LASAGNA BUDGET BATTLE | Chef (£2.50 budget) VS Normal (Unlimited budget) | Sorted Food 

Haha!

@@SortedFood and then he pulled the trick with the portioning of the lasagna and the wine. 😂 Smart move though.

Every year .. a group of friends of mine.. do a bologna sauce battle. But every body HAVE to use corned beef

Same ere...😂😎

And he opened it without doing...whatever the Hell Barry did to his can of it in the Canned Food pass-it-on.

So Barry doesn’t understand time?

I mean I feel like the homemade pasta was more work than the homemade cheese so I don't think that's such a fair comparison on that basis alone.

​@@christianstonecipher1547 He used two machines to make the pasta. He didn't do it by hand.

@@MegasXaos regardless of what it is called he still spent a sizable chunk of time purely focused on making the pasta even if he was aided by machines he was still required to focus solely on the pasta for that period of time whereas Ben just boiled store bought pasta sheets.

@@christianstonecipher1547 the point is using machines makes it easy. I'm not taking anything away from the accomplishment. But using machines to make pasta is equally difficult to making cheese from scratch.

Name a more iconic duo than Ebbers and his love for homegrown herbs and bottles of wine 😂

If you were getting food from a food bank, canned corn beef, lentils etc., are items you could very well end up with in your bag. It’s nice to see them make food that people on an extremely tight budget could make and feel food about.

@@lulubelle65 reasonably being the key word. Most low on budget would still mostly apply parts of the budget technique rather than all at once to replicate it. I've seen what that looks like as well and had no intention of discrediting those having to get food on a tight budget ;)

Loads of people need to cook food for their families with significantly less money than the budget version.

@@dfeuer yeah, there’s no way I could justify $10 going into one dinner’s ingredients.

​@@doubtful_seer But if it's a holiday, where you want the whole family to feel festive, then the $10 he spent would be enough for 10 people, and you could probably stretch it to $15 for 20 portions. I know that some people meet up with their extended family during at least one holiday of the year, and people in some neighbourhoods or friend circles sometimes gather up in large groups of 10+ people especially because they get to meet other people and have fun and forget about their worries at least once a year, even if they put themselves at risk of contagion for one day of the year. Not only that, but those who have less money can contribute more with their time, or with other things they already have. For example, some things are expensive in small packages, but a big bag/bottle is much cheaper per portion, so people would offer those and subtract the amount of the portion which would need to be bought otherwise. For example, some shapes of pasta are more expensive, so someone could make those at home for much cheaper and subtract that from the total. Some people might not even need to pool money themselves into the meal-fund, by providing such things. And those who can afford to pay would often rather have fresher or tastier home-made things instead of the store-bought ones, and with less money pooled they would get a better meal, sometimes no money would need to be pooled. One such example is chips/crisps, another is green pasta or tasty pasta (some mix fruit juice or mashed/blended frozen fruits in the pasta), and another is some sauces.

LOLLLLL

yeah

We're so glad you enjoyed it Lauren, thanks for watching :)

Yeah, same here. To be honest I feel as if Mike has had far less opportunities to get badges compared to the other two

Agree

Honestly it's worth either a "Teaching the Teacher" badge or just a straight up advanced pasta badge. Barry taught us all this trick, and it comes out to being much more than just a basic skill.

Only problem with that method is he needed two people to roll in out, and even with two they still struggled

Agree teaching the teacher badge.

Love this idea!

This would be amazing! I've been going back and watching all of these budget battles to get tips from the chefs.

After he raped a lasagna recipe

Yeah after they both made a shitty lasagna served with veggie(?) who does that honestly with the badget he had he could have made the real traditional lasagna he could have bought the same kind of pasta and with the money from whine and that weird cheese he could have bought the right meat and a bit of butter to make the besciamel sauce and done the lasagna easily..and with the traditional lasagna he could have beaten even barry's

@@musicpoolchannel8602 It's a good thing you're not in the entertainment business.

@@tams805 it's a good thing that u don't know how to cook so you can enjoy watching them cook shit lasagna and be happy

@@musicpoolchannel8602 oh I know how to cook and I say they did quite well especially since they weren’t making a traditional lasagna they were making a version of a lasagna oh and produce is used quite a lot in lasagna recipes

This was one of the better ones. Too often it's throwing the most expensive things in a pot and hoping it'll beat the budget meal. Reminds me of Luxury Pie from Black Books (first 40 seconds) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ilJto4VBjRc.html

Lucky for him Ricotta cheese is one of the few cheeses that most people can make at home.

