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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:
solidussnake · 20/11/2014 15:54

YABU. We either have prawn cocktail, salmon, or potato & leek soup. Also I love yorkshires smothered in gravy. I don't really like crispy food :)

cherrybombxo · 20/11/2014 15:55

I love my Christmas prawn cocktail starter! My mum always offers a choice of prawn cocktail or lentil soup, we eat it about half an hour before dinner. Then comes out my dad's famous trifle that I insist he makes every year. No-one else likes it so I eat it all over the course of three days Grin

squoosh · 20/11/2014 15:56

I love that my Mum is impervious to Christmas food trends. The idea that we would have something for pudding other than her trifle just wouldn't cross her mind. The idea that she would make trifle more than once a year is madness too.

PetulaGordino · 20/11/2014 15:58

The gravy sort of puddles in the well of the Yorkshire pudding, it doesn't go on the crispy edges, so you get the perfect mixture of crispy, gungey and gravy flavour

Though we don't have Yorkshire pud with turkey, DP is allergic to poultry so we have a beef joint usually an therefore Yorkshiremen are permitted

HelloItsMeFell · 20/11/2014 15:59

I'm the same squoosh I am an inventive and reasonably ambitious cook and I try something new on a weekly basis, hate to get stuck in the same old rut, always keeping up with new trends in food.

But Christmas dinner is utterly sacred and not to be fucked about with.

PetulaGordino · 20/11/2014 15:59

Yorkshires (stupid phone). obviously no Yorkshireman are banned at Christmas, that would just be mean

TheRealAmandaClarke · 20/11/2014 16:01

You could have stuffing balls a'la "Vicar of Dibley"

I am not keen on starters personally. Well, I like them, but not as starters iyswim.
At Christmas lunch I have enough of a job keeping the DCs at the table for the main event and the meal, imo, is supposed to be a plate groaning with the weight of turkey and its accompaniments (but I forgo parsnips because they are not nice and are just pretending to be roast potatoes, which they are NoT)
Imho, its a long and large enough meal without a starter.

But its not weird to have a starter. Just unneccessary.

squoosh · 20/11/2014 16:02

DP is allergic to poultry so we have a beef joint usually an therefore Yorkshiremen are permitted

Grin

What happens if a Yorkshireman eats poultry, do they lose the run of themselves?

squoosh · 20/11/2014 16:03

HelloItsMeFell your grave stone should read 'Here lies Hello, she never fucked about with Christmas dinner'.

DayLillie · 20/11/2014 16:07

No Christmas dinner is a feast; a table full of roast meats, sauces, stuffings and vegetables dishes to delight the eye and stomach. No room for faffing with starters, unless that is the bit before second helpings, and third helpings. Anyway, it would all get cold.

Then you have to find room for the pudding(s)

fourwoodenchairs · 20/11/2014 16:08

We don't have a starter per se, but we nibble on chocolates and stocking crap in the morning and I will put crisps out and that sort of thing. All of us definitely would not be able to fit in 3 courses. No way.

Lovecat · 20/11/2014 16:11

God YES Amanda, I cannot tell you the disappointment of spearing what you think is a luscious, crispy-outside melty-inside roastie and finding you've got a hard, too-sweet lump of parsnip instead.

We have yorkshires with any roast dinner, because bribery with batter-based products is the only way we can bribe DD to eat vegetables. The promise of yorkies has even made her eat sprouts...

Never done a starter, prawns just don't sit well with a Christmas blow-out. One year when we had the ILs around we had a fling with smoked salmon and sour cream blinis, but it didn't feel particularly right. I'd rather have some nice crisps than fishy nibbles...

HelloItsMeFell · 20/11/2014 16:13

Too right squoosh! Because we live abroad lots of our friends don't have their extended families around so we often get invited to spend Christmas day with them for a 'Expat Orphans' Christmas'. DH gets all panicky at the prospect because he's worried they'll fuck with his dinner and it won't be good enough. Grin

MrsKoala · 20/11/2014 16:16

a few points:

Yorkshire pudding with christmas dinner Shock

Also, um, aren't those that follow that bit of leviticus, the kind of people who don't generally have a 'christmas' dinner, so the prawn and pigs in blankets don't really apply to them?

