Mince pies
by Ruby Tandoh
Betty’s Classic mince pies
£10 for 12
★★★★★
The best of the mince pies come from the Yorkshire bakeries of Betty’s. The pastry is golden, lightly toasted and rich, and I like the well-spiced filling, brightened with plenty of zest. They’re wonderful, but coming in at a tenner for a dozen, they’re maybe not ones to waste on the kids.
Hobb’s House Bakery mince pies
£4.95 for six
★★★★★
These are far shallower than a lot of the mince pies on offer, but, to my surprise, they pack a real punch. The filling is the best I’ve tried – dark, fruity and rich – and the pastry is perfectly tender and sweet.
Tesco Finest mince pies
£2 for six
★★★★☆
By far the best of the supermarket offerings. They’re very slightly too sweet, but the balance of pastry and fruit is perfect, with the thin, sugared crust providing some welcome textural contrast to the dense filling.
Smoked salmon
by Jay Rayner
Asda Extra Special rich and intense Scottish smoked salmon
£4 for 120g
★★★★☆
There were some high-end offerings in the sample we tasted, but this was the clear winner. The texture is close to perfect, not at all slippery or greasy. There is a depth to the cure that delivers flavour, rather than saltiness, and it is just smokey enough. A terrific product.
Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite gin and tonic Scottish smoked salmon
£3.99 for 100g
(available from 19 December)
★★★★☆
The key to this is marketing. Aldi probably concluded that smoked salmon flavoured with juniper and lemon zest wouldn’t sell, so they gave it the gin-and-tonic tag. But that’s what this is: a really good smoked salmon augmented with crushed juniper and lemon zest. Both are present, but neither overwhelms the flavour of the salmon. (It doesn’t work all the time; the other Aldi product, advertised as mojito-flavoured and hence doused in lime, is just plain weird. It scored a bottom-of-the-pack 1/5.)
Waitrose Tsar-cut fillet of smoked salmon
£6.49 for 140g
★★★★☆
Providing it as a solid, inch-thick fillet that you have to slice yourself – hence the “Tsar cut” label – is an attractive idea. It slices well, the texture is firm and it has a pleasant, evenly balanced cure and smokiness.
Gravy
by Gizzi Erskine
Aldi Specially Selected poultry gravy
£1.49 for 500g
★★★★☆
Hooray. Something with a strong turkey flavor. Funny consistency. Bit like a soup, but it makes up for it with flavour. It has been processed and you can see blended bits of meat, which is a little off-putting.
Heston from Waitrose turkey, sage and onion gravy
£2.69 for 200g
★★★☆☆
Too sweet and I don’t like the onions. There’s too much syrupy alcohol and not enough meat flavour.
M&S posh turkey gravy
£4 for 500g
★★☆☆☆
Very rich in marsala, which overshadows the fact that it is the meatiest-tasting gravy of the lot. Good consistency, too, but the marsala leaves a slight plasticky taste. Would be much better mixed with the goodies at the bottom of the roasting tray.
Stuffings
by Yotam Ottolenghi
Morrisons festive fruit and nut stuffing wreath
£4 for 475g
★★★★★
It has a good “homemade” texture, the fruit is dominant without turning the whole dish sweet and it’s not too fatty. This is a winner.
Waitrose six pork, onion and thyme balls with a fruit centre
£3.99 for 300g
★★★★☆
Again, nice texture and a good balance of fat to meat. The thyme comes through nicely and is really quite pleasant.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference six British outdoor-bred pork, maple, chestnut and thyme stuffing parcels
£3 for 250g
★★★★☆
The bacon is of good quality and the sweetness of the maple is noticeable without being too much. Good balance of flavour between pork and seasoning. Tasty.
Cranberry sauce
by Gizzi Erskine
Aldi Specially Selected cranberry sauce with port
£1.49 for 300g
★★★★★
Ideal rich, porty flavour – it’s indulgent and just as I make at home.
Heston from Waitrose cranberry and pomegranate sauce
£2.49 for 200g
★★★☆☆
Good flavour, well balanced and classic tasting. For me, it’s slightly too reduced – I like an obvious whole cranberry.
M&S cranberry sauce
£3 for 400g
★★★☆☆
Really tasty and piquant, but bound with a weird gelling agent that gives it a slimy consistency.
