Best reasonable cost joint to serve 10+

[mrsm43s]

So the recently announced bank holiday has offered us the opportunity to get the wider family together for a Sunday roast, which I'll be hosting.

There will be 10 of us, all adult sized appetites.

I'm not sure what joint to do. As it's a last minute thing, budget is somewhat limited - up to about £20-25 max for the joint. I'd like it to feed 10 generously - plenty for seconds etc if required (and hopefully enough leftovers for our family of 4 to have a meal on Monday out of it, so I get a day off cooking!).

I'd prefer to avoid pork, as I've served that the last 2 times we've got together as a group.

I did think about a turkey, but supermarkets don't seem to have them in yet (and I live in an area where the only butchers are organic/free range etc, and double or three times supermarket prices, so way out of budget).

Happy to do more than one meat, but I only have a regular sized oven, so I'm limited by that to an extent.

Any thoughts?

Gammon? You can do that in a slow cooker. Chicken is also cheap

Chicken is a bit "meh" to me. I guess it would work, but it doesn't feel very "special occasion" to me. I'd need a couple of extra-larges, which would be well in budget.

Gammon, I do love, but it's the least "roasty" roast meat!

Possibly I could do gammon and chicken, to give a choice?

I like the idea of beef, but I'm not sure whether I'd be able to get a big enough piece in budget. How many g (uncooked weight) would everyone allow per person for a generous serving?

Lamb will definitely be out of budget. Duck would actually be doable (Asda have them 2kg for£7.50 on offer at the moment) but I don't think I'd have the oven space for the 3 or 4 needed to serve 10 (and there'd def be no leftovers if I just did 3). Plus I have a small kitchen and the idea of so much duck fat from lots of ducks stresses me out!

Would beef and chicken do?then u get to have stuffing(chicken side usually) and Yorkshire ( beef) 😉

How about a slow roast brisket or Lamb shoulder?

Does your supermarket have a butcher counter? Go and talk to them. See what they will do a deal on.

They should have Turkey in the freezer. Or try the local farm shop for venison. If you live somewhere rural, it is less expensive than you might think.

Or you could do two baked salmon. Very easy, quick to cook.

I agree re. including gammon. It goes down a storm when I cook it, usually alongside chicken. Pretty cheap too, a small joint is £4 and I reckon we get four generous servings from that.

Slow roast shoulder of pork with the bone in, 24hrs to cook, you can take it out whenever you're ready to eat

Chicken and a ham. Look at frozen meat. And lots of veggie sides, carrots in honey etc so people fill up on them and a massive one tray Yorkshire.

Legs of lamb? Get two and get them butterflied or do it yourself. Drench in lemon, garlic and thyme and then they can lie flat on two roasting tins in the oven. 45 minutes and done. If the weather is fine serve warm with salads.

For that price, you're probably looking at chicken or gammon. Or both, that would be delicious...

Per person for a generous boneless roast uncooked weight you need 250g per adult, 150g per child. you lose roughly 30% weight in cooking (slightly less if rare eg beef). Bone in, you need 350g. So for 10 adults minimum 2.5 kg boneless, 3.5 kg bone in. For a leftovers meal eg risotto/stir fry/curry with loads of veg, you can obviously get away with far less per head so don't need to calculate an extra 250g per head for that, maybe 100g per head, so ideally you'd be looking for a 3kg boneless joint.

Current prices: for beef, you could get a topside roast for around £12/kg, lamb leg bone in is about £14/kg, shoulder about £11/kg. Aldi/lidl/frozen is probably cheaper than this. So if you could stretch the budget beef it's probably your best bet, and Probably doable, lamb is always expensive!

Would you consider asking for a contribution (eg starter, veg dish, pud) from other guests so you can spend less on everything else and bump the meat cost up and afford a better joint if that's what you'd prefer?

Hope this helps!

Aldi were doing 2 frozen lamb shanks in sauce for (I think) £4.50.
Tried them once when DH was "cooking", & were actually very nice.

Tip. Hide the boxes if you want the guests to think you cooked from scratch.

Duck doesn’t have as much meat as chicken so take that into consideration. Have a look at the frozen meat section in shops, they’re often much cheaper

Thank you everyone, this is really, really useful, particularly being able to calculate the weight of uncooked meat I'd need.

I think I could probably stretch to beef - I have a Morrison's near me which has a good meat counter, so I'll check that out. I can make a huge pile of yorkies to go with, which is always a crowd pleaser and bulks the meal out (and are cheap as chips to make). The budget is flexible - we're not on the bones of our arses - but it's just quite a lot to find from the food budget at short notice and towards the end of the month! If needs be I can find the money from another "pot".

Guests are bringing pud, so it's just the main course and either a starter or a cheese board that I'll provide. More likely the cheeseboard, as that way it doubles up as "tea" for anyone who needs another light meal, and there's something lovely about putting the world to rights with your loved ones over a glass of red and a chunk of cheese!

You can do a beef brisket in the slow cooker or in a casserole dish in the oven. For £20 you can get a joint of about 2 kilos. Leftovers are great. Jamie Oliver has a recipe which also makes amazing gravy. We do this all the time.

You can get a half leg of lamb in Aldi for about £15

Nigella coca cola gammon. My lot love it & v cheap x