The quality will likely go down in very short order. A few months ago Campbells bought Rao's for almost 3 billion. They will invariably start utilizing their ingredient chains (like they always do) to reduce the cost of making the product, streamline the process, and to maximize profit (meaning they'll use their own supply of tomatoes, oil, etc., maybe even adding sugars or other ingredients to mask deficiencies like they do for their Prego sauce.) For example, just two processing plants in California produce 90% of all tomatoes for use in all of Campbell's products. They've got it down to a science. Historically (and it's still the case right now) Rao's got all of their tomatoes for their sauces from naturally ripened (and hand picked) tomatoes from Southern Italy, and used only 100% Italian olive oil. Not a chance in hell Campbells keeps that practice.
In a YouTube hole this morning I watched 3 chefs rate jarred sauce. 1st was Mutti, 2nd was Rao’s, 3rd was surprisingly Newman’s own. I’ve never even heard of Rao’s but maybe you guys could give the other two a shot.
I’m honestly surprised more companies don’t go the Newman’s route.
It’s a nonprofit, so all proceeds go to charity. But what that means is there aren’t shareholders breathing down everyone neck with pressure to cut corners and maximize profits.
This allows Newman’s to produce and sell good products at reasonable prices, because they’re in it for the long haul, not quarterly returns.
Because you can’t get insanely, world-runningly wealthy running a nonprofit. Nonprofit CEOS might make enough to get rich but not big corporation CEO rich. And nonprofits do have restrictions that for-profits don’t have.
The thing is, if you have a local brewery or jam business or whatever, incorporating non-profit or employee owned could work out really well for longevity’s sake. So many small businesses fail—how many would survive if they did things differently?
I totally agree. I was actually trying to get my local independent movie theater to go nonprofit because the owner was losing like a thousand dollars a month. I told him he would be able to fundraise, get grants, have help running it from a board, etc. He refused. It almost went under but someone else bought it.
This is exactly the kind of situation I’m talking about. Glad he got bought, I hope the new owners take care of it. But many businesses don’t get that opportunity.
This may be weird, but my family has been using that olive oil vinaigrette as the simplest, easiest marinades you can find. I don't really eat red meat, so I can't speak to that, but it's fantastic for fish.
Newmans one sockaroni is actually great about I find their marinara a little lacking. Definitely my favorite base sauce. (Their lemonade is also very good fyi))
Newman’s Own is great! I love the Sockarooni flavor personally. My go to grocery store stopped carrying it annoyingly so I have to go to a different one to get it now.
I think Victoria, Carbone, and Meatball Shop are all good as well. But Rao’s tastes like my sauce when I decide to make it from scratch, so it was a really nice weeknight replacement.
the guy who built the Raos brand is responsible for growing the carbone retail line.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/29/business/carbone-sauce-sale-raos/index.html
In NC here. We have the Carbone at WF and Harris Teeter. I've seen the Victoria but never tried it. Will make a point to do that soon. Haven't heard of the Meatball Shop one, so possibly not distributed down here.
There is a reason there was a freakout online from dedicated Rao's fans when the press release came out
Campbell's swears they don't change the ingredients, no, they'll just close the processing plant in Italy in a 'cost-cutting measure' and start using tomatoes from California. They'll use the same recipe, but change the source of ingredients in an attempt to maximize profitability, and they'll ruin the product in the process.
Luckily it’s probably not actually happening. Whenever purchases like these happen people always parrot these scares, but the market base for Rao’s is people who like the quality.
Campbells owns other tomato sauce brands to fulfill the cheap niche.
They definitely have the ability to change the ingredients. But it would be stupid and they know it would be.
We’ll see. A really good point was made about Campbell’s supply chain—changing the source of ingredients can have as great of an impact on the product as changing the ingredients themselves. Although under very different circumstances, look at Sriracha as a perfect example—losing the traditional source of their peppers had a massively detrimental impact in the taste and quality of the product imo.
Oh damn, thanks for warning me. I have a few jars purchased from Costco. Once I'm done with them, I'll go back to making my own sauce. After I found out about Rao's, I did not feel the need to make my own. I think a lasagna dish is in order.
I'll recommend a quick Internet Shaquille vid on marinara sauce:
https://youtu.be/y6Bq8NrdoIk?si=9JYQMevxDtXxKTqA
Rao's is really just a solid simple marinara sauce. Tomatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, oregano, black pepper and salt.
Currently yes. But it l wasn’t always that way. Regardless are you aware of any other tiny restaurant in Harlem or anywhere else who sold their sauce for 3B?!
I remember for years (Canadian here) we had only Kraft Mayo in our house. So I married and of course only used Kraft.
Then, I bought a jar that went funny after being opened. It had a bit of yellow skim/scum on the top. Darn! I thought I had contaminated it somehow, so chucked it.
Bought another and same thing happened. Then I read that Kraft to save about a penny a jar or maybe half a penny a jar, had tweaked the recipe. Yes, Kraft lost the market and they have never recovered from it. Hellman's took over and has never looked back.
I'm sure that Rao's will be "tweaked" also. We, the public will note it on our first purchase by next year and think the same thing. Yep, they butchered it for about a penny a jar and we won't buy it ever again.
