To not enjoy a 'Sunday Roast'?

[ManicUnicorn]

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?

I'm so envious. I'd love a roast dinner but never cook one because no-one else likes them. My family have zero interest in eating. It is soooo frustrating!
DS is fussy and only eats chips and chicken nuggets or cheap fish fingers and DH will happily eat a tin of soup. The only time I eat out is if a friend visits, not very often.
I made a yummy fish pie (smoked haddock, salmon and cod) and a cauliflower cheese yesterday.
Only I ate any of it. I'll freeze the leftovers.
DS insisted on fish fingers & chips and I left DH to do his own (tiny) boring cheese salad.

You are reminding me of an early trip to my now MIL's. She said 'do you want to stay for lunch, we are having roast pork?'

I thought of my DM's mouthwatering roast pork, with crisp crackling, apple sauce, potatoes roast in goose fat, choice of other veg and a wonderful homemade dessert after.

So I excitedly said yes.

I got dried up and shrivelled measly slices of meat that may once have been pork, potatoes and carrots that had been boiled for as long as the joint had been in the oven, broccoli that had the mere semblance of it's original shape and dissolved on contact with cutlery, all drowned in a sea of Bisto.

How I got through the meal without wretching I still do not know.

They then got madly excited over a tin of custard for dessert. Afterwards, I cried.

We try not to eat at MIL's anymore.

Roast dinner addicts here

DH cooks one every Sunday and if on the rare occasion the weather is far too hot, we go to the air conditioned Carvery down the road

You cannot judge a roast dinner by the efforts of someone who clearly cannot cook!

A good roast dinner is a thing of immense beauty.

I agree. I don't like roast dinners, whether they're well cooked or not.

I'm so hungry now. Hmmmm shall we do beef or pork today??

I feel sad for you if you've never had a good roast dinner. I hadn't either until I went to a bf's house at about 18. It was a revelation. I learned to cook mine from Delia Smiths big cookery course book and they are sensational. Buy your DH a copy and get him practicing.

I like all the other things you've mentioned too btw but poorly cooked they too can be disgusting , a doughy pizza with bland,sweet tomato sauce and some tasteless cheese on top for instance or a grey, sweaty, acidic Bolognese sauce with sticky overcooked pasta.

Nothing nicer than a huge roast dinner with eveyyou love around the table. Crispy crackling pork, stuffing filled apple cups, perfectly crispy roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, red cabbage braised slowly with apples, runner beans. Just perfect.

The weather doesn't stop my dad having his Sunday roast! Even if it's 30 degrees outside he'll still have one.

I now only cook a roast if a bunch of the kids are back for the weekend. Needn't be expensive - some of the best ones I've done have been a really cheap cut of beef, roasted vvveeeerrrrry slowly in Guiness (almost like stewing really). It's the side dishes that 'make' a roast for me, the leeks and carrots and Yorkies and cheesy cauliflower and...

I think it's an English thing.

I only had my first Sunday roast when I was 13.

I find it bland and boring too.

We love spices in our family- there are plenty celebration foods to eat on a Sunday.
Today our "roast" is a leg of lamb smothered in Moroccan spices and baked. Will be served with roasted veg, jewel couscous and flat breads.

Far more interesting than a typical Sunday roast- although my OH is a trained chef and cooks brilliantly.
Sunday roast is only saved by fresh horseradish and mustard.

Today its roast pork with a load of crackling
tatties roasted around the meat to keep the fat for making gravy
carrots boiled with the beans and kale steaming above them
might heat up some frozen squash
served with lashings of apple sauce and proper gravy
washed down with strong red wine

washing up is done communally after the meal while singing along to bad old pop songs

We eat meals like that throughout the week as we both like spice and heat and we have lived in a lot of places so our food is quite international. But a Sunday roast represents something special for me, and I like it to be quite traditional. There's just something really comforting and lovely about it.

A couple of times a year for a proper all home-cooked one with lots of trimmings (but never the dreaded cauliflower cheese) is enough for us. I like it but don't want it very often. The family aren't all that bothered either, I have two people who don't like potatoes.

We do a cheat one sometimes with bought Yorkshires and frozen veg, but it's not really the same as proper home-cooked.

Huldur you've just very accurately described my DM's roasts. Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire puddings, sloppy over cooked veg, cremated beef urggghhhhhh. We never had mashed potatoes, or leeks, or honey roasted parsnips. This sounds amazing. My DM is very much from the school of meat and two veg, she never seasons anything. All meat is just bunged in the oven without even so much as a bit of salt, and roasted until it resembles a battered old pair of work boots.

Don't get me started on the pigswill that passed for a roast dinner at my Primary school. I still have nightmares about that!

Ive missed out haven't I?

I can't be arsed with a roast today so the cheat's version is pulled pork done in the slow cooker,served in ciabatta and followed by shop bought cheesecake. that's as much effort as I am prepared to make, having been batch cooking and freezing most of yesterday!
Stocked up with lentil and spinach soup, chicken curry and home made burgers. Bring on the Zombie Apocalypse - we are ready!

I have very bad memories of my mother's cooking.

Even thinking of it makes me want to heave.

All that boiled veg and mash makes feel ill.

YABVU. Roast dinners are amazing.

I love a roast but as PP have said, by the time I have prepped cooked and served it, I dont want it!

I do have to clarify, we don't have a roast every week. It's probably every 3 or 4 weeks on average, sometimes more often than that. It all depends on what we're in the mood for.

What's the right temperature for roasting a 2kg leg or shoulder of lamb? My meat always comes out tough. My oven doesn't have a fan.

Thanks

caille
my granny used to boil cabbage to oblivion - to make it "safe to eat"
but she made cole slaw with the other half

I never understood that one.

OP
Next week, go for it.
Get a nice chicken, pop bacon over it and loads of butter (the old Delia recipe is the best)
and then roast tatties, baked carrots, baked squash, baked cherry tomatoes
steamed beans, steamed kale, steamed peas
then lashings of redcurrant jelly and gravy
washed down with a nice Sauvignon blanc

Roasts do nothing for me (veggie) but I've always assumed what people like is not necessarily the food but the family get together.

I've had some fairly odd meals at other peoples' roast dinners but it didn't matter because the occasion was fun. I've often wondered how much of the enjoyment for meat eaters comes from the roast itself over the occasion?

mismolly
Lamb - do it low and slow - around 150 degrees centigrade for around 4 hours
it will be meltingly soft

My parents have a full roast with every trimming imaginable every single Sunday, even when it's just the two of them.

They had a big row one summer about 30 years ago when on a particularly hot day my DF went absolutely bananas at my DM for serving up a cold roast chicken with Jersey Royals and a salad. Since then it's been a roast every single Sunday without fail.....

My mum does a fabulous roast but I wouldn't want to eat it or indeed cook it every single week!