Author Topic: Do you actually like Christmas food?  (Read 13913 times)

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #25 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:19:24 pm »
We’ve never liked turkey, and capons are just big chickens since the castration of cockerels was banned. Ian’s version might be moist, but I can’t conceive of having a kitchen big enough to have a slow cooker that would accommodate a turkey! 

We’ve tended to have beef or pork (sole roast organic shoulder). I like roast lamb but not leftover lamb. I’ve had, and enjoyed goose, but expensive for the amount of meat and even one for 4 would struggle to fit in our oven without some preparatory surgery, so I’ve ordered a breast and leg portion for the two of us this year.

I don’t do Christmas pudding, and maybe one or two mince pies if my wife makes them. We’ll be doing a cake at the weekend.

We both enjoy sprouts, plain boiled, or jazzed up by being braised in stock with added bacon and chestnuts.
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Morrisette

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #26 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:25:51 pm »
Mince pies, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake - no thank you. I can't stand raisins so those are all out. Also not keen on blue cheese or parsnips unless drowned in honey.

Everything else is nice. Brandy butter on toast (healthy, yes?)! I like sprouts but Mr M doesn't. He has to eat ONE, it is traditional.

I prefer a turkey sandwich (Boxing Day style) than the actual Christmas meal itself.
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #27 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:28:33 pm »
Turkey's fine (it's way better than pork).  Sprouts are the devil's vegetable.  The only appeal of Christmas pudding is pyromania, and mince pies are disappointing as well as badly named.

OTOH, licence to nibble cheese.   :thumbsup:

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #28 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:39:22 pm »
Cheese (of any type) isn't really purely Christamssy though, is it? I reckon I eat cheese at least 300 days a year, whereas I only eat Turkey 1 day a year*

*Actually - probably 3 days a year due to all the leftovers
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #29 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:50:22 pm »
We'll have 5 courses. But they will be nouvelle cuisine size.

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #30 on: 13 December, 2017, 03:53:22 pm »
All the sweet stuff - yes! I always have seconds (or thirds...) of Christmas pudding, cake, mince pies, and I eat brandy butter by the spoonful (tablespoon, preferably).

I don't do the traditional Christmas dinner - I've been veggie for >30 years, so I just have something else - normally some sort of veg/cheese bake type thing.

Torslanda

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #31 on: 13 December, 2017, 04:05:34 pm »
Last week we had a tryout of a Tesco turkey & gammon joint. We cooked it exactly to the instructions, the turkey was dry and tasteless, the gammon was inedible - even the cats stuck their tails in the air and strutted haughtily away.

So it's likely we will either have a roast chicken or a nice brisket with roast veggies, sprouts and all the trimmings. Then sleep for 24 hours...
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #32 on: 13 December, 2017, 05:23:26 pm »
Christmas ramps up the capricious curds, I think because of the odd and peculiar belief that it goes with cranberry sauce. In fact this – breaded and deep fried goat cheese and cranberry sauce – seemed at one point to be the only bloody alt-veg christmas meal at any do.

I don't like parsnips. I don't know what they are. Are they supposed to be vegetables or discarded body parts? Oddly sweet and then people roast them in honey like that's a normal thing. It obviously isn't.

I usually try to buy enough turkey for the day itself, the cats get the leftovers and it's game over before Boxing day comes a knocking. I still recall the grim procession of turkey leftovers throughout January (and sometimes it seemed like beyond) – that slow trudge of sandwiches which sullied my childhood (and given the salmonella risk, probably came perilously close to ending my childhood). I did have a thing for two week old mushed up trifle though. My dad would put two entire bottles of non-duty-paid Harvey's Bristol Cream in it. Just the thing to blot out the familial cacophony once the Blue Nun ran dry.

I don't really get the turkey is dry thing. Honest, you can import gravy from the north these days. It won't actually make you northern, none of that eebygum business. You'd have to eat gravy for days before that set in (so obviously don't do it).

As for pork, that is dry. It's the pig's revenge. The sahara of meats. Stick with bacon (America's universal seasoning) or sausages. I do love some stuffing, I do.

