- The biggest Cheap versus Steep difference
I think we've probably ever had.
16 1/2 times more.
- It's all gonna be about the taste.
- Ooh.
(triumphant music)
- Hello, everybody. - Hello.
- Hey, Mrs. B. - Hi.
- Hi five. She my wife.
Welcome to another Cheap versus Steep video,
the playlist in which Mrs. B and I,
- We make the same recipe and do it
one with cheap ingredients and one of expensive ingredients,
and then we compare.
- Yes. We basically go to a budget supermarket,
get the cheapest ingredients we can find
and the alternative at a more luxury supermarket
The actual aim of this is to see, particularly today,
if it is worth it.
Sometimes it's purely about the cost,
but today we are doing-
- Scones. - Scones.
English-style scones.
I think sometimes called biscuits in America.
- Okay.
- But it's British summertime.
There's nothing better than scones.
Sometimes known as scons,
but I was always told it's not scon till it's gone.
So it's scones.
- What does that mean, mate?
- It doesn't make sense,
does it? - When you say that...
What does that actually mean?
- Maybe it is scones.
- I don't care.
I don't care.
So we went to Raldi and Baitrose,
two very different polar opposite ends of the supermarkets.
And we tend to go in Raldi more,
because the vegetables there, particularly.
And with Bidl, very good value, aren't they?
- They are.
- We're gonna go for the ingredients as we make here,
just so we can see visually the comparisons,
but just as a headline thing, the difference, right?
For the budget shop, - Yeah?
- for everything you needed and you'll have loads left over,
which we'll come onto at the end,
but the budget shop was 9 pounds 77.
- Wow. Okay. - Some of it is in the fridge.
I will say the bag they gave me was so weak,
I had to get two of them.
I nearly, like it shattered
in the car park. - You had to double-bag it.
- Yeah, I had to. It was so bad.
I nicked back in and got another bag,
so that's why I've not put it,
'cause the bags weren't on the receipt.
So I've omitted the bags,
but they're normally like three times difference,
because this is a much better bag.
And the shop here came to 27 pounds 69,
so it is literally three times the price.
- That's... I can't believe that.
- It's crazy.
And as I'll come on to,
there are so much more ingredients left over
that we've bought.
So this is just for the ingredients itself.
The recipe, we'll talk about that at the end,
but let's get going, right?
Let's get the dough on.
- Let's make scones.
- Oh yeah. - Scones.
- Don't you mean scons?
350 grammes of self-raising flour.
So we've got this standard flour, really nice.
Nothing wrong with that.
And this is some self-raising flour
that's designed more for sponges, so it's extra fine.
"Finely milled for light, perfectly textured bakes."
- Oh. - Do you think
that will make a difference?
I do.
- Do you know, I really do not know
whether this is gonna make a difference.
I really think it's gonna be more the cream and the jam
that will make the difference.
- Oh yeah. And they're just kind of like the accompaniments.
- Yeah. - For the 350 grammes,
if you want 350 grammes of the more gourmet flour,
it's 36 pence more,
and that doesn't sound much,
but it adds up at the end. - It does.
- Is there much difference? - Wow.
- Oh, that is much more fine, isn't it?
- You can. It feels, yeah.
- It, yeah?
- Delicate. Is it? - Yeah, it is.
It's really like light.
Why is baking powder always so hard to get into?
- So in the cheap you get 170 grammes
and we only need a teaspoon, which is six grammes.
So the equivalent that Mrs. B is just putting in there
is 2 British pence.
For the steep, you get 160 grammes less in the tub,
so you do get 10 grammes less, but you're paying a pound.
- Okay.
- So it's effectively pretty much 4 p for that teaspoon.
2 p more, just for a different type of baking powder.
It get, I mean, that's really minimal, but why?
It's probably from the same factory,
The cheap butter, 1 pound 75 for 250 grammes,
which works out, we need 59 pence.
