Choice taste test: the best Australian supermarket Christmas ham is also ‘one of the cheapest’
Consumer advocacy group Choice has found when it comes to supermarket Christmas hams, pork price is not necessarily an indicator of quality.In a blind taste test of 12 Christmas hams from Aldi, Coles, IGA and Woolworths, the best and worst-ranked pork products retail at almost identical prices.The best-scoring product was the Coles Christmas Beechwood Smoked Half Leg Ham, with a price per unit of $8/kg.Judges awarded it a score of 80% and described it as a “good overall ham” for its “mild but pleasant” aroma with “a nice balance between sweet and smoky flavours”.The worst-performing product, the Aldi Festive Selection Australian Half Leg Ham On-The-Bone, is similarly priced at $7.
99/kg.Judges remarked on its “pale, dry and uneven” appearance, “mild” flavour and “powdery, unpleasant” texture, and gave it a score of 61%.“The winning Coles ham was also one of the cheapest hams in our taste test … revealing that price doesn’t always indicate quality,” the Choice editorial director, Mark Serrels, said.The second-best product was Woolworths Mountain Ash Wood Double Smoked Half Leg Ham, which scored 75% and costs $13/kg, followed in third place by Woolworths Bone In Half Leg Ham with a score of 70%, which retails for $8/kg.By comparison, Choice says the most expensive ham, Aldi Specially Selected Premium Free Range Boneless Ham, cost $21.
99/kg and scored only 68%, placing it in fifth place.The panel of three judges sampled the hams cold and assessed them for their taste and texture, as well as appearance and aroma.“First and foremost you don’t want the ham to be overcooked … overcooked hams can be stringy and dry,” said judge David Stössel of Sydney butcher Feather and Bone.He said most of the tested hams were overcooked, but the first and second-best scoring products were cooked well and had a “lovely moisture”.Fellow judge and food consultant Brigid Treloar said the winning ham was good value for money.
“It was very well priced.And for a family trying to put something special on the table at Christmas time, that’s terrific.”Choice said when it comes to buying Christmas hams, consumers should consider buying Australian pork, as indicated by the “Australian Pork” logo or country of origin labelling.Eleven of the 12 tested hams claimed to use Australian pork.Additionally, Choice advises consumers to buy sow stall-free hams.
According to the RSPCA, a standard sow stall is a 2-metre by 60cm crate used to house a female pig during part of her pregnancy – the sow can stand and take a step backward or forward but cannot turn around.These conditions are more likely to result in higher stress and insufficient rest and sleep for the sows and, according to Choice, a poorer-quality ham.Three of the taste-test hams claimed to use sow stall-free pork but Choice did not verify these claims.If consumers inadvertently buy a bad-tasting ham, Stössel said it can be rescued by adding a simple marmalade glaze.Carefully remove the skin from the ham while keeping the fat on, then gently warm some marmalade in a saucepan and brush it over the ham fat.
Then warm the ham in the oven to caramelise the glaze.“If someone tastes the ham and thinks, ‘oh this isn’t so good’, that’s what I would do.”
Report takes aim at Fifa and IOC over policies for athletes convicted of sexual assault
With the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup set to take place on Friday, a report examining the participation of athletes convicted of sexual offences at major sporting events has highlighted significant distrust of international sports governing bodies in how they deal with these situations.The report, titled No One Wants to Talk About It, is the result of interviews with elite athletes directly affected by sexual abuse and is intended to gauge attitudes around the eligibility and accreditation criteria for athletes with prior criminal sexual convictions and their participation at mega sporting events.The athletes highlighted “institutional inaction, silence, or complicity” in a lack of regulation by Fifa and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), among other organizations.The report is a collaboration between the Sports and Rights Alliance and Thomas More University in Belgium. The Sports and Rights Alliance is a coalition that includes Amnesty International, Football Supporters Europe, Human Rights Watch, and World Players Union as well as other trade unions and human rights groups
No ‘fire drill’ at TNT after painful loss of Champions League and England rugby | Matt Hughes
It has been a tough couple of weeks for TNT Sports, with the loss of three days of Ashes cricket due to England’s two-day defeat in Perth following on from some bruising rights negotiations.On the eve of the first Test, the Guardian revealed TNT had lost UK rights to the Champions League to Paramount+, with Sky Sports picking up the decent consolation prize of Europa League rights, while this week it emerged that TNT has also lost the rights to international rugby union with ITV having paid £80m for the inaugural Nations Championship.Senior figures at TNT are open about being “absolutely gutted” at losing the Champions League, which has been its biggest property since its predecessor BT Sport first bought the rights in 2013, but they do not regret the level of its bid, which was gazumped by Paramount. The value of the UK rights has increased from £1.2bn to £2
Lando Norris rules out asking McLaren for team orders to help F1 title bid
Lando Norris would not want McLaren to have to use team orders to aid him in winning his first world championship at the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Both he and his teammate, Oscar Piastri, insisted they had not yet discussed the potential use of orders for the decisive grand prix.Norris goes into the 24th and final race of the season as favourite but still in a close, high-pressure fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Piastri, enjoying a 12-point lead on Verstappen and 16 on Piastri. Norris will take his first title if he finishes in front of both his rivals or claims third place or better. Verstappen would need to win and hope Norris finishes outside the podium places while Piastri would need to win and have Norris finish sixth or lower
Nathan Lyon in ‘filthy’ mood after Test omission as Crawley hails ‘phenomenal’ Root
Nathan Lyon admitted he was furious after being dropped by Australia for the first time in 13 years of home Tests as the battle for the Ashes got back under way in Brisbane on Thursday. In his absence Joe Root plundered the home side’s all-seam attack for an unbeaten 135 on the opening day at the Gabba, his 40th Test century and his first on Australian soil, an effort teammate Zak Crawley acclaimed as “one of his best”.Lyon, Australia’s all-time third-highest Test wicket-taker, described his mood as “absolutely filthy” as he came to terms with being snubbed. “I’m letting things settle down in my own head and trying to make sure that I’m doing whatever I can to make sure the guys representing Australia do the right thing and get the right result for us,” he said.“I’m not the first player to miss a Test match and I won’t be the last
Sublime Starc is last man standing after Australia’s mystifying call to leave out Lyon | Geoff Lemon
In the end it was Mitchell Starc saving the day in the second Ashes Test as he did the first. In a series supposed to be defined by Australia’s fast-bowling Big Three, he has done the work as the sole member to make the starting line. With one English wicket left to fall and his tally on six for 46, he was on the brink of the remarkable feat of recording career-best figures for the fourth time in less than 12 months. Joe Root and Jofra Archer swung a few runs away to void that statistical note, but it was still another day (and night) of heavy lifting for the man who so far in this series has carried Australia’s burden.Having passed Harbhajan Singh’s 417 Test wickets in the process Starc, who ended day one with figures of six for 71, is now in the top 15 wicket-takers on the Test all-time list, but the more significant milestone from the overtaking lane was the 414 of Wasim Akram, making Starc the most prolific left-arm quick of all
Zak Crawley’s handsome drives steady England ship and show power of perseverance | Simon Burnton
Anthems over, Zak Crawley left the field and took the water handed to him by Matt Potts. If he was a little dry of mouth it would hardly be a surprise – even without the burden of the brace of ducks he took from the first Test, the situation he was about to walk into might have verged awkwardly close to terrifying. He downed half the bottle, donned his helmet and turned back around.Mitchell Starc, the bowler who dismissed him in the opening over of each innings in Perth and is even more effective in these day-night games, dried his hands on the sun-baked turf as Crawley made his way to the middle, and picked up the new pink ball.Three slips set themselves for some catching practice
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