To cook spuds in goose fat for vegi BIL at xmas

[MeMudmagnet]

I'd imagine most vegi's would think IABVU?

DH's family are with us for Christmas. They'll be 11 of us to cook for and BIL with obviously need something to replace the Turkey, no problem.
He'll also need separate gravy, hardly any bother.
I usually make a couple of stuffings and make sure one is meat free, again, no bother.
He also likes to have some vegi sausages to replace the pigs in blankets.

I like to do a good job with xmas dinner and I love doing the spuds in goose fat.
I ponder over this every time we have them for xmas. It's a PITA having to pretty much cook a separate vegi dinner alongside a traditional one, find space in the oven and get all the timings right.

Would it really hurt, for one day, if he was unknowingly more flexible?

The rest of the year when we see them, I just make something vegi for all of us, but this is xmas dinner and I like going to town a bit.

So;
a. Would he notice?
b. Would it be really, really bad?

LOL at Custardo and butty box.

Yeah, just give him a microwave lasagne.

The germans have the right attitude to vegetarians. My exes sister went to Munich and in a restaurant couldn't find a veggie option. She told the waiter of her dismay and her promptly brought her a single, sliced radish on a side plate and plonked it in front of her

oops bracket got misplaced there.

I know the answer about ambergris - whales vom it up and it floats around in the sea, and lands on beaches, and smells really nice apparently. Used to be used as perfume on its own

If you think he won't taste the goose fat on the spuds, why are you using it then? Just use vegoil if no one can taste it.

GetOrf, I have been wondering about all that for years.

Here's what I've come up with. It's a bit disgusting, so put your lunch down.

I think (a hungry) someone killed a calf, as you do, to eat. And they ate all of it, including the stomach. And thought they stomach contents (partially digested milk) were rather nice.

So they tried to figure out how to make it without going to the effort of killing a calf for a pound of cheese every time.

And I think someone noticed that the smell of whale meat stayed on them longer than the smell of any other animal did, and wondered why.

i don't see why OP you need to have meat stuffing or meat stock gravy etc etc.

Er, perhaps because all the other guests like a bit of sausagemeat in their stuffing? That's just being silly now.

Oooh, cross post about the ambergris. Well, the real explanation makes far more sense.

Apart from the bit about it actually smelling nice on its own.

No, don't give me a biochemical explanation of why it smells nice.

Paxo is rank. It's like parcel packaging infused with sawdust and dried herbs. Yuck.

but that's what i meant! my dad's never done it and he's vehement , vehement i tell you! about eating meat.

it's really not necessary, and it means she only has to cook one stuffing

we make a stuffing from scratch at home - dreid breadcumbs, onion, fresh sage, whisked egg.

I must admit, I can't take veggies who consume milk and dairy seriously. I have much more respect for vegans.

Either animal welfare matters to you or it doesn't - none of this 'well, at least we make an effort' nonsense. Why not make an effort with all of it, if it really matters, like vegans do?

And there's the thing. If you are certain that the other guests will notice being given vege-whatever, then why the holy hell would you think the vegetarian wouldn't notice being given the animal-origin-whatever?

It makes no sense!

Dammit, everyone else posts the same thing as me, but faster!

I've been veg for 20 years now and I quite like Paxo

Save yourself alot of hassle and do all the spuds in veg oil. No-one will notice and the spuds will be crispier and far healthier for it!

Goose fat is grim.

My DP has never had sausagemeat in his stuffing. His family just have Paxo

Hes not vege. Just deprived.

lol at ambergirs and rennet madness.

I love paxo. I am a food ponce in any other sense of the word (I toast and grind my own spices in an orgy of wankerness) but adore paxo. So I make that for crimbo. 2 lots. One lot to put in the oven, one lot to eat stood up in the kitchen.

I agree, goose fat is rank and smokes the house out.

Just do him smash

tbh I think bil ibu not offering to bring his own veggie stuff with him.

To those saying do everyone the veggie option of spuds and stuffing, why should 10 people change their eating habits to accomodate 1 person?

Actually, as someone else has just pointed out. I don't have anything against his vegetarianism or the fact that his needs should be catered for.
It's more that he likes to have a traditional xmas dinner, in vegi format, without any thought as to how it actually all gets cooked.

I think not doing potatoes for him at all wouldn't go down at all well.

He really is a nice bloke, not a knob at all. He just doesn't get why any of it could be problem. And usually it isn't, except at xmas. When I run out of room in the oven.

Do him a jacket potato sling it in the cooker for at least an hour you don't need to do anything to it at all. Easy peasy.

I rather like roast taties in goose fat, but the year I got the most compliments about the potatoes was when I parboiled them, roughed them up and sprayed with cooking oil and sprinkled with smoked garlic salt and herbs. And that was me going for the 'healthy' option!

I thought so - it's the taking for granted and expecting the world to revolve around him that makes you want to either a) say fuck it or b) punish/test him a little to see whether he's really worth all this extra trouble.

Are you going to just ask him then OP? I can't think why you wouldn't. He might just say "fine" and you can relax about it.

I have a friend who is coeliac (no gluten at all) and she is a nightmare to cook for, so she always offers to bring stuff, or cook for herself at my house, or when I insist on cooking for her is always really nice/appreciative. He just needs to find some good manners, and a reality check from you about your plans and the difficulty he is making wouldn't do him any harm at all.

Goosefat is overrated IMO.

I do all my roasties in white flora now. Healthier AND vegetarian-friendly. Problem solved.

Goose fat used to cost bugger all.

Now it is the done thing to cook your christmaas roasties with it is costs £3.50 a tin.

Robbing bastards.

ENorbaSnob: "o those saying do everyone the veggie option of spuds and stuffing, why should 10 people change their eating habits to accomodate 1 person?"

Depends who the one person is that you're talking about. Me, I would say, because the one person is doing the cooking. If the OP is finding Christmas dinner hard to manage, doing everything the same and being honest about it is the way forward.

If the ten people couldn't cope without goosefat potatoes, I'd want them to stay away!

Sorry but can we just stop this conversation a moment to reflect on the interesting fact that pip's parents serve up HOT KETTLE CHIPS with their CHRISTMAS DINNER

And yet you sound so normal Pip.

ElephantsAndMiasmas - No I won't ask him, I may as well ask him if wants his vegi sausages wrapped in bacon while I'm at it I'd get the same reaction.

I'm 'forgetting' his vegi sausages instead. Either that or I'll ask him to fry them himself on the hob, while I'm dishing up.