What is actually in a Christmas dinner?

[Judelawissohandsome]

I can’t remember and need to make this year, what are the basics please?

Normally,

Melon Parma ham and rocket salad or pate and oatcakes or prawn cocktail

Turkey
Ham
Brussel sprouts
Red cabbage and apple
Cauli cheese
Carrots
Parsnips
Pigs in blankets
Sage and onion stuffing
Cranberry and chestnut stuffing
Mash
Roast potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Turkey gravy

Trifle, raspberry pavlova, chocolate gateaux

Cheeseboard

We normally hosted 18 people though!

It depends on what we’re having - turkey, duck, goose, pork roast (our staple choices), they all require different sides.

This year we’re mixing it up and having a rolled sirloin joint!

Roast potatoes
Yorkshire puddings
Gravy (of course)
Celeriac, leek and mustard mash
Braised red cabbage
Roasted parsnips and carrots with thyme and garlic
Roasted beetroot with red onion and balsamic vinegar
Brussels sprouts, sautéed, with pancetta, chestnuts and cranberries
Cauliflower cheese (DH’s request)
Redcurrant jelly and horseradish sauce

Oh and pigs in blankets by special request of BIL!

I made marmite sprouts last year and they were good. Parboil, toss in a bit of marmite then roast until they get a little crisp around the edges.

@Igglepiggleslittletoe

😅 we only learnt to make them in Home Ec, never actually made them at home. My mother hated them! But all my friends had them as you described.

Bread sauce is as you'd imagine it! Onion w pepper salt & whatever else flavouring wise you fancy, sautéed in butter. Breadcrumbs added plus milk to make a kind of gloopy bready mixture 😄 (I see lots of variations like adding cream, mascarpone but I've never had anything like that in it)

I’m doing

Turkey
stuffing
pigs in blankets
roast potatoes
roasted carrots
sprouts
brocolli
bread sauce
cranberry sauce
gravy
yorkshires

Oh yes, cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon..... if only there was a name for those 🤔

And.................

a Partridge in a Pear tree !

Don't forget the bottle of Gaviscon.

Turkey
Ham
Roast Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes
Brussel Sprouts
Carrot & Parsnip Mash
Roast Parsnip
Stuffing
Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Red cabbage if my SIL brings it.

Items like pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings aren’t traditionally Irish …..-not that I’m aware of anyway….never have them. And cauliflower cheese would have me vomit.

That's not how you make bread sauce!!

Mine is:~
Beef
Pork
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing
Roast potatoes
Mash swede
Carrots
Sprouts
Honey and mustard parsnips
Cabbage with chestnuts
Cauliflower Cheese
Gravy
Bread sauce
Apple sauce / horseradish / mustard

Defo no yorkshires

Sorry to disappoint but you have not been making bread sauce !

Always had croquettes as a child but my in- laws would be disgusted with frozen ones so I save them for a post- Xmas dinner. Love them!

Mum, dad and I this year - we’re having all the things we actually LIKE, you can keep your turkey, pigs in blankets etc!

No starter

Rib of beef
Glazed ham
Roast potatoes
Roast onions
Savoy cabbage
Chantenay carrots
Sprouts with bacon and chestnuts
Parsnips with maple syrup
Bread sauce
Cauliflower cheese
Yorkshire pudding
Horseradish cream
Gravy
Sage and onion stuffing (mum)
Chestnut stuffing (dad and I)

Lemon posset with cantuccini
Mince pies (this year, Waitrose No.1 brown butter and cognac) with brandy butter

On Boxing Day, I will be making ‘wraps’ out of left over Yorkshire Pudding with a thick layer of horseradish, stuffed with beef (and anything else that’s left), dipped into reheated gravy, which I will happily stuff myself stupid with ALL DAY.

Oh goodness I forgot the stuffing! We’re having that too...

Turkey, ham, bread stuffing, sausage meat stuffing, roast potatoes and mashed potatoes, honey roast parsnips, red cabbage, pigs in blankets and mixed veg goes into my Christmas dinner.

Another Yorkshire pud free zone here.

And we are Yorkshire traditionalists who the rest of the year eat our YPs as a starter with all roasts, but absolutely not Christmas dinner.

If the OP isnt sure what a Christmas dinner consists of, it's possible the term pigs in blankets may not be familiar either.

My version
turkey covered in bacon
pigs in blankets plus sausages

chestnut/sausage stuffing
sausage/pecan/cranberry stuffing
sprouts/bacon fried
red cabbage/apple/cranberry
carrots ands peas
cranberry and orange sauce
roast potatoes
gravy

I was in a childrens home until seven and then lived with a family who hated Christmas and two children who resented me it was utter misery until I left
dh has introduced me to family Christmas’s and we all love it

In the olden days you could get a bag of giblets inside a fresh turkey which my mum would simmer on Christmas morning to make the gravy. Now THAT is the smell of Christmas for me 😋

If you haven't heard of this, you just use the resulting stock, not the actual giblets!

Off topic, but is anyone else watching Jamie Oliver’s Easy Christmas (we’re on +1), in absolute horror? OP this is not what I would think of as a traditional Christmas dinner!

If just us:
Turkey
Chipolatas/pigs in blankets
Meaty stuffing
Roast potatoes
Yorkshires
Rice and peas
Sprouts
Roasted carrots and parsnips
Red cabbage
Broccoli
Proper gravy
Cranberry sauce
English mustard

In years where we are hosting all the family (20 people), added to that will be:
Meat-free stuffing balls
Roast beef
Ham
Roast side of salmon
Curry goat
Macaroni cheese
Maybe peas or green beans
(Plus much larger quantities of the first list, obviously!)

@Hoolihan

It's certainly one way it's made, and the way I know.

BBC Good Food would tend to agree, albeit a bit fancier. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bread-sauce-0