Prepping and Panic Buying Question

[RegisterMe]

Talking to other co workers, stores next to them appear fully stocked. It's just a pain to walk into, there's a line and they check people at a door, plus to make sure there's only a certain number of people inside of the store.

Those stores are ahead of the curve. Frequent them now, be nice to the staff, and... your life may get easier.

I did a shop earlier. The only thing I failed to get was Marmite (for one of the neighbours I am shopping for). I didn't get tinned tomatoes, but I did manage to get chopped tomatoes in a carton.

That'll do, that'll do.

Tomorrow night will be a steak, baked potato (potato needs eating or its going on the compost heap) and asparagus. The next three nights will be chilli and rice. Now the chilli will have carrots in it, because unconventional times means unconventional... ingredients. But I guess I can live with that. And I'd rather not throw any carrots away.

Now I need some wine for the chilli........

[CBJ]

My local shop still has ample supplies of basics such as eggs and milk, and there's even toilet paper. It's a very small shop but they have a series of 2-metre markers on the floor for those queuing and a one-way system so that people don't have to pass each other in the narrow gaps between shelves. They've also asked everyone to pay with contactless cards if possible. There's also a nearby farm shop which has started offering deliveries. They're a bit expensive, but have some rather nice pies and things on offer, and can also fill in a few of the random gaps in what the supermarkets have in stock. All in all, the supply chains seem to be coping quite well (apart from the hand sanitiser).

[Gavrushka]

I'm wondering now if the shortages are becoming more regionalised. - In County Durham, I'm now able to order everything I want for home delivery, and Tesco are even offering discounts on hand sanitiser. - Problematic items, such as toilet roll, yeast and other baking supplies, are now readily available, and I've even been able to order a monstrous beef joint for Easter Sunday. - Shopping slots are still being snapped up before lunchtime on the day of release, but since they're rolling out new slots, 3 weeks in advance every day, the furthermost day is taking longer and longer to fully book as time marches onwards.

I think a lot of people are adjusting to the new 'norm,' but my neighbour is still in a constant state of anxiety over wine supplies...

[birdtable]

Where I live there is a large Farm Shop a few miles away but have tried to avoid it as it is within the area of holiday caravans etc... far to likely a source of imported infections ,,, for eggs I use a local small holder who sells free range eggs from a stall..managed to get some hand sanitiser which is kept in the car. Finally managed to get a delivery from Ocado on Saturday evening hopefully with some essentials ( passata, self raising flour, tomato puree , pasta, a bottle of Bacardi etc etc) for my daughter (divorced) who finds it difficult to go shopping with 2 children, so Sunday I will be a delivery boy unless I am stopped by the police for making an unnecessary journey.....Wine may become an issue in around 3 weeks

[Redvers Ganderpoke]

Finally managed to get a delivery from Ocado on Saturday evening hopefully with some essentials ( passata, self raising flour, tomato puree , pasta, a bottle of Bacardi etc etc)

Our ocado delivery arrived this morning: two missing items, baby sweet corn and tinned tomatoes and a couple of subs. We also managed to get some yeast!

[Gavrushka]

...Wine may become an issue in around 3 weeks

Get it delivered by Tesco. - Slots will open up tonight (midnight) for 3 weeks hence, and you can fill your order with 80 bottles of wine (no more than 3 of any type) and then be as sozzled as a RegisterMe on a Friday night...

...or any other night, or so I hear.

[Masterbagger]

Talking to other co workers, stores next to them appear fully stocked. It's just a pain to walk into, there's a line and they check people at a door, plus to make sure there's only a certain number of people inside of the store.

Those stores are ahead of the curve. Frequent them now, be nice to the staff, and... your life may get easier.

I did a shop earlier. The only thing I failed to get was Marmite (for one of the neighbours I am shopping for). I didn't get tinned tomatoes, but I did manage to get chopped tomatoes in a carton.

That'll do, that'll do.

Tomorrow night will be a steak, baked potato (potato needs eating or its going on the compost heap) and asparagus. The next three nights will be chilli and rice. Now the chilli will have carrots in it, because unconventional times means unconventional... ingredients. But I guess I can live with that. And I'd rather not throw any carrots away.

Now I need some wine for the chilli........

I don't know what you are making but it isn't chili. Chili is meat and peppers. I haven't made chili in years because of my diseased bowels. I don't react well to plant matter or spicy food. This is how I used to make chili.

