Foods that DO NOT belong on a Christmas Dinner...

[MaidenMotherCrone]

Obviously it’s all down to personal taste but some things are just wrong...

Mushy peas fgs, noooooooo

What foods would never have a place on your plate?

We have Yorkshire puddings with every Sunday dinner, regardless of what meat we have, because we love them! However, I’m not doing them at Christmas as I’m cooking for 9 and would need an extra oven just for the Yorkshire’s! I will be doing mash and roasties though, as I like both, plus, again, I’m struggling on oven space so can’t really afford the shelf space to do just roasties. We will have cauliflower, carrots, peas, parsnips and brussels (fried up with chestnuts and pancetta), then I’m doing a turkey crown, lamb leg and a gammon joint for variety (and lots of nice left overs!), and 2 different types of gravy. Oh and pigs in blankets, else my 12yo ds will be disappointed as they’re his favourite thing ever.

Bisto is 🤮🤮

We have some unspoken but very definite rules round ours .
There are always three types of potatoes: roast, mashed and dauphanoise - there will be just as much of each type of potato as there would be if it was the only type of potato on offer.
Turkey is absolutely forbidden, chicken and lamb are both nice but not deemed festive enough (chicken is too everyday, lamb is more of a spring/Easter thing). Gammon is for Boxing Day.

Basically, no boiled veg - if you can sling it in and roast it with the meat, why would you? No peas, and certainly no bloody sweetcorn.
NO bread sauce. Ever, in any circumstances.
Cauli cheese is, sadly, a no. I bloody love it but too creamy with the dauphanoise. Would happily have it if it's the only cheesy/creamy thing there, though.
Pigs in blankets have also been edited out. I've nothing against them, but I'd rather eat them later than as part of actual dinner.

We also have a weird, lapsed-Catholic thing where we have fish, not meat on Christmas Eve. We appear to be 'fasting' by consuming only poached salmon, new potatoes with parsley butter, token salad, gravadlax with blinis and sour cream, enough cheese to sink a battleship (with crackers, 'posh' bread, chutney etc etc) and as much booze as we can stagger to the kitchen to retrieve. We're a devout bunch, clearly.

This thread is fascinating! I'm not British but DH is so this is reminding me of my first Christmas with his family. I'd never seen a chipolata bacon combo before let alone bread sauce (I didn't like bread sauce at all - I still don't understand it's place within the meal??)

We are Southern Hemisphere dwellers so our Christmas lunch is different but it makes me want to heave when people mix meat/seafood on the same plate.....

JustBeingJobless, just make the yorkies beforehand and freeze. Then just have to warm up in the oven.

Me and DH cook Christmas dinner for 16 and always do yorkies. It just would not be the same without them

whatthefonti I'd love to know what your Christmas Dinners are like in the SH! Genuinely- I'm always curious about food in other places/cultures

beanbaglady I have no doubt the peach halves with cranberries thing came from exactly that kind of publication's December issue. DM did develop fancy ideas around the 70s, some of which stuck 😁. Peach halves are difficult to get these days - last year we had to make do with slices, which don't contain the cranberry sauce at all, so it looked even more bonkers.
My personal Xmas confession is frozen Yorkshire puddings (clutches pearls) - DP makes good proper ones but there isn't room in the oven to do em from scratch. Not even sorry!

Am very much enjoying the other out there traditions - sweetcorn doesn't seem like such a shocker when in at another crowded table you could find garlic bread, spring rolls, onion bhaji and samosa snuggling up to your turkey dinner.

Red cabbage, vile stuff

Bread sauce = catsick

Boiled potatoes, why bother? A bit of mash is sometimes nice.

I wont eat peas but accept them as a possibility on a roast

Anything people do not like but eat because it is traditional. I know a family who have turkey every Christmas but none of them like it but it is traditional.

Anything produced by Aunt Bessie.
Sweet corn
Yorkshire pudding
Mushy peas
Those shitty cocktail sausages
I once had a Christmas do dinner with sprout purée which was horrible.
Bisto

My ultimate Christmas Dinner is
Turkey
Ham
Roast potato
Mashed potato
Sprouts
Carrots
Roast parsnip
Cauliflower cheese
Pork and chestnut stuffing
Sage and onion stuffing
Pigs in blankets made with nice meaty chipolatas,
Red currant jelly
Cranberry jelly
Bread sauce
English mustard
Proper gravy made with the giblets from the turkey.