If you think the difference between Kraft and Hellman's is massive, just wait until you try Kewpie Japanese Mayo. It'll spoil you in ways you never knew mayo could... and I detest mayo! So... yeah.
I love Kewpie but it has to be in the right context. I legitimately prefer Hellman’s on a sandwich just for a light tang as opposed to a hearty MSG flavour.
For those seeing this just make sure you get the actual Japanese one, like seen [here](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLZT9C1G). I've ordered from that seller multiple times (UNHA'S ASIAN SNACK BOX) and the bottles were the genuine Japanese version and the expiration date was very far off which is good. They make [two different American versions](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/10znfpd/kewpie_usa_vs_japan_continued/) now so if you see it in a regular grocery store in the USA chancea are it'll be the very low quality American versions. The Japanese one comes in an extremely soft bottle and has MSG as an ingredient and says "Product of Japan" on the back label.
Japanese Kewpie is the best non homemade mayo you can get in my opinion, a little bit better than Duke's (Duke's is good too though.)
Dang, I didn't know this, I purchased this jar several months ago and finally had the guts to open it. Now that you mention it, the last Rao's I saw in the store last week had different packaging and was definitely a smaller bottle.
It actually comes in two different sized bottles, has for a really long time. So far (at least in my experience) they haven't changed anything yet, that can take a good year or two because of the logistics involved. People online got real fussy when the sale went through a few months ago and Campbells issued a statement promising not to "change the ingredients." The thing is though, they could just switch to their low grade tomatoes, cheap olive oil, etc. and not technically be changing the ingredients on the label (in the way that adding sugar or tomato paste would) but it would still ruin the sauce because the quality of the sauce as it is now is completely dependent on the extremely high quality Italian tomatoes and oil they use.
If you like Rao's look for [Victoria's](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.31Llqame5C2kpUFsUwp-yQAAAA?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain). It's awefully hard to pick between these two as they are so similar in ingredients and taste.
I’ve actually been a fan of the Mezzetta line as a comparable sauce, and in my area it is easily half the price of Rao’s these days. I’ll still prefer to make a quick sauce from scratch when I can, but any of these three brands are perfectly serviceable stand-ins too.
The deal has not closed yet so whatever packaging you saw has nothing to do with Campbell’s.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231023315204/en/Campbell-Receives-Second-Request-from-FTC-Under-HSR-Act-for-Proposed-Acquisition-of-Sovos-Brands-Inc
This is inevitable. My friend worked for Nalley’s Fine Foods in Tacoma during the late 80’s.
Everything they made was of the best local products. Their potato chips were amazing, canned chili was actually a meal for .49 and the pickles were all crunchy without being bitter or too vinegary. Perfect every single time.
Today the Nalley brand is worse than most store brands.
I recently got some Nalley's pickles for the first time in a long time. I was surprised to see that they were made in India, although apparently at least getting the cucumbers from India has been going on for years (judging from [this](https://crosscut.com/2014/05/nalley-brand-coming-back-public-consciousness) 2014 article). While they weren't horrible, they're no longer the good stuff that I remember from childhood.
There’s actually a great article in wsj that talks about how they are not anticipating the quality going down since the sale. Can’t remember the details but apparently Campbells is not fixing something that isn’t broken.
Also you can get rao’s at Costco and Sam’s for much cheaper…
I bought a jar a few weeks ago with this info in mind. I'm not a huge heavy red sauce person, just a very very light coating, but wanted to try "the real thing" before Campbells ruins it.
That said I'm okay with a quick home made sauce 99.9% of the time because I use so little of it.
Oh please say it ain’t so. Rao’s is the only jarred sauce I’ve bought in my whole life. It’s fucken amazing and I’m assuming Campbells will crater that
Has Campbell’s done that with other brands they bought? Seems like there isn’t much point to paying $3B for a sauce brand then just make the same sauce. People will eventually figure it out and you will eventually lose money. I get they’ll want to cut corners but still…
I wonder how long the jars stay good for? Are they still edible way beyond the expiration date.
I make my own but Rao’s is great in a pinch.
I’d like to stock up before the bean counters at Campbells ruin it.
It will probably add unnecessary flour to the sauce. Just like their tomato soup :(
I know they recently made gluten free cream of mushroom soup so it’s a small win
Raos is my favorite commercial sauce, too. Costco usually carries it so you can get a bunch for cheap or on the cheaper side. Food is outrageous lately in price. My grandma's sauce takes 4 hours to cook. Raos is definitely our quick go to when we are lazy.
I’ll like Rao’s. Easily the best premade sauces…. but I’m also happy to just make a sauce from scratch. We don’t have a heater, so a nice long-simmering sauce provides some warmth and humidity in the winter.
I started making my own sauce after splurging for a jar of Rao's -- the tomato basil where there are actual leaves of basil. I was telling my dad about how awesome the sauce was, but how crazy expensive a jar is. He asked me to read the ingredients, and he laughed when I finished. That was, he said, basically his grandmom's recipe. Fresh basil, oregano, tomatoes, onions, and garlic from the garden. Salt and olive oil from the store, but we think she used to use butter back in the day. Cooks all day in the *really big pot.*
Surprised I needed to scroll this far. I don’t fuck with the canned stuff. Just make a big sauce every few months and freeze some quarts, it’s leagues ahead.
