The Big Christmas Taste Test 2022: which are the best supermarket turkeys, trifles, party food and more this year?
Cook-in-the-Bag Irish Bronze Turkey Crown with a Sultana & Raisin Stuffing Dressed with Maple Streaky Bacon Aldi Specially Selected 3-3.5kg (Serves 6-8), €39.99 A fairly foolproof cook-in-the-bag option from Aldi that scored highly with all of us. Tender and flavourful meat with a simple but effective stuffing that paired well with the sweet maple streaky bacon. ★★★★
Heritage Bronze Fresh Irish Reared Turkey Breast with Cranberry, Apricot & Clementine Stuffing
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
2kg (Serves 8-10), €44.99
This slow-reared heritage bronze turkey breast comes in a beautifully presented pack complete with a little festive-shaped star of sage butter and lattice of bacon. The stuffing here, a combination of clementine, cranberries and apricot, is wonderfully flavourful and, of all the turkeys in this category, this was the only one which provides exact cooking times for its weight — taking the guesswork out of the process.
★★★
Stuffed Turkey Crown wrapped with Bacon and Sage & Onion Stuffing
SuperValu
2.2kg (Serves 9), €24.99
A fairly standard offering with not much to write home about. The turkey itself was bland in flavour and the bacon became leathery during the cook time in the oven.
★★
DS
Ham
Maple & Festive Spice Christmas Ham
Aldi Specially Selected
1.1kg (Serves 4-6), €12.99
Tender slices with a sweet spiced glaze that intensifies the flavour of the fat on this ham.
★★★
Irish Back Bacon Joint With Bourbon
Tesco Finest
630g (Serves 4), €6
An Irish back bacon joint masquerading as a Christmas ham, and while this bakes well and comes with a bourbon and whiskey glaze, it felt more like an everyday offering than something you would wow the family with on Christmas Day.
★★
Traditional Glazed Baked Ham
Avoca
6.25kg (Serves 15-20), €89.95
Quite the investment with a hefty price tag, but this ham was stunning. It arrives glossy, glazed and adorned with rosemary and dried orange slices — it’s impressive before you even slice into it. Tender meat with wonderful sweet and salty caramelised edges. It’s the type of ham you would happily sneak slices of straight from the fridge once your guests had left.
★★★★★
Cook-in-the Bag Freshly Prepared Honey Mustard Irish Bacon Joint
SuperValu
1kg (Serves 4), €10
A well-priced bacon joint that was full in flavour and we all agreed was one of the most tender in the category. Perhaps this was down to the cook-in-the bag method, which also allowed the flavour of the honey and mustard to permeate the meat. Not a showstopper but certainly a good buy.
★★★★
Slow-Cooked Honey & Clove Baked Irish Ham
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
2kg (Serves 8-10), €28
For the price tag, we had been hoping for more from this ham, but the flavour of honey and cloves didn’t come through strongly enough and was a little bland. The cook time on the pack also left it slightly dry.
★★
DS
Prawn cocktail
Prawn Cocktail
Avoca
310g (Serves 4-6), €15.95
Decadent with plump tiger prawns in a well-seasoned sauce with celery extract, Napoleon brandy, Tabasco and dill (38pc prawns, €5.15 per 100g). Strong on convenience, presentation, balance and natural ingredients.
★★★★
Nolan’s King Prawn Cocktail
Tesco
170g (Serves 3-4), €3.50
A good-value option tasting clean and fresh in a loose, light and simple Marie Rose sauce featuring small but plentiful Atlantic prawns (50pc, €2.05 per 100g, from Canada or Iceland, processed in Killala).
★★★½
Luxurious King Prawn Cocktail
Aldi Specially Selected
180g (Serves 3-4), €3.69
‘Made in Ireland’ with what the label describes as ‘responsibly sourced’ king prawns farmed in Vietnam (54pc, €2.05 per 100g), which are small but juicy and firm, if liberally dressed in a heavily processed sauce.
★★★½
Irish Dublin Bay Prawn Cocktail
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
150g (Serves 3-4), €6.49
Featuring Irish langoustines (35pc, €4.33 per 100g) processed for Dunnes in Castletownbere, doused in a sweet, cloying and rather processed sauce that needs extra lemon juice to sharpen. Underwhelming.
