To think cooking a roast every weekend is completely unnecessary

[ChristmasAlone]

Stems from a conversation I just had, I'm cooking a roast at the moment and mentioned it was the first one I've cooked this year. I love a roast, but just think cooking one every weekend (I know it's Monday) just feels completely unnecessary and takes away from its beauty if you're having every Sunday.

When you've got good food like a nice joint of beef or a chicken and fresh, seasonal vegetables why on earth would you want to make it more complex. Just enjoy the flavours of the food, nicely cooked.

I'm almost 61 and few of my contemporaries make a roast every Sunday. We have always had either a roast or "special" meal on a Sunday because everyone tends to be in.

The DC are grown up now and ds is often at his girlfriends when he's not away at uni (postgrad). However he will often message me on a Saturday to see if there's a roast planned for Sunday and will come home for it. It's rather nice.

Yeah sounds like a lot of the cook them weekly just do a very generic low quality roast with little to no effort put in.

What on earth is a generic roast? And what makes it low quality? If you wanted to do a reasonably low effort roast every week, you could choose not to do many sides/veg etc, but I don't see how that would make it 'low quality '. The quality is in the ingredients and knowing what you're doing, not in cooking tons of stuff and slaving in the kitchen all day!

I cook one every week, it's totally unnecessary I only do it because my husband likes it and if I don't cook he will order dinner in and I'd just prefer to cook my own. In the run up to Christmas I don't do it every week and during the summer I'll be having more bbq

@ODFOx

I am howling at 'low quality generic roast with no effort'.

Some people prefer a simple roast, some ramp up the complexity of the side dishes or seasoning. What one person considers to be a lot of effort may be standard effort for another.

OP you started a thread saying that it is unnecessary to do a roast every week, and then follow up with 'anyone doing a roast every week is doing a poor one'. It's just rude. Hilarious, but rude.

But I am hooked....what is your definition of a generic low effort roast: what is the significant difference for you that makes a roast superior but too much effort for every week?

As I previously said it was a throw away comment in regards to PPs saying those that don't cook every week or find it a bit of a faff can't cook

I cook roast dinner on Christmas Day and maybe once or twice elsewhere in the year. I only like eating a roast dinner as something very very special.

Yeah sounds like a lot of the cook them weekly just do a very generic low quality roast with little to no effort put in

Wow, those judgemental pants require loosening. Who are you to say its “low quality”? Fuckinghell🙄

I did it weekly when D.C. were home because it was a family favourite. Now they have left I wouldn't do it every week for just DH and I. Too much washing up! I'm just as happy with a cheese toastie if it's just the two of us.

We've had a few outdoor roast dinners since lockdown was eased and we could have guests round but it's hard keeping the gravy warm in a force 10 gale.

@Confusedandshaken

I did it weekly when D.C. were home because it was a family favourite. Now they have left I wouldn't do it every week for just DH and I. Too much washing up! I'm just as happy with a cheese toastie if it's just the two of us.

We've had a few outdoor roast dinners since lockdown was eased and we could have guests round but it's hard keeping the gravy warm in a force 10 gale.

Use a flask

I love a roast dinner but don't have them very often but I have other dinners that I like once a week. Steak pie though wins for me over a roast dinner

Aren’t all roast dinners ‘generic’?
Roasted meat. Vegetables. Potatoes. Gravy. Possibly Yorkshires with beef. Stuffing with poultry.

I cook one every week, it's totally unnecessary I only do it because my husband likes it and if I don't cook he will order dinner in

Maybe he should learn to cook a roast!

This thread has raised some interesting questions though. What is a roast?

I'm cooking lamb shanks in a curry sauce this weekend, with rice, naan and pakora. It is lamb. It is in the oven for several hours slow roasting. Is that a roast?

It will be about the same amount of faff as normal roast (very little) - the pakora are batch cooked when I'm in the mood and reheated from frozen in oven (I'm certain they're better than fresh, the flavours are much more developed), ditto naan bread. Biggest task will be assembling the various spices but it'll still only take 10 mins.

Possibly Yorkshires with beef

Yorkshire's with EVERYTHING!!!!!

@PMcGintysGoat - I'd call what you are doing a braise - assuming it will have a lid on. It sounds delicious.

It sounds lovely and reminds me that I haven't cooked lamb shanks for ages. I marinade 4 shanks in a bottle of wine overnight. I then brown them, add a chopped onion and let it sweat a bit, add a halved bulb of garlic and four stems of rosemary, salt and pepper. Pour the wine back on and put in a lowish oven for about 4 four hours. Always serve them with dauphinoise and purple sprouting broccoli.

I don’t t get where the faff is? Shove the meat in, pre made mash, roast spuds, veg and Yorkshire’s. Only have to make the gravy, piece of piss.
If I’m really up for it I’ll do my own roasties and Yorkshire’s, never the mash though.

I think the cooking is easy. The faff is the washing and scrubbing of tins and pots.

@lalafafa

I don’t t get where the faff is? Shove the meat in, pre made mash, roast spuds, veg and Yorkshire’s. Only have to make the gravy, piece of piss. If I’m really up for it I’ll do my own roasties and Yorkshire’s, never the mash though.

You are playing in to the OPs hands: she's saying that those who make a weekly roast are cheating n some way. Your instaroast sounds super simple but an necessarily representative of most people's experience.