A recent survey has revealed that pork and ham is the number one choice for New Zealanders filling their bellies on Christmas day.
Which roast meat gets prime position on the festive table can be the cause of stress and even family arguments - but these figures may help settle debates and give insight into how the majority of folk around Aotearoa will celebrate December 25.
But although there are clear favourites, no one type of protein scored much more than a third of votes, meaning Christmas tables up and down the country are really quite varied.
The survey polled over 3300 Kiwis and while vegetarian options were available, meat mains were substantially more popular. That may be partially because of who conducted the poll - Retail Meat New Zealand in conjunction with Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
Here are the results:
Primary cut
- Pork/ham - 36.2 percent
- Lamb - 31.3 percent
- Beef - 10.8 percent
- Turkey - 10.6 percent
- Chicken - 7.6 percent
- Fish / kaimoana - 2.4 percent
- Vegetarian - 0.6 percent
- Venison - 0.5 percent
Secondary cut
- Pork/ham - 31.7 percent
- Chicken - 22.1 percent
- Lamb - 18.5 percent
- Beef - 9.8 percent
- Fish / kaimoana - 7.4 percent
- Turkey - 6.9 percent
- Vegetarian - 2.4 percent
- Venison - 1.1 percent
The survey's results were released just days after a non-scientific poll conducted by The AM Show and Newshub found neither turkey nor ham were the preferred choice by Kiwis on Christmas.
More than 2800 votes were cast with the results as follows:
- Ham - 30 percent
- Turkey - 10 percent
- Neither - 60 percent
Retail Meat New Zealand and Beef + Lamb New Zealand's 'Great Kiwi Christmas Survey' also asked a range of other questions about how New Zealanders spend Christmas, including the very important factor of pudding.
- Pavlova is the firm favourite Christmas dessert, winning 70.6 percent of votes
- Most Kiwi families have their Christmas feast in the early afternoon (53.2 percent)
- Roasting Christmas kai is vastly more popular than barbequing it (62.8 percent and 32.5 percent respectively)
If you vehemently disagree with any of the above results, let us know on the New Zealand's Greatest Foodies Facebook group.
