Supermarkets are selling out of meats such as venison as adventurous shoppers opt for alternatives to the traditional turkey for the UK Christmas dinner centrepiece.
Sales of duck, guinea fowl, goose and even veal are all strong as diners seek to upgrade their festive feast by recreating a favourite restaurant experience or a TV cookery dish.
While turkey may still rule the roost as the favourite festive meat for the Christmas dinner retailers say their customers are this year choosing smaller birds and easy-to-carve cuts such as turkey crowns to serve alongside alternative meats and see the family through the holiday period.
At Sainsbury’s, rack of venison and veal roasting joints from its pre-order range have both sold out. Overall venison sales are more than double (up 115%) than this time last year. The retailer ordered 40% more veal in volume terms during the lead up to Christmas and has doubled its range of RSPCA Freedom Food accredited veal lines.
It expects to sell more than 100,000 fresh turkeys on Tuesday alone, but predicts the most popular size will be 6kg compared with 7kg in the past. Sales of organic turkeys and crowns (which now account for more than half its turkey sales) are also up 10% year on year.
“Over the last year we’ve been working with our trusted suppliers to bring more top quality game and veal to our customers in response to their huge popularity,” said Susi Richards, head of food at Sainsbury’s.
“It used to be that these sorts of meats were only ordered in restaurants. Now, for a special occasion like Christmas, people want to recreate the experience at home. Venison and veal are high protein and low in fat, making them great choices for nourishing the family throughout the festive season, which is much more than just Christmas Day itself.”
Tesco said over the last three years demand for goose, guinea fowl and duck has grown by around 20%.
“With the growing popularity of TV cooking shows we are finding that more people than ever before are looking to jazz up their festive feasts,” said Tesco poultry buyer Kieran Gilmore. “While turkey remains as popular ever, it’s guinea fowl, goose and duck that have been growing the most in popularity with Christmas shoppers.”
Guinea fowl was “a particular gourmet treat with its rich and succulent taste”, Gilmore said. “As it’s not as big as the other traditional Christmas birds it’s definitely something to consider for a smaller gathering.”
Geese remain massively outnumbered by turkeys, however with 10m turkeys consumed in the UK last Christmas, compared with about 250,000 geese.
The discount supermarkets are also offering premium products. At the weekend Aldi offered its first ever dry-hung, free-range bronze turkey from Suffolk producer Rumburgh Farm, costing £44.99 for a 4kg-6 kg bird, around half the cost of a bid with comparable quality from upmarket rivals.
In what it claims is a UK first to help the UK’s growing number of single-person and smaller households, Tesco is selling a microwaveable frozen turkey joint complete with stuffing, which takes just 10 minutes to cook.
Waitrose said enough turkey foil will be sold in the week of Christmas to wrap Big Ben over nine times and it will sell more than 800,000 kg of turkey - enough to feed more than 1.7m people. Christmas Eve, or “T-day”, is the busiest day for its customers to pick up their turkeys, with one being collected every second.
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