Chuck roast. Same as you use for pot roast. Cube it up, brown it in a pan, drain the grease and add it to the pot. Beef or chicken broth. You need liquid. Some people use beer but you don't have access to Texan beer so don't. Shiner Bock is the best beer for making chili and having with chili. You can't get that but if you ever visit put it on your bucket list to have one.

Peppers. Dried or fresh. Go nuts. Poblano peppers are great for adding bulk. I like banana peppers because they look colorful. I used serrano peppers for heat because jalapeno tastes good but makes me unhappy. You can literally select peppers based on what colors look good as long as you know you aren't adding anything deadly. Deseed, chop fine and add to pot. I think the heat from peppers hides a lot of flavor. It is supposed to be a spicy dish but it doesn't need to be excessive.

Add spices. Whatever you like. Garlic works with anything. Chili powder has an appealing color. Simmer. Ladle off grease periodically. Cook for hours until it is thick and tastes right. There is no wrong way.

The end result of that is a pot of dense chili you can eat with a fork. The best way to do it is simply wing it with every pot because you can't make the same chili twice and it is hard to go very wrong with that model. The chuck roast is what makes it so thick. Ground beef makes soup. This recipe makes something that will put hair on your chest and make you want to hurl barrels at your foes.


I hit the store on a work day early in the morning. I got everything I needed. Eggs. Sausage. Bacon. Cheese. 12lbs of chicken wings. I can eat right for a week or more. Got toilet paper. Water if I want it and I usually don't. Tons of ammo in all of my customary calibers. Maybe not 2000lbs but enough that I can't physically lift it all. Things are good here. Work is slower than usual but the major jobs are there and virus or no virus they still need doing. Working less hours is way more preferable to no hours.

[RegisterMe]

@Masterbagger - I make a bloody good chilli. It's just that this one will have additional carrots .

[Santi]

Carrots will work well in a chilli, same as they do in a Bolognese sauce. The problem I have in the UK is that it is hardish to find fresh Poblano, Serrano and in general Mexican peppers, it is more common in the UK to have Asian chillies. Red kidney beans is a must for myself, and once is done and I go all out, serve a portion in a bowl, grate some cheddar or Monterey cheese on top, melt and then add a generous spoonful of sour cream on top, and tuck in with tortilla chips or crusty bread.

[pjknibbs]

I may be wrong, but isn't the meat part of a chili the "con carne" part? So, as long as you don't call it that, seems to me you can have anything you like in it.

[Masterbagger]

I may be wrong, but isn't the meat part of a chili the "con carne" part? So, as long as you don't call it that, seems to me you can have anything you like in it.

Chili with meat became the standard. When you start adding other stuff to chili what you have is not chili. It is chili with something else. Chili con carrot in this example of abomination. It may have chili in it but it stopped being chili. Those guys are making meat soup. It's not showing respect for the tradition around food. When you start having multiple generations of people passing down a recipe it gains a level of authenticity. I understand the French are a bit insistent about what is able to be called champagne. If you have a thing for beer made by Trappist monks you need to get it from actual monks or it isn't Trappist beer. Same thing. There is a proper way to make chili that happens to be very generous.

I met a guy a while back on a little bit of side work I was doing. He claimed he was a chef and started talking about his techniques. The madman was taking steaks and doing some kind of bagged slow boiling method because he stated he didn't want smoky flavors. I have never met such a profound food heretic as that. Who among you is going to expect a piece of boiled meat on a steak menu? That would be screwed up. It is that bad to put carrots in chili and still call it chili. I am going to alert the proper Texan chili authorities concerned here and see if a punitive expedition can be assembled. At the very least a posse with some sternly worded letters. I swear ever since we threw the tea in the harbor we keep having to go back and fix something. Now it's our chili recipe.

[Vertigo 7]

I may be wrong, but isn't the meat part of a chili the "con carne" part? So, as long as you don't call it that, seems to me you can have anything you like in it.

Chili with meat became the standard. When you start adding other stuff to chili what you have is not chili. It is chili with something else. Chili con carrot in this example of abomination. It may have chili in it but it stopped being chili. Those guys are making meat soup. It's not showing respect for the tradition around food. When you start having multiple generations of people passing down a recipe it gains a level of authenticity. I understand the French are a bit insistent about what is able to be called champagne. If you have a thing for beer made by Trappist monks you need to get it from actual monks or it isn't Trappist beer. Same thing. There is a proper way to make chili that happens to be very generous.

