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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think serving a starter with Christmas dinner is unnecessary. And weird.

553 replies

Kavalier · 19/11/2014 20:30

Am hosting DH's family for Xmas dinner for the first time this year. MIL always does a prawn cocktail starter and they will miss a starter if I don't serve one, so I will. I think it's very odd though. AIBU?

OP posts:
Riverland · 20/11/2014 14:03

Puréed celeriac? What?

SirChenjin · 20/11/2014 14:06

Petula - you are quite right, I stand corrected. I think God will be as equally forgiving of crustacean based starter as he is of other forms - despite what that Slub upthread claims

I shall put my most excellent suggestion to MNHQ Plumping - and you may even get a small mention as it's the season of good will

StillSquirrelling · 20/11/2014 14:07

I must admit, revolting prawn starters aside, that I also find the presence of Yorkshire Puddings alongside any other meat but beef abhorrent. Sadly, if I don't make them then DH will. He loves them, a lot and whilst I am usually able to stand my ground at all other times of the year, I am unable to on Christmas Day. If I refuse to make them then DH will but there's no way I am having HIS Yorkshires at my table (they are nowhere near as nice as mine) so if he remembers in time then I sigh mightily but do make them. I normally arrange to distract him by all means possible so that he only remembers when it's already too late .

outofcontrol2014 · 20/11/2014 14:08

I always do a starter on Christmas day, but that's because I need something to serve people while I finish cooking a dinner that always runs 2 hrs after the time it was intended to have been served. Keeps people going while they wait!

squoosh · 20/11/2014 14:09

I'm never offended by the presence of a Yorkshire Pudding. That would be like saying you're offended by all that is good and beautiful in this world.

PlumpingUpPartridge · 20/11/2014 14:09

I am humbled by your generosity SirChenjin.

StillSquirrelling · 20/11/2014 14:13

I quote:
"These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is detestable to you." (Leviticus 11:9-12)

I think that makes me the winner of the prawn cocktail starter argument Wink

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 20/11/2014 14:19

Prawn cocktail is definitely detestable.

BakewellSlice · 20/11/2014 14:19

Well done StillSquirrelling!

squoosh · 20/11/2014 14:25

Leviticus is such a killjoy. He also bans people from cursing their mother and father and says having sex with your uncle’s wife is a bad thing.

Long live the prawn ring!

SirChenjin · 20/11/2014 14:29

Pah! Leviticus was well known for being completely bonkers. He used to pull the wings off of flies AND he ate babies. Fact.

Slubberdegullion · 20/11/2014 14:34

Grin Grin Grin at the parsnips Christmas card Plumping.

A yorkshire pudding with beef is a thing of great beauty squoosh. Yorkshire pudding with anything else removes joy. It negates the goodness on the plate. It is a pleasure lessener, much like having sex with your uncle's wife.

At the dc's school they serve Yorkies with roast gammon I mean COME ON.

StillSquirrelling · 20/11/2014 14:49

At the dc's school they serve Yorkies with roast gammon I mean COME ON

Jesus FUCKING Christ! Hmm Hmm Hmm

Right there is my reason to emigrate this God forsaken country...RIGHT THERE!

squoosh · 20/11/2014 14:52

UKIP should be made aware of this abuse of the Yorkshire Pud.

PetulaGordino · 20/11/2014 15:03

You can't use Leviticus to ban prawn cocktail as it also proscribes all sorts of other stuff you might like to partake of on Christmas day

sydlexic · 20/11/2014 15:05

This is a rediculous argument, everyone knows you can eat anything, any combination, any quantity, right up until new year when you must start your diet and spend the day wondering how on earth you got so fat.

StillSquirrelling · 20/11/2014 15:14

You're right, Petula. I was just quoting random parts of the Bible to prove my own point, and therefore ignore all the other parts of it that would ruin my enjoyment. Hmm Sounds a bit familiar! Wink

I've no doubt at all that old misery guts Leviticus would have something to say about my pigs in blankets!

squoosh · 20/11/2014 15:15

You can't use Leviticus to ban prawn cocktail as it also proscribes all sorts of other stuff you might like to partake of on Christmas day.

Yes, like having sex with your uncle's wife. That's one tradition no one should be forced to forego.

Slubberdegullion · 20/11/2014 15:16

Well the whole pork within pork might have been an issue for him Squirreling.

MajesticWhine · 20/11/2014 15:19

"Every animal that does not have a divided hoof or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean." Leviticus

That means no pigs in blankets.

squoosh · 20/11/2014 15:21

I think the blanket keeps it clean. And cuddly.

HelloItsMeFell · 20/11/2014 15:23

Not weird but certainly unnecessary.

I suppose if you are the kind of person who serves up diddy restaurant sized platefuls and exercises rigid portion control then I suppose there might be room for a stater, but in my house we have mountains of roast potatoes and stuffing enough Christmas dinner for an army so who has room or the inclination for a starter? Confused Not us.

Then again it depends what breakfast you've had and what time you eat lunch/dinner.

We always have smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, croissants and bucks fizz about 9-10 ish, and eat our lunch about 3-4 o'clock with turkey sandwiches and some cheese and crackers etc for supper if we get hungry again.

Alisvolatpropiis · 20/11/2014 15:47

YABU

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/11/2014 15:52

If I may add to the Yorkshire pudding debate - do people eat their Yorkshires with or without gravy? I am firmly in the no gravy camp - I want crispy Yorkshires, and if I have made a lovely, crispy Yorkshire, why would I make it soggy with gravy?

In fairness, I should say that I probably have a skewed view on gravy, as is was brought up in a gravy-less household, because my mother abhors gravy. What she says is, if she's made a delicious meal, why do people want to smother it under a blanket of gravy, so it all tastes the same? Some sauces were on mum's approved list - bread sauce with chicken or turkey, redcurrant jelly with lamb, apple sauce with pork - and we were grudgingly allowed tomato ketchup with some meals (though not without a repetition of the 'why do I bother making tasty food if you are going to smother it with ketchup so it just tastes of tomato sauce' diatribe - not that we were ever allowed enough ketchup to smother anything).

As a result, I grew up thinking some foods should be dry (and crispy food like Yorkshires definitely falls within this category), and rarely have gravy - but I do know that I am strange, so I will make gravy for the rest of the family - though I do have to restrain myself from muttering about all the delicious flavours being drowned in the one flavour of the gravy. Xmas Blush

So - crispy yorkshires, or gravy-sodden, soggy ones?

HelloItsMeFell · 20/11/2014 15:54

But they don't taste of anything on their own, surely their only purpose is to mop up gravy? Confused

Although I am totally not for turning on the Yorkshire Puds with Christmas dinner debate. It's a NO from me.