Happy Cheapskate: Canned vs. frozen

There's something about a grocery store that brings out the predator in me.

I skulk through the aisles like a buzzard after the runt, hoping to grab that last Newfoundland-grown zucchini lest I have to snatch it from the hands of an unsuspecting stranger.

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Alas, as winter draws nigh, the selection of fresh local produce grows meagre. Does this mean one should consider frozen or tinned veggies?

I have read several studies that show quick-frozen vegetables retain a lot of nutrients, more than the produce trucked here from California, their vitamin content shrivelling somewhere around Nebraska.

I do occasionally buy veggies from the can and freezer sections, but it's hard to compare the prices. Frozen vegetables are bagged by weight, vegetables in tins are measured by volume and a portion of that volume is liquid.

Drat, right?

Break out the weigh scales

So my task this week was to borrow a couple of sets of kitchen weigh scales, break out the strainer and can opener, and do a few comparisons.

First, prompted by a fellow cheapskate and Morning Show listener, I decided to check out tinned tomatoes to see if we were getting more liquid in those cans than actual tomatoes.

Then I bought cans and frozen bags of corn and peas, and looked at which gave more value.

Let's start with the tomatoes. I gave them all an equal amount of sloshing about in the sieve, then weighed the amount of liquid and the amount of tomato.

One or two varieties had a noticeably larger amount of tomato. To be fair, the Italian brand from Costco used tomato puree instead of tomato juice, so I'm not sure if it counts.

Here's the breakdown

Then I looked at whether frozen or canned is more economical. Here's the breakdown of peas and corn.

When you pay full price for these items — like I tried to do — it seems there's not a whole lot of difference when it comes to frozen versus canned vegetables. And a good sale can certainly skew things in any item's favour.
  
Since I was doing all that comparing, I bought a couple of varieties of tinned peas and carrots, waxed beans and chickpeas. I strained them and weighed what was left, just to see if any brands gave you more vegetables. (The short answer: Not really, and No Name labels were generally cheaper.)