And then we've got this unpasteurized butter
from Normandy cows, which is actually 3 pounds 10,
or 1 pound 5 p for the amount that we need;
double the price for the butter.
So, and it looks identical in colour.
Just work the fat through
until it's sort of like a bread-crumby texture.
It's definitely a lot lighter, this stuff.
It's flying everywhere. - It is, isn't it.
- Yeah. I've gotta be a bit more careful with that.
'Cause it's so thin, it's going, "Poof!"
- I was just thinking,
I feel a bit of pressure doing this recipe.
- Why?
- Well, Phoebe made scones. - Oh she did, yeah.
- For Jubilee weekend, and they were amazing.
Everyone loved them at the party.
- We did a little Jubilee party and had scones.
So that's very British, folks. Okay?
But if you wanna make 'em even cheekier,
- Oh, I know what you're gonna say.
- Cocoa powder, - Cocoa powder.
chocolate chips in the mix. - Oh.
And then use Nutella instead of jam.
Chocolate scones.
Oh, shiver me timbers.
So next we're gonna add in caster sugar,
we could have really pushed this
and gone for like whole like demerara
and gone done all crazy,
but as always, we try and make it
as extreme ends of the spectrum, but the same thing.
So this is the standard caster sugar from the supermarket.
We only need three tablespoons, which is roughly 40 grammes.
So that works out at 5 p worth of sugar in there, okay?
The more expensive one, 40 grammes of that is 10 p,
so it's actually double the price.
Oh look, that is slightly-
That is actually golden caster sugar.
There is a real colour difference.
That's almost like a sand up on beach.
- Yeah.
- Not the beach where we go, though.
- I was just thinking.
- Yeah, that looks like more like the beach where we live.
It needs some seaweed in there
and a washing machine washed up,
which is a true story.
I was walking Boston when we first moved
near the beach here,
and there was a washing machine.
That is the power of the ocean, folks.
Mrs.B is trying to get 175 ml of milk there,
which for the cheap works out at 15 pence.
It was 1 pound and 5 p for that whole holster of milk,
whereas this organic milk,
which is actually from a farm quite close to us,
really popular to be fair,
they are 3 pound for two litres.
So you're getting more, but it is double the price again.
So it's double the price
for your standard milk versus organic.
Do you think that's gonna make a difference?
- No.
Does it even taste different, like when you just drink it?
- Ah, actually, shall we have
the official milk taste test comparison
whilst they're baking?
- Okay.
Goodness. - Yeah?
- Smell that one. (inhales)
- Ah! - Bend your nostrils.
- Now that is luxurious, mate.
- Yeah. - Ah!
It is just vanilla extract from a luxury brand,
which is 7 pounds and 5 p for 60 ml.
- What, that was 7 pounds?
- Yeah. (gasps)
Eight times the price,
but for the amount you just put in there, 58 p.
So that is a difference between the two,
just for a teaspoon,
this might be one of our craziest ever, of 51 p difference.
- That's insane.
- But that has made a slight, can you see them?
- Yeah. - There is a-
- It's changed the colour. - Yeah.
That is different.
But it's by a brand called Nielsen-Massey,
which are apparently the world's finest vanilla.
So if that's a thing that we just weren't really aware of,
then I've seen them in the shops quite a bit,
but I've never really been willing
to pay 7 pound for extract,
particularly when you can get it for like 59 p.
- Yeah.
So next one is lemons, which Mrs. B is rolling out,
because the budget ones are pretty...
- Get more juice out of them this way.
- Well you do, but I mean, they're pretty small lemons.
- Look at the size difference.
- That is crazy.
- That's steep, cheap.
- I didn't really factor that in, in my calculation either.
The acidity though in the lemon juice
will help the self-rising flour and the baking powders out
with the raising agents as well, though.
That'll help it.
- Does it? - It does.
- Oh, they smell different.
Smell that. (inhales)
- Oh, that smells like a lemon.
