Sunday Roast

Do a lot of British families still typically do this nowadays?

Because American food catches on over there, but British food doesn't catch on in America.

Yeah - it seems to be a huge thing for Brits. It looks fine, but I don't understand what's so special about roast meat, potatoes and vegetables.

Every Sunday? That would get old, fast.

It must be a recent thing, because they certainly couldn't afford to do that from 1930-mid 1950's due to meat and food rations.

Is bangers and mash actually popular over there or is that just an American idea of popular British food?

My grandmother used to make a roast every Sunday night. My father would take us over to my grandmother’s house every Sunday night to watch Disney & Ed Sullivan on the color tv. The roast smelled so good while it was cooking. Then my grandmother would take it out of the oven and serve it to my grandfather. Then she’d sit down after serving herself and eat. And we were still in the living room watching TV. She never invited us to sit down with them & eat dinner. And my father wouldn’t leave until the end of Ed Sullivan at 9pm. We only had one car & he was the only one who could drive it. So we had to sit there while my grandparents ate, cleaned up and stored the leftovers in the fridge.

WASP family, R5?

[quote]It must be a recent thing, because they certainly couldn't afford to do that from 1930-mid 1950's due to meat and food rations.

That isn't recent...who are "they"?

You're full of bullshit.

Did you eat before going over, r5?

How peculiar R5!

[quote] WASP family, [R5]?

Yes.

But it’s not as if my Irish Catholic grandparents ever fed us anything either.

I’m trying to figure out how they get their roast to look pink while mine always ends up looking brown/gray. I wish I could figure out how to make my roast look like theirs and what a good recipe is. Do they use a certain type of meat/cut?

[quote] Did you eat before going over, [R5]?

No. And we didn’t have snacks. I grew up in the 60s & truthfully never had a snack until the 70s. In fact, I thought snacks were invented in the 70s. I remember sweet, fruit flavored yogurt that my nephew ate as a snack. I was kind of bowled over by it. It was yogurt but it wasn’t sour & it came in a little box, not a big tub. And it was purple. I was in awe that my sister bought it for him.

Where's the Bisto, Mum/OP?

These days the Sunday roast is very often chicken.

This is a roast in America

Until I read the posts above I'd honestly never met a single person with grandparents like that. Even the poor people who didn't have very much money always at least offered food to their grandchildren. What odd families some you grew up in!

I have friends in the U.K. who eat like rabbits all week, just so they can pig out on a Sunday roast every weekend. It seems to be a deeply ingrained tradition.

R11: I found a great method for cooking a beef roast to your specifications.

First, let the meat set out at room temperature for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Then rub with salt/pepper. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Put roast in oven and let bake at 500 degrees for 12 minutes for each pound. After that, shut off oven completely and let roast sit in the oven for about 2-2 1/2 hours.

I like my roasts like in your picture, pink in the middle and this method works to perfection every time.

[quote]Is bangers and mash actually popular over there or is that just an American idea of popular British food?

Like fish and chips?

It's so tasty too! Just like candy.

We had some form of roast beast every Sunday after Mass, usually beef, but once a month, lamb or pork. Probably depended on what was on sale at the Grand Union or Shop Rite. It was nice. We had beets a lot, which I loved, and corn / tomatoes / cucumber salad, but my mother always, always, always made instant mashed potatoes. This was in the 1950s and '60s.

[quote] How peculiar [R5]!

You know, I never thought it was peculiar. It was just another one of those things that just wasn't for us. Like a color tv or matching furniture. I completely forgot about it until shortly before my mother died. She said “I was so happy when I got a job in a restaurant on Sundays so I didn’t have to go over there with him. Every Sunday night I had to sit there while he watched TV and they ate dinner. In all those years, they never once offered us something to eat. I had to sit there with you kids & you'd cry that you were hungry. But he wouldn’t leave. And they wouldn’t offer you something to eat.”

And that’s when I remembered it. And I thought “Holy shit! That *was* fucking weird!”

I never thought about it before, I just accepted it as normal.

I grew up on a farm in Illinois in the 70s and 80s.

We had a big roast or fried chicken dinner every Sunday - either at our own house, or at my grandparents’

I thought everybody did.

My dad used to do amateur Motocross racing every Sunday. Every Saturday night my mom would make roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots and green beans. This became forever known as the Motocross Special. My parents are 74 now and my mom still gets requests from the grandkids for the Motocross Special at family gatherings.

