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Original poster

Is it just me or does Christmas food in UK feature a lot of sausages?

83 replies

NalPolishRemover · 24/12/2021 21:28

I love reading through the what's on your Christmas dinner plate thread & the what did you prep on Christmas eve & it struck me how much sausage meat features in so many people's festive food.

Lots of pigs in blankets & pork stuffing & pork stuffing balls & sausage rolls being made & eaten it seems.

I grew up in Ireland & this was really not a thing at all for us. We might have had a cooked breakfast that featured sausages if we were eating dinner in the evening but not every year & that would be it.

Our stuffing was always breadcrumbs, onion, butter & mixed herbs. Never meat.

We did not put bacon on the top of the turkey

Our sprouts did not have bacon in them

We didn't eat sausages as part of our dinner, not as pigs in blankets nor in any other form.

Sausages rolls played no part in our festivities.

It just struck me as unusual how similar so many elements of our celebrations are & yet so different in so many small ways

I'm married into a part English family but can't adopt their love of sausage meat at Christmas!

OP posts:
RowsOfHolly · 25/12/2021 07:52

Yes, all very porky. I think the salt and grease goes well with turkey.

But I do feel a bit ill when people describe their Christmas menu as starting with a massive breakfast bacon and sausage fry up followed by the various Christmas dinner sides, followed by a buffet tea of sausage rolls and pork pie, and think they must feel like a giant human sausage by the end of the day.

SilverRingahBells · 25/12/2021 07:57

I reckon in the seventies /eighties if you wanted pigs in blankets you'd need to make your own or go to a very posh butcher's so not everyone made the effort. Now you can thrown them in your trolley at every supermarket they're more universal.

GoodnightGrandma · 25/12/2021 08:20

I make my own pigs in blankets 🥴
I bought them once and didn’t like them.

Prescottdanni123 · 25/12/2021 08:25

Pigs in blankets and sausage meat stuffing is the best part for me.

Crowdfundingforcake · 25/12/2021 08:30

No PIBs featured on my childhood Christmas Dinner plate. We did have sausagemeat stuffing. And pork, because no one particularly liked turkey (we have turkey now, because DH likes it. To me it's a bit boring although I like the Boxing day Christmas Dinner pie.)

We usually had/have hm sausage rolls at some point over the season but definitely not on Christmas day.

RowsOfHolly · 25/12/2021 08:57

We have bacon rolls (make them from streaky bacon) and good quality chipolatas. Have never bought PiBs.

Herja · 25/12/2021 09:04

Sausage features in a lot of Nothern Europe at Christmas time. I have a few excellent Iclandic Christmas stories about trolls and sausages. I think the tradition comes from older food preservation techniques and mid winter.

Marmite27 · 25/12/2021 09:07

I was saying the same about buffet food to my dad on his birthday.

Sausage rolls, Sausage on a stick, Pork pie, Scotch egg and we had a boiled ham as well Grin

WineGetsMeThroughIt · 25/12/2021 09:07

Yes! This struck me as a bit strange when I first moved here 15 years ago. So much pork. Pork on pork, and pork accompanying every dish. I've got used to it now though. I don't even really like most pigs in blankets as I feel they're usually made with really crappy meat and have a lot of filler in them. My husband and son like them, so this year I bought truffle flavoured ones. I hope they're good. They were the lowest carb (lowest rusk filling) I could find.

I do find the UK quite pork obsessed in general. The things I find the most strange (and gross for me) are those cold little wrinkly cocktail sausages with the creepy skins ok them that people always serve at parties. And pork pies. Bleugh

But yes, I'll be having sausage stuffing and pigs in blankets this year. I have converted lol....

MaryAndHerNet · 25/12/2021 09:09

Not a single sausage in my dinner today. Gammon, mash, veg and Roast pots.

HepzibahGreen · 25/12/2021 09:16

Yeah pigs in blankets were never a thing for us, or cranberry sauce. Gravy and sage and onion stuffing though, and plenty of it! I do parsnips with nutmeg and roast potatoes with rosemary, plus a mountain of sprouts and Xmas pud set on fire with brandy which is the best bit Xmas Wink

maya71 · 25/12/2021 09:23

I think pork is a thing because, years ago, people would have had a pig which they reared, then it was killed and they ate the meat all winter.

Having said that, we never had sausages, pigs in blankets or any pork on our Christmas Dinner in the 80s. We also never had bread sauce or cranberry sauce or meaty type stuffing either.

