The whole Christmas set is in the stories below, newest first. These are the four things people are usually trying to work out, with the guide for each. The full plan lives in The Australian Christmas Guide.
Read The Australian Christmas Guide or shop Christmas food and Christmas hampers.
A glazed ham, cold prawns, three salads and a board to start. What Australians actually put on the Christmas table, how much of it you need for ten people, and
Read now
The quantities a packing room works to, applied to a Christmas table: 250 g of ham per adult, 200 g of prawns, 60 g of cheese, five crackers, and one table that
Read now
A macadamia shell splits along its seam and nowhere else. How to crack one at home without wrecking the kernel, how the key in a nut-in-shell pack works, and wh
Read now
A family hamper has to feed four appetites at once. How to size one by household shape rather than by price, and what to send when someone is not drinking.
Read now
Hamper prices do not climb evenly. Below $150 the money buys food, above $200 it buys the bottle. Here is what each band puts in the box, and how to pick a numb
Read now
An Australian food hamper is only Australian if you can name the makers. Macadamias in the shell from the Sunshine Coast, boiled sweets from Ballarat, wattlesee
Read now
We priced the eight items in our $79.95 Foodies Hamper as singles and got $87.60. The honest case for building your own Christmas hamper, plus six packing decis
Read now
Address it to reception, ring the home first, and size the box for two people rather than a household. What villages and aged care homes accept, and what opens
Read now
Choosing the hamper is the easy part. Here is the sending half: the right address, food that handles heat, when to order, and what happens if nobody is home.
Read now
Parents who say they do not want anything mean they do not want another object. Five presents that pass the test, what to spend, and which hampers suit two peop
Read now
The rule for an Australian Christmas: nothing the host has to open, arrange, chill or serve while they are carving. Six hostess gifts from $12.95 that go in the
Read now
Hamper ideas sorted by what actually happens when the box is opened: what gets eaten in the first hour, what gets kept for months, and what never gets opened.
Read now
Sugar, water, starch and rosewater, set overnight and rolled in icing sugar. What Turkish delight is actually made of, and the tells that separate lokum from a
Read now
Sugar boiled until almost no water is left, tipped onto a cooled slab, folded, pulled and cut inside a few hot minutes. How a boiled lolly is made by hand, and
Read now
Two kits, both $49.99, one traditional and one chocolate. What is actually in each box, what you still have to buy yourself, and which one suits a table that ge
Read now
Three Ottolenghi marinades for Dad's barbecue this Father's Day, each doing something different on the grill.
Read now
Three homemade Christmas food gifts are worth the Saturday: spiced nuts, tomato relish and shortbread. Three are not: pastry cases, marshmallow and gingerbread
Read now
Beef wants acidity, lamb wants something green, pork wants sweetness and game wants weight behind it. Which sauce belongs beside which meat, and which bottle do
Read now
Five shells, three sizes of mini and two vol-au-vents, all $9.95 a pack and all baked ready to fill. Which case takes which filling, how many packs to buy for t
Read now
The white film on a chocolate that has been somewhere warm is bloom, not mould. What causes it, whether it is still safe to eat, and how to keep a box honest th
Read now
A Yemeni spice paste of ginger, cardamom and turmeric, ready to use in soups, roasts, marinades and more. Eight ways to get more out of the jar.
Read now
The two-stage way to cook with Ottolenghi Smokey Honey Marinade on a barbecue, with marinating times for chicken, prawns, halloumi and pumpkin, plus what it doe
Read now
Quince cuts through hard salty cheese, fig carries blue and washed rind, pear belongs with brie. How to pick a fruit paste for the cheese you actually bought, a
Read now
Sweet aged garlic in front, a genuinely hot Caribbean chilli behind. Nine ways to use the 270g jar, from aubergine to ribs to a ten minute tin of chickpeas, plu
Read now
Pilpelchuma is a Libyan garlic and chilli paste, and the garlic leads. What is in the jar, how hot it is, how much to use on potatoes, chicken, eggs and beans,
Read now
A cracker-by-cheese guide from the people who pack them: which of the six styles suits brie, blue, aged cheddar and washed rind, how many you need per person, a
Read now
What preserved lemon actually tastes like, how much of the 260g jar to use on chicken, fish, cauliflower and grains, and how it differs from whole preserved lem
Read now
Sweet, salty and citrus sharp, and the citrus jar in the Ottolenghi marinade range. Nine things to brush it on, how long to leave it on salmon, prawns and chick
Read now
Macadamias do more than sit in a bowl. Nine ways to cook with them, a nut-for-nut swap table, how to toast them without burning them, and which Nutworks flavour
Read now
Cheddar, ham, sausage rolls, coronation chicken, glazes and curries: where a jar of mango chutney earns its place, how much to use each time, how long an open j
Read now
Skip the tie and socks. A gourmet Father's Day gift guide covering BBQ spice tubes, wine and gourmet hampers, kitchen gadgets and Jen's biscuits, for wh
Read now
Sour first, sweet second, and dear enough to use by the teaspoon. Nine ways to work through one 250ml bottle of pomegranate molasses, each with a dose, plus wha
Read now
Cheese, cold prawns, toasties, eggs, mayonnaise and a late glaze: nine things to do with a jar of chilli jam, ranked from the sweet jar to the hot one, plus how
Read now
Caramelising onions takes 40 minutes and no sugar. The method step by step, what onions to buy, how to freeze them, and the 130g jar that stands in on a weeknig
Read now
Mint jelly sets in a jar and sits beside the lamb. Mint sauce pours over it. The difference between the two, which of our jars suits a carved roast or a barbecu
Read now