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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not enjoy a 'Sunday Roast'?

280 replies

ManicUnicorn · 03/09/2017 12:45

Is it just me who doesn't get the love for it? It's probably the most boring and bland meal there is. A massive lump of tasteless meat and boiled vegetables, smothered in gravy.

My DF insists he has to have one every single Sunday, but quite honestly I'd rather have a curry, or pizza, or slag Bol, or anything other than a roast fucking dinner.

Why are we so obsessed with having a roast dinner on Sunday in this country?

OP posts:
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5
Oblomov17 · 04/09/2017 07:43

I love a roast. If it's tasteless, then you are cooking it wrong!

babybubblescomingsoon · 04/09/2017 08:44

My DM does a four bird roast, potatoes roasted in duck fat and saffron, truffle sausages in bacon etc ... it literally is the food of the gods.

Mittens1969 · 04/09/2017 09:07

Yes you should learn to do one yourself, it sounds like you'll love one that's properly done! Then you can invite your DM and DF around to yours on the pretext that she deserves to put her feet up.

I love cooking one myself (only when we have guests though). Then when DM or MIL are here, I can avoid having to be sociable with them because I'm busy in the kitchen lol. As long as I can keep my DM from wanting to help me take over more like.
They then spend their time playing with their DGC, which suits me down to the ground.

Seriously, though, it's something I like to do occasionally, but definitely not every week because of the washing up. Grin

FurryTurnip · 04/09/2017 09:14

Totally agree. Take hours to cook, then two minutes to eat, and it's a bit beige and squashy.

And don't get me started on barbeques.... All that palaver for a sodding sausage sandwich and people expect a round of applause for it.

Roussette · 04/09/2017 09:48

Taking hours to cook... don't get it, unless you have to watch it cooking in the oven. It's the most effortless decent meal ever to me. Two minutes to eat... nooo, not with the quantity of roast dinner we eat!

Prep is a doddle, I do it without thinking and if everything's prepared it's just bung it in the oven and stick on some veg. Gravy though... that's an art and I love slaving over a good gravy. My now grown DCs ring me for gravy tips.

Mittens1969 · 04/09/2017 09:58

This is a great thread, all these ideas for a good gravy, which isn't my forte!

I'll be trying some of these ideas, the problem is 2 fussy DDs lol. Grin

mydogisthebest · 04/09/2017 10:14

I have been to carveries that get good reviews, they were still horrible. I just don't think a roast is a meal to eat at a restaurant. They have to be freshly cooked and dished up straight away which, obviously, a restaurant can't do. Also quite a few restaurants use frozen potatoes and yorkshire which are nowhere near as nice as home made

Toadinthehole · 04/09/2017 10:20

Yep, a roast is an English thing. Good and hearty.

I was explaining to my NZ-born kids how English cookery was renowned for being bad.

Give us some examples, they said.

Well, I replied, roast dinner, sausage and mash, toad in the hole, shepherd's pie, pork pie, potato salad, pickl onions, fish and chips with vinegar, trifles and suet pudding. Like that.

"But we like all those things" they said Grin.

I like cooking various dishes from and the world, and while by kids aren't at all fussy, I know they'll devour a hearty pile of English stodge like a pride of lions eating an antelope.

Toadinthehole · 04/09/2017 10:28

Going to do a lamb shoulder this weekend. Has to be a shoulder, richly sown with rosemary and garlic, cooked slowly over thinly-sliced potatoes so the fat drips onto them. Yum!

I might serve it with sauerkraut. I'll make that much concession to cosmopolitanism.

Ttbb · 04/09/2017 10:32

That's not what a roast is supposed to taste like.

Toadinthehole · 04/09/2017 10:34

Yes it is! If I've cooked it anyway.

Liiinoo · 04/09/2017 11:15

My family are quite picky including one lifelong veggie. A roast is great because I can just put it all out in serving dishes and people can take as much or as little as they want of whatever they want. veggie DC has an extra Yorkshire pudding or two to beef up the protein in her meal.

I recently (reluctantly) took possession of my mum's ancient hostess trolley. I intended to keep it for a month or two and then tell her it had broken. To my surprise I love it for a roast dinner. If some veg is ready a few minutes before the potatoes or yorkshires then they can keep warm in the trolley. As they aren't cooked to death in the first place they don't go soggy while they wait.