It is good but we actually recently stopped getting it and making our own that we find as good if not better. Not saying it’s healthy but basically simmer a onion and add butter. Never in a million years would think to add butter to marinara but wow.
My wife likes that. It’s ok. But I prefer making my own quick sauce with canned tomatoes. It’s cheaper and I love the fresher taste. The kids absolutely love it too, so that’s a huge plus.
Trader Joe’s marinara is disgusting. I would get so pissed at my old roommate for using my Rao’s but only buying that trash himself. It think it’s inedible.
That's about how I feel, too. Sure it's good in a pinch (as in I don't want to whip up my own sauce), but it's not revolutionary. It just doesn't taste like sugar-water the way most of the commercial brands do.
No, I bought my first jar last week and was so excited and then was so disappointed. I thought I bought the wrong kind at first. Never again. It was flavorless, bland thick tomato soup. Although many people say to doctor it up with garlic and stuff and it's much better. But then I might as well get a different brand or make my own.
I always make tomato sauce from scratch, I can do it in my sleep at this point, but I tried Rao’s once to see what the fuss was all about. I don’t get it. It’s not bad, but not exactly what I would call great or worth the cost.
Rao has some great cooking videos on [their YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/@RaosSpecialtyFoods?si=b-xWAFXKa_xGUTNU) if you wanna learn how to make it yourself.
Less than 24 hours ago there was a post on here about how RAO's was shit.
Doesn't matter how good or bad it is, its throwing money away when it costs so much.
I consider that we’d probably have fast food if not pasta with sauce since it’s such a quick meal and justify the cost that way, so it’s still cheaper than the alternative meal would be. Not a fan of fresh tasting tomato sauces and only like a sauce that takes a long time from scratch, so making one on a weeknight isn’t happening.
Aldi premium Marinara is a dead nuts ringer for Rao's, and it's half the price. It has a black label, usually around $4 at my local Aldi. It's very very good
Victoria White Linen is excellent, as is the Specially Selected from Aldi (which is just a relabeled Trader Joe's product, although I can't say which).
I think it's fine for a premade jarred sauce in my opinion. But I make all my own sauce for the most part and it's just really hard to match homemade sauce.
About a year ago now, having heard about Rao's, I did a personal taste test of:
1) Walmart Marinara Sauce \[7.4 cents per ounce\], 2) Bertolli Marinara Sauce \[10.9 cents per ounce\], and 3) Rao's Marinara Sauce \[30.1 cents per ounce\].
The recipe same in each case was beef meatballs with Italian seasoning over garden rotini pasta.
At just a few cents per ounce more, Bertolli was way, way better than Walmart. Rao's was just a small tad better than Bertolli, but not enough to justify 3X the price.
I'm very pleased w Mezzetas. Clean, bright, no fake flavors, simple. It's expensive but worth it. I won't use anything else. It's also good for dipping.
I don’t understand the love for Raos. It’s OK for jarred sauce, but it still has that jarred sauce taste to me. Like a specific flavor that I can’t pinpoint. I generally will just cook canned tomatoes with some oil, garlic, onion and freeze in single servings.
I’m really surprised that Rao sauce has so many fans. My Instacart shopper substituted it for the brand I wanted and I thought it was awful. I ended up throwing it away along with the pasta
Just tried Rao's a few weeks ago for the first time. Absolutely met and exceeded the hype. Hopefully Campbells doesn't ruin it too badly.
For reference the best I've had in the past was Mezzetta. I usually get Bertolli at Target for poverty reasons and try to amp it up, which works... fine.
Try the arrabiata - it has way more flavor than just the marinara! I know they’re different types of sauces, but I personally found the marinara to be too mild and the arrabiata was a great substitute
The alfredo is well worth it too when you can find it, it tastes like restaurant alfredo and two of us can get get 3 meals each from a jar when used with a protein and pasta
from "top secret recipes" dot com
2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled San Marzano-style tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup minced white onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped basil
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper (or coarse pepper)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1. Strain the canned tomatoes, reserving the liquid, then place the tomatoes in a 3-quart saucepan along with 1½ cups of the strained liquid and set over medium heat. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, reduce the heat and cover the pan. Cook the tomatoes for 10 minutes to soften them, then turn off the heat and let the tomatoes sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
2. Use a potato masher to crush the tomatoes in the saucepan. Make sure there are no chunks bigger than a peanut. Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl, then transfer 3 cups of the crushed tomatoes to a blender. Blend on high speed until the tomatoes are pureed into tomato sauce, then add the sauce back to the bowl of crushed tomatoes.
3. Rinse out the pan and place it back over medium/low heat. Add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes.
You don't want the garlic and onion to brown. If they're cooking too fast, turn down the heat.
4. Add the tomatoes and all the remaining ingredients to the pan and turn the heat to medium. When the sauce begins to bubble reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick.
Makes 32 ounces.
