Mushrooms: 45p
79p
21p
11p
19p
+45p
Total: £1.75p
The equipment I will need will be:
Large pot
Wooden spoon
Liquidiser
Cooker
Water
250g minced beef
Half an onion
One tin of tomatoes
1 Oxo cube
The aim of this was to see which of the two was most cost effective, which was most nicely flavoured, best colour, best texture, which is most convenient and which looked most appetising. To work this out I'm going to do a survey and draw out a chart. The results will be placed in my project.
This is how I will make up my spaghetti bolognaise:
Start
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Put small amount of water in sauce pan and boil
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When it begins to boil place the beef in to pan
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Once the beef has cooked drain away the water and take out beef
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Place tomatoes, mushrooms, onion and small amount of oxo cube into saucepan and cook for 5 mins
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After place beef back in to the saucepan and simmer for 15mins
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Take out a small portion and place into liquidiser until thick a creamy
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Wait for it to cool and serve
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Finish
Results on making baby food:
When making my spaghetti bolognaise I found that it wasn't a good idea to put an oxo cube into the food as to much salt, can kill a baby. I found that this could be an inconvenience for families who like their food to have a lot of flavour. I also found that when liquidising the food became to thick so I added some of the tomato juice to the mixture, I found this a problem as when I did this it made it very unappetising. I don't think this would matter to much as a baby wouldn't really be affected by what the food looks like. I feel its up to the people to say if they like it.
Results from table:
Best looking: commercial baby food as it had more sauce to make it more appetising. It wasn’t shredded as much as homemade baby food. Which made it look far nicer looking.
Best flavour: homemade baby food was far nicer as it had a more meaty taste. Where as I found that the commercial baby food was very bland I feel there is a reason for that and that is that baby foods should only have very little salt as this could make them ill or even die.
Most appetising: the commercial baby food was voted the most appetising as it had more sauce, it wasn't a pulp as it had strands of spaghetti, it had a nicer colour as the homemade baby food was pale.
Most convenient: I have found that the most convenient one is the commercial one as you only have to get it out and microwave for 20-30 seconds. The only thing is that they cost so much as they cost roughly 45p each, were as for about 20-30 servings of it’s homemade equivalent it cost £1.75. Which is a lot cheaper then a commercial baby food as it cost’s about 6p a serving!
Colour: the colour of both was very different as the commercial baby food was browns and reds were as the homemade was a very pale brownie colour. I feel this was very unappetising, as it looked unpleasant.
Texture: both of the foods had a very gritty texture more so the homemade version. I feel if I did it again I would place some water in when blending, as it was very thick, which means the baby may choke.
Overall best: I would say that on the whole the homemade baby food was far better. This is because it tasted far better then the commercial baby food also that it was far easier for a family to make. So as it gives the baby all different types of food and this would maybe make the baby less fussy when it gets older were as commercial baby food come in about 12 different flavours. This mean’s it maybe very fussy if all it gets is the same thing over and over.
Table:
See next page
Conclusion:
To conclude this resource work I would say that to meet the specification’s of a baby and
To meet there need of all the vitamins and mineral's, You really have to research as much as you can as there's so much to take into consideration. There are so many things that need to be met like ingredients. You must only use very small quantities of salt or none at all as this upsets the baby’s stomach. I only worked this out when I began to research on it. But from doing this I have really just began to relies how much a baby needs.
I have also found that overall most people thought that the commercial baby food was best, as there was no need to do all that liquidising. I personally think that the homemade was more convenient as there was no need to spend all that money when if you spend £1.75 you will get 20 meals. Also the baby can have the same food as you which is more convenient. I think that a more low budgeted family would use the homemade method, as they haven't got money to spend on all that expensive baby food. I also think that parents get commercial baby food as they think that they have everything a baby needs.
Through my mistakes I made, I think that if I were to do this again I would try to remember to put more fluid into the mix so that it doesn't go really thick. I think that was a major mistake as it made the look and texture worse making this a slightly unfair test, as you didn't get the proper results it would of had if it was done correctly.
If I were to do this resource work again the four things I would change would be:
- Try to make the homemade baby food more appetising and less thick by making the mixture more watery.
- I would try to research more in to the baby food ingredients. E.g. I would investigate how much salt can be in the baby foods.
- Try to get the survey to a more wide range of ages as most of it was done in school so the survey was slightly unbalanced. If I done it again I would do this again I would do the survey on 12 people in these groups of twos in age groups. They would be toddlers, 2-5yrs, 5-10,10-18, 18-30, 30+.
- Make it a fair test by not allowing the people to know which one was which as this may have coursed a different result then I got.
I enjoyed the work and if I did have time I would have made these changes above to make it better and fairer.