A traditional Roast On A Sunday

[Middicat]

I cannot lie I love love love a traditional roast on a Sunday I look forward to it all day. My husband on the other hand is saying it is not the 1950s anymore and it is old hat to want this and he reckons very few people actually have a roast at home on a Sunday each week.

Am I being unreasonable to have this one meal I really enjoy each week. Am I alone?

I would say that his argument also involves the fact that as we have young children he usually ends up cooking most of it and he says it is not worth all the effort!!!! I disagree - would also like to add we usually have what he likes on any given day of the rest of the week.

DH is Italian so we alternate the Sunday roast with a traditional Italian sunday meal from his family that is so faffy it makes a roast look like child play. He makes it though, and the children help!

In either case we have enough leftovers for 1/2 easy meals during the week (we usually portion and freeze the roast meat).

Obviously we do sometimes go out to things but generally speaking as we are very busy in the week, I try to plan an outing/visit Saturday and have Sunday as a rest day, day to do all the small home jobs, reset for the week. We drink wine at lunchtime and watch a film or play a boardgame after the meal clear up.

@immersivereader

and tbh even with five of us a large chicken or piece of pork is rarely over 1 hr 20)

^

Sorry to split feathers (😉), but how is that chicken cooked? An hour and twenty for a full roast chicken? Mine take about 2 hours, usually more

Cut the trussing off and a chicken will cook in 80/90 minutes easy

It's my favourite meal of the week. If we don't have one on a Sunday then we make sure we have it another day.
It's my DSs birthday this week and I asked him where he'd like to go for tea. He's requested my Sunday dinner instead 🤷🏼‍♀️

We have a roast every Sunday, it's my favourite meal of the week, usually chicken or pork as ds doesn't eat beef or lamb, we have reduced the ingredients, now just meat, roast potatoes, 1 variety of veg & gravy, we used to have Yorkshire pudding, mashed potato & extra veg but we have cut down to save waste & washing up.

Thoroughly enjoying the “not a faff” crowd giving their timings, special shout-out to the poster who offered timings down to the 30-second mark. (But one minute to put potatoes in oven? Assuming this includes “glasses steaming up” time.) Keep them coming!

It’s not that the individual components are time-consuming or need a Cordon Bleu degree. It’s the sheer number of them: “It’s not a faff, I simply get up and down and in and out of the oven and boil several kettles and drain and move things from a saucepan to a roasting dish and waft the oven door three to six thousand times, getting up every 10 to 15 minutes or so for two hours so there’s no block of time to read a book or have a bath. Easy!”

This reminds me of a Gary Rhodes (RIP) Christmas programme years ago. He was making several different bits and pieces, and after each element he would say "and it really is, as simple as that"
Except it wasn't because us at home didn't have the ingredients weighed, washed, prepped and the correct selection of clean bowls and utensils in front of us to use, that would be washed and put away by someone else afterwards! (And there were multiple elements)
My DH loves cooking and usually enjoys a glass of wine while doing so. But I think he thinks he's a TV chef as he leaves all the bowls, utensils ingredients etc for me to clear and wash up afterwards.

Does being rude to other people make you feel superior in some way? Tolerance and understanding of difference goes across all aspects of life.
Tone is everything on the internet, innit? Wasn’t intending to be rude – it’s a thread about roast dinners; who has the time to be arsey or superior about that? Genuinely am enjoying the “timings” posts and the chat; bit bemused that’s seen as rudeness, but like roast dinner opinions it takes all sorts.

I cook from scratch 80% of the time (the other 20% is oven food when bedtime is a nightmare) and haven’t ever touched a Gousto type box. Still think roasts are a faff and, again, it’s not the prep time total, it’s the up-down nature of the beast.

We have a roast most Sundays, though nobody can complain if I don't cook it - if you want it then cook it yourself!

Roasts are a bit more work than most of my meals, in that you can't really prepare stuff and then sling it together at the last minute. So that makes them hard for me as I have several small children who'll be hanging of my legs while I'm trying to cook.

I like to eat roasts, but I also like that my fussy eater will eat roast meat anytime. So having a roast on Sunday gives me roast meat to offer him as an alternative all week when he rejects the normal meal offerings.

@YoungGiftedPlump

Time to do a roast Put meat in tray and oven- 2 mins max Whisk batter for Yorkshire-3 mins Put Yorkshire fat in over- 2 mins, add batter 1 min, remove from oven 1 minute Peel potatoes- 5 mins, put in oven with meat- 1 minute Peel carrots, parsnips, broccoli 5 minutes. Put pan to boil water- 30 secs, add veg 30 secs Add sausages to meat- 30 seconds I use true foods gravy- add to pan 30 secs, remove 30 secs

So prep time less than 30 minutes.

This is half a meal

Cauliflower cheese (or broccoli)
Stuffing (paxo acceptable)
Blankets on those bangers

You need to flour and turn those spuds!