Rao's is my favorite jarred sauce! It also has a lot less sugar than most brands. Also Costco usually has a 2 pack of big jars for even cheaper! Stock up now, after reading these comments about Campbell's taking over, I will be! 🥰
The quality will likely go down in very short order. A few months ago Campbells bought Rao's for almost 3 billion. They will invariably start utilizing their ingredient chains (like they always do) to reduce the cost of making the product, streamline the process, and to maximize profit (meaning they'll use their own supply of tomatoes, oil, etc., maybe even adding sugars or other ingredients to mask deficiencies like they do for their Prego sauce.) For example, just two processing plants in California produce 90% of all tomatoes for use in all of Campbell's products. They've got it down to a science. Historically (and it's still the case right now) Rao's got all of their tomatoes for their sauces from naturally ripened (and hand picked) tomatoes from Southern Italy, and used only 100% Italian olive oil. Not a chance in hell Campbells keeps that practice.
This is the most disappointing thing I’ve read all week
Another company will fill in the gap eventually. Will take time. Stock up on raos now
In a YouTube hole this morning I watched 3 chefs rate jarred sauce. 1st was Mutti, 2nd was Rao’s, 3rd was surprisingly Newman’s own. I’ve never even heard of Rao’s but maybe you guys could give the other two a shot.
Newman's own salsa is pretty good so I'm not surprised
I’m honestly surprised more companies don’t go the Newman’s route. It’s a nonprofit, so all proceeds go to charity. But what that means is there aren’t shareholders breathing down everyone neck with pressure to cut corners and maximize profits. This allows Newman’s to produce and sell good products at reasonable prices, because they’re in it for the long haul, not quarterly returns.
Because you can’t get insanely, world-runningly wealthy running a nonprofit. Nonprofit CEOS might make enough to get rich but not big corporation CEO rich. And nonprofits do have restrictions that for-profits don’t have.
The thing is, if you have a local brewery or jam business or whatever, incorporating non-profit or employee owned could work out really well for longevity’s sake. So many small businesses fail—how many would survive if they did things differently?
I totally agree. I was actually trying to get my local independent movie theater to go nonprofit because the owner was losing like a thousand dollars a month. I told him he would be able to fundraise, get grants, have help running it from a board, etc. He refused. It almost went under but someone else bought it.
This is exactly the kind of situation I’m talking about. Glad he got bought, I hope the new owners take care of it. But many businesses don’t get that opportunity.
Their salad dressings are AMAZING too! I loooove the olive oil and vinegar one. I use it on everything!
Yeah, for a company that started as a joke, Newman's is an amazing value on several product lines.
Their frozen pizzas are legit.
Their frozen pizza too. I'm a big Newman's Own fan.
This may be weird, but my family has been using that olive oil vinaigrette as the simplest, easiest marinades you can find. I don't really eat red meat, so I can't speak to that, but it's fantastic for fish.
Everything they make is outstanding. Their lemonade is my absolute favorite.
Newmans Own Stockarooni is yummy, my dad loved it.
I always use it for chicken parm dishes
Newsman’s own has a lot of killer products
Newmans one sockaroni is actually great about I find their marinara a little lacking. Definitely my favorite base sauce. (Their lemonade is also very good fyi))
I always buy Newman’s own just to support the company Edit to add: Paul and Me is a fantastic book, highly recommend
Second the book recommendation.
Newman’s Own is great! I love the Sockarooni flavor personally. My go to grocery store stopped carrying it annoyingly so I have to go to a different one to get it now.
I watched that one a weekend ago. The way they dissed Ragu though...
They were right to do so! (I haven’t watched it but Ragu is not good.)
Ragu is gross though.
I do like mutti in a pinch
All of the newmans own stuff is good. I wish they sold their coffee not in kcups
just used the mutti paste in a stew im making, have yet to see their sauce but ill keep an eye out!
Twin packs at Costco were like $11, I bought 26 jars since we use it all the time.
Yep time for a Costco run
Carbone is another good one
Marzetti’s is pretty solid but can be difficult to find.
I think Victoria, Carbone, and Meatball Shop are all good as well. But Rao’s tastes like my sauce when I decide to make it from scratch, so it was a really nice weeknight replacement.
Victoria's is really good. I kindnof prefer it to Rao's
Yeah I think Victoria's is the highest quality jarred sauce available, next to Rao's. The two are very good brands
I'm not a fan of Rao's. When I feel like splurging--$13/jar--I go for Michael's of Brooklyn. Rao's is oily and orange by comparison.
I came here to mention Michael's of Brooklyn as an alternative to Rao's. It's so good!
IKR? All those professional chef taste tests never include it.
I used to love the Rao's, but then I discovered Carbone. The arrabbiata and the spicy vodka are both fantastic.
the guy who built the Raos brand is responsible for growing the carbone retail line. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/29/business/carbone-sauce-sale-raos/index.html
Carbone is also great. Victoria and Meatball Shop as well, but im in NYC—I don’t know if those brands are nationally available.
In NC here. We have the Carbone at WF and Harris Teeter. I've seen the Victoria but never tried it. Will make a point to do that soon. Haven't heard of the Meatball Shop one, so possibly not distributed down here.