You can eat gold (not so sure about frankincense or myrhh tho), i have done so (i'm very rich you see), and it's also good for gout (i'm also a victorian gentleman who drinks too much port) apparently. it tastes of nothing btw

Ginger trifle (i use a large oval deep serving plate but a glass bowl is also fine:
Layer the bottom of your dish with slices of jamaica ginger cake and drizzle over lots off cointreau (orange blossom water if requiring it to be non alcy).

Top with orange segments (done without the pithy bits in that chefy way by cutting top and bottom off oranges and then slicing down the sides and cutting into the segments to remove the orangey bits but none of the white gack).

Make a good hard custard (properly - no packets allowed) and when cool cover the orange layer with it.

Top with whipped cream and crystalised sugary ginger bits sprinkled over. Slice an orange in half then slice thinly in half moon shapes and decorate around the edge of the plate in a scalloped pattern to make it something fanny craddock would be proud of. Serve with Stones ginger wine for full koalamas day effect.

The taste of ginger and orange is the taste of christmas to me. it's the one dish we must have every year. everything else is a bit meh.

Wishtoremainunknown · 20/11/2014 16:21

You mean there are people out there that dont Eat yorkshires with their Christmas dinner ?!?

CalamitouslyWrong · 20/11/2014 16:24

There were always starters on Christmas Day when I was a kid. When my grandparents were alive it was always some sort of vegetable broth (complete with barley). If you were sensible,my out fill up on soup because the main course of dry Turkey and seriously overcooked veg was not something to look forward to.

My mum always used to provide iceland prawn rings and smoked salmon as starters when we went to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas dinner. My aunt would also make vegetable soup, so you could have two starters (my cousins usually did), followed by the full Christmas dinner (which was much nicer than my grandparents' version), followed by a choice of many puddings. My uncle always has trifle and Christmas pudding (with brandy butter and cream) and sticky toffee pudding. It's impressive really, given that he's just eaten enough food to feed a family for a week in the courses before that.

I don't do a starter. DH would be horrified if I served prawns or smoked salmon. We have Yorkshire puddings for Christmas dinner because they're popular, but we don't have sprouts and often don't have turkey. I'm considering not doing any stuffing this year because it doesn't really get eaten.

SirChenjin · 20/11/2014 16:27

The DCs fill their yorkshires with small cuts of all that's on their plates, smother it in gravy and eat them whole. They are allowed one each (if I'm in Tolerant Mother mode) before my head spins on my shoulders and I implode with rage.

I am impressed with that ginger trifle. No-one in the Chen household likes ginger apart from me, so that's good.

HelloItsMeFell · 20/11/2014 16:30

Christmas day without turkey and sprouts is unthinkable for me. No mash, no Yorkshire puds, (heresy) only roast potatoes, parsnips, cranberry sauce, stuffing, carrots and one other veg, maybe spiced braised red cabbage or petit pois. Loads of lovely gravy.

Always have mince pies and Christmas pud, and have to have custard and cream, also brandy butter.

MrsHathaway · 20/11/2014 16:31

My ginger trifle is ginger cake and dark chocolate custard, then single malt chocolate truffle fluff, topped with roasted oats and chocolate shavings.

Too boozy for DC. Qualified me for Britain's Best Dish though!

squoosh · 20/11/2014 16:33

Turkey I have happily consigned to history.

Sprouts are great as long as they're not boiled. Fry them with pancetta.

But the idea of a Christmas dinner without stuffing is offending every fibre of my being. I need two types of stuffing.

squoosh · 20/11/2014 16:33

Ooooh MrsHathway impressive!

Slubberdegullion · 20/11/2014 16:36

My father always used to say "turkey is only a vehicle for the stuffing" and I concur. Even though we aren't having turkey I think I'll make some stuffing.

MrsKoala · 20/11/2014 16:38

I have been known to make (not on xmas mind you) mini yorkshire puddings, fill each with a dollop of good raspberry jam and top with whipped cream and stuff them in my face hole/whole serve as dessert. Yorkshires are also good drizzled with golden syrup and served with posh vanilla ice cream.

squoosh · 20/11/2014 16:39

Slubberdegullion your father sounds like a wise man.

MrsKoala · 20/11/2014 16:41

isn't chocolate in trifle illegal? Shock

Sorry MrsHathaway. but. CHOCOLATE. CUSTARD??? Wrong wrong wrong oh so so wrong.

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