CiaoForDiNiaoSaur · 25/12/2021 09:32

The only pork we had on Christmas Dinner growing up (80s and 90s) was pigs in blankets. Although we didn't call them that, they were just sausages wrapped in bacon.

We do have gammon as well as turkey these days, I can only assume that's my step dad's preference as its since he joined our family.

I love bacon but don't actually like the trend for adding it to so many Christmas Dinner dished. Sprouts are delicious as they are imo. And we almost had a problem last year when the relatives we were meant to be spending Christmas day with were planning a more 'modern' (for want of a better word) meal. So sprouts and bacon, parsnips with honey and mustard glaze, sausage meat stuffing (add to that the potatoes were going to be cooked in goose fat) and it didn't actually leave a lot that veggie/fussy DS could eat. (They are usually so good at catering for him so it was totally out of character)

Longdistance · 25/12/2021 09:37

I’m making a gammon today with sausages wrapped in maple bacon. It’s all about the piggy.
I have just had smoked salmon with chilli cream cheese in a freshly baked croissant.

rb124 · 25/12/2021 09:38

You lost me with the brussel sprouts, bacon or no bacon - vegetable of satan lol. I just have "normal" sage and onion stuffing, but I do have Lidl's foot long pigs in blankets as a bit of a novelty this year. I think the thing about pork dates from the days before fridges joints were preserved in brine and whatever was left over used as sausage meat which had to be eaten quickly before it went off.

eurochick · 25/12/2021 09:39

When I was a child in the 80s the turkey was always covered in bacon. We never had pigs in blankets then but do now so to me they seem a more recent thing.

dottiedodah · 25/12/2021 09:41

AS a child in the 70s ,I dont remember "pigs in blankets" or sprouts with bacon at all. Never had a year without a Roast Turkey ,apart from Roast Beef cooked day before and eaten cold when EBF my Son. Much simpler Dinner ,Roasties ,veggies ,sage and onion stuffing and gravy .Dont remember Cranberry sauce either

BertieBotts · 25/12/2021 09:43

Never had pork in stuffing here, just Paxo. Traditionally it does have meat in.

Brussels never had bacon in as a child. I do them like that now to make them more palatable for sprout haters, but it doesn't work so back to steaming this year.

I remember pigs in blankets being an occasional thing as a child not every year/an essential - I think they became trendy.

JellyBabiesSaveLives · 25/12/2021 09:50

Ds2 requested “pigs without blankets” for Christmas dinner. Ds1 promptly offered to eat extra blankets so we’re all good.

We only really have the turkey cos Dh thinks it’s not Christmas unless we do

GoGoGretaDoll · 25/12/2021 10:03

We always had chipolatas from the butcher growing up, occasionally but not always wrapped in bacon. Am I also right in remembering a thing called angels on horseback which was prunes wrapped in bacon? We definitely had something like that regularly, but I didn't like them so it's a bit hazy.

Bacon on the turkey is to stop it drying out rather than being 'another meat' - I don't think my grandparents actually served it at the meal. It's actually my favourite cook's treat these days so sometimes doesn't make it to the table, soooo crispy...

Stuffing was always, always Paxo from a packet. I don't think I had sausage stuffing until I was in my 40s.

LadyCampanulaTottington · 25/12/2021 10:05

I’m Irish. We always had sausage meat stuffing for Christmas.

BertieBotts · 25/12/2021 10:10

Oh yes now you say chipolatas, that's familiar.

If you read the descriotion of the Christmas dinner in the first Harry Potter book, that's a pretty good approximation of normal English Christmas food that isn't tainted by modern trends (bacon everything...)

Svara · 25/12/2021 10:10

I don't even really like most pigs in blankets as I feel they're usually made with really crappy meat and have a lot of filler in them.
I tried supermarket ones once and it's put me off ever trying them again. I had to throw them out, they were as bad as the sausages in baked beans.

MummyInTheNecropolis · 25/12/2021 10:18

My family are Irish and we always put bacon on the turkey and we still use my nana’s sausage meat stuffing recipe every year even though she died over 20 years ago. I think pigs in blankets are a more recent addition but I wouldn’t be without them now!

growyourownjam · 25/12/2021 10:23

Yes. Lots of pork/ sausages/ bacon in the UK. We don't eat pork so no pigs in blankets for us. It's a weird dish Xmas Grin
My son was amazed to see pigs in blankets in the supermarket last year .