DH complaining about my Christmas Dinner

Op, if it's any consolation, I don't cook beef (except mince or burgers) either.

Supermarket beef is inevitably rubbish, and a good quality piece of beef from a decent butcher will cost at least £25 a kilo. Honestly, it's just not worth the bother.

His Mum then offered to teach me how to cook beef. Grr!
My MIL would have offered the same- to be nice in fairness, but would get my back up too. I would have responded that I’d prefer she talk to her son about how not to be a huge arsehole if my husband treated me like that.

100%

I avoid cooking something for the first time on big occasions like Christmas dinner. I do a trail run a few weeks before if I can ( and hope for a positive reaction!). I also try to buy the best quality meat I can afford for special occasions. So if I buy tescos beef during the normal shop, I'd look to buy something special for Christmas.
That said, he should have just kept his mouth shout!

This. Next year he cooks Christmas lunch. Or he pays for you all to go out to lunch.

Or you dump him, and make cheese & veggie pancakes for you and the dcs😊

He's a dick, and his parents should have told him to shut his mouth.

He probably learned his attitude from them.

Oh, OP, you poor love. Over the years, I’ve had much better luck doing beef joints in the slow cooker rather than the oven. Just pop it in with plenty of gravy (or whatever you want to baste it with) and set to a low temperature about eight hours before you want to serve lunch. Your MIL is being a patronising twat, cooking beef is not a complex skill that needs to be taught.

Your husband is an arsehole. Does he often put you down in front of others?

This.

Tell him you are disappointed in him, and that he's sleeping on the couch until he gives you a sincere apology for disrespecting you to his parents and for his attitude of entitlement over the beef.

Next year, serve spag bol for Christmas.

I imagine it was the better than half price basic roasting joint. That won’t have been very nice cooked at the same temperature as the turkey. We got the Thor’s hammer last year from Tesco and that was nice. A decent bit of beef is a lot more expensive than £6.25 a kilo. The Aberdeen Angus Christmas was £35 a kilo. You get what you pay for…

We never buy beef from Tesco now after having some terrible joints, we usually get from the butchers or sainsbrurys.

The timings are usually on the packaging, but anyway, he should have just eaten it or left it, and he certainly didn't have to make a big thing of it to his family.

Honestly, it doesn't matter how long you should/shouldn't have cooked the beef for. You could have microwaved it for an hour and your H should still have thanked you for all your hard work, not bloody complained! Had it been a light-hearted comment among gratitude and compliments, fine, but it doesn't sound like that. Sounds like he clearly doesn't appreciate your hard work.

YANBU
This link will explain why you got such a wide range of cooking times. Timings are very different depending on the cuts of beef and if you want it rare, medium of well done. https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/beef-roasting-guide?srsltid=AfmBOopvds-D2g3POsx0SHxVe0sc0lwb7IKDaPG_Ehr_INPhA1Y_yTbO. But I still can’t get over someone telling you 4 hours. Were they suggesting a cremation?

That aside he’s really rude about everything else. I think I would turn around to him and say if he says one more word about the food you will not be cooking Christmas lunch for him ever again… or whatever your red line is.

You should have called him out in front of his family about how you were running between looking after your children and the kitchen. Bless you. I always cook beef in the slow cooker around 8-10 hours, depending on size of the joint. Low and slow with beef even if in the oven. And agree with PPs, more expensive cuts are usually nicer. Sainsburys often do the Aberdeen Angus joints half price per kg with a nectar card.

There, op, is your answer. For that price, even full price, it wasn't a roasting joint. You could have basted that with unicorn oil blessed with fairy dust and that joint would still have been leathery. Do you remember the name: silverside perhaps?

That would only have been tender and tasty if braised on a low heat for 3 to 4 hours with a tasty stock and some roof veg, or in red wine with onions, tjn if tomatoes and olives.

What a prick! I’d be furious at him shit talking your hard work in front of his family and the kids. Next year he can cook it all and you can rate each dish out of 10.

Agree with suggestions to let him do all the cooking next year. I would also sit back and let him set the table too and mind the children throughout it all.
I think perhaps a taste of his own medicine is how he will learn from this.

Did you get it from a butcher or supermarket?
It has the timings on the packaging if supermarket.

Or next year it's full on vegetarian roast.

It was cheap and you get what you pay for. However it doesn't excuse your husband's response. Tell him it's his turn next year.

Oh, and we had a beef fillet Christmas Eve that was fucking dire and I've done roast beef a hundred times. It was the quality of the meat, NOT anything I did wrong. It will no doubt be the same in your case.