The Pricewatch team has nibbled its way through a selection of festive food and graded each one – just to save you the trouble of doing so
Sausage rolls
The DIY deal €13.70 for 24
We buy our sausage meat at just under €7 a kilo in our local Superquinn and our pastry in the same store for €6.70. We add some fresh herbs, left over from the DIY stuffing featured below, an onion and some salt and pepper, and we’re good to go. They can be seasoned to your own taste and the end result is not only pleasingly irregular but also cost-effective. And they come with added feel-good factor. At least they do when things work out. When things go wrong, however, and you end up with a sticky ball of pastry that leaks sausage meat from all the wrong places, it is not so satisfying.
Verdict: A modest winner
Star rating: *****
Fallon and Byrne €2.50 for one
This is the most expensive sausage roll we tried as part of the Pricewatch Christmas blow-out. It is massive, and you would want a fierce big mouth to get through it in a few mouthfuls. But make no mistake, this is the best store-bought sausage roll you will find this year. The meat is flecked with onion and herbs and is gorgeous, while the pastry is crumbly, buttery and incredibly rich. You might need to be incredibly rich to buy many, though.
Verdict: Meaty greatness
Star rating: ****
Marks and Spencer €3.29 for 20
These are nice and simple. The pork is lovely and the pastry is flaky but not impossible to manage. They are salty and greasy but not excessively so, and a roll can easily be demolished in a single, dainty mouthful. This store does a great line in party food – as exemplified by these – and if you shop smart in the run-up to Christmas, you should be able to get them at a discount as part of some class of three-for-two deal.
Verdict: Effortless loveliness
Star rating:****
Tesco €2.40 for six
These are made with 29 per cent pork and, while the pastry is okay, we were not overly enamoured with the filling. These are a good deal more substantial than their rivals, but we’re not entirely convinced that more is better. They are fairly cheap and will easily fill a gap on a party platter if you are not overly concerned about making a good impression.
Verdict:Off the pace
Star rating:**
Supervalu €2
Made with just 20 per cent pork, these are the least meaty sausage rolls on trial. What they lack in sausage meat, they more than make up for in E-numbers – there were a whole lot of suspicious-looking numbers among the ingredients. They actually taste fine, if a little salty. They were very greasy and the stain they left on a napkin had us wondering what they would do to our overworked arteries.
Verdict: Average
Star rating: ***
Mince Pies
Marks and Spencer €3.99 for four
We reckon anything that includes the words Marks, Spencer, ultimate and all-butter is bound to be pretty great and we are not disappointed here. These are fabulous. The filling is ample and almost perfect. It has a lovely citrusy sharpness that is not to be found elsewhere. This sharp mixed-peel flavour offsets the sugary glaze nicely and, while your heart may not thank you for eating too much of this pastry, your taste buds certainly will. They are Irish-made, too.
Verdict: Delicious
Star rating: *****
Tesco €2 for four
These are not pies but logs. They look lovely but we were disappointed by the taste. They are not terrible but there was too much pastry and not enough filling. We were not madly keen on what there was of that, either. It was excessively sweet and the small pieces of fruit were mushy. These logs are all about the pastry but it was too heavy, too sweet and tasted like a shortbread biscuit left to go stale.
Verdict: Meh
Star rating: **
Supervalu €2.30, or two for €3
These are ridiculously crumbly and almost impossible to eat without covering yourself in a fine mist of pastry. They are still rather nice. While MS had the nicest filling we tried, the Supervalu pastry was deemed to be the finest by the people who lined up to help Pricewatch this week. The pastry has a light airiness that was appealing. The fruit inside is nicely textured but the filling is very sweet.
Verdict: Pretty good
Star rating: ****
Aldi €0.99 for four
These are very good value for money and although they lack the richness of some of the more high-end competition, they are lovely. The fruit mix has a nice balance of sharp and sweet and there is plenty of it in each pie. If we were to be really picky we’d say the pastry was a little bit dense but that wouldn’t stop us eating one. Or several.
