gonna become a running joke.
(laughter)
(jingling bells)
- Oh.
- Ooh.
- Mmm.
- Yummy.
Apple?
- Ice cider.
Ice cider is made by freezing freshly pressed apple juice.
The white ice in then removed,
leaving the remaining juice which is naturally stronger
and more intense, and it's that that they then
create the cider from.
So it's a more intense apple flavor.
- There isn't the same cheese on both.
- They are similar.
We have as close as possible found similar cheddars,
goats cheese, there's a blue cheese on each,
we've tried to keep it as similar as possible.
What is your brie-haviour?
- My brie-haviour?
- It's the etiquette of how to cut a brie.
- Cheer cheers.
(upbeat christmas music)
- Brie-licious.
- Cheers.
- Ooh.
- Oh.
- Ugh.
- [Ben] Is that a good blue?
- That is great.
(disgusted noises)
- [Jamie] Cheers.
- Now from this board.
- Oh!
- Oh god that's worse!
- Oh that is so good!
- Ugh!
(laughter)
- That is far, far more hard hitting.
- Yeah it is.
- [James] Barry, you should down your drink.
(laughter)
- I think a lot of people have asked us,
how do you go about designing a cheese board.
And I think it is always super subjective.
But when we kind of put together a cheese board,
four or five different cheeses,
try and get a different mixture of hard, semi-soft,
and one that almost runs off the board,
and then decorate it with fruits, dried fruits,
fresh fruits, celery, biscuits, chutneys.
- Can we go safe now?
I want some cheds.
Better.
Oh, what a soft cheddar.
- [Jamie] Rich.
Mature - [Barry] Creamy.
- Creamy.
- Cheers.
- Mmm, okay.
- [Jamie] Creamier.
Drier.
- Words.
(laughter)
- Cheers.
- Why don't you have a drink.
- No, it was delicious.
- Crack me.
Thank you.
- That's naughty.
- Mmm.
- Even more fruity.
- Mhm.
Goat's cheese, we've gotta do the goat's cheese.
(upbeat Christmas music)
- [Both] Cheese.
(laughter)
- Hoo, wow.
In terms of what's on each board,
I reckon that one is more expensive.
- [Ben] But you seem fairly indecisive.
- It's got bigger flavors, but I also realize
that bigger flavors doesn't necessarily translate
to quality, it's just means punchier.
- [Barry] I'd agree, but it's also the most challenging.
- So the board with the more challenging cheeses,
they are all British cheeses,
and that comes as a preselection,
plus we added chutney and crackers from the same store,
and that was 71 pounds, all in.
- Whoa!
- The other board, a mixture of British
and Spanish and Italian different cheeses,
we bought the crackers and the chutney from
the same supermarket, hand selected,
and that was 27 pounds and a number of pennies,
so nearly two and a half times cheaper.
- I got as much enjoyment out of the cheaper board
as I did the expensive board.
- Mhm.
- But that chutney jumped out as something special.
- I think, if you're gonna spend a chunk of money
on cheese, don't then pair it with the most
basic crackers and forget about the things
that turn it into an experience,
the chutneys, the fruits, the nuts.
(jingling bells)
(upbeat Christmas music)
Now these two items have taken
slightly longer to prepare,
and in that time, James and Jamie have decided
they have better places to be,
Christmas shopping or something,
so we've subbed in normal for normal.
Boys!
Give us a spin.
- [Both] Oh, oh.
- Sorry, I'm new here.
I thought I could smell these.
- So in front of you, you've got two different turkeys.
- Is there a specific breed that's
best for Christmas or Thanksgiving?
- The clue is in the color of these,
we're using the bronze turkeys.
- Okay.
- Don't all turkeys go bronze whilst they cook?
- Uh, yeah.
(laughter)
- This one here looks slightly bigger.
- One of these is a couple of kilos bigger than the other,
so don't let size influence.
So both of these birds came with giblets inside them.
One was frozen, one arrived fresh.
I tried to keep the pair of them as similar as possible,
butter, salt, pepper, on a trivet of vegetables,
onions and orange.
- Right, so instantly, and I don't know whether
this has to do with the preparation or whatever,
this one looks shinier and has more juice on it.
- This one looks like it's out of a T.V. advert.
It could be plastic, it's too perfect.
In its turkey-like form.
- Yeah so do you think that's because it's been frozen,
do you know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- It wasn't reared organically, running around,
just getting fat and happy.
(laughter)
It's been properly frozen.
- It's been engineered, I know that.
- And engineered.
Do you think that's?
- Maybe.
- Shall I carve some for the pair of you?
- [Mike] Yes, please, yes.
- And then we can try them.
- Key word, shall I carve them for you.
I like that.
- Yeah, doesn't trust us.
- Thanks Ebbers.
- Beautiful.
- I haven't smothered it in gravy or
cranberry sauce or bread sauce, nothing like that.
I want you to just sample the flesh.
- How weird to say!
