What food did you buy this Christmas that you liked/disliked?

[Madeyoulook]

Liked:
Morrisons turkey joint with stuffing - very nice and the right amount
Tesco veg - all fine

Disliked:
Tesco finest Belgian chocolate log - sweet and dry
Tesco finest small Christmas pudding - too many nuts
Tesco pate with apple chutney - nothing special
Tesco party food eg sausage rolls, spring rolls - very basic, wouldn’t buy again

Hits:
M&S stollen bites
M&S carrot crush

Misses:
Lidl favorina mini Christmas puddings
Tesco party food halloumi fries

We usually get our turkey from a local farm but like you panicked and bought a frozen one from Sainsburys at the end of November. I’m not sure if it’s all in my mind but it seemed dry, and the skin seemed thinner.

I also bought some M&S mince pies with cookie pastry. They had a strange aftertaste.

Hits:

• Cheese from our local fromargerie rather than buying the plastic tasting wax truckles from the supermarket
• Waitrose mince pies
• M&S beef bruschetta type things

Not so good:

• M&s Cornish cruncher
• M&S Parma ham croquettes (nasty!)

Dh bought : Tesco slow cooked lamb shoulder - was horrible and ruined our Christmas dinner. Wished I'd just bought a plain leg of lamb.

Aldi starter pack of cheese and olives was rank aswell.

It's so sad that so many of us are finding so much of the food we buy shit.

Hit - Waitrose entertaining I decorated iced and marzipaned Christmas cake. I will never make a Christmas cake again, it was superb

hit - M&S raspberry pannacotta, absolutely superb and so nice to have something more fresh tasting in amongst the dense dried fruit desserts/pies

hit - M&S zero alcohol sparkling rose for £4odd

Just put the Aldi tear and share Christmas tree bread in the oven. Horribly dry and tasteless. I’ll stick to making my own in future.

MiL hosted this year. She shops at Waitrose:

Weird filo pie with veggie mush filling and seeds on top. Didn't like this at all.
White chocolate mouse:blood orange filling dark chocolate base quenelle pudding thing - far too sweet. Didn't like the flavour combo at all (I'm not a big fan of chocolate orange)
Mushroom/l spinach/lentil wellington - probably would have been ok if it had been warned up
Veggie pigs in blankets - truly awful

We don't have a Waitrose near us. I won't be rushing to find one either.

Hits
Waitrose baking camembert wreath with red onion topping...
Waitrose jewelled nut roast, from their Entertaining range
Waitrose vegan not pigs in blankets, from their Entertaining range the 2 veggie dds loved them
Waitrose Breadsauce I usually make bread sauce but I bought it this year and it was lovely
Local farm shop turkey crown AMAZING
Farm in Norfolk Ducks SOOO good (sorry forgot their name begins with I we got them via Jarrods of Norfolk)
M&S Cooked ham Joint Delicious
M&S party food Bau buns

Always a hit
Hestons mince pies with a lemon twist

Hit w some miss with others
Waitrose pigs in blankets with sage leaf ds and I liked dh and dd1 didn't care for the sage dd1's boyfriend was sort of " they are ok"
Waitrose Duck pate with orange jelly I liked a lot dh doesn't at all DS said " meh its Pate!"

Miss
M&S party food mini quiche just dull
M&S Party food Indian selection, dry and flavourless
Waitrose party food pigs in blankets dull.

Hits
M&S pigs in blankets & stuffing balls.
M&S mince pies
Aldi extra special Yorkshire puds
Aldi panetonne

Yucky vacuum packed m&s turkey was complete disappointment. Didn't taste fresh at all . Never again

Liked: M&S: Free-range Turkey crown (with stuffing and bacon), pigs in blankets, food-to-order pigs in blankets and stuffing balls, tray of stuffing, Tesco Finest Cranberry topped turkey pork stuffing pie

Half-liked: Tesco Yule log (lovely buttercream icing but too dry), M&S Crackling chocolate logs (enjoyed the pieces of M&S chocolate on the outside and the popping candy but the icing tastes a bit strange!).

Disliked: Linda McCartney sausages- I used to be veggie and ate them regularly (I'm thinking of going back to veggie in the New Year too) but wonder whether the recipe has been changed as I found them disgusting!

M and S smoked salmon terrine horrible dill swamped miss

hit - did sprouts roast in olive oil with garlic, very yummy.

I agree; I think the standard of M&S party food had really gone down! It’s like they have decided to economise on ingredients but kept the prices still high. It was all a bit tasteless and greasy and tasted the same!

Pigs in blankets - no, I can't do them again too porky
Pork pie - see above

Frozen Lidl Turkey crown - great but I did brine it
Fortnum & Mason florentines - amazing, huge treat

YES:

M&S canapes: beef sandwiches (the bruschetta things), cheese profiteroles.

Wright Brothers side of smoked salmon.

M&S osso bucco.

M&S brie and potato pie.

MEHs:

M&S cranberry and brie filo canapes, and the mini beef wellingtons were mediocre, but okay.

M&S PiB - weird over processed taste and texture, like frankfurters.

Liked:
M&S Gammon joint
M&S Sprouts with pancetta and chestnut

Disliked:
M&S Red Cabbage (far too sweet)
Tesco Finest Pigs in Blankets (too little bacon which shrunk and fell off during cooking)

Sainsburys duck and orange pate. I buy some every Xmas and it’s usually just the right combo of sweet and savoury. Way way too salty this year I binned it after one cracker.

Aldi slow cooked Turkey joint - stuffed and topped with bacon. Absolutely lovely and only took an hour to cook. Will defo get again!

We had a M&S stuffed turkey crown and it was delicious. It did not take long to cook and there was no waste either.

We’ve had ( between my sisters and I ) 3 M & S free range turkey crowns this year and they’ve all been lovely , as was the M&S pork crackling joint .

M&S pigs in blankets were vile, didn’t resemble a sausage at all - I’ll get them from the local butcher next year!

im an M&S weekly shopper, as I love their usual quality so very disappointed with these.

Also, brownies from a local bakery (cost me £35) they were rock hard and tasteless.

Bought Aldi Maple smoked salmon for 3 guests which I swore I would never eat because I believed I hated smoked salmon.....had a wee try of it and it was divine on wheaten bread with cream cheese.

We got our turkey crown, bacon, sausages and sausage meat from our local butcher which was all lovely as usual. I make sausage rolls with the sausage meat (just cheat with frozen pastry) and mix in some garlic and herbs and everyone loved them.

Also made these melt in the middle chocolate puds which were lovely and quite easy - www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-chocolate-molten-cakes/amp - we bought some ready made ones too in case mine didn’t work out, but had the ready made ones on Boxing Day and the consensus was that people preferred homemade so will definitely do those again.

Shop-bought hits - Co-op roast potato crisps, Choco Liebniz Baileys biscuits, Sainsburys mini cheese selection, Sainsburys own cranberry sauce (much cheaper than the branded options), Sainsburys tempura prawns and spring rolls as starters

Haven’t really had any misses thankfully. I’m not a particularly adventurous eater so tend to do a similar menu each year of stuff that’s pretty much a dead cert to be good.

Hits

M&S Fillet of beef joint

Misses

M&S potato daulphonise - stodgy mess
M&S food to order Trifle -sickly sweet yet tasteless and a bit runny/wet
M&S food to order profiteroles - soggy

Think we'll be going to the butchers and giving M&S which has been a firm favourite for years a pass next year

Wow, there’s a lot of M&S misses this year.