M&S Christmas Food hit and misses

[gbpaln]

I'm always taking notes for next year so interested in thoughts on M&S Christmas food hits and misses. Ours were:

Hits
Chateaubriand beef with peppercorn source
Sticky toffee trifle (was sceptical but delicious)
Christmas sourdough (made the most amazing Boxing Day sandwiches)

Misses
Dancing through the Snow dessert (it was fine and looked amazing when on the table but very.expensive for a couple of spoonfuls of mousse)
Pigs in Blankets Mac 'n' Cheese

Appreciate it is all down to personal taste but always wonder what delights I have missed.

One of the flavours (ginger) tasted foul.

To add my own suggestion; the garlic wreath with Brie in the middle.

The Xmas tree cheesy garlic bread was absolutely awful and dry, took one tear out of it and threw it in the bin. Honestly something from Aldi would of tasted better

We had all our Christmas food from M&S and the only issues I had were with the carrot and swede mash - too runny and then the cooking instructions for the sprouts said to microwave them for something like 6 mins, no water then pan fry them. I really didn’t fancy undercooked hard sprouts (and knew my nan and aunty prefer them on the softer side) so I just boiled them lightly (picked the chestnuts and bacon out first) then pan fried all together for 5 mins after. Did anyone actually just do them as per the package instructions and they turned out okay?

This year decided to upgrade our Prosecco contribution to xmas dinner hosted by a relative. We'd usually bring several bottles of Freixenet rose presecco, but went for M&S's more expensive version this year after putting a few more pennies into our xmas savings.

Bitterly disappointed. Piss in a bottle! Tasted absolutely rank.

Luckily another relative brought bottles of Freixenet, so after forcing down flutes of the M&S shite we all gladly switched to that. Came back home with a couple of bottles of the M&S prosecco vinegar which has been slung down the sink.

Waste of money. Won't be buying it again.

The sticky toffee trifle was a massive hit in my household … Hope they do it again next year 🤞🏼

We were not impressed with the party food, or could have been from Iceland!

We had the
Mini chicken kievs
Mac and cheese balls
Prawn toast - this one was actually ok but nothing special

I had the eton mess trifle and it was weird. Did not rate it

Did you know that Aldi and M&S food is the same - just different packaging - all comes from the same warehouse xx

Doesn’t mean it’s the same recipe, or the same ingredients though.

eta we jumped ship from Aldi to M&S for our weekly shop back in February, and there’s a significant difference in the food.

I was disappointed with Colin too!

The only difference is the price!! The use the same 3rd party manufacturers!!

My in laws actually served up some fantastic party food picky bits for starters, and when I asked where they were from I was genuinely surprised to hear they were from Iceland. They were ludicrously better than the party food we'd ever had from Sainsbury's, Waitrose, M&S or any other supermarket and at a fraction of the price.

Like, seriously, they were delicious!

I'm usually a budget shopper when it comes to food as we've always been on a super tight budget month to month, but DH gets fussy at xmas and demands the higher end stuff. But every single time he makes us have 'better" it's never actually better.

It's just because if he has ONE thing from a budget supermarket that's not great, he instantly associates it with being 'cheap' and never forgets it. Won't have cheap stuff for xmas! But he also never grasps that he's never ever happy with ANY of the higher priced food from supposedly higher quality supermarkets either. We still have to spend over the odds at xmas to satisfy his xmas food cupboard snobbery.

Iceland isn't to be scoffed at. I'm genuinely going there for our next food shop.

This is true, but different recipes. M&S also has the freshest fresh ingredients, while Aldi have the the least freshest, which is why you'll find your fruit and veg from Aldi is inedible a lot sooner than M&S.

While I agree that paying more doesn't always equal better (as evidenced by this thread) having the same manufacturing company doesn't mean the exact same ingredients/products/freshness.

You have to try and test. Not everything from Aldi is great. And I'm a weekly Aldi customer. But having tried a lot of their stuff, most of it is great for budget and you can't knock it for the price. But some stuff is obviously cheap and doesn't taste good, and their fresh stuff will never be on par with M&S.

I just find with Aldi's fresh stuff, only buy what you'll need to eat within 2-4 days, otherwise it'll be in the food waste and defeats the point of buying budget.

Of course they use the same manufacturers. If you want a chocolate cake made for your supermarket you go to a factory that makes chocolate cakes. If you want a sausage made for your supermarket you go to a sausage manufacturer. There isn't a special M&S cake bakery or sausage factory!

However they use different ingredients and different quality ingredients and different recipes. Each supermarket will have their own recipe made specially for them. The whole production line will switch to the new recipe when making for different supermarkets. And trust me, the ingredients and recipes for Aldi and M&S will be very different as they are made to a different price point.

You can see this sort of thing happening on a small scale if you ever watch The Apprentice on tv.

M&S Collection 'Nduja & Ciabatta Crumb Baking Burrata
… divine!! On warmed crusty bread slices 😍😍

Waitrose much better at this...

Gluten free samosas are tiny and very expensive - but delicious!

The mini mince pies and mini turkey toasties were delicious. Also enjoyed the profiterole dessert.

Halibut was lovely but sooo expensive. Potato dauphinoise was good but way too small. I had to make another one myself!

We don’t have Ocado here in most of Scotland.

So you don’t understand food manufacturing at all then …..

Thank you for explaining when I couldn’t be bothered to deal with it

Our Christmas hits were:

oakham turkey crown
big mix sweet tin
sticky toffee trifle
pork stuffing balls and pigs in blankets
vanilla and raspberry pannacotta
extremely chocolatey biscuit selection
christmas cake bar (only me that eats Christmas cake so a big one is wasted)

Christmas misses

sugar glazed gammon ham - ours was very fatty
pigs in blankets flavour crisps

The Rodney Reindeer pies were basically brownies in pastry but they were a good alternative for people who don’t like mince pies. I would get them again if they do them next year.

I do, but Ocado is permanently out of stock for the party food and was last year as well.
If I have to go in person to the shop to get party food, I might as well get everything in person.
M&S via Ocado has been a total waste of time and it’s such a pity

I got a turkey joint with bacon on top and stuffing. Was about £30.00 maybe a bit more. It was really nice and very tender, only DH and I had it but was enough for a few meals. It was perfect for taking to MIL’s.

Ours was all smashed when we collected it, they didn't charge us. Luckily it was just me and DD so not a show piece. Tasted nice but expensive for what it was.
I think as soon as its out the fridge it melts slightly and falls apart.