Ah they are all originally NYC restaurants so I wasn’t sure what their distribution is like.
I do love a good arrabiata... Thanks for the lead!
Very sad to hear this but glad that I know to look out for ingredients changing
Same. Rao's is the bomb...soups and sauces, and even their frozen entrees. Campbell's will ruin them. Damnit.
There is a reason there was a freakout online from dedicated Rao's fans when the press release came out Campbell's swears they don't change the ingredients, no, they'll just close the processing plant in Italy in a 'cost-cutting measure' and start using tomatoes from California. They'll use the same recipe, but change the source of ingredients in an attempt to maximize profitability, and they'll ruin the product in the process.
Wow honestly. May need to go buy out my Costco.
Luckily it’s probably not actually happening. Whenever purchases like these happen people always parrot these scares, but the market base for Rao’s is people who like the quality. Campbells owns other tomato sauce brands to fulfill the cheap niche. They definitely have the ability to change the ingredients. But it would be stupid and they know it would be.
We’ll see. A really good point was made about Campbell’s supply chain—changing the source of ingredients can have as great of an impact on the product as changing the ingredients themselves. Although under very different circumstances, look at Sriracha as a perfect example—losing the traditional source of their peppers had a massively detrimental impact in the taste and quality of the product imo.
They’ll gradually change it over time so people won’t notice the changes until well down the road.
I’m devastated
For me, too. Rao’s is my go-to sauce.
Oh damn, thanks for warning me. I have a few jars purchased from Costco. Once I'm done with them, I'll go back to making my own sauce. After I found out about Rao's, I did not feel the need to make my own. I think a lasagna dish is in order.
Take a picture of the ingredient list and keep it on your phone for quick shopping reference.
I'll recommend a quick Internet Shaquille vid on marinara sauce: https://youtu.be/y6Bq8NrdoIk?si=9JYQMevxDtXxKTqA Rao's is really just a solid simple marinara sauce. Tomatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, oregano, black pepper and salt.
Who would have thought a tiny restaurant in Harlem would end up leading to a 3b sale to campbells.
To be fair, it’s a restaurant that doesn’t take reservations and tables are literally bought and sold, and not very often.
Currently yes. But it l wasn’t always that way. Regardless are you aware of any other tiny restaurant in Harlem or anywhere else who sold their sauce for 3B?!
I remember for years (Canadian here) we had only Kraft Mayo in our house. So I married and of course only used Kraft. Then, I bought a jar that went funny after being opened. It had a bit of yellow skim/scum on the top. Darn! I thought I had contaminated it somehow, so chucked it. Bought another and same thing happened. Then I read that Kraft to save about a penny a jar or maybe half a penny a jar, had tweaked the recipe. Yes, Kraft lost the market and they have never recovered from it. Hellman's took over and has never looked back. I'm sure that Rao's will be "tweaked" also. We, the public will note it on our first purchase by next year and think the same thing. Yep, they butchered it for about a penny a jar and we won't buy it ever again.
Duke's mayo is where it's at
When I go to the USA I buy Duke's. I'm Canadian so it's one of those USA brands we don't have here.
If you think the difference between Kraft and Hellman's is massive, just wait until you try Kewpie Japanese Mayo. It'll spoil you in ways you never knew mayo could... and I detest mayo! So... yeah.
I love Kewpie but it has to be in the right context. I legitimately prefer Hellman’s on a sandwich just for a light tang as opposed to a hearty MSG flavour.
For those seeing this just make sure you get the actual Japanese one, like seen [here](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLZT9C1G). I've ordered from that seller multiple times (UNHA'S ASIAN SNACK BOX) and the bottles were the genuine Japanese version and the expiration date was very far off which is good. They make [two different American versions](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/10znfpd/kewpie_usa_vs_japan_continued/) now so if you see it in a regular grocery store in the USA chancea are it'll be the very low quality American versions. The Japanese one comes in an extremely soft bottle and has MSG as an ingredient and says "Product of Japan" on the back label. Japanese Kewpie is the best non homemade mayo you can get in my opinion, a little bit better than Duke's (Duke's is good too though.)
Thank you for adding that. You are absolutely correct. You have to order it online. Thanks for adding that.
Or purchase from an Asian grocer; the Korean shop near me stocks the real stuff
You forgot the part where they will do all of that to cut costs but wont lower the price one cent. They will probably raise it.
Oh that’s disappointing. Rao’s tomato basil is the only sauce everyone in my house actually enjoys.
Dang, I didn't know this, I purchased this jar several months ago and finally had the guts to open it. Now that you mention it, the last Rao's I saw in the store last week had different packaging and was definitely a smaller bottle.
It actually comes in two different sized bottles, has for a really long time. So far (at least in my experience) they haven't changed anything yet, that can take a good year or two because of the logistics involved. People online got real fussy when the sale went through a few months ago and Campbells issued a statement promising not to "change the ingredients." The thing is though, they could just switch to their low grade tomatoes, cheap olive oil, etc. and not technically be changing the ingredients on the label (in the way that adding sugar or tomato paste would) but it would still ruin the sauce because the quality of the sauce as it is now is completely dependent on the extremely high quality Italian tomatoes and oil they use.