What I really want now is a conveyor belt system like in Yo Sushi so we cut out the whole annoying 'Pass me the parsnips/potatoes/gravy'.

coconutwater1 · 04/09/2017 11:19

If we are going to have a little bit of a different roast, lamb with rosemary and anchovies is really delicious, made into a past and slathered on left to marinate for a wee while.......

Im really tormenting myself now

Ropsleybunny · 04/09/2017 11:27

I love a roast if cooked properly. Slow cooked shoulder of pork is yummy, with crackling, stuffing and apple sauce. Or slow cooked shoulder of lamb with garlic, rosemary and mint. Or roast beef with horseradish sauce, or poultry with cranberry sauce and stuffing.

All done with beautifully crispy roasties, Yorkshire pudding, roasted carrots and parsnips and green vegetables. Oh and lashings of homemade gravy. Drool, what's not to like?

MissAlabamaWhitman · 04/09/2017 12:55

I can take or leave a roast.

My mum's are lovely but it's not my favourite meal, wouldn't dream of cooking one myself.

icelollycraving · 04/09/2017 13:02

I LOVE roast dinners. Dh and ds do not. It pisses me off (I know this is unreasonable).
I seriously love them,I like cooking them, they are just bloody delish.
Even at Christmas, they moan. I cooked a lasagna one Christmas as dh was ill and couldn't swallow anything too textured. Ds and dh happy, me not so much.
Roast, Yorkshires, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese, roast potatoes and parsnips, sprouts, glazed carrots, stuffing, Savoy cabbage with lardons,delicious gravy. I love all of it.

TonicAndTonic · 04/09/2017 13:29

I love a roast. If it's tasteless, then you are cooking it wrong!

^^Basically this (and all variations of this upthread)

It's only bland if the chef doesn't understand how to impart flavour into roast meat and gravy. Suggest also not serving with boiled veg - roasted veg is best, with maybe one steamed one. Family sunday roast is one of my favourite food memories from growing up!

OliviaStabler · 04/09/2017 16:36

I love a good roast, only a poor cook could make it bland.

However there are some things on this thread that are totally wrong.

Beef should not be served rare. It looks like it is about to moo. Medium is acceptable.

Cauliflower cheese is an amazing dish but has no place with a roast dinner

There has to be an abundance of Yorkshires and loads of gravy. Don't want a trickle of gravy or a jus, I want lots of lovely gravy made properly.

Honey has no place near carrots or parsnips. It is an abomination.

The Oracle has spoken Grin

Toddlerdramas · 04/09/2017 17:19

I just love all these dinner photos. They all look great.

Cottoneyedjoes dinner wins, it look delicious.

StormTreader · 04/09/2017 17:31

I dont get the Aunt Bessies hate - I do Bessies roasties, and yorkshires, and Bisto gravy, why not make things easier? Once you get the meat perfect, then branch out into all the other bits as well if you want but I say dont give yourself 15 things to fret over on your first few goes.

TheDowagerCuntess · 04/09/2017 17:51

I love a roast, and my Mum's roast lamb was one of my all time favourite dinners.

But roast every week? No thanks. Not when there's so many other amazing food out there.

limitedperiodonly · 04/09/2017 20:20

I never tried Aunt Bessie's potatoes but I like the chips so they must be all right. I like the yorkshires and really like the dumpling mix. People say it's only flour and suet but it must have a raising agent because it turns out right every time. My homemade ones are sometimes like bullets.

BeyondThePage · 04/09/2017 20:54

I dont get the Aunt Bessies hate - i do... their roasties are insipid imitations of a beautiful thing.

I love home made roasties, Aunt Bessies come no where near. They are ok if you want a quick dinner - just like "bisto best" gravy. OK if you want quick, but no comparison to the proper stuff!.

goose1964 · 04/09/2017 21:10

I agree with you, would prefer something else

Liiinoo · 04/09/2017 21:29

For a quick evening tea I might do a steak with aunt Bessie's yorkshires or have ready made roasties with Stilton (you can all copy this unknown taste sensation and then PM me to thank me), but they aren't the same as the real thing. For a proper Sunday lunch it has to be the real, homemade version.