Rowley Leigh, head chef and co-owner of Café Anglais
Loved Forman & Field game pie Loathed Asda smoked salmon
Game pie
Forman & Field
£2.32 per 100g, formanandfield.com
The meat looks spectacular. It's layered by colour. Not very gamey, there's a whole host of meats here, but it's tasty.
5 stars
Essex Larders
680g, £10, essexlarders.com
A proper crust. The pastry inside is slightly undercooked but this does keeps the content moist. Well seasoned - an honest pie.
4 stars
Marks & Spencer
790g, £8.99
This hasn't been messed around with and it looks old-fashioned. I like the garlic. But the dried herbs nearly ruin the flavour.
3 stars
Simple Simon
£4.85 per individual pie, simplesimonspies.co.uk
The jelly inside hasn't quite permeated the meat to do its job. The result? A dry, sad game pie.
1 stars
Smoked salmon
Waitrose, Scottish Heathland
140g, £5.89
The most cured salmon I've had in a while. Fortunately I like my salmon cured. I suspect it's Scottish. Nice, peaty taste and proper light pinky-orange colour.
4 stars
Donald Russell
120g, £5, donaldrussell.com
What a great flavour. It tastes as salmon should. It's just a bit oily for me.
4 stars
Aldi
200g, £2.49
Rather limp and fatty. This almost melts in your mouth. The colour is a bit pathetic but it tastes fishy enough.
2 stars
Asda, Extra Special Whisky-Smoked
100g, £2.64
Markedly orange in colour. The texture's firm and distinctly tough. But I don't really like the taste.
2 stars
Fish terrine
Morrisons, Smoked Salmon
£2.99 for 10 individual portions
Cute. The inside cream bears an unfortunate resemblance to Sandwich Spread but the idea 's rather nice.
3 stars
Forman & Field, Salmon and Langoustine
300g, £9.95
Rather like potted salmon. It's dry and the jelly on top is very sweet. Nice to eat something that isn't made from recovered material.
3 stars
M&S, Orkney Salmon
450g, £6.99
The fish flavour has been mugged by an over-dilled blob of dressing inside. Remarkable culinary engineering but the patch of salmon on top doesn't save it.
2 stars
Tesco, Finest Kiln Roasted Salmon
300g, £4.99
This doesn't smell unpleasant. And it tastes fishy. However, I find the globules of fat incredibly off-putting.
2 stars
Duck pate
Stephen
180g, £2.30, bespoke-foods.co.uk
This is real pâté. Real and true and bold. Coarse and fatty. Fine, red meat. Carefully seasoned.
Wonderful.
5 stars
Tesco, with Port
170g, £1.98
What an extraordinary layer of fat. It tastes smooth, clean and livery. And leaves a clean aftertaste in your mouth.
4 stars
M&S
250g, £3.99
A misnomer of a pâté. There is liver, I have no doubt, but it's padded by grease. I wouldn't eat this with much pleasure.
3 stars
Sainsbury's, Duck & Orange
170g, £1.08
This looks factory-clean. Highly seasoned with lots of juniper but it's pappy. Not pâté, pappy. The aftertaste isn't great, either.
2 stars
Salmon pate
Forman & Field
225g, £7.95
Appetisingly, this has a butter layer on top. And it's real! I will skip over the peppering of chives which is vile, but the paté itself is lovely.
4 stars
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference
115g, £1.29
Looks like crab paté. Smells like salmon paté. Not bad but neither coarse or smooth and rather mediocre in the taste stakes.
3 stars
Waitrose
113g, £1.39
Chalky in texture, very, very sweet and not terribly fishy. The beginner's guide to salmon paté.
2 stars
M&S 320g, £3.49
Suspiciously pink. Bready and fatty and not much else. It's also very bland. Like pink fishy butter .
2 stars
Expert tester Jason Atherton, head chef of two Michelin-starred Maze
Loved Waitrose goose fat and Wilkins Cumberland sauce Loathed Sainsbury's turkey gravy
Turkey gravy
Marks & Spencer
500g, £2.99
Dense with chestnut, well seasoned but not too strong. A turkey would taste lovely covered with this.
4 stars
Morrisons, with Merlot
500g, £1.49
Fine jelly base and obviously made with a good stock. I can really taste the poultry in here.