It works with a number of things really, homebrewing for instance. It requires a small investment up front, but I can now make 25L of beer for the price of only a couple bottles at the craft beer shop. And as a bonus you get a fun afternoon of brewing and you get to experiment with your own flavours. It's the same with cheese, there's not even an investment up front for something like ricotta. But with just a couple of pretty cheap bits of equipment you can make all kinds of cheese at home for pennies. Then there's of course things like picking and preserving, sausage making. A lot of "old-fashioned" crafts. Were definitely paying _a lot_ for convenience these days.

Locally I have a new fresh milk dispensary, pasteurised not homogenised, about 8p more a litre than the supermarket, but the cheese is fantastic, life changer, Although I never saw how quickly you could put a ricotta together

The "wow, that's a bit much" look? I'm honestly not surprised that they thought it was a bit. ... rich. Something that's normally super meaty anyway seems like Barry should have kept it a bit lighter rather than adding marrow, etc.

Didn't seem like a positive reaction. When Barry laid out all his premium cuts of meat it was clearly overkill. I'd say he should lose a badge for that. What a waste of quality ingredients, it's a shame. Just my opinion

@@himynameisjeff completely agree that it didn't seem like a positive reaction. There's nothing wrong with rich food, but something being so rich and heavy that you can almost not even manage a mouthful is really bad. Also agree about the waste. They spend a lot of time preaching about sustainability and then blow all that money on all those ingredients for something that was barely edible due to how overly opulent it was, and all just because it could be done so why not. There really was no need. He could have taken just one of those ingredients and used it to elevate a tried and tested recipe to the next level, which would have been helpful for viewers and impressive as a home cook.

@@mydogeatspuke barely edible? Have you actually listened to what they said? Yes, it was probably incredibly rich, but also delicious. Or in Mike‘s words „absolutely staggering“.

@@hcdhcdhcd41 yeah no I didn't listen to anything they said when I repeated things they said that makes total sense thanks for sharing your thoughts are totally meaningful and definitely matter to me

it is a good thing that they only cared about flavor and price. Ben's dish almost certainly had 3 days worth of sodium per portion, and artifical blahblah, preservative blahlbah out the ying yang. most would consider those negatives in the long run. Alas, that is the diet some people are forced to have.

I'm with you Bec. I think the normal should have a generous budget, but not unlimited (this just makes the series very Tik Tok). Barry loads in so many pretentious ingredients they might be used well enough to win, but is not an effective use of money for anybody outside of Sorted. Guys, let's keep it fun, but at least real world.

Yeah I think maybe £50 total. So it's still a massive amount to spend on a meal but it's not ridiculous. They'd also have to pick that they thought was most important that way to not just have every ingredient be premium.

@@jaxsonmahan950 That sounds great… but I think that’s a different show format, not this one. This format is truly about the chef being restricted while the normal has zero restrictions, which allows the normal to either confirm or bust their preconceived notions about cooking with no restriction. That may be translating to the normals as ‘use as many expensive ingredients as possible’, but that’s not outside the spirit of the game. If the normal thinks it’ll beat the chef and the chefs intuition then it should be allowed. If the normal loses, even with all those amazing ingredients, that teaches something too. Case in point: they all experienced Barry’s dish being too rich in fat, and that’s because a lot of ‘premium’ ingredients have higher fat contents (and Barry used A LOT of them). The next normal to take on a chef will probably take that into consideration when choosing ingredients, because it hammered in the idea that “the best items aren’t price-based, they’re situational and use-based”. That’s a lesson that you couldn’t have gotten with using just one or two premium ingredients due to a budget constraint. It really needed Barry’s… ‘hedonistic’ approach to ingredient choice to drive that lesson home for him. Honestly, I get where you’re coming from, but I think that the lessons you’re wanting to learn from this format are not the ones it’s made to teach. Edit: Also… content. People expect pretentiousness of Barry, and an audience watches both more and longer when they see what they expect. Sorted IS a RU-vid channel at the end of the day, and they’re subject to the same algorithms that gaming creators and other content creators are battling with on a daily basis.

@@ZippytheHappyChimp no one is forced to eat chemicals, there are cheap cuts of fresh meat that are amazing if treated right, also you can get your proteins from eggs, dairy, pulses, etc. Unless you're broke on the day and you have to make do with your cupboard staples...

