Here is the round up, I bought every big magazine so you don't have to. I know a lot of people have a favorite mag they get every month (full disclosure, I like Delicious), and won't buy another publication ever, so for all you loyalists and undecideds, here is my guide to this years offerings.
Delicious Magazine - £3.60+ 'Free Guide to Relaxed Entertaining'
178 pages of which 56 are adverts
Back page - there is a 4 page Tesco spread at the back, but the real back page has an interview with Angela Hartnett.
Famous chefs featured - Antonio Carluccio, Nigella Lawson, Heston Blumenthal
Recipe breakdown (not including the insert)
Meat - 25
Fish - 6
Vegetarian - 18
Vegan - 5
Dessert - 15
Vegan Dessert - 6
Things I liked:
-Delicious Magazine has a page towards the back of tips on how to use up leftover ingredients that they've urged you to buy, like a tin of wasabi powder or a bunch of marzipan.
Things I didn't like:
-One of the questions Angela Hartnett was asked was how she feels about getting older, this kind of got my back up because I doubt they would have asked a male chef about his age, and who cares anyway, this is a food magazine!
-The insert is a bit feeble, there are a couple of recipes and some stuff about cheese, all of which would have been included in the main magazine.
Cook Vegetarian - £3.50+'Easy Veggie Christmas, 25 recipes'
106 pages, 30 of which are adverts
Back page - Showstopper risotto pie
Famous chefs featured - Heston Blumenthal, Gino D'Acampo, Jean Christophe Novelli, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Simon Rimmer.
Recipe breakdown (not including the insert)
Vegetarian - 23
Vegan - 29
Dessert - 9
Vegan Dessert - 0
Things I liked:
-Hugh Fernley Whittingstall's recipe for a dessert pie made with chard
-Gino D'Acampo's recipe for pannatone, I've never seen a pannattone recipe anywhere before and always assumed it was meant to be beyond the skills of a home cook
-History of the nut loaf
Things I didn't like:
-Hugh Fernley Whittingstall's beetroot tart tartin, probably because I watched the episode of his current veg show where his assistant comes up with the recipe.
-There are no vegan desserts, I found this so wierd, every single other magazine had at least a couple of options. I know that most recipes can be adapted, but why do vegans have to do that themselves?
-The insert had some traditional Christmas recipes, but again I didn't see why these could not have been absorbed into the magazine itself. I'm sure there was a a good reason, but in my cynical mind it's either printing budgets or an attempt to make it look like you're getting a special free gift
Sainsbury's Magazine - £1.60+ 35g Lindt 70% Chocolate
274 pages, of which 20.5 are adverts
Back page - Win a mini break to Cornwall
Famous chefs featured - Raymond Blanc, Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Rachel Allen
Recipe breakdown
Meat - 19
Fish - 13
Vegetarian - 14
Vegan - 8
Dessert - 24
Vegan Dessert - 2
Things I like:
-This is the cheapest of all the magazines and there are a lot of coupons in it, which makes it a complete bargain.
-There is an article about different kinds of gin. Love gin
-The food ideas and photography are very modern
Things I don't like:
-This is not just a food magazine, it's also a lifestyle magazine so it has some human interest stories and stuff like that - fair enough. What I don't need is a set of the most bizarre social tips I've ever heard. Like a tip on how to show empathy, and another about how to redirect a conversation that is boring you - if someone starts talking about how sad they are that their car was stolen take their mind off it by telling them how much you enjoy going for a drive! What?!?
-The front cover looks almost exactly like the Lakeland Christmas advert
which is a bit odd, the advert features inside (as well as in most of the other mags) so they really should have been able to spot that.
Vegetarian Living - £3.50+ 9 Bar. Dairy, Gluten, Wheat free carob coated nut bar (this was delicious)
98 pages of which 17 are adverts
Back page - an article about quinces, I think, and a cookie recipe.
Famous chefs featured - Gordon Ramsay
Recipe Breakdown
Vegetarian - 21
Vegan - 5
Dessert - 17
Vegan - 5
Things I liked:
-This is clearly the most vegan friendly Christmas magazine, I was beginning to wonder what vegans did for Christmas. Almost all of the vegetarian recipes have a note on the bottom about how to convert it to a vegan recipe.
-Some appraiser recipes look amazing (lentil balls)
Things I didn't like:
-Gordon Ramsay's recipes are labeled on the cover as 'posh', that is recipes for things like mince pies! I found this to be be quite off in a vegetarian publication. There seems to be almost an apologetic tone to this, almost as if it's saying 'sorry you have to have vegetarian food to eat, but look, even you're allowed to have a treat'.
-There's something very humorless about this magazine. I know animal cruelty is a big important issue but for a food magazine to be peppered with ads for pet adoption and against animal testing is a bit too blunt.
Great British Food - £3.99+ 'Festive Feasts'
130 pages of which 26 are adverts
Back page - Interview with Rachel Allen (questions about food, not her age!)
Famous chefs featured - Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal
Recipe Breakdown
Meat - 15
Fish - 8
Vegetarian - 3
Vegan - 3
Dessert - 9
Vegan Dessert - 1
What I liked:
-Interview with Clarissa Dickson Wright, she's such a crank and an abrassive character but I think that's why I like her. She talks about how much she hates Heston Blumental and a few pages later there is a spread of his recipes, it's pretty brave for a magazine to feature both.
