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.

“How on earth can it take three hours to cook a roast?”

Well, by the time I’ve done everything that’s how long it takes. I mean a roast pork can be in the oven for a couple of hours alone. I’m including the preparation time, time in the oven, clearing up and the resting time for the meat, though not the eating.

I’ve never understood why people are so protective of a roast dinner and so enraged by the suggestion it’s a pain in the ass. If it really was so easy it’d be on Jamie’s 15 minute midweek meals, not saved for a Sunday. If yours is easier/quicker then good for you. Personally I find it a faff. I imagine it’s the same as some people find making a complicated spreadsheet or building an IKEA flat pack or cutting a child’s hair takes differing amounts of time - people are different.

Give it a month all the “Christmas dinner is so easy I do it in my sleep” types will be out for their annual outing.

(To be clear it’s not three hours of unrelenting hard work, no. But it’s three hours I can’t switch off and be engrossed in something else or go out. And a fair amount of the time is faff!)

I would abso love to have a roast every week. It’s absolutely my fave dinner but I simply cannot be arsed to cook one every week and my husband doesn’t cook ( don’t worry he does other things before the LTB team jump on this lol)

A crap roast is quick and easy with Aunt Bessie type stuff/frozen veg/instant gravy. A proper one with home made yorkies, potatoes, stuffing, fresh veg and proper gravy is time consuming faff but worth it imo.

That said, we dont have them on Sunday as I am at work so Tuesday is usually our Roast Dinner Day.

I love a roast but they are a lot of to-ing and fro-ing.

I don’t have a roast every week, probably closer to once a month as all the cooking is down to me and no one else appreciates the effort that much, they’re just as happy with chicken kiev or burgers, heathens!!

Give it a month all the “Christmas dinner is so easy I do it in my sleep” types will be out for their annual outing.

Yes! The bungers and slingers who say it's effortless.

Always a roast in our home on a Sunday with the family, it wouldn't feel like a Sunday if we didn't have the lovely smell of the roast cooking!

The actual prep and cooking of a roast isn't difficult. It is the timing of all the elements and having everything ready at the same time that is tricky.

I would have a roast beef dinner every week but we rarely have it as the meat is expensive.

Sometimes I cheat and cook chicken breasts and the trimmings for a roast.

There is a middle ground between the full works and some horrible frozen effort.

Buy a ready to roast chicken in M&S. Shove in oven (for you bungers and slingers - love that expression), make roast potatoes from scratch because it is not much effort really. Then just chuck peas, carrots, broccoli into a large steamer 5 mins before you want to eat. Serve with a pot of ready-made gravy. Done.

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.

Sunday roast is the highlight of my week though we have it in the evening not at lunchtime. DH cooks it which is possibly why I love it so much (I cook every other meal in the week).

Love a roast beef dinner but agree with your husband if he's the one who has to cook it! I would happily eat one every week if someone else handed it to me but unfortunately I do all the cooking in my house and with two small DC I could never justify the faff every single week. Takes too much time and I'd hate to be tied to the house for hours every Sunday too.

I also agree that most people don't do this anymore. When I was young Sundays were always the same because there was no choice really. We had to go to church and we had to visit grandparents and we always had a roast but that's because nothing was open on a Sunday. No shops, very limited activities and we certainly wouldn't have the money to go somewhere every week for outings or for dinner, life has changed dramatically since I was a child and I'm only mid-30's.

@mafted

Give it a month all the “Christmas dinner is so easy I do it in my sleep” types will be out for their annual outing.

Yes! The bungers and slingers who say it's effortless.

I suppose the thing is, if you're used to cooking roast dinners then Christmas dinner is easy.

Having said that, some people insist on 3 courses and cooking 3 types of meat with 47 different types of veg (4 of which can only be sourced from the Outer Hebrides) and don't forget the lovingly homemade gravy, containing liquid wept through the eyes of Angels.

They'll be the same MNetters moaning on Boxing Day that they never got to play with their kids the day before.

"Having said that, some people insist on 3 courses and cooking 3 types of meat with 47 different types of veg (4 of which can only be sourced from the Outer Hebrides) and don't forget the lovingly homemade gravy, containing liquid wept through the eyes of Angels."

This had me laughing out loud!

We have them most weeks; love the slow cooking and pottering in the kitchen, and eating a big, lovely meal together as a family. It's part of normal family life to us.

I love a roast every week. I cook it too. I can see why he’s annoyed if you just say you want it and leave him to cook!!

It's the law in our house, Sunday roast is lovely! I do a roast on a Wednesday as well.

I love them but they are a hassle so if you want one badly I guess you have to be prepared to cook it!

I dont really enjoy a Sunday roast and I only cook it a few times a year. But I'm happy to do it because it is easy to adapt to be more to my taste- I can easily add a spicy sauce to the meat when I plate it up for myself, add in pickled veg and a microwave rice if I don't fancy potatoes. Bung in some onions and peppers to the roasting pan. It is a very adaptable meal.

Sunday roast-having seems to have become a bit like running, or outdoor swimming. For me, Sunday feels like Sunday whatever I decide to cook and I don't feel the need to tell everyone about it.

I think the people who say it's not much effort are just taking a random (probably quite small piece of meat and a few veg and bunging it in the oven for an hour or so.

No Yorkshires, no stuffing, no apple sauce, no gravy made from the dripping, no mint sauce etc.

That is indeed quite easy and not much cleaning up afterwards. But That's Not Roast Dinner .

I love a roast dinner but the kids (8) and (17) voted for chicken tacos so that's what I made today.

Sundays feel wrong without a roast and it's one of the very few meals everyone in my family will actually eat so we all get to eat together which is lovely.

We have one every week almost without fail. Dh usually cooks it. He got into the habit years ago when I used to work on Sundays.

It’s one of the few meals we all enjoy and especially very fussy, autistic Ds.

If it wasn’t for work/time we’d have one mid-week as well. Sometimes mid-week I will do a cheat roast dinner of chicken portion, aunt Bessie Yorkshire’s, roasts in the chip pan, and just peas & carrots rather than the 3-4 types of veg & 2-3 types of potatoes.