- What did he say?
- Sample the flesh.
- Oh.
I think I just naturally block these out now.
(laughter)
So we've got brown meat, we've got white meat.
Thanks to Chef Ebbers.
- A lot juicier.
- [Mike] A lot fattier, isn't it?
It's got lots of fat on it.
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Oh, I got a really juicy bit there.
- [Barry] Dark meat.
- More fibrous, you can actually individually taste,
and feel the texture.
- Breast meat, I think, packs more flavor, from that one.
- Do you reckon?
- What's really hard, is on Christmas Day,
you don't eat it like this.
You have it smothered in everything.
- I feel like the texture of this one is better
and the flavor of the dark meat is better for me.
I feel like this one's juicier and fattier.
- I'm guessing, the price really comes down to
how it was reared.
- Mhm.
- Yeah absolutely, the welfare, and the husbandry
and all that, and the origins of the turkey in this instance
is probably where a huge, well almost certainly
where a huge percentage of the cost is gonna lie.
Cause I think the breast meat there,
I couldn't really tell a huge amount of difference.
The dark meat, on the one closest to Barry,
I think is absolutely sublime compared to the other one.
- I'm completely thrown.
I'm gonna stick to my guns,
and say that's the more expensive one.
- Mike?
- I'm gonna have to go with this one
being the expensive one.
Just because of the difference of the dark meat.
- So the one closest to Mike, the bigger bird,
is a couple kilos more, and it did take,
for that reason, half an hour more cooking.
That was the frozen one.
22 pounds, for the entire bird.
- For the whole thing?
- For the whole thing
Making it 4 pounds 14 per kilo.
- Okay.
Now I'm interested.
- The turkey on Barry's side is a little bit less in size,
but we're looking at this per kilo anyway.
The entire bird was fresh,
and delivered to our door, 102 pounds.
(laughter)
20 pounds 50 per kilo, put about five times more expensive.
- And how many do they serve?
Like what's a portion?
- They say about a pound, so abut 450 grams, per person.
- Okay.
- That's a lot.
But bearing in mind you're buying the bones,
and bearing in mind everyone also wants leftovers.
You don't consume all that.
But they say roughly a pound per person.
- That does not taste five times better than that.
- It's slightly more fibrous,
there's slightly more texture to the dark meat,
it's because it's moving around a lot more,
it has all that chance to free roam and free range
and therefore it's using the muscles more,
so it has been more worked, than perhaps plumped up
a little bit quicker perhaps in another environment
which is why it's slightly fattier.
- Price doesn't really bother me when it comes to
the welfare of an animal,
pay above and beyond to make sure you get a great meat.
- But that's gonna serve eight people, right?
- That's gonna do 10.
- Well then at 10 pounds a head, 100 percent I'll buy that.
Actually, thinking about it like that.
- [Ben] 10 pounds a head?
- 10 pounds a head.
- 10 pounds a head, for turkey.
- As opposed to two pounds a head?
- Notoriously, the rest of the plate is gonna be
populated with cheaper ingredients.
- For me, I think it's all about the 80/20 split.
So, turkey once it's cooked
and roasted will only make up about 20% of the plate,
but spend maybe 80% of your budget on it,
it's once a year, it's celebratory,
make sure it's well sourced,
all the other stuff is root veg,
and it's super cheap, and you can cook a whole
bunch of clever things with it and make them stand out,
but celebrate that 20% of the plate with most of the budget.
And beyond that, top tip from a chef,
don't always read the cooking instructions
on the back of the packaging.
Because they tend to err on the side of caution.
Both of those turkeys were cooked for an entire hour
less than what was suggested on the packaging.
Get yourself a temperature probe,
make sure you're getting it in at the deepest,
thickest part of both the dark and the breast meat,
and make sure it's above the temperature
that you're comfortable with, 63° and about 65°.
- A chef is for life, not just for Christmas.
- Oh boy, I feel loved.
(laughter)
I'll see you in Jan.
- So, how did you find that?
Which ingredients should we compare next?
Comment down below and let us know.
- Olive oil seems like a good one.
- Olive oil does seem like a good one.
- Beer.
- Hmm.
- Wine.
Wine would be a good one.
- No.
- Wine would be a really good one.
- No it wouldn't.
- Yes it would!
- And, as always, if you like seeing us make this style
of video, give us a like because then we know to make more.
- And when will we make more?
Every Wednesday, every Sunday at 4pm.
We'll see you then.
Goodbye.
- [Mike] Might mix it up a little bit.
As we've mentioned, we don't just
make top quality YouTube videos.
We've built the Sorted Club, where we use
the best things we've learned to
create stuff that's hopefully interesting
and useful to other food lovers.
Check it out if you're interested,
thank you for watching, and we'll see you in a few days.
(upbeat electronic music)
(film beep)
(chewing noises)
- Are you enjoying this?
Just two best friends, chomping on roast potatoes.
- It's my favorite video of all time.