‘Shrink ray’ hits consumers’ wallets (Less product for the same price)

Source: MSNBC

With fuel and delivery costs rising, food manufacturers are faced with raising their prices or giving you less, and it seems that less is the growing trend.

To Dean Smith, the two containers of Breyers ice cream looked exactly the same at his supermarket in Evansville, Ind. Then he looked closely and figured out that the old package was 1¾ quarts, while the new package was just 1½ quarts.

Tod Marks, senior editor for retailing at Consumer Reports, says you’re not imagining things. What the consumer protection Web site Consumerist.com calls the Grocery Shrink Ray is hitting products all over the store.

The practice is called short-sizing, and it’s becoming increasingly common to shrink how much stuff goes into the same old box to keep costs down.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25570106/

Waste-not, want-not may be the "new" American motto.

A can is a can, and a box is a box!

Opinion about this on Fark, which I keep an eye on as a pretty-near-random sample of English-speaking nerds, trended mostly toward either "Good, it will solve the obesity epidemic" and "If this is even enough for you to notice, you're doing something wrong."

I have been watching Fark and Craigslist as my finger in the wind lately, and have found much to be pessimistic about.

Tucker

I really need to thank the ice cream companies for being cheap bastards and trying to undersize their products, as its so obvious in its reduced size that my wife and I no longer buy 3-4 cartons per week as theres no longer any value, saving us a good amount of money now.

We didnt like it when the traditional half gallon went to only 1.75qt a couple of years back, and this new even smaller size was the deal breaker in my house.

This was the final straw.

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

This also works GREAT for both strawberries and blueberries, producing a very intense fruit flavor. For blueberries, add a healthy pinch of cinnamon and use a potato masher to press them lightly into the sugar in order to get the juices flowing.

Both the cooked peaches and the custard mixture must be cooled to 40 degrees before you churn them. Since they are fine in the refrigerator overnight, you may want to prepare them the day before you plan to churn and serve the ice cream. You’ll get the very best results from using in-season, fully ripened peaches, but in a pinch, you can substitute 2 cups IQF (individually quick frozen) sliced peaches and replace the vodka with peach-flavored liqueur. The ice cream is at its peak when eaten within four hours of churning, although covered, it will keep in the freezer for up to two days.

Makes about 1 quart

3	medium-size ripe peaches , peeled, pitted, and 
        cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
1/2	teaspoon lemon juice from 1 lemon
        pinch table salt 
1	cup granulated sugar 
6	tablespoons granulated sugar 
1 1/4	cups whole milk 
1 1/3	cups heavy cream 
6	large egg yolks 
1	teaspoon vanilla extract 
2	tablespoons vodka 

1. Stir peaches, lemon juice, a pinch salt, and 1/2 cup sugar in medium-size nonreactive saucepan to combine; let stand until a pool of syrupy liquid accumulates and peaches soften slightly, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

2. Position sieve over medium bowl set in an ice-water bath; set aside. Heat milk, cream, and 1/2 cup sugar in medium-size heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until steam appears, 5 to 6 minutes. Turn off heat. Meanwhile, whisk yolks and remaining 6 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until pale yellow. Stir half the warmed milk mixture into beaten yolk mixture until just blended. Return milk-yolk mixture to saucepan of remaining warmed milk mixture. Heat milk-yolk mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon until steam appears, foam subsides, and mixture just begins to thicken (see illustrations below) or instant-read thermometer registers 172 degrees (mixture must not boil or eggs will curdle). Remove from heat, and following step 3 in illustration, immediately strain custard into prepared bowl. Cool custard mixture to room temperature, stir in vanilla, then cover and refrigerate until instant-read thermometer registers 40 degrees, at least 2 and up to 24 hours.

3. Meanwhile, heat softened peaches and their liquid, stirring occasionally, over medium-high heat until peaches are tender and flesh has broken down, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to bowl, stir in vodka, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 and up to 24 hours.

4. Strain chilled peaches, reserving liquid. Stir reserved peach liquid into chilled custard mixture; pour into ice cream machine canister and churn, following manufacturer’s instructions, until mixture is frozen and resembles soft-serve ice cream, 25 to 30 minutes. Add peaches; continue to churn until combined, about 30 seconds longer. Transfer ice cream to airtight container. Freeze until firm, about 2 hours.




STEP BY STEP: Step By Step to Smooth Custard

1. During the early stages of cooking, there is a thin layer of foam on top of the custard.


2. When steam begins to rise from the custard and the foam has almost totally subsided, it is near 180 degrees.


3. Remove the custard from the heat and pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl placed over an ice-water bath.



From Cook's Illustrated, my favorite food site on the web. It's a pay site, but for $20/year, you get access to every issue they've ever published.

:9

and now I am craving peach ice cream and have no way to make it. You are mean!!!

I already gave the blueberry to the neighbors and the strawberry is going to work with me tomorrow.

