What are ‘all the trimmings’?

[HurricaneZeldaAndToto]

After a slightly disappointing Christmas dinner at a relative’s house, I wondered if my idea of ‘all the trimmings’ was massively out of whack with the rest of the world?

If you did turkey dinner ‘with all the trimmings’ what did you serve?

AIBU to suspect this means very different things to different people?

I think not serving pigs in blankets is a shame- I'd definitely expect them as part of "all the trimmings". Which specific veg they chose to serve is less of a thing IMO.

Yorkshire pudding with turkey is lovely but it's not really traditional.

Roast potatoes
Roast parsnips and carrots
Brussels Sprouts
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce
as a minimum

Maybe cauliflower cheese if that floats your boat, and pigs in blankets have become popular more recently but I'm not sure how traditional they are. My granny always served bread sauce but that seems to have gone completely out of favour.

Parsnips, roast potatoes, sometimes mashed potatoes too, peas, carrots, cabbage , sprouts, pigs in blankets, stuffing, bread sauce ,gravy, cranbury sauce , crackers count for me too.

Roasties, roast carrots and parsnips, red cabbage, sprouts, Yorkies, stuffing, pigs in blankets and gravy. Too much veg or potatoes is a waste for us as there's a limit to how much you can eat - no point doing 7 different types of veg and then only having half a spoon full of each. I'd rather a decent portion of veg I really enjoy

Bread sauce out of favour? Never !!

Some of these here feasts do sound tasty. For me, pigs in blankets, stuffing, mash, roasties, parsnips, carrots, sprouts, chestnuts, cauliflower cheese, bread sauce, gravy, Yorkshire puds.

Potatoes - definitely roast, possibly mash too
parsnips
carrots
green beans / peas
stuffing
bread sauce
pigs in blankets
cranberry sauce
gravy for those who don't want bread sauce
Yorkshire puddings - possibly controversial.

So a standard meat and two/three veg (including potatoes) needs the following to be classified as ‘with all the trimmings’…..at Christmas in our house.
stuffing (possibly two types but one would suffice)
pigs in blankets
parsnips (in addition to standard spuds, sprouts and carrots)
slow cooked red cabbage
cauli cheese
mashed swede
gravy
condiments for your chosen meat/s (so apple, horseradish, cranberry etc)
Yorkshires (depending on meat served).

A chicken or turkey as the main meat
lamb, gammon, or beef as a secondary meat
Sausage meat stuffing
pigs in blankets
roast potatoes
sprouts, carrots, parsnips and 1-2 other veg depending on what we felt like
Maybe some mash - usually if we couldn't fit enough roasties for everyone in one tray

50/50 each year on if we do yorkies depending on mood. This year we had croquets alongside the roasties just cause we felt like it but it's not our usual option.

We had stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, roast potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnip, Brussels sprouts, peas, and pigs in blankets. I could happily live without all the root vegetables and the bread sauce, but various family members insist on them.

Turkey
Gammon
Pigs in Blankets
Sausage meat stuffing
Gravy
Yorkshires
Bread Sauce
Cranberry Sauce
Roast Potatoes
Roast Parsnips
Mashed Potatoes
Carrot and Swede mash
Carrots
Leeks
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower Cheese
Red Cabbage

Roasted potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Stuffing. sausage meat stuffing. Yorkshire puds. Pigs in blankets. Other veg. Cranberry sauce and gravy. Think that’s it.

Roast potatoes
Carrots (sometimes also parsnips)
Brussel sprouts
Pigs in blankets
Cranberry sauce
Gravy

Off-topic: I hate the phrase 'all the trimmings'. It's an English expression that occasionally creeps in here (Ireland). 😜

The other oddity is 'pigs in blankets'. I get what they are but have never seen them at a dinner table in my life.

Oh dear! They couldn't really have served less if they tried.

Next Xmas, invite them to yours and show them how to do it properly

These days I make a chicken rather than a turkey and the trimmings are

roast potatoes
roast parsnips
stuffing
pigs in blankets or sausage meat
bread sauce
gravy
sprouts
carrots
red cabbage
any other veg - we had peas and green beans this year
mashed potatoes for DD - a recent addition

I would serve much of what has previously been suggested, but without the Yorkshire Pudding,
But, and I am ashamed of this, my DH would also want baked beans 😱So I would put that out too.

To be fair, when I married him , he declared that potatoes and baked beans were the only things his mum served with anything. Although in her defence, the odd broccoli cheese and croquettes made their way onto plates if it was a special occasion.
She never once cooked Xmas for me, so I have no idea what that would have included.

I’m going to make bloody sure I absolutely spell out what ‘all the trimmings’ means next time it is our turn to do Xmas as clearly someone will be disappointed!

Trimmings that would never cross my mind:
red cabbage,
cauliflower cheese,
bread sauce (I’m off to Google this) and 2 types of potato one of which should be mash!

This is a minefield!

What you were served wasn’t a million miles away from what we have for Christmas Dinner (although nut roast/beef rather than turkey)

None of us like stuffing much, nor cranberry sauce, and bread sauce looks like baby food.

The big protein, roast potatoes, three types of veg, gravy. No Yorkshire puddings because that takes up valuable carb space that could be used for more roast potatoes. (We go overboard on roast potatoes at Christmas) and none of the traditional stuff that we don’t really like.

And one has a pizza.

I like having space for Christmas pudding and later on a cheese board.

Christmas dinner trimmings for us are:

Stuffing
Pigs in blankets
Parsnips
Sprouts
Red cabbage
Roast potatoes in goose fat
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Gravy

and cauliflower cheese for DD1 who doesn't eat any Christmas dinner food.

Trimmings are additional foods that you have with your meat. Everyone has different tastes so obviously the food they serve and eat will differ.

For us we did 3 types of potatoes, that's because we all have different tastes and likes and we're not going to force down one type of potatoes if we don't like it, so having a choice is how we do it.

We don't serve pigs in blankets where I'm from, we do a ham fillet alongside a turkey. Yorkshire puddings aren't popular here either, of course some will serve these.

Cranberry and bread sauce isn't really popular either, gravy is usually served.

So everyone's trimmings will of course differ.

BAKED BEANS??? 😱

Goodness, my husband would love it if I added baked beans to our Christmas lunch 😂

Trimmings at our house are:
Roasties
Pigs in blankets
Sausage meat stuffing
Roasted carrots (boiled for the kids)
Roasted parsnips
Cauliflower cheese
Broccoli
Sprouts with ladons
Boiled cauliflower (for those that don't eat cheese)
Bread sauce
Cranberry sauce
Turkey gravy (made from neck, veg etc) & normal gravy for the unadventurous!

As I do the cooking I'm happy to add more veg if requested - this year I did green beans too

Cranberry sauce, chestnut stuffing, bread sauce, sprouts, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, another veg, gravy, pigs in blankets