To never cook a big meat for Christmas ever again?

[richierichardsaunt]

Another year of Norfolk Bronze turkey.
Just tastes of turkey (moist but dull).

So have decided that from now on I'm only going to do a Christmas dinner of sides!
Goose fat potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, red cabbage, sprouts, carrots, yorkies and shed loads of gravy.

No carcasses fucking me off and probably no leftovers.

AIBU?

You massively overdid the pigs in blankets - six per person!! - and 3 stuffing balls a head too! If all your guests were DP size (former rugby scrum) yes that would all disappear. But I only managed 2 pigs and 2 stuffing balls, and only a tiny smidge of seconds - which was a bit of the vegan roast as I'd never had it before and wanted to know what it was like (gorgeous btw, vegan food has shot up in yumminess since I was a vegetarian student in 1980's!). I don't think any of the women at the table today ate much more than me. And two of the guests have been completely comatose on the sofa since about half past eight now.

I do find cold roast beef much more versatile than cold roast turkey, also I find beef much easier to cook, the way I do it doesn't require basting every 15 seconds and the gravy is a doddle. And beef means I get away with horseradish sauce - easily prepared in advance if you're determined to home cook - and dear Aunt Bessie's yorkshire puds (I've given up on trying to do them from scratch, I've decided they count as baking and I'm utterly shite at cakes) rather than farting about with bread sauce too.

Sorry xposted with you OP.

I'm about to give up on Turkey I usually love it this year I'm unimpressed plus all the horror stories about mouldy turkey 🤮

@AlpacaLypse

Nearly, 5 are in the armed services.

They couldn't get home.

This was the first year we didn't do a turkey, and I can honestly say it wasn't missed! We opted for a chicken instead. Its our first year in our new house, with a small oven so we would have really struggled with a turkey and all the trimmings in there, and decided the trimmings are what actually make the dinner special so they were more important. Plus a couple of vegetarians, just made it seem pointless. A chicken for me oh and and the kids, and some mushroom and stilton parcels for our guests. Went down a storm, and apart from working out the timings for the extra little bits we did on the side, was no much more hassle than our usual Sunday lunch. Defo won't buy a turkey again unless we end up having to feed 10+ people, and even then we might just opt for 2 chickens!

We never have turkey or pigs in blankets. We had a fancy piece of fillet steak (for dh) and a mushroom wellington thing (for me) (the dc were offered a bit of both. We have leftovers but they'll be reheated for a fancy cheesy beef sandwich and a nice mushroom wellington dinner tomorrow. We used frozen mash, roasting root veg and steaming veg so only got out what we'd need for today and the rest remains in the freezer for tomorrow.

Whole salmon cooked in a fish brick with steaks and all the usual sides plus hollandaise sauce. Was amazing.

I did turkey a couple of times early in our marriage, admittedly turkey legs (much nicer than crown and much much cheaper). These days we don't have turkeyat all, you're right, it's really really boring. Due to the expense we don'thave goose either.

So we have beef, lamb, grouse, guinea fowl, pheasant, partridge, wood pigeon - there are so many choices!

YABU! Part of the fun is the left over meat, sandwiches for Christmas Day evening, turkey and ham pie one day, turkey and cheese on crackers...
But you definitely don’t want to overcook it so it’s too dry.

Are you sure you're cooking it right? I think turkey is delicious and anything but bland when done right

That's what we did today! And it was bloody lovely!

Some friends of mine just do All The Trimmings for Christmas, and I think that sounds like a great idea.

We just had a lovely roast tenderloin of beef for Christmas dinner. We do turkey at Thanksgiving.

The tenderloin is much faster and easier to roast. No carcass to dispose of either.

It's not wasted though is it? We have loads of leftovers but it'll all get eaten in one form or another.

If you find turkey bland, try a goose - you will never go back. Much easier to cook as well, as it doesn't need basting. You'll get enough goose fat from it to use not only on your Christmas roast potatoes, but well into the new year as well.

We had chicken and ham this year instead of turkey. No complaints!

Turkey is usually dry if you just buy a battery farmed turkey crown. Go for the whole bird and a good free range, if you can, and it's totally different.

I'm veggie, I adore Xmas dinner - I don't miss the meat (well perhaps the pigs in blankets!) I love all the veggies, roasties and gravy (beef Bisto is veggie) etc.

Pigs in blankets, stuffing and gravy were the bits I most enjoyed today.

Our bird was pheasant (though we had ham as well). For various reasons I was less than enamoured with it by the time I got it to the table and I barely touched mine. I didn't miss it.

I like a good quality, well cooked turkey though. But I cook for a small number, so it never seems worth it.

No turkey here, take away instead and have pigs in blankets to cook as a ‘snack’ food.

Where did you find a turkey crown to only feed 4? That's tiny

So have decided that from now on I'm only going to do a Christmas dinner of sides!
Goose fat potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, red cabbage, sprouts, carrots, yorkies and shed loads of gravy.*

I basically had that, first year of being vegetarian and wasn’t hosting, my mum did a nut roast which was basically stuffing. Lush!

I’ve seen so many people this year just completely done with the overindulgence. More simplistic xmasses for all!

It doesn't really matter if there is leftover meat, does it? Turkey/beef sandwiches or a quick casserole will deal with it.

I love turkey & having lots left over. I'm doing another full dinner tomorrow night but today will be turkey & trimmings paninis 😊😊

We had a Marks and Spencer Turkey crown with stuffing.

Absolutely delicious. It’s very true that you get what you pay for.

I got the meat from a butchers.

There was nothing wrong with the meat, it just got left!
I did more sides so I could guarantee left over sides but all that's left is the meat.

That's why I'm disappointed.

(Don't think I've ever typed meat so many times before!)