Bread sauce
by Gizzi Erskine
Aldi Specially Selected bread sauce
£1.49 for 300g
★★★★★
Perfectly creamy and silky, just a bit thicker than pouring consistency. Good spice. You can actually see the spice. Well balanced and feels luxurious.
Heston from Waitrose bread and celeriac sauce
£2.49 for 200g
★★★☆☆
The celeriac twist is clever, but this is not spiced enough for a Christmas bread sauce. Would be better with a non-festive chicken roast, in my opinion.
M&S bread sauce
£3 for 400g
★★☆☆☆
Really good pouring consistency, but needs more va-va-voom from the spice. A bit too primary in flavour.
Christmas cake
by Tamal Ray
Hobbs House Bakery Christmas cake
£15 for 600g
★★★★★
This is such a strange-looking little cake. It’s tiny and rectangular, and what initially appeared to be a Christmas tree garnish is, in fact, a piece of rosemary. It also crumbles when cut, so you’ll need a plate. It’s the best of all the cakes, though – fruity, just the right amount of toffee sweetness and a hint of boozy warmth.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Christmas fruit cake
£16 for 1.6kg
★★★★☆
This one looks pretty bling. Decorated with lots of gold fondant, it won’t be for everyone, but I like it. It’s one of the only ones with nuts, which provides a welcome bit of crunch in a sea of stodge. It’s a pretty good cake – nice and fruity.
M&S Classic Recipe Christmas script cake bar
£12 for 1.3kg
★★★☆☆
Well, this is definitely one of the more original-looking cakes. I have a colleague at work who swears that a piece of Christmas cake topped with a slice of cheddar is the height of festive gastronomy. The long, rectangular shape of this one would make for easy slicing for cheddar cake sandwiches. It’s stamped with Christmas words in various red fonts that I suppose are meant to look chic, but they just make it look a bit unfriendly. It’s very solid to cut into, which only adds to the idea that its true destiny lies in construction, rather than digestion. Uniquely, it is slightly salty in flavour, which is rather nice with its treacly, citrus sweetness.
Biscuits
by Ruby Tandoh
Aldi Specially Selected exquisite biscuits tin
£2.99 for 200g
★★★★☆
With little more than a light gold shimmer on top, these thick, craggy biscuits don’t look as flamboyantly Christmassy as some, but I like the pared-back approach. They have a caramelised, vanilla-scented sweetness and channel the crunch of little amaretti biscuits, but with the buttery might of a cookie. Could do with more cranberry, though.
Tesco Finest clementine, honey and oat shortbread
£4 for 200g
★★★★☆
It is clementine oil that infuses these buttery shortbread rounds with the pure essence of Christmas, and although the citrussy punch won’t be to everyone’s tastes (my girlfriend insists they taste like pith), I’m delighted by it. Oats and candied citrus add texture.
Betty’s Swiss chocolate shortbread
£4.50 for 200g
★★★★☆
Easily the nicest shortbread I’ve ever had. These thick medallions don’t look exciting, but they’re somehow light, buttery, tender, rich, delicate and chocolatey all at once. The bittersweet edge of the chocolate means they’re not oversweet, either.
Panettone
by Tamal Ray
Selfridges salted caramel panettone
£24.99 for 1kg
★★★★★
This is incredible. It’s soft, rich and delicious. The salted caramel isn’t particularly salty, but still goes perfectly with the vanilla-scented crumb. It’s distinctly lacking in all the cliched Christmas flavours – definitely one for all the mixed-peel haters out there. The only downside is the sadness that comes from knowing there will be times when you’re not eating it.
Crosta & Mollina chocolate panettone
£8.49 for 500g
★★★★☆
Another of the non-traditional panettones. Slightly drier than some of the others, but still very enjoyable. This would be perfect with a mug of coffee after a walk in the countryside.
M&S Italian panettone classico
£15 for 1kg
★★★★☆
Fluffy and sweet with a good balance of fruit and peel. It’s one of the prettiest of the bunch, with its pleasantly crunchy pearl-sugar topping.
Stilton
by Felicity Cloake
Paxton and Whitfield finest English stilton
£6 for 250g
★★★★★
The pinnacle of Penicillium roqueforti’s many great achievements, this is an absolute classic – wonderfully creamy with a subtle hint of blue and a long, lingering sweetness. If stilton is the king of cheeses, this is undoubtedly the king of kings.
