20 August 2026
Salads for Christmas Lunch, and the Dressings That Carry Them
Leaves, starch, summer fruit and something shaved: four salads that are genuinely four different things. Which dressing belongs on each, the ratio to start from
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From the kitchen
The Gourmet Pantry | Foodie's Blog
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Start here: Christmas
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.
Plan the table
Gifts and hampers
Corporate Christmas
Read The Australian Christmas Guide or shop Christmas food and Christmas hampers.
20 August 2026
A Christmas Picnic: What Actually Travels to the Beach
A picnic Christmas is easier if most of the food never needed a fridge. The five part menu, what to pack the night before, what melts, and the cold half that go
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20 August 2026
Christmas Entrees: What to Serve With Cold Seafood
Cold seafood is the easiest entree on Christmas Day. How many prawns a head, three sauces made from one jar each, and everything you can get done the night befo
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20 August 2026
Packing the Esky and the Snack Bag for the Drive to Christmas
The packing room rule holds in a car boot: anything that melts rides cold, anything sealed rides dry, and nothing heavy goes on top. How to load an esky, what t
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19 August 2026
Christmas Side Dishes Worth the Oven Space
Two sides in the oven, two on the stovetop, three that need no heat at all. Christmas side dishes sorted by what the kitchen has to do rather than by vegetable,
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19 August 2026
Easy Christmas Desserts You Can Make the Day Before
Easy at Christmas means assembled, not baked. Seven desserts finished the day before, from a sweets tray with the coffee to a no bake cheesecake and tarts you c
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19 August 2026
How to Store Cheese So It Is Still Good on Boxing Day
Cheese is spoiled by the wrap it came home in more often than by time. How to store brie, blue, cheddar, feta and parmesan through Christmas week, how long each
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19 August 2026
The Kids' Table at Christmas, and What Actually Gets Eaten
Children eat the plain end of the catalogue. What actually gets finished at the kids' table at Christmas, a seven item plate with prices, how to fill the ga
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18 August 2026
Christmas Desserts That Hold Up in December Heat
Pavlova topped at the table, trifle in glasses, something frozen and a board that never sees an oven. Seven Christmas desserts built for an Australian December,
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18 August 2026
Boxing Day: What to Do With Everything Left in the Fridge
Boxing Day is a sorting job before it is a cooking job. What to do with the cheese, the cold seafood, the sweets and the half-used jars in the fridge door, how
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17 August 2026
What Do Australians Eat for Christmas?
Cold prawns, a glazed leg ham, salads and pavlova, with a board out from 11am and bon bons over the top of it. The Australian Christmas menu in the order it arr
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17 August 2026
Christmas Food in Australia: What Goes on the Table and When to Buy It
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
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17 August 2026
How Much Food to Buy Per Person at Christmas
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
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16 August 2026
How to Crack a Macadamia Nut, and When to Skip the Shell
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
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15 August 2026
Christmas Hampers for Families: One Box, Four Different Appetites
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.
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14 August 2026
How Much to Spend on a Christmas Hamper
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
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14 August 2026
The Australian Food an Expat Actually Misses
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
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14 August 2026
How to Make a Christmas Hamper at Home, Costed Against Buying One
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
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14 August 2026
Hampers for Elderly Parents: Sending to a Village or Aged Care Home
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
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13 August 2026
Sending a Christmas Hamper Interstate When You Cannot Be There
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.
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13 August 2026
Christmas Presents for Mum and Dad Who Say They Want Nothing
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
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13 August 2026
Hostess Gifts for an Australian Christmas
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
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13 August 2026
Christmas Hamper Ideas: What Goes In, What Gets Eaten, What Gets Left
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.
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12 August 2026
What Turkish Delight Is Made Of, and How to Spot the Real Thing
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
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12 August 2026
How Boiled Lollies Are Made by Hand, and Why It Still Matters
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
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12 August 2026
Gingerbread House Kits Compared: What You Get in the Box
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
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12 August 2026
3 Ottolenghi Marinades for a Father's Day BBQ
Three Ottolenghi marinades for Dad's barbecue this Father's Day, each doing something different on the grill.
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12 August 2026
Homemade Christmas Food Gifts, and the Three Things Worth Buying Instead
Three homemade Christmas food gifts are worth the Saturday: spiced nuts, tomato relish and shortbread. Three are not: pastry cases, marshmallow and gingerbread
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11 August 2026
Which Sauce Goes With Which Meat, and When to Leave the Bottle Alone
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
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11 August 2026
Confiletas Pastry Cases: Which Shell Suits Which Canape
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
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11 August 2026
Why Chocolate Turns White, and How to Stop It in an Australian Summer
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
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11 August 2026
8 Creative Ways to Use Ottolenghi Hawaij Paste
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.
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7 August 2026
Ottolenghi Smokey Honey Marinade on the Christmas Barbecue
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
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6 August 2026
Quince, Fig or Pear: Choosing the Fruit Paste for Your Cheese Board
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
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6 August 2026
Nine Ways to Use Ottolenghi Black Garlic and Scotch Bonnet Marinade
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
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6 August 2026
Ottolenghi Pilpelchuma: What It Is and How to Use It
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,
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