Verdict: Great value
Star rating:****
Superquinn €2.29 for six
These were peculiar. For a start, only four of the six pies came with a dusting of sugar. What was of more concern was the filling. Or lack of it. While some of the pies were stuffed with fruit mix, others would have been more properly called air pieces so thin was the filling.
Verdict: Average
Star rating:***
Cranberry sauce
Superquinn €1.89
We were wowed by the enormous fresh cranberries in this jar and doubly impressed by their Irishness. The sauce is a lovely balance of sharp and sweet, and the presence of apple juice in the mix was a pleasant surprise and lent it a flavour that will complement our Christmas ham.
Verdict: Lovely
Star rating: ****
Aldi €1.49
As with much of Aldi’s produce, this is good value and well worth picking up if you find yourself wandering the aisles of the German discounter in the run-up to the big day. It is much cheaper than some of its rivals but you’d never guess, thanks, we suspect, to Aldi’s pouring of a not-too-shabby shot of port into each jar. The ingredient list is pure and alongside the whole cranberries, you get only sugar, water port and redcurrant juice. Some cranberry sauces have a jammy taste, but this is quite acidic and the flavour of the cranberries manages to shine through.
Verdict: Hard to fault
Star rating:****
Fallon and Byrne €3.95
Aldi’s sauce might be the best value, but this one almost certainly has the best taste. It is made with red wine (and quite a lot if it, if the strong alcohol flavours are anything to go by), orange juice, lemon juice, sugar and cranberries. It is pleasingly sharp and tastes very fresh. While its rivals tend to have either a very jammy or a very jelly-like consistency, this is more saucey and all the better for that.
Verdict: Dear. Delicious.
Star rating:****
Marks and Spencer €2.19
This is not any old cranberry sauce but a “fine and proud cranberry sauce made from North American cranberries”. M&S also seems to be very proud that this is made in “Great Britain”. We’re not so impressed and would prefer to see an Irish-made option on our Christmas dinner plate. Its provenance is not our biggest concern – the taste and texture troubled us more. It was incredibly sweet and had a jammy consistency that did not do it any favours. It is made with a comparatively small number of cranberries – just 31 per cent – and the ones that we found were excessively chewy. It’s a nice price though.
Verdict: Not for us
Star rating:**
Tesco €2.19
Like Goldilocks, we are very hard to please betimes. There aren’t enough cranberries in the MS sauce and we reckon there are too many in here. All told, Tesco has squeezed 63 per cent wild cranberries into the fairly small jar. You’d imagine, then, that this would have some pretty sharp flavours. But you’d be wrong. It is very sweet. On a plate with a slice of turkey, this would be okay, but we reckon it would take over a sandwich.
Verdict: Sweet and strong
Star rating:**
Supervalu €1.93
There are a lot of cranberries in the mix and the flavours are very subtle. There is no added sugar, and all the sweetness comes from the grape juice in the mix. It will complement a turkey slice well but perhaps lacks the complexity of flavours – and, let’s be honest, the booze – found in some of its rivals. It is a nice price and will be easy to track down for most people.
Verdict: Pretty good
Star rating:***
Stuffing
The DIY Option €3.40 for 2kg
The only costs involved here are the fresh herbs and an onion – we’re not counting the slightly stale bread as it would have ended up in the bin. There are few elements of the Christmas dinner that are easier to throw together than the stuffing and it can be made a long time in advance. The whole process is complete in less than 10 minutes and, when enough butter, herbs and onions are added, it will taste as good as any of the store-bought options.
Verdict: Easy does it
Star rating:*****
Fallon and Byrne €3.50 for 350g
If you absolutely have to go out and spend money on something as simple as stuffing, then you will not go far wrong here. It tastes gorgeous. It is lovely and salty, and turns a beautiful, golden colour once cooked – thanks presumably to the dollop of butter in the mix. You will also get nice crunchy onions and lovely pieces of fresh sage. It is expensive, though, and you don’t get a whole lot of it for this price so we’d have to question if it’s value for money.