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #33 on: 13 December, 2017, 06:09:04 pm »
My mum used to go mad and do turkey, a ham and beef. I'd have bern happy with a plate full of roast taters, gravy and some sprouts.
Now I do xmas at home it's that plus duck breast & cherries cooked in kriek. :P

And xmas pud  :sick:
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #34 on: 13 December, 2017, 06:24:33 pm »
I expect there will be a goose at Fort Larrington.  This is a Good Thing.
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #35 on: 13 December, 2017, 06:37:14 pm »
I love almost all aspects of Christmas food (but I love almost all aspects of most food).
Not terribly bothered about turkey. I've had some very dull ones in the past.
We have goose and have done since we started to celebrate Christmas at our house as opposed to being based with relatives (so since 1995). I love goose and we've not had a bad one. It is expensive, but it's the centrepiece of our celebrations. We don't go much on presents these days. Don't go out that much over the season either. MrsC will also cook her spiced salt beef (which is salting away in the spare bedroom as I type), and a turkey crown. She usually does gammon as well but has already done a smallish piece which is cut into sensible sized pieces and in the freezer.
There will be the usual roast veggies and pigs in blankets. And bread sauce.
There are also sausage rolls and meat patties (look like mince pies but only contain minced beef and a little onion). There are three puddings, to a new recipe we've not tried before. It the pudding works, the spares will probably stay in the freezer for next year.
Did I mention there were just the two of us?
No cake this year.
And I love sprouts!
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #36 on: 13 December, 2017, 07:16:56 pm »
Only 2 of us so turkey would be a bit much. This year I'll be concocting some variation on a beef hotpot + roast parsnips, braised red cabbage.  OH may do sprouts for herself, she'll have to hurry they should have been started days ago😀. I is wanting a Dundee CAEK , (all for ourselfs ? Yes all for ourselfs Precious)
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #37 on: 13 December, 2017, 07:30:47 pm »
Typical Danish Christmas dinner:

Roast pork
Roast duck
Gravy
Boiled potatoes
Caramelised potatoes
Crisps
warm Red cabbage

All very yummy in no so large amounts.

And for dessert Risalamande http://nordicfoodliving.com/risalamande-danish-rice-dessert/
I love it but only once a year, because it's so rich

ian

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #38 on: 13 December, 2017, 07:31:35 pm »
My mum used to go mad and do turkey, a ham and beef. I'd have bern happy with a plate full of roast taters, gravy and some sprouts.
Now I do xmas at home it's that plus duck breast & cherries cooked in kriek. :P

And xmas pud  :sick:

You won't like my Sacred Christmas pud gin then. (We have the Boutique-y Gin advent this year, been very good so far, all off-piste gins).

I used to just eat the trimmings and veggie sausages when I was a veggie (I still had to the cook the turkey, mind). But still, I quite like turkey and won't be dissuaded.

Ours usually fits in a large slow cooker (until last year it fitted in the medium). It's enough for four and two cats. To be honest, the cats would probably eat the entire thing if I didn't stop them.

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #39 on: 14 December, 2017, 12:34:52 am »
My daughter and granddaughter do their meal. They are into beef wellington. Bloody expensive but they love it and it does 3 meals.

I think turkeys are over-rated. I quite fancy swan but I haven't seen one for sale. I might just have to nip down the park in the dead of night. There are six full-sized cygnets there beginning to get white feathers. I reckon they would be pretty tasty. I doubt that our oven is big enough though.
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #40 on: 14 December, 2017, 12:48:04 am »
Typical Danish Christmas dinner:

Roast pork
Roast duck
Gravy
Boiled potatoes
Caramelised potatoes
Crisps
warm Red cabbage

All very yummy in no so large amounts.

And for dessert Risalamande http://nordicfoodliving.com/risalamande-danish-rice-dessert/
I love it but only once a year, because it's so rich

Sugar browned?  That might possibly be the thing I miss most about my ex.  His mum - Bedstemor - always made loads and loads of sugar-browned spuds for our Christmas meal with her (which wasn't always at Christmas) so that there'd be leftovers for the next day too, 'specially for me.  Absolute God food.

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #41 on: 14 December, 2017, 08:53:03 am »
I think turkeys are over-rated. I quite fancy swan but I haven't seen one for sale. I might just have to nip down the park in the dead of night. There are six full-sized cygnets there begging to get white feathers. I reckon they would be pretty tasty. I doubt that our oven is big enough though.
Dr Annie Grey, food historian, (BBC R4 The Kitchen Cabinet, amongst many others) has said that neither swan nor peacock actually taste as good as turkey. One of the main reasons for turkey becoming popular (from the sixteenth century onwards) was that it looked big and impressive plus it actually tasted better.
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Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #42 on: 14 December, 2017, 01:29:08 pm »
I don't think I've ever eaten turkey. My mum doesn't like it, so we never had it, and I've been veggie since I left home.

Sprouts - yes please. Preferably done with garlic and nuts, but boiled or steamed will do.
ALL the roast potatoes - yes please.
All the other trimmings - yes please but not the parsnips because they're horrid.

Christmas pudding - yes please, preferably made by my mum.
Mince pies - yes please, preferably made by my mum with homemade mincemeat.
Trifle - god yes, preferably made by my mum.

The only Christmas food I don't really like or eat is the meat bit and the parsnip bit.

