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?

Who are you kidding, GetOrf? Everyone knows your roast dinners are by Findus.

It reminds me of a comedy sketch I saw once. At a bbq the host asks a couple what they'd like to eat. They reply that they're veggie and he says for them to follow him. He takes them through the house and puts them in the cupboard under the stairs.

Blimey didn't expect everyone to go bananas!!
I was only considering it!

And fwiw SIL is SO not a bitch.
AND HE DOES eat biscuits, cake etc.

OK the majority think it would be wrong then.
I'll go with that [sulks]

This would be a really, pointlessly spiteful thing to do to someone. It's not your BIL's fault that you have a lot of people to cook for.
I am a long-term vegetarian due to never liking it much in the first place and meat tending to make me feel sick. I don't eat any meat or fish or anything cooked in meat sauce/fats etc. I don't, however, check all my food for traces of gelatine etc as I can't taste it, I'm not an ethical vegetarian and it has no effect on me.
Actual meat, if I have it my mistake, makes me spectacularly ill. And yes, I would know immediately if I had been served with potatoes cooked in goosefat. If any relative of mine did this to me and I found out that it had been done deliberately and after a pre-discussion, I would be beyond hurt about it and assume that they had absolutely no concern for my physical comfort and well-being, no matter what they might think about the ethics of vegetarianism.

PS Who is this GOML person? I have never heard of her before in my life. Clearly a poor attempt at trolling.....

I wouldn't cook his spuds in goose fat, but neither would I faff with veggie stuffing, pigs in blankets, gravy etc. I'd probably do veggie roasters too because it suits me to do them in two trays, but I would be offering an alternative for the turkey along with the same veg as everyone else, and there would be bread sauce & cranberry sauce.

I have an allergy and I would never expect anyone to offer me an allergy free version of everything offered to everyone else. As long as I am fed something!

I think it would definitely be very unreasonable to feed him non-veggie potatoes without telling him, but there are other solutions that would not result in extra work for you.

The best thing would be to talk to him, explaining that you are happy to cater for him up to a point, but that it is causing you stress trying to work out how to manage it all. Offer him different options, e.g. could he bring something with him preprepared, like the turkey substitute, stuffing or gravy, so that would be one less thing for you to think about? Or what about him not having the veggie sausages at all if he really wants the veggie roast spuds? I don't think they are much more complicated than cooking some veggie sausages (in some respects it's easier as the timings for both types of spuds should be roughly the same, whereas the sausages will need to be put in not long before you start serving everything, and are less forgiving of being left in for a few minutes too long as they dry out). All you need to do is bung a few of the potatoes into a small oven dish in a bit of oil and cook them alongside everything else. Although if it was me I'd probably just stick the veggie sausages in the dish with the potatoes for the last 10 minutes of cooking (or however long your particular sausages take) and so do both without too much hassle (& less washing up!).

To be perfectly honest though, I don't really see what's so traumatic about the idea of cooking a few spuds in a separate dish with some veg oil - it's not like you'll have any extra potatoes to peel (personally I think that's the worst part of preparing them!!) and if you use a small dish they're not taking up much space in the oven (I bet you can find a dish that will tuck in down the side of another dish in the oven! I find a small loaf tin quite useful for this kind of thing as they are long and thin). Personally I'm not keen on the solution of mashed potatoes offered by others here as that seems like more work than doing veggie roasts.

Most of the other things you've mentioned that you are happy to do seem more complicated and time consuming than putting a few of the potatoes in a separate dish, so if he's willing to drop one of the other things (or prepare it himself) it might actually be easier for you to swap one of those for veggie spuds. Or perhaps you have some unusual hugely complicated method for cooking roast spuds?!

Of course, if you actually just talk to him, you might find out he's willing to forego the spuds altogether, or that he doesn't mind occasionally eating things cooked in animal fats! I know a few veggies who will turn a blind eye to chips being cooked in dripping, for example, even though they would never actually eat meat. However, these same people would probably be quite cross if they found out that someone had lied to them about whether it was cooked with animal fat - honesty is usually the best policy if you don't want people to hate you! If he realises that you've knowingly given him goose fat spuds as you are all sitting round eating xmas dinner, it could make for a rather awkward situation and could actually ruin everyone's xmas due to the atmosphere it might create.

Just bloody ask him...

Christ poor you OP.

Mind you sneak feeding veggies on mumsnet is probably up there with saying 'leave your baby to cry itself to sleep' and 'oh just give the baby a bottle of formula, it's all the same'

You have been very nice in the past to him makin so many different things for him (gona give the vegi pigs in a blanket a go ) but you know you could never really do it on the sly... Just wrap a couple in tin foil with bit of olive oil and rosemary or what ever ya like stick them in the corner of the tray hey presto no mess no extra room needed in the oven etc and you will be the wonderful hostess being very very accommodating for your suet/Xmas pud eating vegi brother

bupcakesandcunting - why do you assume that if he's veggie not vegan he would eats those things - DP isn't vegan but he doesn't eat non-veggie cheese, sweets (no red smarties for him), and yoghurts with gelatine in etc - what a bizarre thing to say. He does have a leather belt and one pair of leather shoes, both from before he was veggie. He doesn't evangelise about it, but he would be furious if someone knowingly gave him something to eat that wasn't veggie but not immediately noticeable.

Christ I really want a findus crispy pancake now.

Yes you are being unreasonable, why not cook them in butter instead? Much better imo. I'm a veggie and if you did that to me I would never forgive or forget it and if I got an opportunity to "return the favour" I would; that's if I didn't give you a slap first

What the bloody hell is wrong with red smarties?

Maybe they still have beetles in them or summat. I doubt it though.

I don't think any cheese (or dairy for that matter) is vegetarian though tbh. What do people think happens to all the boy calves?

Oh and veggie sausages to replaced the pigs in blankets?

They're meat wrapped in meat. I think if you're veggie just have to make your peace with a life without pigs in blankets in it.

cochineal - red food coloring made from squashed bugs! Not all red food colouring is cochineal though - the other ones males the kids go crazy LOL!

bupcakes nice namechange!

Well he's a vegaan isn't he, susitwoshoes? The OP said he BIL was a vegetarian.

If you are happy to eat a product containing animal by-product, say cheese containing rennet or SUET, then you can't very well kick up a fuss about a bit of goose fat.

Oh yes cochineal.

Apropos of bugger all, I died my hair with that when I was 7 and dressed up as a punk rocker for Ilfracombe carnival. Not a good look. I had pink hair for weeks.

Is butter really a good alternative for a veggie? Surely veg oil is better, even if you're not vegan...

i wouldn't cook roast spuds in butter, flash fry in clarified butter maybe, but not roast in butter.

Oh, just make 'im some smash.

Would the angry vegetarians please stop flaming the OP, you wouldn't treat an animal like that...

OP I don't blame you for being tempted. I would be too. Its not that big a deal if he eats suet etc. But I would have a word with him first.

My roast spuds are delicious in olive oil, gnawed with some salt and pepper, and sprinkled with rosemary and thyme.... I sometimes mix the olive oil with honey.......

um, gnawed???

Honey is from bees and it makes bees bums hurt so honey is a naughty no-no in the world of the foaming veggies.