How have your Christmas food deliveries worked out?

[KenAdams]

Ocado have delivered me no gammon and a chicken that goes off on Christmas Eve so now I need to brave the shops and keep my fingers crossed.

How has everyone else faired?

@VanGoghsDog I assume you are shielding / vulnerable hence being told to not leave the house.
Our nearest supermarket is 20 miles away.
We live very remotely

Thank you to all you online shoppers, I've been to three supermarkets today and M&S and they were all dead.
It's been the best Christmas food shopping experience I've had in years. Worst was when I got the date muddled for my online shop so didn't amend my order so only received two bottles of Champagne and a jar of redcurrant jelly

Everyone should know that when you shop online the packers give you the items with the shortest shelf life
DD does this for a holiday job, in her case it's not intentional that she picks the shortest dates it's just she has a target to meet so can't waste time rooting through and the shorter dates are near the top.

I’ve been trying to get an Ocado slot for the past two months so I can get M&S Christmas stuff like I usually do, but sadly never any slots available and no way am I risking going to the shop. So everything is a bit less nice this year.

Asda has no hummus and I can’t get it anywhere else. Half of my Tesco shop looks to be out of stock and there haven’t been any turkeys available in the app for about four days. And no shop anywhere seems to have any fucking figs!!

Everyone should know that when you shop online the packers give you the items with the shortest shelf life
This is why I prefer to go to the supermarket. But I also prefer not to catch Covid so I figure food with short dates is the lesser of two evils.

@DonkeyMcFluff

Everyone should know that when you shop online the packers give you the items with the shortest shelf life This is why I prefer to go to the supermarket. But I also prefer not to catch Covid so I figure food with short dates is the lesser of two evils.

I always have plenty of days to use my fresh food I get from Ocado. No short shelf life with anything I’ve ever ordered from them.

My Tesco click & collect order, collected 21st, had stuffing with a date of 22nd (which I've put in the freezer, must remember to take it out on Christmas Eve!) & 4 substitutions, all of which were minor (eg ordinary Camembert instead of Finest and 4x2 pints of milk instead of 2x4 pints)
I didn't get the meat (turkey crown & beef joint) from there, though, that was ordered in October from M&S and DD is collecting it tomorrow, hopefully there will be no problem!

Morrison’s deliveries are picked at the warehouse, so my shopping has never seen the inside of a store before it comes to me. Dates are always long as a result - most meat more than one week, sometimes two; veg the same; milk 7 - 10 days.

I couldnt get a slot between 16th and 30th.

So even though supposed to be going to our social bubble on Christmas Day. I got a plan B in motion in case we can not go for obvious reasons and got a chicken breast which is in the freezer with my delivery on the 16th. Also got non fridge freezer stuff like Christmas pudding as will have to take my own if we go anyway due to dietary problems.

Then braved shops about five hours ago. ( if we go to social bubble we can have the chicken breast as normal roast another time).

Morrison’s delivery here today - no subs in a massive order. Ours comes straight from warehouse too as pp said , and all with good dates. Relieved, as I was getting worried hearing about the empty shelves in shops..

@nanny2012nanny

If you can physically go shopping yourself you should. Your incredibly lucky to get a delivery slot... Ive spent the last 9 months shopping for my albeit very small village as no slots available. Everyone should know that when you shop online the packers give you the items with the shortest shelf life.....

I’ve never struggled to get a slot even in the first lockdown so there are plenty to go around here. Also always had great dates on all my stuff.

Ocado are usually pretty good shelf life wise.

Seems everyone has failed quite well - I remember last years thread being a different story so I think covid has definitely helped the supermarkets prepare themselves for spikes in demand.

I didn't think of freezing the chicken! I think my options are freeze, serve and hope I don't give the entire family food poisoning or cook and reheat the next day. Any ideas which may be the more preferable option to stop the meat being the texture of shoe leather please?

We have 2 Ocado slots- the first on 21st had 2 missing items (not Christmas related) and one sub. The second is Christmas Eve and has all the fresh so we’ll know late on 23rd when the receipt appears. It’s an early slot so we have all of the 24th to get to shops for anything vital. The things we really need are: Chicken, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, potatoes, stuffing, pigs, cream and cheeses. The rest I could do without. The booze came on the 21st at least!

A colleague had no turkey delivered, but a bright spark substituted it for turkey breast steaks - the same amount in weight as the turkey.
We've had a bit of a chuckle about that one

Awaiting Morrison's on Xmas Eve

A bit nervous

My Waitrose order delivered on time yesterday (Tuesday) in full except one small but very bearable substitution and good expiry dates. I've had the slot booked out as early as they released the Christmas slots. 🌹

All the obvious bad teeth, poor hygiene

I really can’t stand lazy men. I mean men who cba to work

And men who constantly put down the mother of their children and call her names

Men who have an opinion on abortion other than they fully support a women’s right to choose

Oops posted on the wrong thread

@KenAdams - it’s late, so apologies if it’s been suggested already!

I would freeze it. Take it out the day before and defrost it in the fridge. I’d probably take it out the fridge an hour before putting it in the oven. Cook it upside down, that way the juices run into the breast to help keep it moist.

Caveat - am not a chef!

@KenAdams on Christmas Eve, unwrap the chicken and fully season it. Salt, spices, etc on the outside and inside of the cavity. Wrap it up with plastic wrap and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. Cook it on Christmas Day and it’ll be lovely and flavourful because you’ve let it marinate for at least 12 hours at that point. No leather chicken there! :)

Yea freeze the chicken and get it out Christmas eve to defrost. I did that last week with one delivered that was up the next day. It was fine when I cooked it. Pork pie was missing off my order. Popping in to local town today to get veg and salad from veg shop so may pop in to iceland or coop to get it if not too mad.

Ocado. Everything came bar 2 packs sausages. Sadly my guests won’t so we have a lot of food and a £50 turkey crown for 3 .

Pleasantly surprised that my Waitrose order was full, no substitutions. At this time of year I do expect them to be low on some items but I have everything I ordered. Only thing I need now is some fresh sourdough and I'm all set

I've got my fingers crossed as our food delivery is this afternoon.

Had Tesco last night. A few substitutions and a couple of unavailable items, but nothing we can’t cope with. Won’t be going into a shop to plug the gaps. It’s ‘just us’ now anyway- I was tempted to just do sausage and chips for lunch, but DH wants a proper roast.

I couldn't get an Ocado delivery slot near enough to Christmas so had resigned myself to having to brave the shops. Then I checked at the weekend on the off chance some people might have cancelled, and lo there was a slot last night! Got everything with no substitutions. Turkey is coming from the butcher. So I'm happy.