Christmas Day is creeping ever closer - which means the countdown is on for arguably the best part of the whole day, Christmas dinner. Whether you'll be cooking it yourself, or are looking forward to someone else preparing the special festive meal, no doubt we're all looking forward to sitting down and tucking into some tasty roast potatoes and turkey.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent research by The Midland hotel in Manchester revealed that 48 per cent of Brits say pigs in blankets are their favourite festive food. The delicious mini sausages wrapped in bacon are a staple of many Christmas dinners and shoppers will be preparing for the big day by heading out to the shops to pick some up.
With all supermarkets offering their own versions of the porky treats, it can be tough to know which ones are the best in terms of taste and value for money - and with the cost of living crisis worsening during the winter, everyone is keen to know how they get the most out of their purchases. So Manchester Evening News reviewer Bethan Shufflebotham went on a mission to find out which supermarket pigs in blankets offering was the best.
Bethan's investigation, which saw her buy 84 pigs in blankets as part of a 20-mile round trip to her local M&S, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda supermarkets, looked at price, packaging, appearance and most importantly, taste - and some fared way better than others, with Bethan deciding there was only one option shoppers should go for this Christmas Day.
So, should you stay loyal to your regular supermarket for pigs in blankets this year, or is it worth heading somewhere new to pick up the best version of the sausage treats? Here is what Bethan found.
Price and weight
There’s a whopping £2.26 difference between the cheapest pigs in blankets from Aldi and Lidl, at £1.99, and Marks and Spencer’s £4.25 pack - each for 12 bacon-wrapped sausages. Elsewhere, Morrisons pack of 12 came in at £2.25, while Asda’s were £2.40 and Tesco 10p more at £2.50.
Sainsbury’s were the second most expensive at £3 per pack - but it makes sense, since they’re one of the heaviest too, coming in at 260g. M&S were heaviest at 282g, while Asda, Lidl and Aldi all weighed 222g, Tesco at 228g, with Morrisons coming in smallest at 210g.
Here are the sausages in order of price per 100g
Lidl and Aldi 89p per 100g
Morrisons £1.07 per 100g
Asda £1.08 per 100g
Tesco £1.09 per 100g
Sainsbury’s £1.15 per 100g
M&S £1.50 per 100g
Packaging and appearance
When it comes to packaging design, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons win for me, complete with proper party packaging - not just ‘red with a bit of glitter’ like most of the others. M&S had some of the most boring packaging, with a barely noticeable holly illustration being the only remotely festive thing about it - but Tesco’s was by far the bleakest.
Packaging in order of festiveness:
Sainsbury’s
Morrisons
Asda
Aldi
Lidl
M&S
Tesco
I considered which looked the best before cooking, and it was safe to say M&S chunky looking sausages won that one, appearing to have the most bacon. Tesco’s looked tiny in comparison, while Morrisons just looked a bit messy really, having to re-wrap some of the pigs before I could even put them in the oven.
Taste
I cooked two of each sausage to provide a blind taste test for my family, who would go on to try half a sausage from each supermarket. After being in the oven on Gas Mark 6 for 25 minutes, they looked ready to eat - but some looked more appealing than others.
Post-roast, it was Lidl’s that looked the best, with crispy bacon and a well-coloured meat - but, upon eating, the meat was quite gristly with quite an earthy flavour. Similarly, Aldi’s didn’t pack much flavour, with the streaky bacon being quite fatty. This means shoppers would do better to spend a little extra on their pigs in blankets, with both budget options failing the taste test for all four people.
With a rating falling in the middle was Tesco, with quite a salty flavour due to the abundance of bacon, while Morrisons previously messy pigs in blankets looked rather appealing, but lacked in flavour.
Asda’s offering was quite ‘bratwurst-y’, with a consistent texture without gristle - leaving Sainsbury’s or M&S to take the crown for the best pigs in blankets for 2022.
M&S’s pigs in blankets lost points for bacon shrinkage, no longer actually blanketing the sausage, but clinging onto it for dear life. It appears that although the thought of a thicker sausage might seem like a good idea, the end result just isn’t as satisfying. For me, it was Sainsbury’s who brought home the bacon with a herby sausage that tasted like effort had been made to put these together. They were richer than cheaper offerings, with the perfect bacon to sausage ratio.
It seems you really do get what you pay for with pigs in blankets - but M&S’s are, in my opinion, a bit overpriced. Sainsbury’s £3 option (which is also gluten free) was my winner and well worth the money.