-There is also a article about Bompas and Parr, they're so wacky that I can't believe that a magazine would dare to feature someone with so little mass appeal in their most important issue of the year. Quite exciting.
-I love that they give a British alternative to the ubiquitous chorizo in their recipes.
What I didn't like:
-This is the most expensive magazine in my selection and has fewer pages that all but one of the others. Again, the insert just features recipes that could have been included in the body of the magazine, but the paper they use is so heavy and expensive feeling that I wouldn't be surprised if that was out of budget.
-The font of the articles is very thin and tiny (like a mix between Arial Narrow and Agency FB). I'm a young woman with good eyesight but I found it a bit hard to read.
Good Food - £3.60+ 2012 calendar sponsored by Dr. Oetker and a cheesecake recipe card
210 pages of which 86.5 are adverts
Back page - 4 pages of Tesco adverts and Hairy Bikers Dundee cake recipe
Famous Chefs featured: Paul Hollywood, John Torrode, Rick Stein, James Martin, Bill Granger, Hairy Bikers, Lorraine Pascal, Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux Jr, Nigella Lawson.
Recipe Breakdown
Meat - 39
Fish - 21
Vegetarian - 32
Vegan - 10
Dessert - 30
Vegan Dessert - 3
Things I liked:
-Recipe for Hanukkah biscuits, the only acknowledgement in this whole marathon of magazines that there might be something other than Christmas happening this time of year.
-A lot of reader special offers, like 40% discounts on utensils, stuff like that.
-A lot of recipes of what to do with leftovers, way more than other magazines. One or two of the magazines I looked at had planned their next issue around what to do with leftovers, Good Food is a bit more generous.
Things I don't like:
-This magazine was available with two different covers, one with a picture of a turkey and one with a picture of a pudding. I really don't like this because it makes me feel like I'm missing out on something by not getting both. And what is the point? It's not like doing different Beatles covers, sheesh.
-Next to each recipe, instead of a symbol indicating whether it vegetarian or not, there's a symbol indicating whether it's freezable or not. So you have to read the whole recipe to see if bacon or goose fat is in your apparently vegetarian side dish.
-This is entirely my opinion, but I think the picture of Gregg Wallace and his wife is creepy and unnecessary. I have almost a repulsion for Gregg Wallace, I have to steady myself with a stiff drink before I can watch him shoveling in the food on Masterchef, and I found the extensive coverage of his courtship and marriage gratuitous, so don't really want to be reminded of it.
-The last point, I'm not sure if I like or dislike this, but there seems to be a great deal of emphasis on whether the food on offer is freezable or not. I have a tiny freezer so I don't really care about this, but I suppose others might want to make things weeks in advance and store them for the big day.
Olive - £3.60+ 2012 Diary
170 pages of which 58 are adverts (including 4 pages of Tesco adverts)
Back page - Food quiz
Famous chefs featured - John Torrode
Recipe Breakdown
Meat - 24
Fish - 11
Vegetarian - 15
Vegan - 17
Dessert - 18
Vegan Dessert - 2
Things I liked:
-Quiz! Answers are going to be in the January edition.
-Vegetarian Mains were inspired by restaurant dishes which I think gives them a bit more credibility.
-I think this is probably the best all rounder. It tries to be everything to everybody there are Christmas, healthy, one-pot, seasonal, 30 minute, party, budget and show off recipes.
Things I didn't like:
-Again, no markers next to the recipes to indicate if they're vegetarian or not.
-It's very innocuous, there is nothing outstanding or offensive about it. I was going to compare it to an ice cream flavor, but that's boring, so lets say if this magazine was a skirt it would be knee length A line.
-The diary is a bit feeble
Good Housekeeping - £3.80+ 89 Easy Christmas Recipes
This is not strictly a food magazine so I'm not going to do a page count. But just like the other magazines I've looked at I'm not going to include the insert in the recipe count.
Famous chefs featured: Gino D'Acampo, Angela Hartnett
Recipe Breakdown (not including the insert)
Meat - 10
Fish - 4
Vegetarian - 18
Vegan - 5
Dessert - 11
Vegan Dessert - 1
Things I like:
-All in one potatoes and Brussels sprouts recipe, this is roasted so that the sprouts don't become mushy and overcooked.
-Cranberry souffle, looks beautiful and I might try it this year.
-Overall the recipes are quite classic, we're not trying to set the world on fire here
Things I don't like:
-There are a few wildly unseasonal recipes like pea and spinach salad
-There is a calorie count next to every recipe, I don't like this but I see how others might see this as a necessity.
-There is a very odd emphasis on cheating. Good Housekeeping is a magazine for older ladies (I'm an old bag at heart so I actually quite like to have a read of it when I'm at the boyfriend's mum's), these are family women with busy lives so I see how shortcuts might be appealing, but I find it a bit sad, as if it's meant for women who hate cooking but are pressured into doing it at Christmas.
And that's that. I think if you have exactly the same personality as me you will find this guide useful. Let me know if I missed anything. Kisses!
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