Guest Article by “Ole Blue” June 26, 2022.
Hi All, this is Ole Blue, How about another Sunday Food Comparison Challenge.
The idea is to compare Store-Bought Foods in different Brands and compare them to Fresh or Frozen.
I know a LOT of folks out there purchase a certain Brand of Canned Food for many different reasons But let’s be honest, is the Super Brand Name any ‘better’ that the others or “Better” than Fresh?
Let’s find out.
Old Man just LOVESSSSSSS Spinach for sure.
“Last Year’s Spinach”
I just had to show Y’all the Old-Man’s spinach patch from last year, that’s right, last year’s.
It wintered over producing almost all winter, even pushing up through the snow at times, Crazy Huh?
This patch is going to be gone when the Squash goes in, so he’s got a 4’X8’ bed already started with that “Green Stuff”, HAHAHA.
“The Samples”
Here we have a good old Store Brand from Safeway ‘Frozen’ and the Very popular brand Del-Monte, Popeye, and Wally World’s Great Value.
First of all, Price.
Signature Brand Frozen is $2.49 per 16 ounce (1-Pound) Bag
Popeye’s $o.99 per 13.5oz Can
Great Value $o.82 per 13.5oz Can
Del-Monte Brand was $2.49 for a 13.5 ounce can, on sale it is $1.32
And of course the Home Grown, for wayyyyy cheap.
“A look See”
Well to be honest that Canned Spinach don’t really look so “Good” but we’re keeping an open mind here…… right?
A quick comment;
That Fresh sure does look good, don’t it? So in the bowls we have the total can of each of the Canned Spinach, and 6.6 Oz of the Frozen and the Fresh.
Let’s see what it looks like Cooking.
Ok OK, don’t look at the Dirty Stove.
Well this should be interesting.
I simply dumped the Canned in a few pans and heated them, the Frozen needed to boil to cook it (I did not add water to it) and I simply stir-fried the Fresh.
“Drained”
Here I drained the ‘Water” and weighed them, with a little help from “Da-Old-Fart”.
There was very little loss from the Frozen and the Fresh, but the Canned… OMG!!!
Wally World weighed in at 6.4 Oz after cooking and draining, (7.1 Oz LOSS) OMG, that’s over 1/2 the original weight, and look at it, it’s still got a lot of water in there.
Popeye, from 13.5 to 9.1 Oz. (4.4 Oz loss)
Del Monty was 10.5 (3 Oz loss) That’s not so bad at all, the winner of the Canned Stuff.
The Safeway Brand Frozen, we started with 6.6 Oz, and ended up with 5.6 Oz (1 Oz loss) that’s not too bad at all. So to be equal that’s a 2 Oz loss
The Fresh started also at 6.6 Oz and ended up with 4.9 Oz (1.7 Oz loss), about what I guessed for Fresh.
So here is what Dad said about the Taste Test.
“The Canned Stuff was just God Awful”.
Seriously I was told to actually Bite him if he EVER bought a Can of Spinach again.
I will admit He did actually give them all a fair chance and Taste them all several times, right before he dumped them over the Porch Rail.
Ole Grumpy (after the Canned Goo) did enjoy the Frozen Spinach quite well, until he had the Fresh.
“Actually the Frozen is fairly good”. He said
Lastly, the Fresh Spinach, any guess as to the reaction of the Fresh????
So here is the conclusion:
Of the Canned, We would put a few cases of Popeye in the Deep Pantry for if/when the EOTWAWKI happens.
The Frozen would be a good backup to have on-hand for when you have unexpected family drop by for Dinner.
BUT: Get that Garden going and grow Fresh Spinach by the bucket load, this stuff is VERY VERY good for ya and seriously, if Taste GREAT!!!
Thank you all for reading my “experiments”, hope they help out some.