I met a guy a while back on a little bit of side work I was doing. He claimed he was a chef and started talking about his techniques. The madman was taking steaks and doing some kind of bagged slow boiling method because he stated he didn't want smoky flavors. I have never met such a profound food heretic as that. Who among you is going to expect a piece of boiled meat on a steak menu? That would be screwed up. It is that bad to put carrots in chili and still call it chili. I am going to alert the proper Texan chili authorities concerned here and see if a punitive expedition can be assembled. At the very least a posse with some sternly worded letters. I swear ever since we threw the tea in the harbor we keep having to go back and fix something. Now it's our chili recipe.

It's called "Sous Vide" and a lot of restaurants prepare foods this way and finish by searing, grilling, or broiling. It's pretty common and produces exceptionally tender meat. Hardly something a madman would do.

[Masterbagger]

It's called "Sous Vide" and a lot of restaurants prepare foods this way and finish by searing, grilling, or broiling. It's pretty common and produces exceptionally tender meat. Hardly something a madman would do.

I refuse to name it to deny it power. We spent near a million years mastering putting meat over fire and some parts of that experiment only recently got perfected in Texas by our great grandfather's generation. What they did needs to be experienced authentically and not degraded by having their good works cast as imitations granted legitimacy.

[Gavrushka]

And today's trauma... There is no coffee whitener of any description available from any of my sources. How can I live in such a world? I can't even throw money at this one.

I think I'm beginning to die*...



* Direct quote from an ex's kid, many, many years ago. Comforting a five year old with a cough while cracking ribs from holding in laughter is not easy.

[Vertigo 7]

It's called "Sous Vide" and a lot of restaurants prepare foods this way and finish by searing, grilling, or broiling. It's pretty common and produces exceptionally tender meat. Hardly something a madman would do.

I refuse to name it to deny it power. We spent near a million years mastering putting meat over fire and some parts of that experiment only recently got perfected in Texas by our great grandfather's generation. What they did needs to be experienced authentically and not degraded by having their good works cast as imitations granted legitimacy.

well refuse all you want, changes nothing. Putting meat over open flame is amateur hour compared to the sous vide cooking method. There is no better method for low and slow cooking.

[Chips]

Increasingly stock on shelves, yesterday's 5pm supermarket visit was remarkable in that I didn't even have to queue. Just walked in (the in/out counting and control was happening, just obviously low enough rate they didn't need to stop us).
Also wonder what may come of things like Morrisons £35 box - which seemed quite okay (the bread looked terrible but overall not too bad an idea!). To me it seems expensive, but then again, mass produced and shipped out means they could deliver far more than chosen individual deliveries and therefore restrict the numbers going to the shops. Especially good for vulnerable who can't get delivery slots for conventional online shopping.

However long the lock down lasts, quite happy to see adults taking it seriously and no-longer any empty shelves (except eggs, still!).
However, the amount of kids out in groups was disconcerting. Lockdowns except groups of 4-8 wandering around huddled together (streets/parks etc).

[burger1]

And today's trauma... There is no coffee whitener of any description available from any of my sources. How can I live in such a world? I can't even throw money at this one.

I think I'm beginning to die*...

I worry more about coffee. Still have about 8 weeks worth + some instant stuff + a whole bunch of tea.

There's more groceries on the shelves now.

With gyms closed people seem desperate to get gym equipment. Apparently weights, dumbells, barbells and some other equipment are in high demand and are sold out/ back ordered.

[birdtable]

Surprising what rises up the charts so to speak in supposed essentials, In our house Method Kitchen Cleaner and Andrex Wet Wipes while not surpassing Wine is a close second and third or maybe joint second.... Food and Toilet Tissue we have sufficient at present and has dropped to Fourth and Fifth.... When our ribs are showing a change in priorities may occur.
In around 4 weeks I see an increased demand for hand controlled hair trimming devices ... buy early to avoid the rush.

[Alan Phipps]

Nah, in a few months when we're finally let out of our houses we'll all be blinking in the daylight through the curtains of our shaggy caveman hairstyles. Well, maybe not all of us.

[Masterbagger]

well refuse all you want, changes nothing. Putting meat over open flame is amateur hour compared to the sous vide cooking method. There is no better method for low and slow cooking.

I have a grill and a smoker. I know the riddle of beef. No maniac with a pot of water has that. My smoke rings are real.

Nah, in a few months when we're finally let out of our houses we'll all be blinking in the daylight through the curtains of our shaggy caveman hairstyles. Well, maybe not all of us.

In a few months I'll be hiding from the sun as a matter of survival. What I wonder is how busy the hospitals will be in 9 months when the corona babies start being born. All of those people stuck at home with nothing to do. It is going to happen.