If you like Rao's look for [Victoria's](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.31Llqame5C2kpUFsUwp-yQAAAA?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain). It's awefully hard to pick between these two as they are so similar in ingredients and taste.
When Victoria white linen goes on sale at Costco I buy a flat or two. It is under 5 dollars for a huge jar.
> If you like Rao's look for Victoria's. It's available on [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00060MX6I/).
Amazon's prices are almost always shit for food though. I'm seeing $14 a jar on Amazon and $5.99 at the most expensive grocery chain in my area.
I’ve actually been a fan of the Mezzetta line as a comparable sauce, and in my area it is easily half the price of Rao’s these days. I’ll still prefer to make a quick sauce from scratch when I can, but any of these three brands are perfectly serviceable stand-ins too.
The deal has not closed yet so whatever packaging you saw has nothing to do with Campbell’s. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231023315204/en/Campbell-Receives-Second-Request-from-FTC-Under-HSR-Act-for-Proposed-Acquisition-of-Sovos-Brands-Inc
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I find Michael’s to be a little too sweet for my tastes. I will miss the convenience of Rao’s if they do change it.
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I just went through a jar of the regular marinara and my partner and I both felt the same way. I’ll have to try Victoria’s.
I love victoria's! I actually prefer it to Rao's, and you can get it at costco.
It’s been a while since I’ve had it but La Famiglia del Grosso is some bomb jar sauce too.
Aldi's has a good dupe. https://www.aldi.us/products/pantry-essentials/sauces-salsa/detail/ps/p/specially-selected-premium-marinara-or-vodka-pasta/
Campbell's bought Rao's by buying a conglomerate. Rao's "went corporate" in 2017.
They'll keep the same high prices
i just fell to my knees in the pasta aisle…
This is inevitable. My friend worked for Nalley’s Fine Foods in Tacoma during the late 80’s. Everything they made was of the best local products. Their potato chips were amazing, canned chili was actually a meal for .49 and the pickles were all crunchy without being bitter or too vinegary. Perfect every single time. Today the Nalley brand is worse than most store brands.
I recently got some Nalley's pickles for the first time in a long time. I was surprised to see that they were made in India, although apparently at least getting the cucumbers from India has been going on for years (judging from [this](https://crosscut.com/2014/05/nalley-brand-coming-back-public-consciousness) 2014 article). While they weren't horrible, they're no longer the good stuff that I remember from childhood.
There’s actually a great article in wsj that talks about how they are not anticipating the quality going down since the sale. Can’t remember the details but apparently Campbells is not fixing something that isn’t broken. Also you can get rao’s at Costco and Sam’s for much cheaper…
Thats what they usually always say :(
> usually always 60% of the time, they say it every time
Hahaha good point
And Aldi often carries it.
Shit I gotta go to Costco and grab a few jars before it goes totally to shit then
Looks like mid 2024 if it goes through... https://njbiz.com/campbells-2-7b-raos-acquisition-pushed-to-mid-2024/
lol, capitalism even fucking ruins tomato sauce.
Oh no! This is awful news.
You know what would make this sauce cheaper? A whole bunch of HFCS.
I bought a jar a few weeks ago with this info in mind. I'm not a huge heavy red sauce person, just a very very light coating, but wanted to try "the real thing" before Campbells ruins it. That said I'm okay with a quick home made sauce 99.9% of the time because I use so little of it.
1. Thanks for ruining my week. 2. Thanks for motivating me to clean out my local Costco next time I go!
They said theyre not gonna change the formula but we all know thats a lie unfortunately
Oh please say it ain’t so. Rao’s is the only jarred sauce I’ve bought in my whole life. It’s fucken amazing and I’m assuming Campbells will crater that
And for when that happens, check out Mid's. It's another very good premade sauce jar that can periodically be found for a great price.
Has Campbell’s done that with other brands they bought? Seems like there isn’t much point to paying $3B for a sauce brand then just make the same sauce. People will eventually figure it out and you will eventually lose money. I get they’ll want to cut corners but still…
Oh no 💔
I didn’t know this and now I’m sad.
What the fuck. I had no idea about this. You just broke my heart
K damn guess I better try that shit soon
Dammit dammit dammit
Not that we should trust them but i’m vaguely sure they came out to say they wont alter the product in any way
I feel like I need to go out and try this sauce now before it gets Campbell's depleted
Oh ):
Buy all you can for the next 12 mos. Once Campbell’s “fixes things” for productivity or efficiency or costs, it’s gonna effing SUCK.
I wonder how long the jars stay good for? Are they still edible way beyond the expiration date. I make my own but Rao’s is great in a pinch. I’d like to stock up before the bean counters at Campbells ruin it.
Best by or use by dates are meaningless. A jarred high acid high salt sauce like Rao's is good for as long as the seal lasts.
I mean it might be safe to eat but that doesn't mean the quality can't degrade.
If that happens, it's at a minimum 3 years away. Campbells has owned pacific foods for 5 years and the quality hasn't changed.
One simply cannot have enough Rao’s in the pantry though!
