Lighthearted: If you're not British, what's the Christmas food that you just can't eat?

[BetsyBobbins]

I've been in the UK 22 years now, but I can't still bring myself to eat some of the traditional British Christmas food. I tried them once and never again. Mind you, this is coming from someone who got used to, and now loves baked beans among other things. But Good Lord, what's up with the Victorian puddings and cakes?

Christmas pudding: Looks like Elephant poo, smells like stale booze and tastes like soil.

Christmas cake: More of the same. Looks horrid, smells weird and has an even worse texture, a mix of soil and sawdust. Plus, how can you trust something that was cooked months in advance? I don’t.

Mince pies: now, that is the worst of all. Looks good, I’ll give them that, but they smell like vomit and have the texture of baby sick.

Tell me the ones you never got used to

I don't know why turkey overtook goose. Maybe Americanism?
Price

And Charles Dickens!

I suppose if you haven't grown up eating roast dinners and then perfecting them to your tastes as an adult you probably wouldn't get it!

I’ve often thought this. I neither like nor really ‘get’ roasts, but all the British people I know LOVE them quite passionately. I think it’s about familiarity.

Yes, of course, poor me, the bleedin forrin an' all who never had roast dinners growing up 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

And fruitcake is vile, either soaked with rum, brandy, stout, whatever.

Agreed! I love all of the traditional bits I grew up with. Don't have pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese, mashed potatoes or red cabbage, none of which featured on the Christmas dinners we had in Scotland in the 1960s and 70s. Like Edith, we had cocktail sausages, which I adore, and bacon on the breast of the bird, which is absolutely delicious and I treat as a cook's perk.

I didn't have bread sauce until a few years ago. Never had it ready-made from a packet. I make it myself, which is very easy. Similar flavours to bechamel - milk, butter, cream, onion, nutmeg, bayleaf - with the addition of cloves and it's thickened with breadcrumbs rather than flour. One of my favourite bits of the meal now.

I splash out and buy a free-range turkey. It's usually the only time all year I buy turkey and it's worth it to get the giblets, which make a wonderful basis for gravy, and good quality meat that actually tastes of something, with the knowledge the bird had a reasonable life. If we couldn't afford a decent bird I'd get something else instead.

In the UK for 23 years now.

I hate Christmas pudding, the texture is just odd. Christmas cake, I eat it when offered but not the biggest fan.

Now Mince Pies - so yummy.

Brussles Sprouts are a typical winter vegetable in Germany so I grew up eating them from December - February. I don't like them but DH (also German) does, so we do cook a portion.

Bread Sauce - no thank you

Cauliflower Cheese - I think it's too rich for a large roast dinner but if done well, not bad if you like Cauliflower.

Pigs in Blankets - I prefer Chipolatas to cocktail sausages. Really enjoy them.

I love it all but I didn't used to. I didn't really like dried fruit when I was younger. Making my own pudding, Mince pies and cake let me add apricot, prunes, dates as well as currants, raisins and sultanas. Anyway I weaned myself onto them.

Not that I'm saying people should.

All countries have traditional dishes that are heavy going for visitors or if you haven't grown up with them.

We had an American guest a couple of years ago and I made Rocky road, biscoff millionaire shortbread and yule log. She walked in and said, "Ooh I love Mince pies.

She did hesitate after dinner when about to try the pudding and DD said, "Mum made this in October."

We often had steamed puddings when I was growing up. Christmas pudding is just a very rich steamed pudding. I can well imagine if you never got used to that texture as well as the combination of dried fruit and spices it must seem a bit odd.

I remember back in the 1970s I went to stay with my German penfriend. I took over a jar of chutney as a typical British delicacy. The family were clearly utterly baffled by it. That's another traditional dish full of spices and dried fruit. The mediaeval traditions linger on!

I'm not fussed about the cake as it's just a dry version of the Christmas pudding which I love. With all the brandy butter and alcohol cream.
I love British Christmas food. It may have to do with being able to order good quality stuff from M&S rather than having to spend hours in the kitchen to try to create my own country's food.

For a light hearted thread poking a bit of fun at British Christmas food you're not taking a joke back very well are you OP! Are you this snippy in real life!

I’m not sure why you think not having had roast dinners growing up is an insult? I’m a ‘bleeding forrin’ and I certainly didn’t.

Have you had Jamaican rum cake?

My german side of the family make a pickled cucumber dish to go alongside a roast dinner! Maybe they thought they needed to add it their dinner plate 😂

Some of the best Christmas food I've had was in Switzerland, Austria and also Spain.

Where was marzipan invented? It's in stollen and on British Christmas cake. There's lots of different countries that use dried fruit and spices in their puddings and breads. I don't think Britain has ever been accused of putting too many spices in things before 😂

Just my twopenneth worth of thoughts.

I’m in my 60s now and the traditional flavours of Christmas remind me of childhood Christmases prepared by Parents and Grandparents who are long gone.

I totally understand that, like many traditional foods from many countries, aren’t to everyone’s taste. My DH is Jamaican and we both have elements of traditional Christmas dinner that we don’t like but we don’t call it ‘poo’ or ‘vomit’.

You can say what you don’t like without being rude about it 🤷🏻‍♀️🎄

@Titicacacandle one thing is saying you don't like a specific food but the other is to imply that someone is unfortunate as they didn't have something growing up due to their background. And roast chicken is a really common thing where I'm from, it's neither special not restricted to Sundays only.

But it's all fine, my post contained good old fashioned irony which unfortunately got lost in written form (despite a row of eye rolling emojis) 👍🏼

Any part of a roast dinner really, they’re very boring and don’t really have a lot of flavour.

I’ve never tried christmas cake or pudding, but I really don’t like fruit based cakes, so I’m unlikely to enjoy christmas versions.

I was with you until this. You think a lighthearted ‘tastes like poo’ is fine, but are up in arms about a (very clearly) jokey ‘poor you’? Seriously?

Very ancient and probably invented in several different places at different times, according to Wikipedia, which makes sense. Honey and almonds would have been around long before there was abundant sugar from canes or beets.

Why this particular forum? Is it especially only for English?

👏👏👏

Too much pork. Pigs in blankets is far too much pork and fat.

crikey OP the poor you was obviously a joke

@AnybodyAnywhere if those foods look like that, taste like that and smell like that to me, then I'm free to say it so, sorry it offends you. Weird, as I haven't insulted people, just said I didn't like some foods

Yeah, same. When I first moved here, my friends were very ‘you must have a roast’ and ‘I’m dying for a roast’ and basically got me super excited for this magical food that was going to blow my mind. I have never been so disappointed by anything in my life.

Then came the ‘you’ve just never had a good roast’ brigade. 🤣 It’s been over a decade, I’ve given them a good go, but I still find them incredibly uninteresting.