45 mins

I do a roast most Sundays. Kids all love it, just did a more fancy birthday one yesterday! I find it's a good way to see adult children as they are keen for roast!

I am bemused. People who think it is a faff- do you never cook anything?

I cook all the time. I really enjoy it. I can’t see how making a proper roast with a few different veg isn’t a faff, especially when you consider all the washing up. Maybe people are using food processors for chopping and peeling.

What constitutes “a roast” probably makes a big difference. Here, it’s typically veggie sausages, roast potatoes, parsnips and onions, with carrots and spiced red cabbage and carrots done on the job. Plus gravy obviously. That’s a lot of peeling and chopping without even considering making cauliflower cheese as well.

I forgot stuffing. A roast has to have stuffing. Maybe Yorkshire puddings too.

@Sparklingbrook

I can't be bothered with a roast dinner on a Sunday, but I enjoy an occasional carvery in the evening or on a Saturday. Don;t really want to spend Sunday indoors cooking and eating.

I made roast dinner yesterday. Went to the shop to buy the stuff at 10.30 . Was out of the door by 2.30 to go to work. It certainly doesn't take all day ! That was roast chicken, potatoes, honey parsnips, cabbage, carrots and leeks all from scratch. Homemade gravy.

I'd like to recommend a 3 tier electric steamer for doing veg, it's revolutionised my Sunday roast as no juggling 50 pans - I steam all the veg. Like this
www.robertdyas.co.uk/russell-hobbs-3-tier-food-steamer-white?gclid=CjwKCAjwq9mLBhB2EiwAuYdMtdIGFsVgmrDav0aFTVLt1ouDYQwWulC3bgmJjXBlEa6EOCYIOcXthhoCnnIQAvD_BwE

You can definitely make it less faffy without making it a ready meal, but whether shortcuts are acceptable is always a matter of taste. Ours are:

I don't peel anything - Potatoes/parsnip/carrots are cut into big chunks skin on and thrown onto hot fat. I also don't turn or stir them.

Other veg is prepped and thrown into a electric steamer tower thing with a timer set so it finishes with the rest.

Cauliflower cheese is a separate meal in this house, so we don't do that, and Yorkshire's play second fiddle to our obsession with roast potatoes so we rarely bother.

If we have a pudding (crumble etc) on a Sunday we have it as supper, not with the lunch as it's too much food at once and again means you're not trying to so lots at once.

We have tried cheating with instant gravy, but I find it worth the effort to make the real thing. Generally I do gravy while DH carves and dishes out the food.

@BabbleBee

I love a roast but it is a faff to cook it.

Agreed. I love it but it seems to take me hours! Am I alone in that? I love swede and parsnip which takes and age and I only serve home made gravy and stuffing but between peeling, chopping, mashing etc, it takes hours.

It's the other way round in our house, as dh usually cooks them, and loves them. He would like to have one every Sunday even in summer.

I don't love them and find them a bit hit and miss. Sometimes really bland and cloying at the same time. But we had one last night. I'd been out all day on my feet, helping at an event and hadn't really eaten all day. Honestly, it was like the first meal after giving birth (ie the best meal ever...or is that just me)?

I like a roast but certainly can’t be bothered cooking one every week. I’d get bored of it, I see them as a treat.

I remember seeing some minor celeb (probably on Loose Women or something) talking about how they ‘expected’ the whole family to come round every Sunday for a roast (and they all moaned about having to do it), and I thought, how tedious.

This thread, notably the 'how long does it take to cook a roast' comments, are beyond absurd.

It takes as long as you want it to, and the taste reflects that.

It's a bit like arguing how long it takes to clean 'a house'. Ignoring the fact that one house is a studio flat and the other a mansion.

@arethereanyleftatall

This thread, notably the 'how long does it take to cook a roast' comments, are beyond absurd.

It takes as long as you want it to, and the taste reflects that.

It's a bit like arguing how long it takes to clean 'a house'. Ignoring the fact that one house is a studio flat and the other a mansion.

Wonderful, worthwhile contribution.

In keeping with the rest of the thread then @BlackAlys 😜

We have them (most) Sundays after the clocks go back, then once they go forward again we 'put the Sunday roasts away' for the summer.

I love a roast on a Sunday evening, but often I'm too busy to cook one.

Could you go out for a roast instead?

My family all love roast dinners. Before DC2 left home we had a roast twice a week. Now it's just one, but we have another one whenever DC2 comes home for the evening.

I find it a really easy meal to make.

I couldn't be less interested in a roast dinner, it's probably my least favourite meal. DH however, loves it, and wants it every single weekend.

I agree with those saying if you want it, you cook it. So DH does a roast every Sunday, and I don't argue. Although it does mean he shuts himself away in the kitchen for the majority of the day, and is apparently absolved of any further duties