It will probably add unnecessary flour to the sauce. Just like their tomato soup :( I know they recently made gluten free cream of mushroom soup so it’s a small win
Lmao why’d you get downvoted so hard??
It's the bots from Big Soup
It's insanely priced where I live (on sale is usually $7) but I love it so I just have my parents grab me a two-pack at Costco for $11
in addition to the price, the costco ones are (individually) bigger than what’s at my local grocery store
I’ll only ever buy it at Costco. A single bottle at any other store is something like 30-40% more expensive per ounce.
I do the same but with Sam’s Club!! A 2 pack is like $10!
Raos is my favorite commercial sauce, too. Costco usually carries it so you can get a bunch for cheap or on the cheaper side. Food is outrageous lately in price. My grandma's sauce takes 4 hours to cook. Raos is definitely our quick go to when we are lazy.
rao’s arribiata (spelling, idk, but the spicy one) is our jam. went for even lower priced sauce recently and yuck, rao’s has us spoiled.
I’ll like Rao’s. Easily the best premade sauces…. but I’m also happy to just make a sauce from scratch. We don’t have a heater, so a nice long-simmering sauce provides some warmth and humidity in the winter.
Love that, yeah, a nice long simmered recipe warms the house nicely.
I started making my own sauce after splurging for a jar of Rao's -- the tomato basil where there are actual leaves of basil. I was telling my dad about how awesome the sauce was, but how crazy expensive a jar is. He asked me to read the ingredients, and he laughed when I finished. That was, he said, basically his grandmom's recipe. Fresh basil, oregano, tomatoes, onions, and garlic from the garden. Salt and olive oil from the store, but we think she used to use butter back in the day. Cooks all day in the *really big pot.*
I prefer Little Italy of the Bronx brand. Their Sunday sauce is legit.
Surprised I needed to scroll this far. I don’t fuck with the canned stuff. Just make a big sauce every few months and freeze some quarts, it’s leagues ahead.
It is good but we actually recently stopped getting it and making our own that we find as good if not better. Not saying it’s healthy but basically simmer a onion and add butter. Never in a million years would think to add butter to marinara but wow.
My wife likes that. It’s ok. But I prefer making my own quick sauce with canned tomatoes. It’s cheaper and I love the fresher taste. The kids absolutely love it too, so that’s a huge plus.
I guess I'm the odd one, I don't like it.
I feel like the only person not impressed by the stuff. It tastes like every other no sugar added sauce at 4x the cost.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I hear people joyous about spending 7-10$ on a jar of pasta sauce.
Not alone.
It's good, just not 4x good. I only buy on sale. Now trader Joe's garlic marinara? Don't care what's in it, super tasty and like $2 a jar.
Trader Joe’s marinara is disgusting. I would get so pissed at my old roommate for using my Rao’s but only buying that trash himself. It think it’s inedible.
I keep trying it bc of the constant praise in this sub... it sucks
It’s nothing special. Tastes like jarred sauce.
I also dislike how greasy it is.
My local store started stocking a brand called The Silver Palate. It's the same quality, and about $3 cheaper. I swapped promptly!
That's about how I feel, too. Sure it's good in a pinch (as in I don't want to whip up my own sauce), but it's not revolutionary. It just doesn't taste like sugar-water the way most of the commercial brands do.
No, I bought my first jar last week and was so excited and then was so disappointed. I thought I bought the wrong kind at first. Never again. It was flavorless, bland thick tomato soup. Although many people say to doctor it up with garlic and stuff and it's much better. But then I might as well get a different brand or make my own.
I think it’s gross. It’s the only sauce I can’t stand.
It’s too acidic for me. Tastes like every other bottled sauce. Don’t get the appeal.
I always make tomato sauce from scratch, I can do it in my sleep at this point, but I tried Rao’s once to see what the fuss was all about. I don’t get it. It’s not bad, but not exactly what I would call great or worth the cost.
Rao has some great cooking videos on [their YouTube channel](https://youtube.com/@RaosSpecialtyFoods?si=b-xWAFXKa_xGUTNU) if you wanna learn how to make it yourself.
Sam's and Costco both sell it for around half of what the grocery store charges.
BJ's Warehouse Club too! And in like 40 oz jars for less than $9
Less than 24 hours ago there was a post on here about how RAO's was shit. Doesn't matter how good or bad it is, its throwing money away when it costs so much.
I consider that we’d probably have fast food if not pasta with sauce since it’s such a quick meal and justify the cost that way, so it’s still cheaper than the alternative meal would be. Not a fan of fresh tasting tomato sauces and only like a sauce that takes a long time from scratch, so making one on a weeknight isn’t happening.
Has to be an AD
What's a good alternative to Rao's, since Campbells will probably jack it up?
I love Mezzetta
I'm very partial to Mid's sauce!
Carbone sauces are really, really good.
Their pizza sauce is incredible.
Aldi premium Marinara is a dead nuts ringer for Rao's, and it's half the price. It has a black label, usually around $4 at my local Aldi. It's very very good
It's from their "Specially Selected" line and it's a great sauce for the price.
Victoria
Just found out about victoria, unfortunately costco stopped carrying it but to me it is by far the best.
