What does a christmas lunch contain

[Hot Flatus]

Toby Carvery

[lou boutin]

Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese.

Where's this cauliflower cheese suddenly appeared from? I hadn't heard of it being part of a Christmas dinner before, but this is the 3rd time I've seen mention of it this year.

I'm vegetarian, and it's been a staple of my Christmas dinner for years. 

[Mr Larrington]

Parsnips are the Devil's dildo. Avoid.

This.  Professor Larrington was told in no uncertain terms that any attempt to include parsnips on today's menu would result in, at the very least, exile to the shed though more probably DETH.

[hellymedic]

I don't see the point of agonising over dislikes and feeling obliged to offer or consume them.
We all have likes and dislikes.
Christmas meals should be about enjoying plenty of nice with others.

If parsnips/sprouts/turkey/ displease, omit.

There'l be someone along soon who doesn't like carrots...

'Tradition' is actually rather malleable; what folk at for Christmas dinner in the 1950s is not really much like what we will have had this week or in Victorian times.

[Ben T]

Toby Carvery

With thin gravy and cement stuffing ftw

[Gattopardo]

The Ulster Fry confides: sprouts admit they don't like humans either.

They're not wrong.  Why would sprouts go to all that effort evolving a disgusting flavour if they wanted to be eaten?

Some people like that flavour thing.

[Gattopardo]

It's a Sunday dinner really.

The king/queen of the roasts!

[Gattopardo]

Apple sauce is an accompaniment for pork, not birds, surely? Goose should be served with an alcoholic fruity sauce--port, cider, brandy?
Redcurrant and rowan are for lamb?

The archetypal UK Christmas Dinner in 2018 is a fully americanised turkey and cranberry. Where even the veg are prepared for you and all that's required is to put it in the oven and set a timer.

We had beef.

Beef wellington?

Mine contained slow-cooked turkey (because we like it, especially the cats, and we hate goose-bores*), yorkshire pudding, sage and onion porky stuffing, roast potatoes, and roast sprouts and carrots, with a splatter of gravy and spoon of cranberry sauce. Very tasty, we kept the sizes down to avoid the usual gut buster. I did a very retro prawn cocktail for starters (with the smidge of gin in the marie rose sauce).

*no issues with the eating of goose or alternative turkeys, just the people that go on and on and on about how they're having goose or aardvark or whatever because turkey is so... blah de blah. Tell that to Bad Cat and she'd eat your fucking face right off.

Iceberg lettuce in the bottom of the glass, did you use posh ketchup and salad cream for the sauce?

Dry turkey is horrible.

[Gattopardo]

Parsnips are the Devil's dildo. Avoid.

Now you are WRONG.  Modern parsnips are quite sweet, but a light honey or maple glaze makes them in to a sugar organza.

[Gattopardo]

We had Salmon, beurre blanc, roast potatoes and roasted carrots and sprouts (roasting sprouts is the only acceptable way of preparing them)

But the euro in me says that fish should be for christmas eve and new years eve.  Those are no meat days....but rabbit and puffin are fine.

Swan. 

Polish tradition?  With (fresh) carp?

Yorkshire pudding and cauliflower cheese.

Where's this cauliflower cheese suddenly appeared from? I hadn't heard of it being part of a Christmas dinner before, but this is the 3rd time I've seen mention of it this year.

I'm vegetarian, and it's been a staple of my Christmas dinner for years. 

Isn't there a certain way to cook cauliflour to make nut roast esque but betterer main?  Have heard on the radio and read in waitrose weekend mag about this being a thing and even meat eaters (omnivores?) think it tastes great.

But then cauliflower riced is great stir fried and low carb.

[lou boutin]

Yep, it's cauliflower steak.  It was a skills test on Masterchef professionals too.  Basically you take a thick slide and cook it in lots and lots of butter. IM not keen on th amount of butter used.

[jsabine]

Isn't there a certain way to cook cauliflour to make nut roast esque but betterer main?  Have heard on the radio and read in waitrose weekend mag about this being a thing and even meat eaters (omnivores?) think it tastes great.

There was a *really* good roast cauliflower recipe in the Guardian food mag a few months ago - think it might have been a Yottam Ottolenghi number (it was certainly complex enough). Quite high effort, but worth it.

[Gattopardo]

Toby Carvery

With thin gravy and cement stuffing ftw

Ah carvery...is it an essex thing?  Seemed to be a thing for the essex people I know.

Toby cavery (or toby ayce breakfast) is great IMO all you can eat veg, yes I know they a frozen and then sit under a heat lamp hence the solid stuffing and runny gravy.  One is over heat lamped while the other is under heat lamped.

