Video summary

TIME vs CONVENIENCE vs MONEY | Sorted Food

Main summary

Key takeaways

Cooking

Presenter / channel

Sorted Food (YouTube).

Overview of the video concept

The video is a three-way taste test of the “same dish” across:

  • Cheap/time-consuming homemade
  • Convenient storebought
  • Expensive homemade

Three rounds:

  • Round 1: gravy (with a 12-hour homemade, storebought convenience, and expensive homemade)
  • Round 2: ragu (with a 10-hour homemade, storebought, and expensive option)
  • Final Round: roast chicken (with time-intensive, convenient, and expensive chickens)

Chef/home cook labels:

  • A = expensive
  • B = convenient
  • C = time-consuming homemade

Round 1: Gravy (time vs convenience vs money)

Ingredients (with quantities if stated)

12-hour gravy (C) — homemade

  • Chicken wings
  • Beef shin
  • Oxtail
  • Roasted with vegetables (vegetable quantity not specified)
  • Wine (type/amount not specified)
  • Butter (amount not specified)
  • Potato starch (used “a little” to thicken)
  • Thyme
  • Stock reduction + seasoning (seasoning not specified beyond “seasoned”)

Convenience gravy (B) — storebought

  • M&S beef gravy straight from the tub, warmed
  • Beef stock and red wine
  • Black pepper and thyme

Expensive gravy (A) — homemade

  • Reduced stocks with bone marrow
  • Entire bottle of red wine
  • Whole bottle of port
  • Herbs
  • Very expensive pre-made demiglace

Method (key timings/technique)

C (12-hour homemade)

  1. Roast chicken wings, beef shin, and oxtail with vegetables for 2 hours.
  2. Add the roasted mixture to wine + butter.
  3. Simmer for 8 hours.
  4. Reduce for a further 2 hours.
  5. Thicken with a little potato starch.
  6. Strain and season.

B (convenient storebought)

  1. Use M&S beef gravy from tub.
  2. Warm (no further cooking described).

A (expensive homemade)

  • Not provided as a timed step-by-step, but described as:
    • Reduced stocks including bone marrow
    • Full bottles of red wine and port
    • Herbs
    • Pre-made demiglace
  • Timing stated: took 45 minutes.

Key notes / chef insights & mistakes to avoid

  • Why simmer so long (C): collagen releases from bone for flavor and texture; thyme adds complexity you can’t really “cheat.”
  • Flavor/texture descriptions from tasters:
    • Time/expense gravy: umami, rich, velvety/silky, sweet, very sticky/glazing, glossy
    • One gravy: bitter, “almost ketchup-y,” thickened like corn starch (likely storebought)

Cost per liter (as stated)

  • C (12-hour): £60.79 per liter
  • B (M&S): £10 per liter (also noted as £3.50 per 350 g pot)
  • A (expensive): £77.45 per liter (subtitles showed £7745 per liter; context indicates £77.45)

Serving/plating

  • No specific plating instructions; the focus is purely taste-test comparison.

Round 2: Ragu (time vs convenience vs money)

Ingredients (with quantities if stated)

10-hour homemade ragu (B)

  • Slow-braised belly
  • Beef shin
  • Safrito (sofrito-style mix), cooked 2 hours
  • Stock cube
  • Tomato paste
  • Tin tomatoes
  • A little wine

Storebought convenience ragu (A)

  • Waitrose slow-cooked beef ragu (bought option)
  • Ingredients not listed in detail; tasters mention:
    • “hard herbs”
    • “one-dimensional”
    • less fresh tomato profile

Expensive ragu (C)

  • Pressure-cooked Iberico pork? (subtitle says “Eberico pork chips”)
  • Short rib
  • Tuscan sausage
  • Safrito
  • “Stocked herbs” (herbs + stock; amount not specified)
  • Loads of good wine
  • Parmesan
  • Double cream

Method (key timings/technique)

B (10-hour ragu)

  1. Cook safrito for 2 hours.
  2. Combine with belly + beef shin, stock cube, tomato paste, tin tomatoes, and a little wine.
  3. Braise for 8 hours.
  4. Add cooked safrito into the braise so total time becomes 10 hours.

A (storebought)

  • Bought out of a packet (Waitrose ragu), then eaten without additional process described.