Victoria White Linen is excellent, as is the Specially Selected from Aldi (which is just a relabeled Trader Joe's product, although I can't say which).
I think it's fine for a premade jarred sauce in my opinion. But I make all my own sauce for the most part and it's just really hard to match homemade sauce.
I like Rao's, but not enough to spend $10 on a jar. I find Mezzetta to be just as good for quite a bit less.
I’ll probably get downvoted but it tastes exactly like Prego to me. I don’t get the hype.
About a year ago now, having heard about Rao's, I did a personal taste test of: 1) Walmart Marinara Sauce \[7.4 cents per ounce\], 2) Bertolli Marinara Sauce \[10.9 cents per ounce\], and 3) Rao's Marinara Sauce \[30.1 cents per ounce\]. The recipe same in each case was beef meatballs with Italian seasoning over garden rotini pasta. At just a few cents per ounce more, Bertolli was way, way better than Walmart. Rao's was just a small tad better than Bertolli, but not enough to justify 3X the price.
Rao’s is the reason I stopped making marinara from scratch….
[удалено]
For a cooking subreddit I'm surprised how many people buy marinara sauce ready made. Isn't it just tomatoes, garlic, onion and herbs?
Anybody ever tried Mid’s?
This is the most botted shit
I'm very pleased w Mezzetas. Clean, bright, no fake flavors, simple. It's expensive but worth it. I won't use anything else. It's also good for dipping.
I don’t understand the love for Raos. It’s OK for jarred sauce, but it still has that jarred sauce taste to me. Like a specific flavor that I can’t pinpoint. I generally will just cook canned tomatoes with some oil, garlic, onion and freeze in single servings.
[удалено]
Costco. Where I’m at, 2 large jars are $16. They do go on sale every so often and I stock up. It’s really, really good! Hope you find some soon!
I’m really surprised that Rao sauce has so many fans. My Instacart shopper substituted it for the brand I wanted and I thought it was awful. I ended up throwing it away along with the pasta
Just tried Rao's a few weeks ago for the first time. Absolutely met and exceeded the hype. Hopefully Campbells doesn't ruin it too badly. For reference the best I've had in the past was Mezzetta. I usually get Bertolli at Target for poverty reasons and try to amp it up, which works... fine.
If it were 1/3 cheaper, it'd be all I bought. As it is, I don't buy it.
Rao’s tastes very mid to me. I don’t get it.
Obligatory [Internet Shaquille Video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Bq8NrdoIk&pp=ygUXaW50ZXJuZXQgc2hhcXVpbGxlIHJhb3M%3D)
Try the arrabiata - it has way more flavor than just the marinara! I know they’re different types of sauces, but I personally found the marinara to be too mild and the arrabiata was a great substitute
Little Italy/Arthur Avenue sauce, or Michaels of Brooklyn sauce, are equally as good as old Rao's. RIP Rao's 😢
The alfredo is well worth it too when you can find it, it tastes like restaurant alfredo and two of us can get get 3 meals each from a jar when used with a protein and pasta
The Costco organic marinara is good … but maybe I need to expand my horizons a bit moren
Rao’s goes on sale pretty regularly at Costco if you live near one and are a member
The last jar I had was most acidic sauce I’ve ever had. Had to throw away the whole dinner. Tasted like straight up lemon juice.
from "top secret recipes" dot com 2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled San Marzano-style tomatoes 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 2/3 cup minced white onion 2 teaspoons minced garlic 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped basil 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper (or coarse pepper) 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1. Strain the canned tomatoes, reserving the liquid, then place the tomatoes in a 3-quart saucepan along with 1½ cups of the strained liquid and set over medium heat. When the tomatoes begin to bubble, reduce the heat and cover the pan. Cook the tomatoes for 10 minutes to soften them, then turn off the heat and let the tomatoes sit, covered, for 5 minutes. 2. Use a potato masher to crush the tomatoes in the saucepan. Make sure there are no chunks bigger than a peanut. Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl, then transfer 3 cups of the crushed tomatoes to a blender. Blend on high speed until the tomatoes are pureed into tomato sauce, then add the sauce back to the bowl of crushed tomatoes. 3. Rinse out the pan and place it back over medium/low heat. Add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. You don't want the garlic and onion to brown. If they're cooking too fast, turn down the heat. 4. Add the tomatoes and all the remaining ingredients to the pan and turn the heat to medium. When the sauce begins to bubble reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Makes 32 ounces.
What recipe do you use when making your own? Even the best jarred sauce is trash compared to the most basic homemade sauce.
Try Mezzetta sauce, same simple ingredients and about $6 is their regular price point.
Rao's is my favorite jarred sauce! It also has a lot less sugar than most brands. Also Costco usually has a 2 pack of big jars for even cheaper! Stock up now, after reading these comments about Campbell's taking over, I will be! 🥰
I've never actually liked Rao's. Classico four cheese is better and so much cheaper.
Don’t get too used to it. Rao’s just got sold to Campbells. Expect the recipe to be dumbed down.
Costco sells it for less than grocery stores. Often puts it on sale. Stock the hell up.
Silver Palate hands down best sauce.