I have been able to accumulate a great deal of my food preps by shopping at Aldi's. Their food is not name brand, but it is generally good and very, very inexpensive. Best bets are all canned soups, stews,canned fruits, cookies, crackers and baking supplies.

Today's question: Has anyone tried their summer sausage? Comments on the taste?

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), November 19, 1999

Answers

Haven't tried that, but their Argentinian canned corned beef is great, much better than spam, less salt.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), November 19, 1999.

I think my wife got some of it last year, and so far as I know it was fine. Have had very little dissatisfaction with Aldi products.

Gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), November 19, 1999.

Hooray for Aldi's! It has made our Y2K food preparations both easy and cheap. They even cut the sides down on the boxes and leave the cans in them, so you can pick up a whole "tray" of canned goods at once. Once we bought a case of off-brand cola for ten cents a can. Gotta go back to Aldi's soon.

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), November 19, 1999.

Last week I found NO powdered milk at Aldi's. Has anyone else noticed this?

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), November 19, 1999.

ALDI summer sausage is only so...so..., spend just a little more for a little better quality. However, ALDI's had canned ham for $1.99 a can. It is good as well as the corned beef mentioned above. Tuna is also very good all at prices that cannot be touched at any other store.

-- Arty (Nospam@forme.com), November 20, 1999.

Thanks for the message on the summer sausage, I had bought an off-brand at KMart and couldn't even eat it, so I'm especially wary of this. BTW, I did notice the lack of powdered milk and the huge container of 8# sacks of rice was almost empty. Try the canned stew if you can find it, just like Dinty Moore for half the price. Another hint, their tortillas are 69 cents for a bag of 10, and the expiration date goes out 2-3 months in the future. I've got a lot in the freezer, hoping to avoid bread-baking in the gas grill.

-- cmd0903 (cmd0903@dontcall.com), November 20, 1999.