C (expensive money ragu)

  1. Pressure cook Iberico pork + short rib + Tuscan sausage, etc.
  2. 40 minutes in a pressure cooker.
  3. Safrito cooks for 20 minutes (additional step).
  4. Meat is “sided” for 10 (unclear subtitles wording; appears to be an added step of ~10 minutes).
  5. Total time stated: about 1 hour.

Key tasters’ flavor/texture cues (what stood out)

  • A (convenient): more meat and hard herbs, “one-dimensional,” freshness cooked out
  • B (10-hour): more tomato, “freshened” tomatoy, more depth; meat soft and falling apart
  • C (expensive): luxurious, “miles beyond,” richer depth—tasted like A but “a million times better” (others noted a different, meat-forward profile)

Chef tips (time-dish ragu)

  • Brown the meat for deeper flavor.
  • Don’t overcrowd the pan (otherwise you stew instead of browning).
  • Build the sofrito slowly for complexity and sweetness.
  • Time improves cheaper meats: renders fat, mellows tomatoes, makes sauce richer.
  • Day-after improvement: ragu often tastes better next day.

Cost (as stated)

  • Time-consuming dish (B): £1083 per kilogram
  • Convenient option (A): £2065 per kilogram
  • Expensive option (C): £62.50 per kilo
    • also discussed as 125 g per ~2 kilos made (subtitles’ wording unclear; relationship stated anyway)

Note: the relative per-kilo numbers in subtitles are presented as-is; the video’s framing is “money is expensive but not necessarily highest £/kg.”

Time hacks

  • With a pressure cooker, you can pressure-cook the recipe for fractions of the time and it still works.

Final Round: Roast chicken (time vs convenience vs money)

Ingredients (with quantities if stated)

Time-consuming chicken (A)

  • Aardó British whole medium chicken
  • 5% overnight brine with herbs
  • Air dry in fridge another night
  • Cook:
    • Slow cooking at 90°C until internal temp 68°C
    • Then blast at 230°C for 10 minutes to color skin

Convenient chicken (B)

  • Sainsbury’s roast whole cooked chicken
  • Comes in a bag; reheat in the oven
  • Not rotisserie (per subtitle); it’s packaged cooked chicken

Expensive chicken (C)

  • Pulard de breess (AOC certified free range)
  • 1.3 kg pulard
  • Brushed with oil and salt
  • Roasted at 220°C for 35 minutes
  • Then rested

“Pulard” explained: a young hen that never laid eggs; more succulent, richly marbled, and deeper flavored.

Method (key timings/technique)

A (time chicken)

  1. Overnight brine with herbs (5% brine).
  2. Air-dry in fridge another night.
  3. Cook slow at 90°C until internal temp reaches 68°C.
  4. Blast at 230°C for 10 minutes to crisp/color skin.

B (convenient)

  1. Reheat in oven (bag reheat; no exact temperature/time given).

C (expensive)

  1. Brush chicken with oil and salt.
  2. Roast at 220°C for 35 minutes.
  3. Rest afterward.

Chef tips & common mistakes (as mentioned)

  • Dry brining/salting ahead seasons deeper (tasters thought it might be slightly too salty on brown meat).
  • Overnight/multi-hour drying can dry out skin enough to improve crisping during browning.
  • Basting in juices or butter helps flavor and browning.

Equipment required

  • Oven (slow cook + blast; also for reheating convenience chicken)
  • Thermometer/internal temperature target (68°C)
  • Fridge time for brining/drying
  • Pressure cooker optional earlier for ragu time-hack; not used for chicken

Cost (as stated; ingredient-based)

  • B (time/long chicken): £34 per kg
    • example total: £45.6 per 1.5 kg chicken
  • B (convenient): £6.50 per kg
    • chicken range noted: 900–100 g
    • example: £6.48 per kg
  • C (expensive): 1.3 kg chicken cost £80
    • equivalent: £61.53 per kg

Winners / results (as stated)

  • Final scores: James 9, Barry 7 (James wins).
  • Per-round reveals/tasters:
    • Gravy: 12-hour was C; storebought was B; expensive was A
    • Ragu: convenience was A; 10-hour was B; money was C
    • Chicken: the final reveal states A = time-consuming, B = convenient, C = expensive (tasters guessed various letters earlier)

References at end

Sorted Food (YouTube cooking video). No external sources cited beyond mentions of Waitrose, M&S, and certification context (AOC certified free range in France), as described by the presenter.

Original video