4 stars
Waitrose, Fresh Turkey
500g, £2.69
Made from a good, strong stock and before heating, is lovely and thick. Once heated though, it dissolves into something wet and bland.
3 stars
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference
320g, £31.39
Looks strangely orange and tastes bitter and insipid.
1 stars
Stuffing
Waitrose, Luxury Cranberry
443 g, £4.59
There's a lovely full flavour of sage and thyme. It tastes very home-made. A gourmet stuffing.
4 stars
Marks & Spencer, Pork and Chestnut
454g, £3.99
The chestnuts and breadcrumbs give this a really good texture. I'm usually against balls of stuffing but these are pretty tasty.
3 stars
Morrisons, The Best Bacon, Pork, Apple and Cranberry
300g, £2.99
Rich, moist and tasty. I like that it comes in a block and you can stuff tons into the bird. No fruit either, which is a plus.
3 stars
Tesco, Finest Pork Apricot Cranberry and Port
300g, £2.99
These sure as hell look pretty with the bouquet of herbs and cranberries on top . But why the dried apricots?
1 star
Cranberry sauce
The Bay Tree
100g, £1.55, thebaytree.co.uk
Whole fruit, not too sweet and not too sour. Ideal as far as shop-bought cranberry sauce goes.
4 stars
Sainsbury's, Taste the Difference
200g, £1.28
Heavy on the gelatine side and a bit sweet but a good, safe jelly-sauce that would go well with a slice of turkey.
4 stars
Tracklements
250g, £2.75, tracklements.co.uk
Dark and gloopy, with a nice rich, berry flavour. I just wish they didn't blend the fruit so much.
3 stars
Geo Organics
200g, £1.49, biggreenshop.co.uk
Lumpy in a not-so-good way.
Saccharine-sweet but otherwise rather bland and sorry-looking on the plate.
2 stars
Christmas chutney
Somerfield, Hot Caramelised Red Onion
310g, £1.86
Quite wet but I like the onion and five-spice combination. Good with ham. It's not especially festive
4 stars
Tiptree, Organic
227g, £1.55, widely available
Tastes like a rhubarb chutney. I like the festive spicing, which has quite an unusual kick. Lovely with some cheese or in a sandwich.
4 stars
Tracklements, Christmas
625g, £6.65
Far, far too tart. The coriander and sour kumquats make an odd mix that I don't think quite works.
2 stars
The Bay Tree, Boxing Day
320g, £3.29
Too sweet and lacking in flavour and texture. It's dribbly. I'm not sure how you'd eat it and what you'd serve it with as it's fairly bland.
2 stars
Cumberland sauce
Wilkins, Organic
227g, £1.59, Waitrose
Extremely sweet. This would sit very well on a slice of ham. I like the alcoholic aftertaste and tartness. It lingers.
5 stars
Daylesford
300g, £6.95, daylesfordorganic.com
Huge chunks of fruit in a nice warming sauce. It's tart but there's a sweet aftertaste which sits well on your tongue.
4 stars
English Provender Company
240g, £1.92, englishprovender.com
Intense and rather more authentic. But this would overpower a ham, kill it even.
3 stars
Tracklements
Rather runny, which makes it tricky to eat . It needs more zest to counteract the strong spice.
3 stars
Goose fat
Waitrose, Pure Goose Fat
310g, 350g
I can taste the goose in this. It's rich, thick, dense and creamy and would crisp up potatoes very well indeed. I would gladly use this on mine.
5 stars
La Toque Blanche
700g, £5.50, natoora.co.uk
Fine fat but intimidatingly thick. It taste very strong, one for goose fat connoisseurs, but it melts nicely and would roast your potatoes well.
5 stars
La Truffe Cendrée
340g, £2.99, Sainsbury's
A little grainy until it melts. I find that worrying. But it smells goose-y, is a fine, white colour and tastes lovely and rich.
4 stars
Tesco, Finest
200g, £2.29
When I see this I think, why bother? It tastes like lard, melts badly and wouldn't do much to a roasting potato.
1 star
Expert tester Thomasina Miers, head chef at the award-winning Wahaca
Loved Duchy's pud
Loathed Tesco's brandy butter
Duchy Originals
£11.99 per pudding
Boozy, moist with crunchy nuts and a wonderful smell when sliced. Absolutely delicious.
