to think that a roast dinner isn't necessarily an expensive meal to cook?

[Granllanog]

Just been chatting to a newish friend, she asked what we were eating today and I said I had cooked a roast chicken dinner........she said she loves a roast but considers it an expensive meal. I asked her what she was having today and she said they were having fresh pizzas from Morrisons (£10).
I told her my roast dinner cost less than that to make!!!

Obviously, if you buy a very expensive cut of meat then the cost will be higher but a roast doesn't have to break the bank surely? Today we had a simple chicken dinner, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, swede, peas, carrots, stuffing and gravy.

Breakdown of today's simple roast
Chicken .........1.4 kg £3.33 (part of a multibuy offer)
Potatoes .......... 30p (taken from a large 7.5 kg bag)
Carrots 25p
Peas (frozen) 30p
swede 45p
parsnips 30p
homemade stuffing 25p onion, fresh herbs, my own breadcrumbs
homemade gravy 10p spoon of flour and some gravy browning

homemade stuffing 25p onion, fresh herbs, my own breadcrumbs
homemade gravy 10p spoon of flour and some gravy browning

And there's the time cost of doing all this. And if you don't know how to do it the time cost of finding out how.

You do have a choice , you don't have to eat meat ! We have a roast dinner with just veg and it's lovely ! Humans are so used to eating animals we don't stop to think about wetter we actually should and how much we should pay for their lives ! Sad really !

We do a Sunday lunch all ready made.

So per done roast parsnips and potatoes and Yorkshire's.

Meat is usually breaded chicken breast rather than fresh chicken. Or a nut roast thing.

Pretty cheap and pretty easy to make.

We had roast pork, stuffing, piggies in blankets, hm Yorkshire puddings, roast carrots and parsnips, cabbage,kale , brocoli and French beans, mashed and roast potatoes. Probably cost £20 for everything but there is loads left. Me and ds will have a second day dinner, dh will have a curry from the left over meat.

I don't think it's a cheap meal but I don't think it's expensive either. A cheap meal would be egg, chips and beans, or something on toast. I think it's a good value meal that gets veg in the fussiest of eaters.

Cheap meat (other than decent quality but cheap cuts) is a false economy as well as bad for animal welfare. I can't say I never get dragged into the 3 for £10 deals but in reality a smaller cut of better meat goes further as you need less as it's not just full of water.

I think it depends how much you care about animal welfare. I'm not sure I could bring myself to only spend £3.33 on a chicken. By necessity it must have had a dreadful life and be battery farmed to be that cheap. I'm quite shocked you can get a whole bird that cheaply.

If you buy properly free range then the costs go up sharply. Even more so if corn-fed etc.

Also it depends on sides. We have Yorkshire puddings and cauli cheese often with ours which pushes up costs again (free range eggs, decent cheese) etc. Wine in the gravy. Etc etc.

Also many people won't break down costs as you have, they'll count the cost of the whole bag of potatoes etc.

So yes it can be done cheaply. But for a lot of people it's an expensive meal. Last one I cooked cost about £40 all in.

I'm not vegetarian but I won't buy a £3 chicken. The DC aren't fussed about meat but love everything else so I will often do free-range chicken thighs or decent sausages in a roasting tin and then vegetables, stuffing, Yorkshires, roasties and gravy.

A roast can be a lot of outlay if you don’t have the constituent elements in already.

Try costing out your roast by listing the full price of each of the elements. Add in things like oil/butter etc.

Maybe also consider the dishes and utensils needed. As well as the fuel used etc.

Not everyone runs a fully stocked and fully equipped kitchen that way.

I agree that on a meal by meal basis a roast is great value if you run your kitchen a certain way, but their are entry costs to that.

It can be relatively cheap depending on a few factors already mentioned here. Not awfully cheap fuel-wise though if on a meter etc.

I spent 10 quid on a piddly little bit of lamb today but it’s a treat. We usually have chicken. And sometimes we pay less than £3 for a chicken!

""I think it depends how much you care about animal welfare. I'm not sure I could bring myself to only spend £3.33 on a chicken. By necessity it must have had a dreadful life and be battery farmed to be that cheap. I'm quite shocked you can get a whole bird that cheaply""

This, I couldn't eat a non-free range chicken. Meat is a real treat in our house because we care about animal welfare and respect that we can't constantly eat meat without a massive cost to the environment and animal welfare

@BeeTweep
No I am not. But I eat a huge amount of meat free meals. Becuase I can’t afford to eat meat daily.