Thats a pretty great idea

I've also been thinking of someone with unlimited budget but little time vs. small budget and unlimited time

That's what I've wanted for the chefs. Give the normals unlimited time and budget, give the chef limited (normal) time but a more reasonable budget than what we see here. Then judge the two against eachother head to head rather than taking into account handicaps

Yesssss! Maybe have the boys able to work together but Ben has to work alone to come up with the best budget meal.

Maybe budget vs budget with different time allocations which is then judged blind would be interesting to see.

Now that's a great idea!!

but they are all within 1/2 badges each so it’s still very close

@@TheTartanFox that's only because the others have had so many more opportunities than Mike or at least it feels like it

@@astrumforge I agree! It feels, to me at least, that Mike has had FAR less opportunities for badges than the other boys. It also feels like he’s just been in the videos a little less this year in general? Again, that may just be me. I know he got married in the recent past, so I can imagine he’s having a busy personal life period with new changes and such! I do hope, though, that things settle and he’s back in videos as often as before for my own selfish reasons haha! I’ve been watching this channel for 11 years now and he’s always been a favorite 😉

well, we all know Barry and Ben are the best of friends.... sing!

@@Annie1962 they live together in their country cottage (with all the pretentious ingredients), they have baths together cause they like to save water. Scrub my back Ben!

@Raina..... 🕊️ Ql, evsgjem. .

...When did that happen? =P

This one!

Actually he didn’t, while Ben finished early Barry was still under the time limit well just by few seconds but still. Only talking about this video, Barry does have a problem with time management

Oooh I like this format idea!!

Chef will just choose a packs app recipe.

@@bcaye unfortunately, you are probably right

And Ben automatically loses if he doesn't use ramen noodles... Because he didn't for the gourmet ramen video.

Absolutely. Trotters, hocks, and neck bones are all dirt cheap. Knowing Ben he would show up with a bag full of frozen bones that he had saved up at home though.

Marmite is a good umami boost.

His tips are pretty good TBF. We won't give too much away before you fully watch the vid :)

@@SortedFood What Ben just did made everyone in Italy cry.

@@ajalfano No one cares though

That's so amazing to hear and that chilli is awesome right? We're so glad you're enjoying Meal Packs.

@@SortedFood it is so good, I’ve not had potato skins in ages either. Every time I rewatch videos and I’ve seen you guys on the side eating the skins I’ve been so jealous so I’m feeling fulfilled! The meal packs have made the biggest difference to the mid week stress after work!

@@ell5830 I've had that too, absolutely lovely!

@@nchapman1988 completely agree, I always look forward to chilli or stew and dumplings in the colder seasons. This recipe just made it 10x better. You got any particular faves from the meal packs?

Ooh wow that sounds amazing. I've been on the fence about the packs app but it sounds like I need to just get it.

I'm intrigued as to how one "comes into" a big bag of bones? 🧐

@@VamLoveAndKisses not too sure about other places, but they're sold fairly regularly here at markets? (not actual stores, but like a building where everyone can sell their own things) for fairly cheap, like ridiculously cheap and you can make some of the most amazing dishes with it. So I'd guess 'come into' would mean stumble across someone selling them for cheap or giving away if it wasn't sold/near expiry.

@@VamLoveAndKisses *cough* murder *cough*

@@VamLoveAndKisses, possibly an acquaintance butchered a steer but didn't want to bother with the bones.

That sounds like a great idea!

Well, of course you can. But for a traditional recipe you can search for hundreds of recipes on the internet. They want to make their videos somehow interesting, unique and entertaining. As they said in the end, these are just two extremes and your cooking at home would be somewhere in the middle.

Dunno about brits. But Americans don't do any walking to digest. We nap.

from what i recall from the videos I've watched on making ricotta/mozzarella (kinda related, not too sure). The fat content needs to be really high to have both butter and ricotta (Maybe split the milk/cream in half). I'm not really sure how much more expensive it is to get a half a gallon of heavy cream (In the US, heavy cream is definitely more expensive, and less quantity in comparison to a jug of milk). I love that idea though!

Gravy granules do the same job all on their own. We have some in the 'international foods' aisle where I live and they are fantastic. I'm amazed they never caught on this side of 'the pond'. I pretty much add them to everything saucy I make. Even Mac & cheese.

