Boxing Day food

[wintersdawn]

Help settle an argument please. Would you cook a full roast beef dinner on Boxing Day?

My DH family does this and in the past I've accepted it as the years it's been with them I've cooked Christmas Day and we've gone to the inlaws on Boxing Day and she's done a roast beef then. However this year we are hosting both days and I've just commented whilst planning the food needed for the two days how nice it'll be not to have two roasts in a row as we can do cold meat and chips on Boxing Day this year.

Needless to say DH has just thrown an almighty strop at the suggestion and can not understand why I would possibly not want to continue what his mum does!

I can't be the only one who finds this odd?.

I wouldn't be cooking 2 roasts over xmas, no way.
We all help to prep and cook on xmas day and boxing day is for left overs, snacks and buffet style food.

Tell him he has to cook it then, you aren't the hired help, its your xmas too.

I'm with TheWordFactory - I wouldn't want to eat another huge roast dinner on Boxing day - and I certainly wouldn't want to prep and cook another one!

I will be boiling and glazing a gammon, on Christmas Eve, and that will be sliced cold on Boxing day, and served with home made coleslaw, baked potatoes and chutney - I can't wait!

I think the OP's husband is a real knob to throw a tantrum because she won't slave in the kitchen two days on the trot.

The whole point of boxing day is to spend all day grazing on leftovers IMO... Ham/turkey sandwiches, pickles, crackers and cheese, olives, quality street... Mmmmmmm :)

As a kid my dad would do cold ham/turkey with either bubble and squeak or a big bowl of chips to share. The rest of the meat was put in a massive pie on boxing day then frozen for new years day. They still host the annual new years day pie party :)

Cant think of anything worse than a full roast two days running!

Im with you OP - Boxing day is made for pjyamas, turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches with chips and mayonnaise, accompanied by old films, dozing on the sofa and eating chocolates and drinking wine

I would if expecting guests make a cooked meal, but it wouldn't be a roast.

I suggest that if DH wants roast beef, he could do a pot roast of brisket in advance, slice the meat and freeze in it's own cooking juices/gravy. The meat can be thawed overnight, and re-heated in the oven in a casserole dish, thicken the gravy to serve. Do as suggested a dauphinoise/boulangere potatoes and some sort of veg to serve with it. No worry about timings if anyone is a bit late arriving.

At ours we have cold meat, chutneys, mashed potato and baked beans. If DH goes to an away football match it is an easy thing to make and if he is very late back I can eat when I want and he can eat when he comes in.

I'm having my mum on BD and I am serving the cold turkey with jacket potatoes. End of. It's your house. Do what you want to do or make your dh cook and shop for the roast beef if he is so worried.

growing up we always had roast beef on boxing day. and another full roast dinner.

It doesn't really matter what everyone else on this thread does or thinks - you are dealing with your DH's tradition and his expectations of Christmas.

fwiw I don't do a full roast beef lunchg now though - although I do sometimes cook some beef to have with leftovers (i'm not a turkey fan though).

I cook the gammon on boxing day. Serve it with mash and leftovers.

Boxing Day is for turkey curry isn't it?!

Either you do the leftovers or Dh cooks his choice of beef on strict understanding you are not involved.

He cannot dictate that you must do roast. Strops are for toddlers as pp says.

God, no.

We have jacket potatoes with leftover turkey, stuffing and chocolate and whatever else is left.

My mum does roast chicken but it's because of complicated Italian tradition which involves boiling a chicken for soup on Xmas day and then reflavouring it with beef stuffing. Sounds daft but it is nice.

However I accept this is odd and leftovers is normal. I would never do the chicken thing.

Boxing Day is a second xmas dinner to us (always has been due to blended families). So our tradition is Duck/Goose & Xmas Pudding on xmas day and Beef Wellington/Veal/Venison & Ginger Trifle on Boxing Day. Cold meat, turkey and chips does sound crappy to me (but then turkey in general sounds crappy)- sorry.

BUT as the cook it's up to you what you do, and if someone wants something different they are welcome to make it.

I love leftovers on Boxing day evening, with some nice wine and a good drama on the telly

The thing about Christmas leftovers is that they aren't just leftovers. They are the makings of a delicious meal in their own right. So it doesn't matter if you plan to scoff them in your pjs or provide lunch for guests. Either way, there's good food there for the eating. Not some second-class alternative. In our family there would be the deepest disappointment if Boxing Day didn't produce the expected leftover delights!

However, if the OP's DH is so affronted by the idea of his family eating such a good meal then I suggest he gets his affronted arse into the kitchen and whips up roast beef and all the trimmings.

My ILs do a full roast beef dinner on Boxing Day. We are usually at their house, this year we will be at home and just having simple nibbly food, but definitely not Christmas dinner leftovers, we cook carefully to make sure there aren't any as none of us want to eat them, any turkey gets stuck in the freezer and used a few weeks down the line for fajitas or similar.

I would happily do a turkey curry on Boxing Day but inlaws consider rice to be foreign food and won't eat it and his dad is gluten intolerant so pie is out.

May well stick a gammon on Christmas Eve to add to the pile of left overs but think the line of starting our own traditions may well be thrown into the discussion when it resumes tonight :-)

The gammon and jacket potatoes as suggested by SDTG sounds like a good compromise then.

In our house it's leftovers, generally buffet things and this year we're going for curry! previous years have included chill con carne, pulled pork, and one year we did chicken satay with peanut sauce.

Oh we must be in the minority then as noone would be happy with turkey and chips for the main meal on Boxing Day. This year we are having salmon but in the past we have done roast beef. (This year we are having the roast beef on Saturday)

We tend to strip the turkey carcass and freeze the meat for another time so we don't have endless left overs in the Christmas period. Well apart from a turkey broth and maybe a curry.

Mind you DH is competent and willing in the kitchen so it is not a question of just what I will be cooking

I always make a salad on Boxing day with leftover turkey, wild rice, cranberries, pecans and parsley. Dressing made with lime juice and cranberry jelly. (Nigella recipe.) It became a tradition about five years ago and goes down a treat with a bottle of prosecco. For the rest of the day I mainly eat pork pie.

God no - the last thing I would want is another enormous meal. It's turkey sandwiches and soup made from leftover veg and lovely stock.

You need to agree your family traditions together. I do some of the things my family did but not others. If any of them bothered dh, I would change them. It is our home, not my mother's.

roast on both days here honey roast gammon for christmas day and roast pork for boxing day as adults only on christmas day and grandchildren included for boxing day i just love cooking for the family so even though i am working boxing day morning i dont mind doing it

SDTG can you tell me how you do your gammon? (Pretty please )
IL's are coming for a Boxing Day buffet (no roast dinner here!) and I'd love to do one as DH gets one in the meat hamper he gets from work for Christmas

No way on earth would I cook anything on Boxing Day.

HTH