Saturday, December 13, 2025 |
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If you've nearly fainted at the butcher's counter this week, you're not alone. One shopper being quoted £98 for her usual 5kg turkey – up from £78 last year – has become the defining Christmas anecdote of 2025. Bird flu has torn through flocks, shrinking supply and sending prices soaring; beef isn't faring much better, with mince inflation in the high double digits; and England's second-worst harvest in decades is quietly lifting the cost of feed, carrots, sprouts and anything else touched by a chaotic year of weather. Add climate-exposed essentials like butter, chocolate and coffee spiralling upward, cocoa prices peaking, labour shortages across farms and abattoirs, and shipping routes snaking around the Red Sea, and the glossy Christmas spread starts to look less like tradition and more like aspiration.
If the centrepiece is under strain, the nibbles are mercifully dependable. This week's canapé line-up leans into December's favourite fiction – that we "just threw something together". Mary Berry's Somerset cheddar straws, tested weekly for a month because she's Mary Berry, sit alongside Rick Stein's sharp filo tartlets piled with raw salmon and wasabi-miso cream. Kate Young brings mango-chutney sausage rolls and Little Women-inspired buckwheat blinis; Matthew Ryle adds Comté gougères and coquilles Saint Jacques for anyone flirting with full Nigella-at-midnight energy. Camembert tarts, roasted grape and feta crostini, Togarashi devilled eggs and honey-lacquered devils on horseback round out the tray. If Christmas is a marathon, this is the smug, salty first mile.
And whether you're raising a glass of the real stuff or resolutely avoiding hangovers, Rosamund Hall has you covered. Her no- and low-alcohol picks show just how far the category has come, from elegant alcohol-free fizz to complex aperitifs that deserve space on a bar cart. But she's also urging joy – real, uncomplicated joy – in her Christmas wine guide, a collection built on value and pleasure rather than price tags or posturing. From Aldi's £22.99 premier-cru-level champagne substitute to a £6 Rhône red full of cherries and cinnamon, from chic Loire crémants to proper treat-yourself bottles like Hambledon rosé and Guillaume Michaut's pitch-perfect Chablis, the message is the same: wine isn't the centrepiece, just a supporting act to good food and better company. Even the ports and sweet wines come with reassurance – luxury sips that don't require a second mortgage.
And if ultra-processed "health" foods are starting to feel like the true seasonal villain, Joe Wicks and Alex Hughes are offering a corrective. In Protein in 15, Wicks rails against protein bars built from powders and emulsifiers, making the case for real food eaten whenever it suits – including leftover Thai green curry for breakfast. His slow-cooked pork with mustard slaw, Thai curries built on creamed coconut and Moroccan lamb with butternut squash all double down on flavour while padding out plates with lentils and beans rather than pricey cuts. Hughes, meanwhile, speaks to the permanently knackered with her 20-Minute Low-Cal Kitchen Bangers: breakfast burrito bowls, lasagne soup and crispy chicken snack wraps, all under 600 calories and ready faster than a doomscroll. In a year when even turkeys feel precarious, the quiet rebellion might simply be cooking something real, quick and comforting – whether you eat it at 7pm or 7am.
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£98 for a turkey? How food shortages and price hikes are affecting our Christmas dinner this year |
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Bird flu decimating flocks, harvests collapsing, supply chains are wheezing, and even Quality Street is taking a hit. Hannah Twiggs looks at the soaring costs of the big Christmas shop and asks what this means for the sacred festive feast
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Christmas dinner has always survived on blind faith: that the turkey will appear, the veg will behave and the nation will briefly agree that sprouts are edible. But this year, that faith is being tested.
Last week, one customer went pale when her high street butcher told her that her usual 5kg turkey order would be £98 – up from £78 last Christmas. She blinked, assumed it was a mistake, and was met with an apologetic shrug and something mumbled about avian flu. Paying her deposit, she left with a turkey-shaped hole in her festive budget – a Christmas story that is now being played out at supermarket meat counters and butchers up and down the country.
The traditional Christmas dinner isn't just under pressure – it's starting to look like historical fiction.
Turkeys on the brink
The UK is in the middle of a grim bird flu season, with around 50 confirmed cases since October and 300,000 birds – about 5 per cent of the UK's Christmas poultry flock – already culled. Organic and free-range producers are being hit hardest, and regulations now mean many flocks are indoors whether they like it or not.
For farmers, every new case is a potential catastrophe. One warned that a single outbreak on his farm could wipe out as many as 10,000 Christmas lunches in one go. Even without infection, producers are processing birds early, which is why you're more likely to be offered a modest crown than a four-kilo centrepiece...
Read the full article here
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Next-level your food photography with the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE |
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| With a versatile four-camera set up and image-boosting AI tech, the Samsung Galaxy S25FE can effortlessly elevate your food snaps. For expert tips and to watch Independent TV series Mini Masterclasses, following creators using the device, click here. |
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| I cooked an entire Christmas dinner in my air fryer – here's how to do it |
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Enjoy endless inspiration with recipes, interviews and more in your latest Indy/Eats food and drink magazine, one of your Independent Premium subscription benefits |
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"At The Independent, we've always believed journalism should do more than describe the world – it should try to improve it.
This Christmas, we're asking for your help again as we launch our new campaign with the charity Missing People – the SafeCall appeal.
Every year, more than 70,000 children in the UK are reported missing. The misery that follows – for the child, for the family, for the community – is often hidden. Too many of these young people have nowhere to turn when they need help most. SafeCall will change that. Our goal is to raise £165,000 to help Missing People launch this new, free service – designed with the input of young people themselves – offering round-the-clock support, advice and a route to safety."
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| A punchy, flavour-first cookbook from Joe Wicks that proves boosting protein doesn't mean powders and ultra-processed bars. Packed with quick, unprocessed recipes the whole family will love – from easy weeknight dinners to plant-powered meals, home takeaways and lunchbox inspiration – Protein in 15 shows how fresh food can keep you full, energised and cooking with confidence.
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