★★★
Wild Atlantic Prawn Cocktail
SuperValu Signature Tastes
200g (Serves 3-4), €4.49
Featuring a small number of fat, soft and slightly pappy textured prawns (50pc, €2.25 per 100g) with no stated provenance, in a creamy, gloopy, heavily processed sauce. Serviceable but better options.
★★½
AC
Smoked salmon
Seaweed, Pepper & Lemon Smoked Salmon Slices
Aldi Specially Selected
100g (Serves 2), €4.99
This was the only non-organic salmon we tested. We found the flavours of lemon (dried lemon pieces), pink pepper, dried thyme and, particularly, seaweed overpowering and unpleasant. Not a great choice for Christmas Day.
★
Oak & Hickory Smoked Organic Irish Salmon with Kilkenny Apple Crystal Gin & Organic Juniper Berries
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
80g (Serves 2), €5.99
If you want to try something a little different, this is an interesting option (although probably best reserved for adults) with the fish first infused with juniper berries before being smoked over wood chips and finally marinated in gin.
★★★★
Irish Organic Smoked Salmon
Avoca
200g (Serves 5), €14.95
Smoked over beechwood, this will please those who like to keep things classic and pair their smoked salmon with traditional accompaniments of a wedge of lemon, a few capers and some good brown bread.
★★★★
Organic Irish Smoked Salmon
SuperValu
100g (Serves 2), €5.99
This has a flabbier texture than the Avoca smoked salmon, and a less-pronounced smokiness. It’s grand, but nothing special. Would be fine in a bagel with cream cheese.
★★★
KMcG
Pâté
Handmade Irish Smoked Trout Pâté
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
170g, €4.49
The hallmark of great Irish produce is often simplicity, and that is certainly the case when it comes to the back-of-the-pack ingredients for this smoked trout pâté. Cream cheese, crème fraîche, lemon and dill are the only ingredients required to elevate Goatsbridge smoked trout to a pâté more than worthy of your Christmas offering this year. A pure, clean-tasting pâté that will be your secret weapon this Christmas.
★★★★★
Duck Pâté
Avoca
300g, €10.50
A pâté with integrity from toasted pistachios, cranberries and apricots — all the extra elements that make it deserving of it’s spot at the table. Presentation-wise, you could happily serve thick slices straight to a platter and share it around the table. It comes with a sweet onion marmalade that makes this a star buy and our favourite of the meat pâtés on offer this year.
★★★★
Duck & Orange Pâté
Aldi The Deli
€1.49, 170g
An unpleasant combination of everything pâté should not be. A processed, aerated texture with a synthetic orange flavour that is incredibly disappointing. Wrinkled noses all round, don’t waste your money.
★
Horgans Brussels Pâté
Tesco
175g, €1.75
A smooth, rich-flavoured pâté that makes this a solid buy but perhaps more of an everyday pâté rather than something to wow your guests with over Christmas.
★★★
Belgian Pork Liver Assorted Pâtés
Lidl Deluxe
220g, €2.99
Pâté done badly can often fall foul of looking a little like cat food, and unfortunately, with its solid layer of cranberry jelly encased in little plastic packs, this is the case here. The flavour of the duck liver pâté itself was quite good, and for its price point, it’s not the worst buy this Christmas.
★★
DS
Stuffing
Cranberry, Apricot & Orange Stuffing
Aldi Specially Selected
300g (Serves 6), €3.19
This stuffing is nicely herby and well-balanced, with finely chopped cranberries, apricots and thin slivers of orange zest combining to lend just the right amount of sweetness.
★★★★★
Cranberry & Apricot Stuffing
Avoca
500g (Serves 2), €8.95
This stuffing looks gorgeous, and the breadcrumbs have a lovely buttery flavour. The cranberry is very sweet, so this may not appeal to those who prefer a more savoury stuffing. There’s plenty here for leftover sandwiches too.
★★★★
Sage & Onion Stuffing
SuperValu
275g (Serves 5), €2.25 ( 2 for €4)
A very dull, dry stuffing with an overwhelming flavour of dried herbs. This reminded us of what Christmas dinner was like when stuffing had a long shelf-life and had to be reconstituted with water. Rather miserable.
