It may be a stuffed turkey, a side of salmon or a nut roast at the centre of your Christmas Day table. But this year retailers are throwing everything at those little sausages wrapped in bacon that usually sit on the side, in the hope of clawing back some much-needed revenue.
The food industry has gone berserk over pigs in blankets, offering dozens of new varieties as well as spin-offs such as gravy, pizzas, milkshakes and even dog treats.
The sausage snack regularly tops polls of favourite festive foods, and, with over £30m spent on them in supermarkets alone, they are big business for retailers, restaurants and food service chains.
Neil Nugent of food consultancy BullDogFish, says new products help pull in customers. “Everyone is trying to get you in the mood,” he said. “It is like a pre-theatre drink.”
The Pizza Punks chain has a pigs in blankets pizza that “goes down a treat”, and burger chain Five Guys even tried a pigs in blankets milkshake, made of three rashers whizzed into a vanilla shake with added crunchy bacon.
Tesco’s 16 varieties include “pigs in blankets in yorkshire puddings” and “maple bangers in blankets” – a meat-free lookalike made from pea protein; Asda and Marks & Spencer have foot-long versions; and Pets at Home is offering pigs in blankets dog treats.
Some say it was Delia Smith who first put pigs in blankets on the festive menu in the 1990s when they appeared in her Christmas recipe book, then supermarkets began to sell ready-made versions. Today, chef Yotam Ottolenghi is suggesting home cooks try his sticky pomegranate and pistachio pigs in blankets.
Almost half of those polled for a Tesco survey say pigs in blankets are their favourite festive trimming and, with budgets under pressure this year, they would rather economise on the turkey than on these.
Supermarket sales are up nearly a fifth over four years, from £26.4m in December 2018 to £31.2m this year, according to data firm Kantar.
On the big day, they work to bring the meal together, says Nugent. “Turkey needs all the help it can get. Salty, smoky bacon and nicely seasoned sausage – along with stuffing and other bits – really help.”
• This article was amended on 20 December 2022 to attribute the figures on supermarket sales to Kantar; this detail had been lost during the editing process.
