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Forget the Coca-Cola truck and the dustings of snow on the hilltops.
Is there truly anything more festive than a slab of turkey and cranberry wedged between two factory-prepared slices of bread and squashed into a plastic package?
For many of us, seeing Christmas sandwiches in the meal deal aisles of our favourite supermarkets is an excitement in itself – and an early sign that Santa is on the way. For the rest, it’s a grumble at the very least.
As has been the case for the last few years, the Christmas sandwich offerings are commonplace now and range from the obvious roast dinner variations to vegan pigs in blankets with gravy mayonnaise. There’s a lot to process, but it’s clearly something that goes down well at lunchtime.
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With Christmas just around the corner, it was decided I would be tasked with taste testing a number of the Christmas sandwiches on offer at some of the leading supermarkets this year – marking two years in a row I have now ended up with the unenviable challenge.
This is by no means a definitive list, and you may well disagree with my opinions, but here’s what I made of the sandwiches I got my hands on. There were some surprisingly tasty options and some that I’d quite frankly be happy to never experience ever again. Buckle up!
Co-op
Turkey Feast
Co-op’s Turkey Feast was alright, but nothing to write home about. Available for £3.25 or £4 as part of a meal deal, it features turkey with pork, sage and onion stuffing, cranberry sauce, smoked bacon and mayonnaise on malted bread.
The bacon and cranberry were nice, but the turkey was uneventful and the bread was just too stodgy for me. Not one I’d be coming back to, I’m afraid, and that’s as much as I have to say on that really.
Boxing Day Feast
Apparently, a Boxing Day Feast involves chicken, ham, cheese coleslaw and balsamic onion gravy all squashed between white bread.
There’s a bit too much going on here for my liking – gravy and coleslaw is something I can quite confidently say I’ve never imagined trying together. And it’s not something I’d like to have again, to be honest.
The elements on their own are fine, and the bread soaks things up much nicer than malted bread does, but yeah, gravy and coleslaw together is always going to be a big no for me. A cardinal sin wrapped up as a Christmas sandwich.
Tesco
Cracking Currywurst
To be fair, there’s something very Christmassy about Currywurst – and it’s perhaps all down to the Christmas Markets. Tesco’s Cracking Currywurst features sausage and onions with curry ketchup on a white sub roll, it’s available as part of a Clubcard Meal Deal for £3.60.
Despite the abundance of flavour here, it doesn’t manage to be overpowering and the sausage was nice and tasty. It was, however, quite messy to eat – so perhaps one not for when you’re in the presence of company.
Gym Kitchen’s Chicken, Bacon, Cranberry and Stuffing
Gym Kitchen’s offering intrigued me as to how a chicken alternative of the turkey feast would fare – and it was actually quite nice. Which perhaps says everything you need to know about turkey, really.
Featuring 24g of protein, it features chicken breast, mayonnaise, cranberry sauce, beechwood-smoked bacon, and sage and onion stuffing on a white bread with oatmeal. If you had taken the cranberry away, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me there was anything festive about this one, but it was nice and the protein kick meant it was more fulfilling than some of the options.
All in all, a solid effort and perhaps the safest of options if you want something Christmassy without all the jingle bells and whistles that usually come with it.
Aldi
Christmas Club Sandwich
Aldi have made it very clear on its packaging that their Christmas Club Sandwich was ‘inspired by our talented colleague George’. Which means that if it’s not great, then the buck lies entirely with poor George.
Straight off the bat, there’s a lot going on here. Amongst six halves of white and rye bread, there is Emmental cheese, formed cooked sliced smoked turkey (a mouthful to say), cranberry sauce, sage and onion mayonnaise, formed cured cooked oak smoked ham (another tongue-twister), lettuce, and Beechwood-smoked cooked streaky bacon. All for £2.39.
It’s clear that George has an expansive palette, but, actually, he may be a bit of a culinary genius. Whilst I absolutely refuse to attempt to eat the sandwich in one sitting and instead opt for half at a time, there is a rich collection of flavours to be found.
The Emmental and ham side is my favourite – with the nice, fruity taste of the cranberry and the soft, buttery stuffing complimenting things quite grandly. The second half, with the bacon, is also good and perhaps feels a little more festive, but I prefer the ham side. I think it’s safe to say that George’s job is safe for another year.
Turkey Feast
If you don’t want so many toppings on one sandwich, and I don’t blame you, then Aldi also do a Turkey Feast (£1.99). Served on malted bread, there’s turkey, pork, sage and onion stuffing, cranberry chutney, mayonnaise, Beechwood-smoked bacon, and fried onions.
And, after my first bite, I’m tempted to say it’s perhaps already my favourite of the bunch. It’s flavoursome, soft and not too dry – something which is often the case when it comes to turkey.
The cranberry chutney is delightful, and the stuffing is also marvellous. I will, however, say that I was completely oblivious to there being any fried onions in my sandwich until I read the ingredients list again. Maybe there’s too much going on for it to be noticeable, because I’m sure they were there.