★
Handmade Cranberry Apricot & Clementine Ciabatta Stuffing
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
225g (Serves 5), €4
Our testers found this stuffing overly sweet — perhaps thanks to the caramelised clementines — with a texture that verged on mealy. If you have a sweet tooth, you may love it.
★★★
Wild Sage & Buttered Onion Stuffing
Tesco Finest
225g (Serves 4), €3
This traditional offering is not very exciting, but will please those who don’t like any sweetness in their stuffing. It’s quite salty, with a distinctly savoury flavour profile.
★★★
KMcG
Party food
Brie and Cranberry Tarts
M&S
252g (Serves 12), €8
Rustic parcels of crispy filo pastry that could almost pass as homemade, filled with a cranberry and port sauce with restrained sugar levels, and a mustard and French brie sauce. Grand, if little wow factor.
★★★
Duck Spring Rolls
Aldi
180g (Serves 10), €1.29
Crispy spring-roll pastry filled with duck breast (19pc) produced in China and dressed in a very sweet, almost jammy hoisin sauce that is markedly sugary in flavour. Cheap but verging on cheerless.
★★
Handmade Buttermilk Ranch
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
220g, €3.99
Developed by chef Kevin Aherne using Irish buttermilk to achieve a moreish, creamy tang, this is an excellent all-purpose party hack as a dip for tortilla chips, vegetable crudité, chicken wings or roast cauliflower.
★★★★★
Lobster Mac & Cheese
Tesco Finest
160g (Serves 8), €8
A waste of what is labelled as responsibly sourced Canadian lobster, with rubbery pasta in a congealed and gloopy sauce that may have had promise but is overwhelmed by stridently fishy flavours. Unpleasant.
★
Sticky Chilli Cauliflower Bites
Tesco Plant Chef
220g (Serves 4), €3
With the distinctive taste and soggy texture of over-boiled rather than roast cauliflower, and a very hot peppery kick of chilli from a sauce that tastes of onion powder and garlic powder. Vegans deserve better.
½
AC
Christmas pudding
12-Month Matured Christmas Pudding
Tesco Finest
400g (Serves 4), €6.15
Dark, dense and distinctively boozy (thanks to a knees-up of cider, Cognac, Amontillado sherry and ruby port) with a nuttiness balancing the rich fruits, this delivers the most traditional style of plum pudding taste and texture.
★★★★
Perfectly Matured Cherry & Orange Wreath Christmas Pudding
M&S Collection
700g (Serves 6), €18
With novelty factor from the wreath shape and the glazed, candied fruit topping, and not overly boozy, so more family friendly than others, if not necessarily for lovers of a more traditional style.
★★★
Luxury 24-Month Matured Christmas Pudding
Lidl Deluxe
800g (Serves 8), €9.99
Very much an adult-friendly plum pudding, with a liberal lacing of sherry and Courvoisier VS Cognac lending an extremely boozy character, but also great moistness to complement the chunky texture of fruit and nuts.
★★★½
Limited-Edition Hennessy Cognac Christmas Pudding
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
454g (Serves 4), €11.99
Lighter in colour, texture and flavour, with almond notes coming through and candied orange slices that look great, even if they somewhat dominate the flavour and get in the way of slicing and eating.
★★★
Small Christmas Pudding
Avoca
454g (Serves 4), €14.95
Well-balanced spicing and vine fruit flavours but more cake-like in texture with a dry and fine crumb, this was disappointing given the pretty packaging and high price compared to stronger competition.
★★½
AC
Christmas cake
Irish Christmas Cake
SuperValu Signature Tastes
1.2kg (12 x 100g servings), €13
This is a good, moist cake with plenty of fruit infused with French brandy and triple sec. You won’t get away with passing it off as your own, though. Joint favourite and good value.
★★★★★
Hand-Crafted Irish Vintage Christmas Cake
Aldi Specially Selected
1kg (12 x 83g servings), €9.99
This is a good-value option for a traditional cake, nicely decorated with a leaping reindeer. The strong flavour of the marzipan is quite dominant.