I do fundamentally agree with the op though. The great thing about a roast is you can bulk it out with lots and lots of cheap veg and everyone loves a roast potato.

@sleepyhoglet

If she isn't much of a cook then she will be buying everything ready done which would be more expensive. A roast is usually a from scratch meal which is why it is affordable (depending on the meat).

Even a 'chicken in a bag' is only about £4.99. Frozen roast potatoes don't cost much. So still affordable ready done.

I think fuel poverty is very under recognised. Its expensive to have an oven running for a few hours. When I was very hard up, I would use chicken portions so they cooked quicker.

Like any meal, can be cheap or expensive as you like!
A lovely gammon is a nice cheaper option. Or, depending on how many you're cooking for/how snobbish you are, the frozen tinned joints from iceland are fine. They are 2 for £5 and I think are meant to serve 4. We are only 2 but always have leftovers for sandwiches on Monday!
Frozen veg/yorkshire are cheap and easy.
If you're going to whole foods or butcher, or going for more expensive cuts, naturally will cost more. It's down to what suits you, your budget and your family.
God I fancy a roast now!!

I agree that choice is a luxury, but also that animal rearing cruelty is accepted too easily and most people could change their eating habits.

Yes, lots of people have a tight food budget. It doesn’t have to mean zero meat or the cheap chicken, which has been bred so it puts on weight and it’s legs give way under it and it’s squashed in with others and it’s own urine is burning it’s legs.

A tight food budget could mean eating higher welfare chicken twice per week, instead of cheap chicken 4 times per week. It’s a different way if thinking about food and the budget and meat.

But yes, all of this also requires some ability to cook. It required having a cooker and some pans and knowing how to peel and roast potatoes and that a bag of carrots is easy and cheap.

It’s true that it’s far easier to make ethical choices if you have plenty of cash and also if you have plenty of cash that you’ll have the know-how and equipment to make a delicious Sunday dinner. At the same time, it’s true that many many of us on MN are buying cheap, low welfare meat and basically don’t care. Many if us don’t have unlimited budgets, but we could afford an extra £10 per week spend on higher welfare meat if we chose to spend our money like that, or we could re-think our menus and eat meat one or 2 days less per week and then afford the better stuff when we do eat it. But the reality is, people want a £3 chicken and the price point is more important to them than the other stuff. And that’s not just those on very tight budgets, but often those with moderate or high budgets too. It’s cultural and a mindset for many many people.

@Loveshelly it’s a chicken. It had no idea of itself as a chicken and as long as it’s had a nice chicken life and a quick death it’s not an issue. We keep chickens too. They’re sweet, but they have no concept of self.
What is a massive issue is parents not feeding their children essential amino acids due to their beliefs.

I agree I think fuel poverty is a real thing. But I don’t think the op is implying her friend has this problem.
Having an oven on for hours is expensive.

I guess if you can't cook it properly or throw some away then you'd be better not buying meat to waste - not so much from a money point of view, but I was always brought up never to waste meat or eggs or milk products.

"We bought the beef from a farm shop, it was £62 (but will definitely do another meal out of it). A chicken from the place I usually get them is £16-£20 depending on size."

£82 would feed a large family for at least a week.

Where are you living/shopping?

@Loubiemoo

I remember one of my uni lecturers talking about this years ago.

A women pointed out to her that she was on an electric meter and couldn’t afford to cook it all.

Yes that's a v good point. A roast takes time to cook. Also, on a tight budget, you want to cook food that is fool proof, as you can't afford waste if something doesn't work out as you hoped

We had pork fillet roasted today. It’s around £3 from Aldi, lean and no waste.

[quote Loveshelly]@Eminybob
Wow that an animal lived, died, processed by people and it still only costs 3.33
There is something so fucked up about that.

Yet on my thread where I said food is too cheap everyone disagreed and said it’s too expensive and I’m some rich bitch.

3.33 for a living creature is too cheap IMPO[/quote]
How much for the chip on your shoulder?

@BoreiPuriHagafen

I wouldn't buy or eat a chicken that cost 3 quid.

Some people have no choice if they want to cook a roast dinner.