[quote]Is bangers and mash actually popular over there or is that just an American idea of popular British food?

i just had it for supper, with steamed spinach. It was very nice.

[quote]My parents are 74 now and my mom still gets requests from the grandkids for the Motocross Special at family gatherings.

Sweet!

[quote]My dad used to do amateur Motocross racing every Sunday. Every Saturday night my mom would make roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots and green beans.

Whole Foods used to do Sunday Roasts here in London. The meat. was excellent, but mash isn't right, roast spuds is, but that's what they served. Maybe it's the American version.

R5 I remember you posting that on another thread and I was absolutely floored. I wish I could make you the Motocross Special! That is the most unnatural grandparenting I have ever heard of. Shame on them!!!

Sunday dinner at our house consisted of beef roast in winter, grilled steaks or BBQ ribs or chicken in spring and summer.

In junior high, we were allowed to go home for lunch. I made a bee line home on Mondays to have left overs from Sunday dinner. Sure as hell beat a bologna sandwich.

R7 - you're telling me the average Brit had the means to do a full roast every Sunday during the Depression and during WW2 food rations when they had 4 ounces of meat ration per week for a family of 4?

And the food rations weren't over until the early 1950's. So, no, I don't believe they were able to do Sunday roasts for an entire generation. Maybe it got picked up again after.

Prove me wrong.

R27 It had to be mashed for the Motocross Special.

My grandparents had a roast beef every Sunday. My grandmother was very particular about the meat and had a butcher she always went to. She made some vegetables and a salad with avocados to go with it. This was Las Angeles in the 1970’s. My grandparents had come of age through the depression, so providing good food, and plenty of meat, was important to them. It proved they had made it, which they had!

I'm British and, yes, it's a big thing. These days (well, before the lockdown) a Sunday Roast is often eaten at a pub, though if you're cooking one at home it's seen as the sign of a good cook, since it takes a bit of skill and practice to get all the elements right.

The Sunday Roast has been around for centuries and would originally have been cooked on a spit over an open fire. Families wouldn't have been able to afford to eat meat every day so would have one large, blow-out meal on Sundays after church.

We had TV dinners a lot of the time, but it was something to eat. I was always grateful for them.

Americans have brunch.

[quote] That is the most unnatural grandparenting I have ever heard of. Shame on them!!!

Shame on my father, too. That he would insist that we stay there until he was finished watching tv when he knew full well we were hungry & that my grandparents weren’t going to feed us was terrible.

But like I said, at the time I didn’t think it was strange. It was just the way it was.

Not all WASP grandparents deny their grandchildren Sunday supper. That's cold.

Yes, Sunday Roast is an American tradition too, at least in New England.

R30 What is your point? If it's that most families wouldn't have had a huge joint of meat for Sunday Lunch during rationing then, yes, you're probably right. It's hardly some kind of revelation.

R5, R36 Did you ever ask about it as a child? Did you ever ask your grandmother if you could have some? I'm not trying to make you feel bad, I'm genuinely curious. Withholding food from your own hungry grandchildren is child abuse.

When I read various accounts of DLers' childhoods, I assume many of them grew up in Irish poverty like the kids from Angela's Ashes.

That is so strange, R5. Did they display any other odd behavior around your family, or other people?

Brits, what’s the most traditional sides for roast? Do you make Yorkshire pudding? Which vegetables? I’m so hungry reading this thread, I want to make a full Sunday supper this weekend. Do you have dessert also?

You can bet they did, R41.

Oops , what are the, not what’s the

[quote]Which vegetables?

Peas or carrots or both, swimming in gravy.

We had roast quite a bit in my family - pork and beef. But, it wasn't a Sunday tradition. Love roast with carrots and potatoes.

R42 Pretty much any vegetable goes. Roast potatoes are essential. Other vegetables served often include peas, carrots, cabbage etc. Yorkshire pudding was traditionally made using the dripping from the beef, though are often made separately these days even if being served with lamb, chicken or pork. You can buy frozen Yorkshire puddings which tend to be more common since homemade Yorkshire puddings are notoriously difficult to get just right. Gravy is also essential.

Isn’t that the name of one of Nicole Kidman’s daughters?

[quote] [R5], [R36] Did you ever ask about it as a child? Did you ever ask your grandmother if you could have some?