Colston Bassett stilton
£12.50 for 500g
★★★★☆
Rich, mature and deeply savoury, with a lovely, round, buttery flavour, this unapologetically, beautifully blue cheese deserves to be enjoyed without distractions – except, perhaps, in the shape of a large glass of port.
Morrisons mature blue stilton
£2 for 200g
★★★☆☆
We were surprised and impressed by the quality of many of the supermarket stiltons, which for the most part steered just the right side of stridently salty. The Morrisons version offered the best balance of piquancy and rich, mouth-filling creaminess.
Crackers
by Felicity Cloake
McKenzie’s sesame seed oval alberts
£1.95 for 150g
★★★★☆
Robustly floury, with a rich, buttery, toasted sesame flavour, these versatile biscuits are a good all-rounder that would work as well with mature cheddar as they would with paté. They’re also easy to eat on their own while typing up reviews. Just saying.
Stag Stornaway water biscuits with salt and black pepper
£2.72 for 150g
★★★★☆
While I’m not saying the classic water biscuit can be bettered as a crispy, bland foil for cheese, these perfectly seasoned, slightly chunkier versions are definitely in the same champions’ league, and, dare I say it, rather nicer plain or with a simple slick of butter.
Waitrose 1 biscuits for cheese
£4.99 for 260g
★★★☆☆
Supermarket cracker selections are usually a bunfight to the bottom – once you’ve squabbled over the sweet Hovis ones and those little crunchy chive things, the rest will hang around, getting staler and staler, until someone finds them late on New Year’s Eve and demolishes the lot. These, however, all hot pink beetroot and dusky charcoal, look so tempting they’re unlikely to make it past Boxing Day – and they taste pretty good, too.
Chocolate
by John Crace
Lindt chocolate Santa
£2.99 for 125g
★★★★★
The last word in milk chocolate. So what if it’s the same chocky that was moulded into a bunny at Easter; when it’s this good, who cares? And if you don’t like the Santa, then get a reindeer or a teddy instead. Impossible to resist and once opened is almost guaranteed to be wolfed down in one sitting. There’s something about Christmas that makes people decide to mess about with chocolate and add flavours that vary from the marginally unpleasant to the completely offensive. Remember this: giving someone a box of chocolates for Christmas is not usually a sign you care; it’s a sign you don’t. Otherwise you would have bought them something rather more personal. The Lindt Santa is an honourable exception.
Monty Bojangles Milky Mischief cocoa-dusted truffles
£4 for 200g
★★★★★
The surprise package. Truffles are usually a bit on the rich and squishy side; just one can leave you feeling slightly nauseous. Monty Bojangles are firm and light, but with a surprisingly deep chocolatey flavour. The only downside is the packaging. I could have lived with the pretentious “A playful mood carried me to the summits of chocolatey peaks, where this gambolling adventurer could ride rapid milky rivers blah blah ...” but the Disney princess box just looks tacky. My advice: decant them into your own box and pretend you made them yourself.
Divine Chocolate after-dinner mint thins
£3.50 for 200g
★★★★☆
I’m more of a milk chocolate man myself. Put it down to my age – a Galaxy was the last word in sophistication in the early 1960s – but high cocoa, single-cru chocolates have never really hit the spot. I know I’m meant to be in awe of their superiority, but they always seem to be a bit disappointing. Verging on inedible. But everyone needs a sharpening hit of dark chocolate from time to time and, in the absence of any After Eights – another of my all-time favourites – these Divine mint thins are a more than respectable substitute. What’s more, they are made with Fair Trade chocolate, so you can eat them with a clean conscience.
Port
by Felicity Cloake
Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas 2002 vintage port
£30 for 75cl from Waitrose
★★★★★
Satin smooth, with a delicate, almost floral sweetness and just a hint of sweet spice, this is a port to savour, rather than glug down merrily over Trivial Pursuit. Elegant and utterly delicious.
Graham’s 10-year-old tawny port
£20 for 75cl from Ocado
★★★★☆
Nutty, honeyed and dangerously easy to drink, with festive notes of marzipan, this would be excellent with either mature cheddar or a big hunk of fruit cake mid-afternoon (it’s Christmas, after all).
M&S late-bottled vintage port 2011
£13 for 75cl from Marks & Spencer
★★★☆☆
A bold, rich port with plenty of tannins and rich flavours of black pepper, dark chocolate and stewed fruit, this one isn’t messing about. It would work well with blue cheeses, or even duck or game dishes. Great value.
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