Marks and Spencer
Turkey Shawarma
A Turkey Shawarma is certainly something a bit different – and perhaps too quirky of a choice to be able to avoid giving a try.
It features spiced British turkey with a garlic and herb dressing, alongside pickled red cabbage, cranberry harissa and fresh spinach, which is all served up in a wheat flour tortilla.
The spice really helped give some prominence to the turkey, which I feel is often lacking. The harissa, spinach and dressing also elevated things and made it sound more fancy than your usual offerings. The pickled cabbage, however, was quite underwhelming and lacked much taste.
Christmas Club
Again, not opting for turkey, the M&S Christmas Club features chicken breast, seasoned mayonnaise, cranberry chutney, pickled red cabbage, pork, onion and sage stuffing, smoked maple-cured British bacon and spinach on toasted oatmeal bread.
It says it’s toasted, but I can’t really taste any difference when it comes to the bread – I’ll have to take M&S’s word here. Whatever has happened to the bread, it’s made the crusts quite dry, so they get left at the side.
The insides of the cabbage, the stuffing, and the spinach, add a nice consistency and flavour to things, however, and make for a pleasingly well-rounded sandwich. A lot going on, but sort of works.
Morrisons
Pigs Under Blankets
I have to be completely open and honest here and reveal that, by this point, I was losing the will to live in terms of Christmas sandwich taste testing. Thankfully, my editor Jenna decided to help me out and tried the Pigs Under Blankets one.
It comprises of Lincolnshire sausage with a balsamic onion chutney, mustard mayonnaise and smoke-flavoured streaky bacon on white bread. Asking her for her thoughts, literally the first thing she said was: “I’ve simply switched off my tastebuds to finish it”. Oh dear.
Jenna said the onion gravy was quite nice and added an enjoyable ‘tang’ to things, but she said the sausages were difficult and tough – not good when they’re essentially the major selling points.
Turkey Lunch
With Jenna having taken one sandwich off my list of responsibilities, I went for Morrisons’ take on the traditional Turkey Lunch classic. Their sandwich features turkey breast, with cranberry chutney, seasoned mustard mayonnaise, smoked bacon and stuffing with oats on malted bread.
All in all, the inside of the sandwich was quite nice. The oaty stuffing definitely upped the stodge, so it’s best served with a drink that’ll help it go down well, but it was alright – the turkey and cranberry was good.
Sadly, it was the bread that let the whole thing down – it was too dry, devoid of much taste to it and just a bit too much of a hassle to try to eat. The crusts were not eaten this time round.
Asda
Christmas Lunch Wrap
There’s nothing that gets me in a more festive spirit than seeing ‘pork sausage in a calcium alginate casing’ on a list of ingredients. But that’s what I got when I decided to switch things up with a wrap at Asda instead of a sandwich.
The wrap features turkey, sausage, bacon, stuffing, cranberry chutney, spinach, fried onions, and, of course, some chicken stock paste for good measure too. There’s clearly a lot going on here and, sadly, it very much shows.
All in all, the taste was okay but the bacon was a bit too chewy and it all left me with a bit of a weird aftertaste to it. Perhaps it was the chicken stock that was included for some unknown reason. It was just a bit too out there for me and another I shan’t be wanting to have ever again.
Boxing Day Feast
Timing my shopping brilliantly, I arrived at Asda when they were restocking the sandwich shelves. In order to avoid being that person that outstays their welcome as the server tries to do their job, I just grabbed what I could find and dashed off. And that led me with yet another Boxing Day Feast.
Asda’s offering does not include the threat of a gravy and coleslaw combination, however. But it does include a mix of coleslaw and balsamic onion chutney, alongside chicken breast and oak-smoked ham, on white bread.
Actually, this one was surprisingly okay. I perhaps have no need to ever have it again, but it’s not the worst of the worst. The ham and chicken go well together, and the coleslaw is nice. I’m just not sure I approve of the onion chutney being there as well.
Sainsbury’s
Pigs Under Blankets
Featuring Cumberland sausage, beechwood smoked bacon, cranberry chutney and mayonnaise on malted bread, Sainsbury’s Pigs Under Blankets isn’t great – and it’s down to the main ingredient.
Whilst the cranberry and mayonnaise adds a bit of welcome moisture to the layers, the sausage has a slight spice to it that it quite unpleasant and leaves an aftertaste that stayed around for far too long. Not a fan of this one.
Turkey Feast
Again, perhaps with my sandwich-woes clearly showing, I was helped out with this one too thanks to my doting mother. She took one for the team and tried Sainsbury’s Turkey Feast – and, for all intents and purposes, she appeared to rather enjoy it.
On malted bread, it features British turkey breast and sage, onion and oat stuffing alongside mayonnaise, maple cured smoked British bacon and cranberry chutney. It’s priced at £2.40 on its own if you don’t want to Meal Deal it.
She explained to me that the malted bread was very tasty, with lots of turkey and a ‘quite chunky full slice’ of bacon inside. She described it as delicious with plenty of filling. She said she was even tempted to rate it as perfect.
And, hopefully, I never have to see a Christmas sandwich again for the rest of the year.
