Let's be honest, Christmas isn't Christmas without a few pigs in blankets - or 10 - on your plate.
In fact the traditional side dish has become pretty much a year-round roast dinner addition due to its popularity.
It's no secret my family is partial to the occasional sausage or two, so once again it fell to us to be the M.E.N's chief pigs in blankets taste testers this year.
With some not yet even out in the shops yet, we got the supermarkets to send us their offerings - and ended up with eight packs in total, from seven different supermarkets - a very small sample of the numerous varieties on the shelves these days.
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The selection before us were from Morrisons, M&S, Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl, ranging from standard level to some posher versions. Unable to get the standard ones from Sainsbury's, we had two to try, its Taste the Difference and its cheaper Butcher's Choice ranges.
I have to admit that, judging by looks alone, I presumed the Taste the Difference Meaty & Mighty would blow the others out of the water. They didn't. Don't get me wrong, they were nice - a good succulent sausage wrapped in oak smoked bacon - but if anything they're a bit too big to go on your roast dinner, unless you're having them as your main meat that is. They'd make a great pigs in blankets barm though.
The others were all pretty much a standard cocktail sausage size, with M&S the most aesthetically pleasing once cooked, if a sausage can be such a thing.
The bacon had slipped off a couple of them though - and they weren't our favourite taste wise. Neither were Tesco's Finest, which we found to be a little bland and lacking in bacon.
Asda's had a nice flavour, you could really taste the smoked bacon, but they were a bit chewy and had visibly more fat on them than the others. The Sainsbury's Butcher's Choice ones also had a nice flavour and were very soft, but a little greasy.
We ranked the top three, giving Morrisons The Best third place, its sausage succulent and smoked dry cured streaky bacon both crispy and flavoursome.
In second place came Lidl Deluxe, again full of flavour, with its seemingly thicker skin making for a crispier sausage. But our overall winner was Aldi's Specially Selected - a herbier sausage with the perfect texture and full of flavour. And, at £2.39 for a pack of 10, they're among the cheapest too.
I doubt we'd give any of them a miss come Christmas time though. And the dog, unsurprisingly, gave his paws up to them all.
The ones we tasted
- Aldi Specially Selected, 210g pack of 10, £2.39
- Lidl Deluxe, 210g pack of 10, £2.79
- Morrisons The Best, 210g pack of 10, £3.25
- M&S, 380g pack of 16, £5.50
- Asda, 222g pack of 12, £2.40
- Tesco Finest, 210g pack of 10, £3.25 (or two for £5)
- Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, 294g pack of 6, £4.25
- Sainsbury's Butcher's Choice, 260g pack of 12, £3.25