Work arsed around so long this year before authorising the Christmas leave (requests were in by end of September, not authorised until 2 weeks ago) that the train fares to get home were £200+, and there's no way I'm paying that, plus another £50 for a cat sitter, for three days. So Pete and I will be spending Christmas together alone and I'm actually quite looking forward to it, apart from not having any of the made-by-my-mum delicacies. Although I have a jar of her mincemeat in the fridge so I might make some mince pies. Haven't decided what to have for Christmas dinner. Possibly just an oven-full of roast potatoes!
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #43 on: 14 December, 2017, 01:32:25 pm »
Turkey's fine (it's way better than pork).  Sprouts are the devil's vegetable.  The only appeal of Christmas pudding is pyromania, and mince pies are disappointing as well as badly named.

OTOH, licence to nibble cheese.   :thumbsup:

I agree on the sprouts and the cheese....

Oh yes.
We are going to my parents this year. Mum likes to buy a bigish turkey so that we can get two meals out of it. And someone (me or Mum) will boil up the bones and make soup. Nom. Actually I think I agreed I would do the stripping of the bones. It is a messy job, but I quite like it.
Bread sauce? Nom.
Sprouts? Nom.
Parsnips? Nom.
Whole onions cooked in the oven with all the other roast veg? Someone else can have mine. I'll swap with my sister who doesn't like parsnips.
Christmas pudding (made to my grandmother's recipe)? Nom. And cake and mince pies and shortbread. Nom nom nom.

Mr fimm is half Austrian. They always have Wiener Schnitzel on Christmas Eve, so now we do that for my parents too. My mother in law is British, so when we go out there we have all the Christmas Eve traditions (which is when the Austrians celebrate) and then we have to take stuffing mix and Christmas pudding out with us so we can have a British-style dinner on the 25th.

I do like a schnitzel.

We used to have Lasagna,  and schnitzelled turkey.  Salt cod on christmas eve and new years.

Pandoro and panetone.

Gus

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #44 on: 14 December, 2017, 02:21:33 pm »
Typical Danish Christmas dinner:

Roast pork
Roast duck
Gravy
Boiled potatoes
Caramelised potatoes
Crisps
warm Red cabbage

All very yummy in no so large amounts.

And for dessert Risalamande http://nordicfoodliving.com/risalamande-danish-rice-dessert/
I love it but only once a year, because it's so rich

Sugar browned?  That might possibly be the thing I miss most about my ex.  His mum - Bedstemor - always made loads and loads of sugar-browned spuds for our Christmas meal with her (which wasn't always at Christmas) so that there'd be leftovers for the next day too, 'specially for me.  Absolute God food.

yes sugar browned and they are very very good and addictive  :smug:

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #45 on: 14 December, 2017, 05:32:27 pm »
Typical Danish Christmas dinner:

Roast pork
Roast duckf
Gravy
Boiled potatoes
Caramelised potatoes
Crisps
warm Red cabbage

All very yummy in no so large amounts.

And for dessert Risalamande http://nordicfoodliving.com/risalamande-danish-rice-dessert/
I love it but only once a year, because it's so rich

Sugar browned?  That might possibly be the thing I miss most about my ex.  His mum - Bedstemor - always made loads and loads of sugar-browned spuds for our Christmas meal with her (which wasn't always at Christmas) so that there'd be leftovers for the next day too, 'specially for me.  Absolute God food.

yes sugar browned and they are very very good and addictive  :smug:

Toffee potatoes!
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

ian

Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #46 on: 14 December, 2017, 05:38:34 pm »
That sounds grotesque. I didn't even know it was a thing and I liked the ignorance.

Wowbagger

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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #47 on: 14 December, 2017, 06:00:00 pm »
I think parsnips are the most marvellous of the root vegetables. I recall, when I was still teaching in a secondary school, there was a very good article in the Graun about the virtues of growing and eating parsnips. There was one evocative phrase describing the parsnip which equally applied to me and a select band of my colleagues. The author of the article described that moment that the parsnip is dug out of frozen soil and sees the light of da "gross, whiskered and reeking".
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #48 on: 14 December, 2017, 06:12:29 pm »
It the pudding works, the spares will probably stay in the freezer for next year.

Do you need to freeze them? I just keep mine in the larder, and dose them occasionally with brandy. The one we had last Christmas was two years old and had matured beautifully!
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Re: Do you actually like Christmas food?
« Reply #49 on: 14 December, 2017, 06:20:38 pm »
It the pudding works, the spares will probably stay in the freezer for next year.

Do you need to freeze them? I just keep mine in the larder, and dose them occasionally with brandy. The one we had last Christmas was two years old and had matured beautifully!

We have had ones that Mrs Pcolbeck made that were a couple of years old. Just kept in a dark cupboard. They were fine didnt even feed them (well they had been well fed coming up to Christmas the year they were made).
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.