- Smell that. (inhales)
- That that smells like a shoe.
So these bags of budget lemons,
which are, I would say half the size, right?
Four of those for 50 p,
whereas these ones, look they're huge, right?
- Yeah.
- Again, a pack of four, but that was 1 pound 70,
meaning that each of those is 43 p,
which is 3.4 times the price,
or for one lemon, 31 p more.
But you are getting like- - A lot more.
- Yeah. - That,
- you probably need two. - You need two.
So really it's probably not three and a half times more.
It's probably like, you know, half of that.
It's probably like 1.7ish. - But how much do you need?
Just like one- - We just need a squeeze.
Yeah, we literally need a teaspoon.
Oh my gosh, Mrs. B, this is so light.
Really delicate. It's like a cloud.
Cutting quite easily. Oh yeah.
Oh, that's worked out really well.
And then you get a nice little disc like that.
- Oh yeah. I can notice difference from yours.
- Yeah, that is, yours is good,
but there's a, it's...
- These are like light.
- Yeah. They are so delicate.
We can wrap this in cling film in the fridge,
even freeze it for another day,
because four will be enough.
Cheap. Okay?
And the steep there. - Nice.
- They need an egg wash on top,
which is traditionally in these videos
one of the most epic comparisons.
So we bought a pack of 10 eggs there.
You get 10, and they work out at 13 pence each.
They're not the cheapest I could have got.
We went up one.
Remember there was ones before
in like a big plastic packaging?
The polar opposite are these ones we've seen before
where they're 3 pounds 65.
- Oh my goodness. Are they even from hens?
- Yes. And they're 60 p each.
Which works out for each egg, for your egg wash,
47 pence more.
4.7 times more for that egg.
Oh, look at that yolk.
Versus this egg.
There we go. - Mm.
We've been there before, folks. It's not new territory.
It is a very, very different set of colours right there.
- That is a big difference.
- It is, innit?
Just the tops, yeah? - Just the tops.
- Cheap, steep.
That is quite a difference.
And they only go in for about 10 minutes.
- Nice.
- All right, folks.
Don't worry about this.
Patrons will know why, and it's fine.
Don't worry.
All you need to know is they're in the oven,
and everything's good.
As promised, the Cheap versus Steep milk test.
- Okay.
- This is the steep, this is the cheap.
So should we try the cheap milk first?
- Okay.
- It looks the same by the way, doesn't it?
There's no point me getting closer with the camera.
It looks like milk.
It's nice.
Organic semi-skim milk.
- Teeny weeny bit creamier?
- Creamier?
Yeah, actually, yeah.
Slight creamier.
Not much more.
- Not much difference. - No.
- Whilst they're in the oven,
we have got two more things,
which are basically like the condiments if you will,
that accompany the scone,
which is traditionally clotted cream.
Remember I've done a homemade video on how to do that.
You have to bake it in the oven.
It's a long... just check the video out.
- It smells a bit like cheese.
- And jam.
Now I did not realise there is a crazy jam that I got
and it's still just within the strawberry jam territory,
but we'll go for the clotted cream first, okay?
So in the cheap, you have got a 200 gramme tub there,
which was 1 pound 49.
Two tablespoons, which I thought
was probably a good serving of the cream, fairly good,
22 pence.
22 p for this portion of the same 42 p,
so 1.9 times the difference,
or it's gonna cost you 20 pence more.
I think this is not gonna be a big difference.
- No.
- We're gonna finish
with the biggest Cheap versus Steep difference
I think we've probably ever had.
You got 454 grammes there. - Yep.
Of just strawberry jam.
- Yep. That is 31 pence.
And the equivalent of one portion of that jam
for what we need, two tablespoons, is 2 p.
- Oh wow.
- 2 p. - 2 p.
- From the luxury supermarket, a smaller jar,
320 grammes, strawberry and pink champagne jam.
This has champagne in it.
