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.

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.

I am used to cooking a roast and I've been cooking Christmas dinner since I was 18 but it's still labour of love to me.
Although I confess I do like loads of sides and homemade gravy although it only occasionally contains the tears of a stressy woman in her early forties
I don't moan about not being able to play with the kids though that's what Boxing Day is for.

We all love a roast in our house, in the autumn and winter we would usually have it once or twice a month. It's not something we would normally have in the summer though. We take it in turns to cook it too, and then the cook gets to put their feet up while the others clear up. It's the clearing up that I hate the most, especially if something has caught on the tray and needs lots of soaking overnight and then scrubbing.
I don't mind taking time to make it all on a quiet Sunday - I would much rather do that than try and do a quick one with frozen potatoes or Yorkshire's. If we don't have the time to make stuffing, Yorkshire's, cauliflower cheese etc then we'd have something else or go out for dinner / lunch instead.

@Ledition

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.

I think that's why lots of us like it. It's a nostalgic thing.

A few people with fussy four year olds have commented - have any of you noticed how if you put the roast chicken (or whatever) on their plate they're sort of ambivalent - but if you hand them little slices as you carve they'll eat and eat and eat!

If he's the cook then it's fair enough for him to refuse. If you want a sunday roast dinner, you cook it; while he entertains the kids.

Although I confess I do like loads of sides and homemade gravy although it only occasionally contains the tears of a stressy woman in her early forties

@mafted 😂😂

We love a roast dinner and I'm pretty sure our 5DC and DGS would put in theyre complaints if we didn't have one.

The exception is if we've been out for the day on the Sunday,we're out for a meal or the temperature is through the roof.

We had slow roasted beef in homemade gravy with all of the sides today which my DH made and it was lovely.

I enjoy a (veggie) roast but rarely cook one. I’m not good enough at forward planning so most of our meals have to be quick as I realise it’s dinner time and I haven’t started making anything…

I love a roast. We probably have one about once a month, generally if the weather’s a bit pants and we’ve got nothing on. Everyone eats it, it’s our most economical meet based meal, it gets veggies into everyone. And it’s yummy.

It is a pain with young kids though, and my youngest is very clingy at the moment, am I can’t pop in and out to do each bit easily, so I have to stay out if the room so as to not upset theme.

I think you can’t dictate it if you’re not the one cooking. How about a nice casserole with dumplings or Yorkers as a substitute? Much less faff, and it has some of the benefits.

None of our friends have a roast dinner every Sunday. Our older relatives do.

But I’m vegan, have a vegetarian child and a partner and son who are eating less and less meat so it doesn’t have much appeal. Also one child doesn’t like roast potatoes, the other doesn’t like gravy. 😂 We maybe have one once every month or two.
We’re often out most of Sunday as well and don’t want to give that up to cook. I think people go out more these days and gone are the days of women spending their days cooking.

I think that's why lots of us like it. It's a nostalgic thing.

I think that’s why I don’t like it. It brings back memories of long boring Sundays with parents or grandparents that I couldn’t escape from.

Hard peddle doing a full roast. Specially if you do the obligatory chicken stock afterwards

Roasties are worth it though

I often do a basic scaled back mid week roast : roast chicken legs, roast spuds, carrots and gravy.

Not a fan of beef and pork tbh

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

I love a roast, however you are definitely BU to insist on having a weekly meal that you can’t be bothered to prepare yourself!

Love a roast dinner, but you have to dedicate a significant amount of your day to it. Prep, cook, wait, eat, digest, clean up. I think it's nice if it's a stay at home day anyway, but not so much if you want to go out and do stuff. I'd suggest once a month.

I love them!

And they are actually very easy if DH stays out of the kitchen.

Meat - in the oven.
Potatoes - peel, parboil, in the oven.
Veggies - boil (or microwave or oven depending on veggies and laziness)
Gravy - bisto

The actual prep time is only about ten minutes.

We have one every Sunday. I love the idea of a roast but I find by the time I've cooked it I don't really want it.
I do however love a roast if someone else cooks it.
Perhaps your husband feels the same? It's a bit mean to insist on having it and making him cook it when it's you who wants it. Why can't you cook it while he looks after the children?

YABU and YANBU 😁. If you like it so much, the easiest thing is for you to cook it! Do you do the washing up from it if he cooks? If not, what about starting, it may be enough to change his mind.
We have a roast every Sunday, early 40s, maybe it does have some nostalgia for us but all the kids (inc ASD teens & fussy toddler) love it. I often do a meat plus a vegetarian option for eldest, though sometimes it’s all just vegetarian to keep it more simple. I don’t do Yorkshire’s that often, I like them to be special at Christmas lol, I always cook it but DH always clears after. Yesterday we had pork, a homemade mushroom Wellington, couple of veg, roast potatoes… it doesn’t have to be difficult especially nowadays with slow cookers etc. You need to start making it yourself, and I’m saying that as a parent who had three under three at one point.

Must admit,I would get very bored with it,seeing you can get a roast 7 days a week,I'm with your husband on this,it's not the 50s

Never have one unless we eat out. We are too busy on Sundays to spend hours cooking a piece of meat. I don't cook a Xmas dinner either

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!”

@AuntieMarys

Never have one unless we eat out. We are too busy on Sundays to spend hours cooking a piece of meat. I don't cook a Xmas dinner either

Same here. Sundays are too busy for all that cooking. We’ve also dispensed with Christmas Dinner and it makes such a difference to the whole day.

@hotmeatymilk

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!”

its an aga - you need to adjust the shelves- hence 1 minute

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

Doing a roast takes less prep time than making a gousto meal for example.

To the poster above- Does being rude to other people make you feel superior in some way? Tolerance and understanding of difference goes across all aspects of life.

Cooking a Sunday roast is too time consuming for me. And yes a bit of a faff. I do cook other things though. Stuff that’s quicker and doesn’t involve quite so many pans and roasting trays on a Sunday.