★★★★
Traditional Hand-Decorated Christmas Cake
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
500g (5 x 100g servings), €9.99
Made by O’Hara’s of Foxford in Co Mayo, the all-butter cake includes Californian raisins, Turkish sultanas, Vostizza currants, cherries, butter and whiskey used to feed the cake before and after baking. The quality of the fruit stands out.
★★★★★
Iced Christmas Cake (5 inch)
Avoca
900g (Serves 4-6), €34.95
Despite the fact that this cake is macerated with Irish whiskey and matured for three months, we found the texture rather dry. The whole almond marzipan is good though, and it does look very pretty. Very expensive in comparison to the other cakes tested.
★★★
Fruity & Decadent Hand-Decorated Rich Fruit Cake
Tesco Finest
907g (12 x 76g servings), €6
The icing on this cake is very thick and tends to dominate each mouthful, but the flavour and consistency of the cake itself is quite pleasant.
★★★
KMcG
Mince pies
All-Butter Pastry Mince Pies
SuperValu Signature Tastes
350g (Serves 6), €4 (2 for €6)
The pastry is nicely buttery but the filling is dry and the mince pie, as a whole, feels like a lot to get through. It’s not a party mince pie, more something to eat after a long walk, maybe with a spoonful or two of brandy butter.
★★
All-Butter Mince Pies
Aldi Specially Selected
350g (Serves 6), €2.79
These mince pies are very dry, with a dull-tasting filling (despite brandy, dry cider and ruby port) that is more of a mushy paste than a traditional mincemeat.
★
Mince Pies
M&S Food Collection
334g (Serves 6), €4.50
Nice crumbly all-butter pastry filled with a citrusy mincemeat of vine fruits, cranberries, clementine and cognac. The proportion of filling to pastry is just right, and the mince pies hold together well.
★★★★
All-Butter Mince Pies
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
400g (Serves 6), €4.99 (2 for €7)
The mince pies are made by hand and you could pass them off as your own. The flavour is good but the ratio of pastry to filling is wrong — the pastry is too short and the mince pies fall apart when picked up, so these are not suitable for a drinks party if you don’t want crumbs all over the carpet.
★★★
Mince Pies
Tesco
324g (Serves 6), €1.15
The filling and pastry are in the correct proportion here, and the ‘butter-enriched’ pastry (not all-butter) has a nice crispness to it, but the filling is over-sweet.
★★★
KMcG
Dessert alternatives
Our Best Ever Trifle
M&S
900g (Serves 6), €7
M&S leads with a bold “best ever” boast but we found this a little disappointing in its presentation and scoop-ability when it came to serving. That being said, it’s a solid Christmas trifle buy that doesn’t mess around with a classic. Rich custard, pure fruit flavour, and although the sponge was quite moist, this will make a lot of trifle purists happy.
★★★
Handmade Chocolate, Raspberry & Caramel Yule Log
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
800g (Serves 8-10), €20
An impressive centrepiece for any Christmas table, Robert Bullock from Le Patissier creates this festive yule log for the Simply Better range at Dunnes Stores. If you have a sweet tooth, you will certainly enjoy this hefty combination of sponge, chocolate ganache, mousse and biscuit. Presentation-wise this was a showstopper and a really impressive buy.
★★★★
Chocolate & Orange Bombe
Lidl Deluxe
227g (Serves 2), €2.99
A dainty little pudding for two that delivers on its oozy, melt-in-the-mouth, chocolate interior promise but suffers a slightly dense sponge with a disappointing orange flavour from concentrate. A Terry’s Chocolate Orange might be a better choice to scoff in front of the big Christmas movie.
★★
Baileys Tiramisu Trifle
Avoca
850g (Serves 4), €14.95
Certainly not your traditional trifle but a nice change for the Christmas dessert offering. The flavour of the chocolate sponge and Bailey’s custard is wonderful, but the combination of layers leaves quite a dense texture compared to some of the other trifles we tasted.
★★★★
DS
Festive crisps
Sea Salt & White Wine Vinegar Flavour Crisps
SuperValu Signature Tastes
125g (Serves 5), €1.60
The vinegar may be strident but these crisps have the best pure flavour of the ones we tested, and the crisp itself is of good quality. Moreish, and not just at Christmas.