The lady asked if I was over 25
when I was in the supermarket.
"I just gotta check."
I was like, "I'm 40."
This is the crazy thing.
It was 2 p for two tablespoons of this.
Two tablespoons of that, 33 p.
16 1/2 times more.
Ooh.
- You can smell it, but it doesn't smell
like champagne - No. It doesn't.
- It smells like dates.
Don't know if I'm gonna like that.
- Well, they're nearly finished in the oven.
We'll let 'em cool on the tray, build this all together,
and we'll jolly well find out.
(hands clap)
All right.
- So cheap, - Cheap,
- Steep. - Steep.
- That egg didn't make a difference, did it?
- Not really?
Maybe this has gone more of a golden.
- Yes. - Well, no,
actually I don't think it has.
- All of a sudden they look very, very similar.
- It's all gonna be about the taste.
- All right, folks, you might not think it,
but this is a cheap and a steep.
They look absolutely identical.
And this is kind of what I was hoping for with this.
Yeah, we'll go jam first. Is that all right?
- Yeah. Okay.
- That's what I tend to do, but yeah,
I don't want to get into that.
There's some very passionate people out there.
Clotted cream with the skin on.
If you've never had clotted cream ice cream as well,
that is amazing.
Oh, but they look so different.
Look, yours is like, almost like a black forest version.
- Yeah.
- And that is a blooming big scone.
- We've got a little scone tasting station going on.
- We have, haven't we?
Bit of a like experience day.
We're gonna build up to the scone
by first of all having, this is all the cheap stuff.
- Okay.
- So a cheap scone.
That's pretty good.
- Hmm.
- A bit chewy. It is quite tough.
- It is.
Can't eat it on its own.
- Cheap jam, which is very, very...
I mean, it's sweet.
It's more sweet than strawberry-flavored, quite jellified.
But it's doing its job as a jam.
- That's strawberry jam.
- It is, right?
Cheap clotted cream.
- Cream. - Cream.
Are you a fan of clotted cream? You just sort of went..
- Not really.
Not on its own.
- Yeah, that's quite intense on its own, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- But that is clotted cream. - Yeah.
- Steep. - Steep scone.
Mm.
- That's really different. - Mm.
- Oh my gosh.
You could actually eat that without anything with it.
- Yeah. That's really delicious.
- That is not- - Tastes like a biscuit.
- That is totally different to the cheap.
- It's lighter. - Yeah. It's not stodgy.
- No.
- You don't feel like your teeth are sticking together.
- It's got a lovely crust on it as well.
- Oh my goodness.
- It's still a scone, though.
It's like a sweet scone.
- Yeah. And you don't eat scones on their own.
- No. - Do you?
- So that's what I'm hoping, that it'll blend in.
- All right. - All right.
- Let's try this champagne jam.
Oh my gosh.
- Oh really?
- That's really strong.
- Ooh. Ooh that.
I mean, it is a surprising kick, but then all of a sudden.
- You can actually taste the alcohol in it.
- You can.
You definitely can, but once that goes,
it does settle down to being still a jam
that you can get drunk on.
- I feel like you needed a jam in the middle.
That does taste a bit different actually without cream.
- Oh wow. - It's richer.
- That's richer, but also smoother?
- Yeah.
- That is nice.
- And it's not got like a bit of like a sour aftertaste.
- Okay. So I guess we're saying this steep cream,
possibly middle of the range cheaper jam,
because it's just jam.
But I actually preferred that.
I like that a lot. - Did you? Yeah.
- Which is rare for me. I normally like the cheaper stuff.
- Right.
- And the stone on its own is steep by far at the moment.
- Definitely.
- So wanted the whole taste journey on there.
Ready?
- Okay, I'm gonna go half.
- Oh yeah. Just a half's fine, isn't it?
- Yes.
- Ah. It's good.
- That is good. - That is good.
It's a little stodgy. - Yeah.
- Ah. - It's a scone.
