Vesta Meals!

[Mark_Wilson]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Water does come into it, but you need to add cold water to the various packets of mixes, and simmer for the given time. A Vesta meal takes somewhere in the region of 20 minutes to prepare (microwaves are not suitable for the preparation of these!).

[Richard1978]

Re: Vesta Meals!

I would have thought microwaves would have killed of the niche Vesta meals had, unless there are still people without fridges & microwaves.

[sf1378]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Water does come into it, but you need to add cold water to the various packets of mixes, and simmer for the given time. A Vesta meal takes somewhere in the region of 20 minutes to prepare (microwaves are not suitable for the preparation of these!).

Ah, I see. Then you add chopped fresh ingredients to the sauces...

[sixtyten]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Re-reading this thread has made me hunger for a Vesta Chow Mein :cry:
Yes, I know it tastes nothing like a Chow Mein, or indeed, any other food product..

That's what makes it so unique


One will be in my shopping basket tomorrow

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Ah, I see. Then you add chopped fresh ingredients to the sauces...

No, no fresh ingredients mate! Its got dehydrated veg and 'meat' in the sauce powder. I used to love the chow mien and my favourite was the paella. Nothing at all like real paella but really nice in its own right.

[Mark_Wilson]

Re: Vesta Meals!

No, no fresh ingredients mate! Its got dehydrated veg and 'meat' in the sauce powder.

You've just made me remember the old 70s-era boxes for these meals. On the box was a photo of the various ingredients in their fresh state; slightly misleading, considering it was all dehydrated!



Edit: Changed "as" to "was". My "w" didn't come out for some reason.

[sf1378]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Ah right! I can remember the back of the box had a line drawing of all the fresh ingredients that were on the front photo of the box but the rear image was like a 'painting by numbers' with numbers on the items and it made out all those ingredients were in the box...My Mum and Dad didn't like Vestas as they felt it was far too salty and packed with soya meat..which they were quite right about....I found the boxes odd really, it all looked so appetising on the front but now I know all you got was powders and dry foods inside...but then, it is the sort of thing thats only good when you are extremely hungry and looking for something not to hard to make...

[sixtyten]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Well, I bought one

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: Vesta Meals!

Lets hope they still taste the same sixty!

[shilton dipper]

Re: Vesta Meals!

they also made a bolognese which was my fav.......in the pan, chuck in the water, bring to boil, simmer, cook spaghetti to a pulp ( cos you'd just left home and didn't know how to cook ) eat and enjoy.............have second half the next day voila!!!

[battyrat]

Re: Vesta Meals!

I can only remember the curry ones,Mum seemed to have a thing about them.Always was several boxes in the cupboard.Very nice they were too.Will have to see if I can obtain a box,can still taste them,just by thinking about it.Hmmmmm......

[Trickyvee]

Re: Vesta Meals!

I had my first Vesta meal last night. Chow Mein. It was alright but nothing spectacular, although I can imagine in the 70's it was classed as quite exotic.

Really funny to find everything inside dried and in packets like a Pot Noodle. The best thing is the so called crispy noodles, which are really like prawn crackers and you have to fry them to make them puff up.

Other half had the risotto which was actually pretty good.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Vesta Meals!

They have hob and microwave instructions on the packet now. We opted for microwave but we were still surprised to see how long it takes compared to the micro meals of today. 10 mins for the Chow Mein and 20 *gasp* for the risotto! And you need to add a knob of butter to the risotto and of course fry the noodles. It all seems a bit of a faff nowadays but just goes to show how accustomed (and dare I say lazy) we have become with super-fast ready meals.

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: Vesta Meals!

They could be cooked in the microwave in the 80's. I used to do mine in the microwave then.

[Gary W]

Re: Vesta Meals!

I was the Brand Manager in charge of Vesta in 1977-78 at Batchelor Foods, Wadsley Bridge, Sheffield. Just found out about this site, really interesting! The front of the pack which featured all the ingredients-by-numbers were real - we weighed and photographed each ingredient exactly as per each recipe, in a studio in Hampstead at the time. Our Home Economist actually cooked up the dish in the studio for the photos, and I remember that we used hairspray to coat the food before each shot as it 'preserved' the look!
In 1977 I worked on the launch of Beef Biryani which was fun - though we failed at the time to get a sweet 'n sour pork launched as the sauce tolerances were not good enough, either too sweet or too sour. Also, contrary to what has been reported earlier in this forum, the meat was real, if re-constituted, and then dried .... not soya.
By the end '70s I was so sick of eating Vesta (I had batch tastings every single week, comprising of humungous quantities of samples across all the recipes) that I have not tasted one since leaving Batchelors Foods in 1979.
I saw the brand to my surprise in Poundland recently and developed into a panic ..... should I or should I not?! The agony ...... I am still in denial ...... this could destroy all of my dreams