Verdict: A bit rich for us
Star rating:***
Tesco €2.99 for 400g
This stuffing is cheap but sadly, it tastes it. Given the simplicity of the product, it is hard to get it disastrously wrong and Tesco doesn’t but it has still managed to deliver a product that is pretty poor. It is stodgy, greasy and bland. It looks okay and will be fine when drowned in festive gravy, but it is not going to be a standout feature of any Christmas dinner.
Verdict: Poor
Star rating:**
Supervalu €3.09
This stuffing will form part of one of the many good value Christmas dinner deals that Supervalu is offering this year. It is lighter than the competition and bursting with fresh, herby flavours. There are a lot of crunchy onions in the mix. It is not a million miles away from the Tesco option but the thing that tips it out of the bland category is the salt – whether that is a good thing or not depends on where you stand on seasoning and how fast your heart is beating.
Verdict: Poor
Star rating: **
Marks and Spencer €4.19
We approached this with suspicion. It was pricey, there did not seem to be enough of it, and there was a whole lot of pork in the mix – and really, does our Christmas dinner really need any more meat? We ended up being very pleasantly surprised by this. It is more like a sausage than a stuffing but it is absolutely fully of herby meaty flavours and will be absolutely brilliant in a post-Christmas sarnie. We’re looking forward to it already.
Verdict: Delicious
Star rating: ****
Continental Christmas: German discounters seasonal treats
Christmas is coming and, if you live in Germany, it’s not just the goose that’s getting fat, thanks to these high-calorie Advent treats. A visit to a Christmas market on the Continent is less likely for most of us this year given our lighter wallets, but German supermarkets can bring the tastes of those markets into your own home if you have a hankering for something sweet.
Spekulatius (Aldi) or Spiced Biscuits (Lidl)
These decorative, crunchy biscuits contain the confectioners’ equivalent of cocaine: cardamom, cinnamon and clove. The biscuits originated in the Rhineland and the name Spekulatius has several possible sources, including the Dutch word for spice, Specerij or speculum, or mirror in Latin, referring to the biscuit template. Three varieties prevail: spicy, buttery, or almond. All are highly addictive, a package is easily consumed in a single sitting and, as such, should carry a health warning or be prescription-only comfort food.
Gingerbread (Lebkuchen)
If you need to give your palate a rest from the Spekulatius, consider the German gingerbread speciality: Lebkuchen. There is no agreement on the origin of the name, although the modern Lebkuchen can be traced back to the Belgian town of Dinant. Bakers in Aachen soon began producing their own variety, known as “Printen”.
It was in 14th-century Nuremberg, however, that the Lebkuchen began to flourish, and the Bavarian city is still considered the home of gingerbread. Nuremberg’s blue ribbon category, Elisenlebucken, have to legally contain at least 25 per cent almonds or other nuts. The common ingredients are, once again, the addictive three Cs: cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.
Stollen
You either love or hate this German alternative to our Christmas cake, which dates back to 15th-century Dresden. The breadish fruitcake contains dried fruit, fruit peel and spices baked in a large form and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Butter shortages in Saxony meant that the original stollen were baked with oil from turnips. In 1730, Saxon king Augustus the Strong ordered Dresden’s bakers to make a stollen large enough to give the entire city population a slice. The final stollen reportedly weighed 1.7 tonnes, with a slice for 24,000 people. The tradition continues today and Lidl holds the record for the world’s largest stollen – 70 metres long. Happily, the turnip oil has been dispensed with.
Marzipan
Though not exclusively a German speciality, the queen of marzipan hails from the northern city of Lübeck. It was first mentioned in 1530, and the city’s marzipan manufacturers insist on an almond content of at least 70 per cent. It is most likely to have been brought back from the Orient after the Crusades and produced in Venice as “Marci Panis” or Mark’s bread. An early adopter was theologian Thomas Aquinas who assured the faithful in the 13th century that eating marzipan before Mass did not count as breaking the pre-Eucharist fast.