Well our Xmas dinner is very traditional and we are up north, in fact so far up north we're in Scotland. So it is:-
Turkey
Chipolatas - now wrapped in bacon but weren't up until the 80s
Two type of stuffing
Roast Potatoes only, never other potatoes just loads of roasties!
Brussels
Carrots

• one other veg - red cabbage or roast parsnips maybe. Bread sauce Cranberry sauce In my 60+ years I've had Xmas at my Grans, Aunt's, Uncles and Sister in laws and we all do the same. This time however we are going to my son and his wife's who is Polish so not sure what we will have, she's a great cook so I'm sure it will be good.

Any sort of potato other than roast. Mashed potato on Christmas dinner WTF!

I’ve done Xmas dinner for the last 17 years and youse’ll get what yer gi’n or cook it yousels

Seriously though, if someone else is cooking for you for Xmas, you have to try their take on it enthusiastically or stay home. No?
I do struggle with weird creamy strawberry/fruity/summery puddings. Love a bit of Xmas pud and naice cheese but if you’re at someone else’s house that year, you have to gracefully fold into their traditions or you’re being a twat.

Yorkshire puddings go with any meat or even with no meat.

Amen to that. I make loads of them with every roast and put the extras in the freezer. One of DD's favourite school night suppers is a re-heated Yorkshire pud filled with veg and a puddle of gravy.

As for forbidden foods on my Christmas Dinner plate: Ham, courgettes, leeks, swede, anything in cheese sauce, white cabbage, butternut squash.

Most of these have been dished up for Christmas dinner by MIL at least once.

Any meat. The lamb that many will eat for xmas will be born this week.

Curry of any description. Save that for the turkey leftovers between Christmas and New Year. Pizza is also wrong, even with turkey, ham and sausage on it.

Doubletrouble Polish Christmas food is, um, interesting. Be prepared for things like sauerkraut with mushrooms, mushroom or beetroot soup, carp and salt herring. It's a bit of an acquired taste unless you've grown up with it. Nothing like washing down your salt herring on rye bread with a shot of ice cold vodka though. Nazdrowie!

As a Yorkshire woman I can tell you that Yorkshire's go with any meal but are typically a starter served with vinegar and piccalilli

But yes, swede has no place

quantiestillecanisinfenestraI I'm in Aus but from a area that was settled by German Lutherans (it's still very much a Lutheran strong hold) it's also a famous wine& food region so traditions run strong. Mixed with my mum being kiwi and growing up with close family friends whom were Italian and current best mates being of German & Dutch origin + British husband it's a real mish mash of what's considered "traditional".
Prior to Christmas we make barossa honey biscuits - just for scoffs.

As a result our Xmas dinner revolves around
Cold turkey/ham/ chicken
Charcuterie feat. Italian& German cured meats (proscuitto/capocollo & mettwurst/lankishen
Cheese board
Assorted salads (German style potato salad & redcabbage/apple & cranberry slaw being my favourites)
Cooked chilled prawns /oysters/ crayfish (southern rock lobster)

All above served on platters served family/buffet style

Dessert is bowls of new season cherries! pavlova, cheese board & I always buy hubs a pudding but he's the only one that eats it.

Washed down with sparkling Shiraz!

The honey biscuits, sparkling Shiraz and cherries are my "traditional" foods.

The rules are no Turkey, bread sauce, red cabbage...literally anything else goes and we decide what the theme is going to be end of November.

whatthefronti may I say that sounds so lovely. In currently dark cold wet uk, with so much carb and sugar heavy stuff in our food planning for Christmas, the thought of salads, cheese boards, fresh cherries is truly refreshing. just add mashed and roast potatoes - yes with the potato salad that makes three! - and it sounds perfection have a great one everyone, everywhere.

if you’re at someone else’s house that year, you have to gracefully fold into their traditions or you’re being a twat. Totally agree!

If I went to someone else's house for Christmas dinner I would eat what they cooked (no meat obviously) but if they did not do Yorkshire puddings I would be deeply upset