★★★★
Pigs In Blankets Combo Mix
M&S Christmas
150g (Serves 5), €2.75
These potato snacks are made with dried potato and aren’t strictly crisps, but they are nice and crunchy and look attractive. The pork and bacon flavour seasoning is pleasant (the packaging states all ingredients are ‘natural’) — these will go down well with drinks at a party.
★★★★
Mature Cheddar & Red Onion Hand-Cooked Crisps
Aldi Specially Selected
150g (Serves 5), €1.79
This strongly flavoured crisp has good texture, and the aftertaste is of cheese rather than onion, which is a good thing. Could be great in a leftover sandwich on St Stephen’s Day.
★★★
Roast Turkey & Stuffing Hand-Cooked Crisps
Tesco Finest Limited Edition
150g (Serves 6), €2.25
The powerful turkey and stuffing seasoning means that a few of these crisps made with Irish potatoes go a long way. Yes, they have novelty value, but not much else to recommend them.
★
French Brie & Cranberry Hand-Cooked Crisps
Lidl Deluxe
150g (Serves 6), €1.79
The ‘sweet crossed with cheese’ flavour of these crisps is controversial, no doubt about it, and the crisp itself isn’t of the same quality as the others tested.
★
KMcG
Irish cheese boards
Neven Maguire Irish Farmhouse Cheese Board
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
615g (Serves 6), €29.99 (in-store from Dec 9)
A gift-ready range of quality Irish farmhouse cheeses, in great condition and with well-communicated provenance, complete with cheese knife, wooden board and an excellent cranberry and fig chutney (but no crackers).
★★★★½
Irish Cheese Hamper
Aldi Specially Selected
1.025kg (Serves 8), €15.99
A budget- and family-friendly selection of seven Irish cheeses, including vintage cheddars, brie-style goat’s cheese and Cashel Blue with a decent Ploughman’s chutney and good black pepper savoury crackers. Solid value.
★★★
Irish Cheese Board
Avoca
815g (Serves 4), €30
The ‘selection of Irish cheese’ included a northern Italian wine-soaked Ubriaco Riserva, a French goat buchette with cranberries, Wicklow Bán and Cratloe Hills mature sheep’s cheese, plus decent brown bread crackers and an odd apple chutney. Disappointing.
★★★
AC
Sparkling wine
Allini Organic Prosecco Extra Dry 2021
Lidl
75cl, 11pc, €13.99
Made from organically grown grapes, a fresh aperitif-friendly Prosecco with a crisp finish and lots of citrus tang balancing peachy notes and the higher residual sugar levels of an Extra-Dry style. Smart and friendly.
★★★★
Torre Oria Cava Brut Reserva
Dunnes Stores Simply Better
75cl, 11.5pc, €12.79 (was €15.99, 20pc off until Jan 2)
Quite a grown-up style and very much an aperitif — ideally with seafood like oysters — with fresh attack of zesty grapefruit peel and saline notes on the clean palate, finishing very dry. Divisive but decent.
★★★★
Costellore Prosecco Spumante Extra Dry
Aldi
11pc, 75cl, €11.99
A fuller Prosecco with plump orchard fruits and apple-peel aromas and very tangy green apple on the palate. Higher residual sweetness of the Extra Dry style balances the mouthfeel (if not quite the high acidity).
★★★½
Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut
Tesco Finest
75cl, 11.5pc, €17.99
Promising aromas that are clean and zesty with delicate apricot notes lead to a soft mouthfeel with lemon-peel freshness, but let down by a sherbety character building to a somewhat cloying and confected finish.
★★★
Marks & Sparkle with 22ct Edible Gold Leaf
M&S
75cl, 13pc, €15
Surprisingly dry given the peach liqueur in this ‘alcoholic sparkling grape-based beverage’, with off-putting hints of sour milk overlaying peach aromas, with a bitter zesty finish. Odd but fun, if ingesting gold is fun.
★★
AC
Photography: Ruth Medjber
Styling: Eoin Gavin
Food styling: Orla Neligan
Hair and makeup: Brown Sugar
Studio space: Manor Picture House, Stoneybatter
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