- It's a scone.
It's that freshly-baked softness in it.
And you don't care. You kind of expect that.
That little bit of like roughness with it.
- Does taste good altogether. - Mm.
- Steep. Here we go.
- Gosh, look at it all oozing out.
- Ah. - That's good.
- That is amazing.
- Mm. I'm not a fan of the jam though.
- Really? I love it.
I think that's really nice. It's quite like rich.
- I think it gives it a funny taste.
- I think because of the champagne,
it takes a little bit of the sweetness edge.
The cheap one is just intense sugar,
whereas I feel that has a richness, like a depth to it.
You still get the sweet, but it's like a journey.
- Definitely the steep scones.
- Yeah? - They're so much nicer,
but I'm not fan of the jam.
I think it's gotta be, out of the two,
I prefer the cheap jam.
- It is a bit of a shock at first,
'cause it almost tastes savoury.
- Although it doesn't... Yeah.
It looks, the steep jam looks nicer.
- Mm.
- I think I'd settle for, like I said, a jam.
- The middle of the road.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- So did the flour make a difference?
Yes. - Yeah.
- Baking powder? No.
Butter? No.
Sugar? Maybe?
The milk? No.
The vanilla?
You can't really taste the vanilla, can you?
The lemon? Meh.
The egg? We saw that when it came out the oven.
It made hardly any difference.
The colour was the same.
The jam? Find one middle of the road.
The cream?
- I don't think the cream makes a difference.
I really don't.
- And that was the last item on there.
So ultimately we are saying to make amazing scones,
and I will write this on the recipe I do.
Go for more expensive flour, fine-grade self-raising.
The butter maybe,
but things like the vanilla, things like the lemon,
things like the milk didn't matter.
- No.
- But that texture, and when you're making it,
it was like light as a cloud. - Yeah.
- Really worlds apart.
- You can tell the difference. You really can.
- But we are saying all this, and it's-
we're both swaying towards the cheap,
It's only flour. - It's the flour. Yeah.
- Which is a difference in that entire shop of 36 pence.
And the reason I wanted to say right at the end
of what this all came to and why that makes a difference,
is because the price of the entire total shop,
27% of the entire amount you would've spent
on the steep shop, would've covered the entire ingredients
and the entire shopping list of the cheap.
Do you know what I mean? - What? Yeah, okay.
- It is like a quarter of the price
would've got you all of that as well,
and had it all left over to make other things.
That is the crazy difference.
- Wow.
- Do you know what I mean? It is absolutely-
- That's insane. - Ridiculous.
And this is probably the most one-sided one
we've actually agreed on.
- Yeah, I think so.
They are phenomenal either way.
If you were like in a cafe and you had either one of those,
it'd be mind blowing.
- It would be.
- All right. I am gonna type this recipe up now.
- Okay.
- With our final version of it. What are we going for?
- Steep flour, steep butter. - And then all the rest cheap.
- I reckon all the rest cheap. Yeah.
(hands clap)
- Nice. Thanks so much for watching folks.
I will type that recipe up so you can make, in our opinion,
the perfect scones, and obviously get the jam you want.
So, so good.
Do let us know
any Cheap versus Steep video ideas you've got.
We very nearly did chocolate muffins today.
- We did?
- I thought that would be quite a good one.
Very, very close.
I love the idea of like
really not being so similar like this.
It's quite a close battle.
Yeah, so do check out the playlist,
and don't forget to subscribe if you are not already.
And if you are, make sure your notifications are turned on.
Remember it's not scon until it's gone.
♪ 'Cause cooking is nice ♪
♪ Nice, nice, nice ♪
Which was your favourite?
- Steep.
- Steep? Really?
What did you like about the steep?
- The jam was more, like, gave you that more jammy taste.
- Did it?
Mrs. B, I think our daughter has a taste for champagne.
- Oh gosh.
- Well, thanks Chloe.
- No problem.