I used to cry that I was hungry & wanted to eat. At first my mother would say “We’ll go home in a little while.” After a bit my mother would say to my father “can we please go home? The kids are hungry.”

But he would say no. We had to stay there until his tv shows were over. I remember getting a headache & crying. But my father would just yell,”NO!” He never cared about us kids. And I guess he was his parents’ child, brought up to be stingy & withholding.

I remember going to their house on holidays & they fed us but not for hours. By the time it was time to eat I was beyond hunger & had a stomach ache. Then I wouldn’t eat much & got yelled at because it was insulting that I didn’t eat everything.

Again - I thought this was normal. I thought it was the way everybody was. To this day, I hate thanksgiving. I would always volunteer to work on thanksgiving when I worked in hospitals because I associated thanksgiving with fretfulness & tension. I don’t observe thanksgiving.

R5, that is SO FUCKED UP. I have never heard of a grandmother NOT feeding her grandchildren. My condolences. I hope you have love.

Oh, I see you posted more. Sorry for you and your siblings, r49.

We had Roast Beef or Pork Roast every Sunday through the '50s and '60s. Back then the meat was really good and tender. They didn't put hormones in the meat back then. It was my favorite meal as a kid.

R49 You are welcome at my Thanksgiving dinner anytime R49. I'll feed you until you can't eat any more!

R52, I just know the roast pork of the 70s and 80s and it was pretty damn good. We’d have it with potatoes and cold homemade applesauce (sometimes jarred).

I remember R5 's story from another thread as well. That's some sad shit right there.

Growing up Sunday roast was served with what I though was called “rooster shower” sauce. Then I learned to read the bottle and it was spelled Worcestershire. Boy, was I a stupid child.

R18 Thank you! Is there a certain type of roast/cut you prefer?

R5 Your grandmother sounds very “Flowers In the Attic.”😳

Sunday dinner at home wasn't that big a deal. Sometimes my father would grill steaks or barbecue, but not a big production. If we to my grandparents, though, huge production. My grandmother got up early and went to the first church service; she was on the committee that arranged the flowers on the altar. She would come back, cook breakfast (biscuits and gravy), and we'd stumble out and then go to the 2nd service. Grandma would start cooking dinner. We were on the Gulf Coast, so we often ate seafood, sometimes fried chicken and, if my uncle had gone hunting, sometimes we'd have a venison roast. This involved the good silver and china, linen tablecloths and everyone on their best behavior.

R30, you are absolutely right - and please ignore the retards.

OP: What didn't catch on? I grew up in Boston and Sunday afternoon dinner was very much a real thing in the 1960s and 1970s...and of course long before that.

It's a hangover from when lunch was the largest meal of the day and people worked Mon - Sat. I still know people who eat a Sunday roast at 12 noon every week.

I still make one most weeks (Lamb leg and mint sauce on Sunday), but we don't usually eat it until about 5pm.

The Sunday Roast is part of American culture, we just don't call it that. Also, it is, like in the UK, the basis for traditional holiday meals. American culture came out of British culture, so it isn't surprising. Roast Beef, Pork Roast, Roasted Ham, Chicken, and Turkey are all common American roasts.

R11, I suspect the meat in the photo at OP was not roasted. I did a London Broil (beef, sorry, can't remember what cut) once in my life and it did look like the photo at OP. I marinated the meat (not very long) in a plastic bag with oil & vinegar salad dressing and fresh rosemary.

Then, I preheated the oven broiler and put the meat right under the broiler. I watched it like a hawk because I wanted it medium rare. At some point, I flipped the meat and put it back in the broiler. Came out really good.

It’s hard to think about Confort food while people are starving.

Marie Antoinette couldn’t have ran this pandemic response any worse.

R64 It's possible to roast a joint rare in the middle in an oven, but you'd need a very strong roasting tin that wouldn't bend when preheated to 500f and ideally a larger thicker cut of beef that shown. (also better on the bone).

More like this

We always had some kind of roast on Sundays when we were kids. Pork or beef or a chicken. That's what my grandparents did as well. In the summer it might be BBQ ribs or chicken or steak. Even as an adult now I like to make a roast. Why would someone assume a roasted dinner is not common in the U.S.?