5 stars
Claire Macdonald
£14 per pudding, foodfullstop.com
I love the texture. It's very dense and bouncy with plenty of suet and a generous helping of dried fruits. Masses of booze, too.
5 stars
Lewis & Cooper
£8.99 per pudding, lewisandcooper.co.uk
A good ratio of fruit to suet. It's dense and moist, just lacking slightly on the flavour front. I'd prefer more alcohol. Very good in spite of that.
4 stars
Marks & Spencer, with Irish Stout
£8.99 each
This is up against some stiff competition. A very good pudding. A nice size, with a good mix of nuts and fruit. Slightly artificial.
3 stars
Brandy butter
M&S, with Champagne Cognac
225g, £2.69
Wow this one's going to get you hammered before the Queen's speech. Potent, creamy and tastes homemade.
4 stars
Lewis & Cooper
225g, £2.99
Very sweet and creamy. I'd prefer a little more brandy in mine but then Christmas is meant to be a family affair.
4 stars
Waitrose, with Remy Martin
150g, £2.75
A lovely, rich, yellowy colour. It's nice and grainy and melts well. But again, it could do with some more brandy in it.
4 stars
Tesco, Finest
150g, £1.59
I can't taste the brandy. This tastes of whipped-up butter sweetened with an artificial sweetner. Not great.
1 star
Christmas cake
Tesco, Finest
£15.99 per cake
There's a lot of ridiculously decorated icing to plough through, but it's a nice, moist, alcohol-laden cake.
4 stars
Morrisons, The Best
£10.99 per cake
I'm not into the kitsch silver star decoration at all. But the cake itself is dense and tasty, and the fruit's nice and whole. Pretty good.
3 stars
The Village Bakery, Fairtrade
£9.49 per cake, goodnessdirect.co.uk
The most tastefully decorated, but the marzipan has seeped into the cake and filled it with an over-powering taste. Also very dry.
2 stars
Duchy Originals
£16.95 per cake
The cake is topped with a strange, cream-coloured icing and a crest and seems very pleased with itself In reality it's rather crumbly, dry and fruitless.
2 stars
Stollen
Bahlsen
500g, £2.99, ocado.com
Delicious light sugar dusting on top and the stöllen itself is dense, lardy and full of fruit. Absolutely yummy.
5 stars
M&S
about 500g, £6.99
This looks the part. Pretty shards of nuts, nice white sugar dusting, bouncy dough. Personally, I'd like more marzipan in mine.
4 stars
Betty's by post
380g, £6.95, bettysbypost.com
Beginner's stöllen with none of that Germanic, cinnamon taste. It's a little too light and tastes like a currant bun.
3 stars
Morrisons, The Best
£2.59 for pack of 9
This one comes in pointless, little bite-sized portions which are heavy on the marzipan and insanely sweet. Not my favourite at all.
2 stars
Panettone
M&S, Gran Milanese
1kg, £12.99
Wow this tastes like an incredibly light brioche. The inside is all whipped up and they have been more than generous with the fruit. The glaze is super.
5 stars
Casa Corsini
750g, £7.49, Waitrose
A proper toasted top and a lovely, light, bouncy dough. The raisins are juicy, just lacking in quantity. Very, very good.
4 stars
Betty's By Post, Chocolate & Orange Panettone
600g, £7.95
Should be flakier and I'm not sure about the chocolate: I'm a panettone puritan.
2 stars
Tesco, Finest
750g, £6.99
The highest fruit content of the lot but embedded in a very dry, heavy dough. What a shame.
2 stars
Mince pies
Waitrose
Thick, crisp pastry, which crumbles when you bite it. The filling is boozy and laden with candied peel. They just look a bit pathetic.
4 stars
Morrisons, The Best
£1.69 for 6
Decent pastry and the filling is full of flavour. The raisins are whole and juicy but, dare I say it, the pie is slightly over-spiced.
4 stars
Tesco, Finest
£1.68 for 6
This one looks very pretty. The filling is a little bland and looks weirdly matt which I find off-putting.
Too, too sweet.
2 stars
Duchy Originals
£3.29 for 6, Waitrose
Bog-standard pie. The filling is over-minced and the pie is half-empty. Does the job. Just.
2 stars
