The best and worst supermarket trimmings

The best and worst supermarket trimmings

Buy

Morrisons pigs in blankets, £1.99Better when crispy, so brown off properly. The bacon dried well and they have a good sausage taste.

Marks & Spencer pigs in blankets, £3.29The herbs give a slightly too perfumey aftertaste, but these are good.

Don't buy

Iceland Glenview Farm frozen pigs in blankets, £2Unwrap the bacon and there's not actually a sausage inside. It's some sort of white sausage meat. They taste terrible. Beyond bad.

Tesco sausage & bacon wraps, £1.50They look like school dinner sausages - they're very pale, even after ages in the oven. They taste like bad fat.

Cranberry sauce

Buy

Asda cranberry sauce, 66pContains 47% fruit and has a proper cranberry taste.

Waitrose cranberry sauce with port, £2.19Very fruity with huge berries and not overly sweetened. More pricey than Asda, though.

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Don't buy

Aldi Elsenham wild cranberry sauce, 99pDulled down, cheap jam.

Tesco cranberry sauce, 57pOnly has 28% fruit. This has nothing going for it.

Bread sauce

Buy

Sainsbury's fresh bread sauce, £1.69Bit too clovey, but nice consistency. As good as premade bread sauce gets.

Lidl Colemans bread sauce, 39pNot bad, but goes putty-like if left out for long.

Don't buy

Morrisons fresh Jersey cream and nutmeg bread sauce, £1.49Watery, salty, with a vague aftertaste of flour.

Marks & Spencer fresh bread sauce, £2.99Far too rich - 21% double cream and only 8% bread. It doesn't even taste like bread sauce.

Stuffing

Buy

Iceland Paxo chestnut and cranberry dried stuffing, £1By far the best of the dried stuffings.

Morrisons pork, apricot, cranberry and almond stuffing balls, £2.19Proper stuffing. I'd be happy to serve this.

Don't buy

Sainsbury's sage & onion dried stuffing, 16pSave your stale bread and make your own. It would be infinitely better than this.

Marks & Spencer pork and caramelised chestnut stuffing, £3.99Greasy, tasteless, bland.

Christmas pudding

Buy

Marks & Spencer Christmas pudding, £1.99Really good value. The part that binds the fruit together is moist rather than indiscernible gloop. This was the only pudding out of nine own-brand puddings I tasted that I feel able to recommend.

Don't buy

Asda smart price Christmas pudding, £1Disgusting. Tastes of plastic.

Iceland extra-large Christmas pudding, £5Horrible. It only 0.5% brandy in it - what's the point? And what on earth is cotton seed oil?

Brandy butter

Buy

Sainsbury's Courvoisier brandy butter, £1.65Nice flavours of alcohol and a good sugary crunch.

Marks & Spencer brandy butter with Courvoisier VS Cognac, £2.99A touch too sweet and needs more alcohol. It's a good sugary brown colour though.

Don't buy

Waitrose brandy butter, £2.19Just tastes likes sugary butter. Not good.

Tesco Brandy Butter, £1.19Not enough booze in this.