R7, bacon and ham was a 4oz ration. Meat was limited to a monetary amount so you could buy cheaper meat and get more or better cuts and have less. Anyone who had any garden at all planted vegetables and many kept chicken. Fish was not rationed at all; nor was game. My Dad grew up in London during the blitz. My Grandmother did not allow him to be evacuated although they spent some time away from the city with relatives when things were very bad. He says they ate a lot of rabbit. Roasts, stews and pies were quite a common thing. So I suppose the answer to your question is that yes there was rationing but while not eating a lot of meat people did have it and Sunday would probably have meant a roast dinner for many people at that time.

My grandmother would feed me. But she was not much of a cook, in addition to being a hard and judgmental old woman.

When I was about five years old, she took my Old Maid cards away from me with a disapproving "harrumph." Then she poked her finger in my face and said, "Don't you grow up to be a card playing man. Cards are the tool of the Devil!"

So sometimes they starve you and other times they rob you.

R68 People also raised their own chickens and pigs.

There was also the massive Black Market which meant you could buy whatever you wanted if you could afford it. My family bought most of their meat direct from farmers during the war, my Mother said that they fed most of her Aunts and Uncles between 1940-1950 without ever visiting a butchers shop.

I can't even identify some of the food on the plate in OP's post.

The idea of a Sunday roast sounds good, but it also sounds like food better fit for colder weather.

It's cold most of they year in The UK, we only have 3 months when it's above 70f in a really good summer.

Sunday's slow-cooked beef roast was something my grandparents did for the family. That all ended with their deaths in the 80s. I miss them and those dinners. English and Irish they were mostly.

[R5], I hate when parents get away with behviour/abuse like that. Maybe your grandparents died when you were still young, but you should have mentioned it to your father at some moment.

Meat did not come off the ration until 1954.

Plenty of Americans would serve roast beef for family Sunday dinner. That or roast chicken or fried chicken. But Yorskshire pudding or popovers were rare where we lived. When I lived in the UK (London and Ulster) no one I knew served roast beef, Sunday or any day.

R75 just HAD to have her say about the ABUSE without the poster at R5 sharing when and what the kids ate earlier in the day. Plus she presumes to instruct R5 on what s/he should have done. As if we need another one of these Frauen here, trying to derail a thread with her OUTRAGE.

R76 Pork joints were widely available by 1948, as was seasonal and New Zealand lamb (and mutton).

[BOLD] Full [/BOLD] Meat Rationing didn't end until 1954, but certain products were available to buy when the market had increased supply.

Wow, who knew, meat was easy to come by in England during the war. Especially in London during the blitz. Interesting.

We had Sunday roast in my family.

R79, it wasn’t easy to come by had you read what was written but it was available. Game was easily available. Fish was available. Vegetables were easily available so there was meat on Sunday and the rationing allowances meant the very poor also had food on the table. People in general were much healthier in dietary terms then. Perhaps go and read a little before making sarcastic comments.

R5 Your father sounds like he was an asshole. Just like mine.

Also WASPS seem to be generally very cold uncaring people anyway. Some anyway, why is that?

My mom used to make Sunday roast. Her grandparents had come over from Ireland and England. I’ve never liked that kind of food but she was very good at it and could even make Yorkshire pudding which is not supposed to be easy.

Ya know when we got Sunday roast? When it was on fucking sale. Otherwise shut up and eat your hamburger or tuna casserole.

My mother cooked a pot roast every single Sunday. She would put it in the oven before we went to Sunday school and church and it would be ready for lunch when we got home. Every single Sunday.

In the US, we eat chuck roast. It's usually served with roasted potatoes and carrots.

R83 To make Yorkshire puddings you need:

Equal amounts of egg, milk and seasoned all-purpose flour (by volume) whisked thoroughly then chilled.

A very hot oven (450f) and a little beef dripping or oil melted into each section of a muffin tin then heated in the oven until smoking.

Divide the mix between the mix between the sections of the tins (about 1/3rd full) and close the oven door quickly. Bake until they are risen and golden brown.

I changed it a bit, we can get Yorkshire pudding tins in the UK and all-purpose flour is Plain flour here.

I did read, R81, the comments here (plenty of Sunday roast) and other random online info (which said everyone was eating fish, spam, whale meat, and horse meat).

R5 / R22 , sorry that happened to you (grandparents feasting, dad watching TV, mom at work, kids hungry). Did you not have a TV at your house? Is that why your dad was watching TV at your grandparents' house?