But the peach is ALL MINE. :evilgrin:

We've made ice cream in the past, but found that the retail price for cream was higher (than the amount in ice cream), so it was more expensive to make ice cream from scratch than simply buying it already made.

It's not cheap, but this isn't really a money-saving thing. The fun of making your own ice cream and the incredibly high quality of the result makes it worth the price.

Also, if you only eat ice cream when you make it, you end up eating a lot less (but enjoying it a lot more).

I agree that homemade ice cream can be a lot better than what is typically purchased readymade. Your recipe looks delicious, thanks for sharing it!

Guess it's time to plant a peach tree!

The food giants just have too much economy of scale and they use cheap-ass ingredients and fillers. But, if you cook for yourself you eat a lot better and you get to have food that is much, much higher quality than anything you could buy.

For example, I made hamburgers this weekend. I bought organic, grass fed, humanely raised local chuck roast, ground it myself and balanced the fat with the trimmings from a few shortribs. I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, dijon mustard, sauteed shallots and a little cognac. Yeah, it wasn't exactly the McD's $1 menu but ...damn, were they good.

The tradeoff (upside) is I only eat beef about once a month.

I have a fairly expensive Stop-n-Shop near me, and there's a really good produce market about a block away from that. Often, one of the two of them will have some great (but older) produce available, and I can use it to cook a nutritious, tasty, healthy meal.

you are cheating :)

Can I come over and visit? That sounds too yummy for words. I bought an ice cream maker 10 years ago and went on an absolute craze of making ice cream for awhile. This week I got it out again to make some honey-flavored ice cream for my 3 y.o. grandson. He will be the beneficiary of your having reminded me to get out the rest of my recipes. O8)

Mine is lower calorie in the sense that you don't make it with a custard of heavy cream. The trade-off in deliciousness is that it is really fast to make and goes down incredibly well on a hot night.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION VANILLA ICE CREAM
1 quart half-and-half
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Mix well, chill ingredients in the freezer for awhile. Pour into the ice cream maker...

Here's another lower-calorie ice cream, made with buttermilk, which is 2% fat and yet very thick. (Actually I discovered thickness varies by brand. Knudsen's works best for me.)

LEMON-MINT BUTTERMILK ICE CREAM
1/4 cup lemon juice
A handful of mint leaves
Bruise the mint leaves well, and let steep in the lemon juice for about 15 minutes
Strain, and stir in
2/3 cup sugar
3 cups buttermilk
Stir-freeze

Buttermilk goes well with nectarine, too, and is a gorgeous shade of pink.

NECTARINE LIME-MINT BUTTERMILK ICE CREAM
1/2 cup lime juice
A handful of mint leaves, bruised
Steep together 15 minutes, strain.
Add one cup sugar, set aside.
1 1/2 cups nectarines, mashed, a little lumpy
Add to the syrup and refrigerate for several hours
Add 2 cups buttermilk
Stir-freeze

Hekate

:hi:

*off to check the freezer*

Gorging on ice cream at ~9 p.m...and to think I used to wonder why we're so fat in this country.

;)

'sorry Boss, i'm shrink-sizing my hour. My 8 hour shift is now worth 12 hours.'


guess they'd like that?
dp

said my 10 hour shift is now worth 9.5 hours.

still have to work the full 10 hours tough... :grr:

as opposed to a 'raise' ...

i bet that doesn't help you increase your productivity, now does it? }(

dp

"secretly looking" elsewhere is my "current weapon" for "fighting back"

as soon as something a "tiny bit" better will present itself...

i know they'll be badly screwn (at the very least, for a few days)

as soon as i'll call them at 7 AM to say "I quit." (they earned it...)

Used to come in 3 cu. ft. bags. Now it's in 2 cu. ft. bags. Same old price, of course.

So did the makers of fun-sized candy bars. This practice isn't new.

With the exception of Ben & Jerry's and a few local brands, ice cream has been getting considerably more airy over the past few years.

They're shaving off costs rather than raising prices because their market info suggests that people will balk at paying more. It's not so noticeable when one or two prominent companies do it but when lots of them adopt the practice at once it's a sign of bad economic times.

if the democrats were smart, they'd start making some Bush pennies and dollars to give away.

.

A few years ago they lopped it to 6 1/2, then 6 1/4.

Now I noticed it's an even 6 oz.

I first noticed it 5 years ago when I bought crackers. Since then I have always done price per unit (that is what we did in the 70's when we had out last really big price spike in groceries. In fact, stores unit priced items for you but have gotten out of the habit I am afraid. That is the true way to determine a bargain. The price per unit has really ben escalating as of late.

they really think we're stupid, that we won't
notice...

If you measure a "two by four" it is neither 2" or 4". A size used in roof construction, the "two by eight" has apparently shrunk again, the "two" more closely approaching the real value one.

They've been shrinking for for a long, long time, but now they're ridiculously small.