[Gattopardo]

Yep, it's cauliflower steak.  It was a skills test on Masterchef professionals too.  Basically you take a thick slide and cook it in lots and lots of butter. IM not keen on th amount of butter used.

I love butter, especially the french kind with big salt crystals in it.  Wonder if lard or dripping would make a difference?

Isn't there a certain way to cook cauliflour to make nut roast esque but betterer main?  Have heard on the radio and read in waitrose weekend mag about this being a thing and even meat eaters (omnivores?) think it tastes great.

There was a *really* good roast cauliflower recipe in the Guardian food mag a few months ago - think it might have been a Yottam Ottolenghi number (it was certainly complex enough). Quite high effort, but worth it.

Are we trying to out middle class each other

Do like Yottam recipes, then I modify.....with MOAR garlic

[Kim]

The Ulster Fry confides: sprouts admit they don't like humans either.

They're not wrong.  Why would sprouts go to all that effort evolving a disgusting flavour if they wanted to be eaten?

Some people like that flavour thing.

Of course.  Animals fight back by evolving out the receptor for the bitter taste.  Still a work in progress with humans.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The bitter taste goes with the mushiness. Cook them 5 mins max and they have neither.

[citoyen]

Yep, it's cauliflower steak.  It was a skills test on Masterchef professionals too.  Basically you take a thick slide and cook it in lots and lots of butter. IM not keen on th amount of butter used.

I love butter, especially the french kind with big salt crystals in it.  Wonder if lard or dripping would make a difference?

I had a go at making that cauliflower dish off Masterchef and it was bloody lovely. You cook the cauliflower in butter but it's just the cooking medium - you don't serve the butter on the plate. You could reduce the amount of butter or use olive oil if you like. I can't imagine lard or dripping would work so well. Cooking it in butter helps to give it some colour.

The main accompaniment is cashew nut butter, which has no actual butter in it (but does have a glug of olive oil). Then you garnish it with cauliflower vinaigrette.

Yes, of course I instagrammed it...

[lou boutin]

Looks lovely

[Ben T]

Well anything's gonna be nice if you cook it in butter.   

[citoyen]

Well anything's gonna be nice if you cook it in butter.   

Fair point.

[ElyDave]

That cauliflower steak is good for a low carber.

This year we had beef seared on the Barbie for a smoky hit, turkey crown (mum doesn't like beef), oodles of veg including parsnips and sprouts, but oddly not carrots, and Yorkshires. People selected what they liked and all the veg got eaten, no fuss. No pudding.

[SteveC]

'Tradition' is actually rather malleable; what folk at for Christmas dinner in the 1950s is not really much like what we will have had this week or in Victorian times.

True!
If there is one constant in British (or more probably English) Christmas dinners down the centuries is that the centre piece is a too-large piece of roasted meat. Beef has always had its followers, goose was very popular for many years (and is what MrsC and I have), turkey has been eaten in this country for centuries, but only became really popular in the second half of the twentieth century when selective breeding produced big birds with a lot of meat compared to bone, thus making them more affordable. I have vague memories of having chicken for Christmas as a very small child (early 60s) rather than turkey but I could be wrong there.

[lou boutin]

'Tradition' is actually rather malleable; what folk at for Christmas dinner in the 1950s is not really much like what we will have had this week or in Victorian times.

True!
If there is one constant in British (or more probably English) Christmas dinners down the centuries is that the centre piece is a too-large piece of roasted meat. Beef has always had its followers, goose was very popular for many years (and is what MrsC and I have), turkey has been eaten in this country for centuries, but only became really popular in the second half of the twentieth century when selective breeding produced big birds with a lot of meat compared to bone, thus making them more affordable. I have vague memories of having chicken for Christmas as a very small child (early 60s) rather than turkey but I could be wrong there.

Chicken was a more expensive piece of meat in the 60s, it only became cheaper as mass farming techniques became more popular in the 70s.  Apparently in the Victorian era there was a hierarchy of the meat eaten at Christmas.  The general populous had goose (if they were lucky enough to eat), the middle classes had turkey and the very rich had beef. (I have been researching for our next year's University Christmas Lecture.)

[Mr Larrington]

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education and if you disagree, take it up with Mark Twain.

[rafletcher]

In the 60’s we would have capon (which was a castrated cockerel) for Christmas lunch. Modern “capons” are generally just big chickens and lack the flavour, although some (uncastrated) cockerels are sold as capon.