Were you ever mad at your mother for that? She seemed like she knew it was wrong, i.e., knew better.

Your dad and his parents (your grandparents) must have had a strange relationship.

I really hate shit like that, stinginess and especially stinginess to children (while being lavish upon yourself as an adult).

If I'm eating something, I'll offer some to whoever is around.

Anytime, there is rationing or shortages it is much better to live in the country. Rationing wasn't as harsh in the US, but my rural relatives remember eating much better than the city dwelling ones. Because they could grow/raise things to supplement their rations. Also, they were able to fish and hunt. One of my older relatives said they had some city cousins that lived about 30 min away. They hadn't seen them for years, but once rationing kicked in the city cousins would save their gas rations to come out and visit a few times a month, to get produce and meat. After rationing ended they went back to not coming around and thinking they were too good to visit their "country cousins." Now during this crisis I wish my grandparents weren't in as bad shape as they currently are, because they used to plant a huge garden, that could have supplemented the entire family's diet.

Also, unlike R5, I've never gone hungry at my Grandparent's house.

As a White Adjacent American we always and only had spaghetti & meatballs on Sundays at 2pm Easter / Christmas was ravioli or lasagna. Thanksgiving was the only big non-Italian meal of the year.

Have you ever lived with a roast?

R90 I thought y'all had fish for Christmas.

What a stupid thread.

People have been eating a big Sunday meal for a very long time. You make a big roast or bird and you can have leftovers for several days.

R92 - the fish is on Christmas Eve / lasagna is on Christmas Day. When I recently suggested to my 80 year old mom that we start doing one or the other since two big meals with all the same people less than 24 hours apart seems like a lot of unnecessary work she replied "They are two separate holidays."

I grew up in Texas.. We had steaks every Sunday. What we had with them depended on the time of year, and in the summer, always a lettuce salad to start and strawberry shortcake or home made ice cream for desert.

It's teh sort of thing people ate in the 50s here.

I’m fascinated by Yorkshire puddings. I don’t understand them. The shape is so strange, like a cup. The US equivalent is dinner rolls, which are bread-y or flaky little loaves of risen dough. Yorkshire puddings just don’t look right.

[97] Yorkshire pudding is closer to a pancake than dinner roll. If you know what a Dutch Baby pancake is...that’s basically a Yorkshire pudding. They need a hot oven and like a soufflé can sink pretty quickly if not eaten right away after they’re done. On a separate note, you can make a Yorkshire pudding batter, pour it into a pan, add some pork sausages and you have ‘toad in the hole’. Make an onion gravy and you have a delicious artery clogger meal. And if you’re feeling really devil may care about your health have a sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Actually, and I’m not being sarcastic, if you want to have a nice dessert make a summer berry pavlova. It’s a merengue filled with fresh berries topped with clotted or whipped cream. Crunchy, fresh berries and cream...what’s not to like.

I was just going to make the comparison between Yorkshire puddings and Dutch babies & popovers. Egg-y. Small ingredients list. I've made a Dutch baby before in a cast iron pan. Very easy. You can eat these things with just butter. Don't need gravy, etc.

R5

That is truly the saddest thing I've ever heard; no wonder certain white people grow up with all sorts of issues.

Such a thing never would happen in our house/family. It was and still is considered inhospitable if not down right rude to eat in front of others and not offer, even if only just family. As children of course we were firmly taught it was time to go home when a friend or playmate's mother began setting table for a meal.

That being said within my family, circle of friends and on block first thing any mother usually said upon entering their home was "are you hungry?" "did you eat?".

As for Sunday roasts we had them all the time growing up, and still do. Lamb, beef, chicken... Mom was big on having a nice huge family meal on Sunday.....

Did you know tradition of roasts on Sunday was born in part out of wash day being on Monday?

Back when laundry was done by hand or semi-automatic washing machines it was an all day affair. Wash day was usually Monday and husbands/children knew better than to expect a hot meal from scratch. Usually it was some sort of meal made from Sunday's joint/roast leftovers. In particular anything that could be made from scraps and didn't require much attention. Meat pies, stews, soups, etc..... if you were lucky because they would be served hot. Otherwise it was cold bits...

Where I grew up, everyone was Italian American

You'd never waste a Sunday family lunch/dinner eating stuff like that.

No made roast beef.

Roast beef was something you bought sliced at a deli, or ordered in a hoagie.