Yup! It really did catch some of us off guard today 😆

I know right? 12 midnight for this Aussie when the show pops up

@@Annie1962 oooh noooo 😅 so late.

I was refreshing and wondering if the video was delayed LOL

I wish we'd stop changing our time at all. It's now light by 9am again but it's dark by 4:30 and it'll be 3:30 by Christmas. Farmers can use electric lights now we don't need to change the whole countries schedule!

The shame for me is my family who I live with are 6 other people on top of myself so if I want to cook a family meal I have to do it on a large scale anyway with no benefit of a price reduction you'd get with making multiple meals from it so I have to either only cook for myself (or I'd look mean) or cook for all of us quite expensively.

@@violetskies14 ha! Know the feeling. You can combine a lot of core componants though, spag bol, lasanage, mousaka, chilli con carni all share the same/similiar ingridients. But yes... It is *soo* much easier of poeple eat the same ruddy meal! ;)

As a veggie I'm addicted to paneer. I like it firm, cut and fried with spices but my paneer is always too crumbly despite instructions from several different websites and weighting in a press for 24hrs. Do you manage to get firm paneer? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated thank you.

ALWAYS 😂

I dunno. Seeing what went into it, I can't imagine that lasagne was more than just edible. An "okay if you're hungry" kinda dish. Basically, if you're on a tight budget, just don't make lasagna. There are loads of delicious dishes from around the world that use cheap ingredients but still end up delicious AND nutritious. Lasagna is just not one of them. Amazing things can be done with rice, beans, lentils, potatoes, cabbage and onions as a base. And anyone on a budget should be growing their own herbs at home. All you need is a sunny window sill, and some extra light in the winter. Fresh herbs add so much. I grew up with first generation immigrant parents who were supporting their own parents and siblings back home as well as raising two kids in the new country, and I never realised how tight money was for a decade or so there. I remember having to wait for toys, and shopping for new clothes being kind of a big deal, and I remember that we never did things like going skiing or even just out to eat or catch a show, but we always ate really well. My mother was an absolute wizard in the kitchen, AND she came from a country which had developed a whole cuisine around inexpensive foods, so the flavours were amazing. Now she's in her seventies, I'm making an effort to learn to cook the recipes I grew up with, because I crave them sometimes, and the expensive lasagnes I myself make now can't compete with my mom's stuffed peppers or bean soup. Point is, instead of making a meh lasagne, Ebbers could have made an amazing bean soup, with sausage or thick bacon, and had money left over.

I love this idea! Get another episode out of it and come up with the best of both worlds for an everyday time and cash budget. Show is which hacks are worth replicating and where is it really worthwhile putting in the extra time and money.

Based purely on the way they looked and knowing nothing else about them, I'd have gone for Barry's lasagne. Knowing the cost of each would make the choice more difficult; I'd want to taste both to compare them.

I think the lesson here iss there's no need to go to one extreme or the other. There are elements of both versions that might suit your taste or pocket, without forcing you to go all the way.

I think Ebbers was thinking about it.

I kinda want him to.... it doesn't matter if it tastes better if he got an extra half an hour especially since his beef was still not quite there. Jamie cooked his perfectly and on time even if the particular dish wasn't quite as delicious.

Watching him struggle to plate up (which he didn't do in time in this video as well) really upset me. I wish he would pay attention to the clock and receive a setback for this. Its turning into the hob.

@@violetskies14 Now I'm irrationally angry again ._.

@@Eidenhoek u lot just hate on Baz for no reason don't u. Leave him alone he's a king who's just having fun

well they have Berry. Also bringing children on a set can be a lot of work just go get the clearings. The UK is very strict when dealing with minors on tv/video and all the sigh off you need to do.

I feel like Ben would do well; he usually considers the judges during battles.

@@sirBrouwer is that the same for RU-vid though? There’s loads of family channels that involve their children so would be interesting to know

@@rebeccas2801 if it's in the UK then yes. For the UK media is media. A lot of family channels will not feature a work place but a home setting. Not a company floor.

I love this idea :)

That would be a GREAT idea!

Oh I'd love that!

italian from bologna here... I saw this with my girlfriend and we were literally speechless, se asked me to stop the video because she was really upset... 🤣

Especially that corned beef hack 🤯

@@SortedFood 100%, im stealing that one!

It messed with all our heads - don't worry 😆