The closest you'd get to roast beef was "going out for prime rib".

And boiled vegetables? What do you have an upset stomach or something? Did you just come home from the hospital?

How did the Brits eat all that roast with their rotten teeth?

[quote] And boiled vegetables? What do you have an upset stomach or something?

Italian American at R101, haven't you ever tried WASP "food"? They don't know how to cook and their food is almost always awful. Their food makes even the heavy Central European food taste delicious in comparison.

R97 - the US equivalent are Popovers. Except that in the US they might be eaten for breakfast/brunch and with something sweet.

Growing up my family had a roast dinner every Sunday. Usually there was a bad atmosphere because my Dad would have been off walking in the hills from early in the morning, with a bunch of his mates, and they would then go to the pub. My mother and grandmother would be toiling away in the kitchen and he would arrive home late. The atmosphere was often grim. But my mother and grandmother both made amazing Yorkshire Puddings ( I’m from Yorkshire) and they were worth weathering the parental bullshit behaviour for.

Over the last couple of decades, with the rise of gastropubs going to a pub for a Sunday roast has grown to be popular. The bane of any regulars at good local pubs. People who never usually go to pubs descending on mass with bratty offspring and taking over. Clueless about bar etiquette and just getting in the way generally. But it’s a good money spinner. Or was. These days you get a choice of pork, beef or chicken usually. With some bullshit vegetation equivalent as well . Growing up we usually had beef or, in the Spring, lamb.

I’m from Scotland. My mother always made roast beef or roast chicken on Sundays. I hardly ever make them myself. Sunday is just a day off from work, so I don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen.

That's another thing Italian Americans never made: roast chicken. A chicken was cut up, sautéed and then simmered with tomato and onions and peppers or tomatoes and mushrooms. Something like that. Or breaded cutlets Or fried chicken. But a whole roast chicken? Never saw one growing up.

Every goddamned Sunday as a child in the U.S., though by the time I left for university (1977) the frequency had, over a couple of years, waned by about half. This might have been nicer had my mother been nicer to the ingredients of the mid- or late-afternoon meal.

It's a big thing for friends in the U.K., most of whom loosely adhere to the Friday night at home (alone or with friends) with carry-out on Fridays; out for dinner on Saturday night; and an afternoon noon meal at home or in a pub on Sundays.

Friends in their 30s to 60s, all can talk with ease about favorite dishes, menus, favorite places to go, and the people they take roasts with. More than a few are members of some sort of roast club dining either a closed circle of acquaintances or a more fluid group that meets in a new spot each week (or less often). Some of these are all single men and a nice place to meet new people outside the usual circles; some friends belong to a couple such groups. I've been to a couple pub roast Sunday groups with friends and they were a mix of "foodies" and people who simply liked the tradition of sociability (or both.)

Roast potatoes are best cooked in duck fat.

I grew up with Sunday Roasts, usually lamb or chicken. We never had Yorkshire Puddings as they were from up north, like mushy peas or black pudding. I don't really know about the availability of meat during the war but my mum used to eat a lot of rabbit back then and, importantly, even if they had mutton it wasn't eaten all on the Sunday. The dripping was kept as well the jelly to have on bread later and off cuts would be eaten all week, there would be soup from bones, etc. I think traditionally it would all be used up by Thursday and Friday was fish. Of course, you couldn't hang out washing on a Sunday so having the oven on all day allowed for clothes to be dried indoors. A roast is good hangover food as well.

[R94] I love your 80 year old mother. I'm with her, they're 2 separate holidays! The meal order is: breakfast, dinner, supper. We spent every Sunday with our grandparents -- loving, sharing, Grandpa and Grandma Bountiful. Central European heritage, fabulous food. Then - my youngest uncle had an Italian sweetheart who was later his wife & our favorite aunt. Still remember the SHOCK when the sweetheart said she was making lasagna for us all one Sunday. Much consternation! "La-SAG-na??" What IS it? We all waited to see what the heck was going to show up. And - - - we couldn't get enough: so, so good.

R94, I'm with R110. Your mother is right. They are two different holidays. I hope you help her with the preparation of the two big meals.

I don't know about roast per se, but it does seem like having a big, semi-fancy meal on Sunday used to be a thing for Americans, at least dating back to the '50s. Most Americans now rarely make elaborate meals except for special occasions, and we're ultracasual to the point that no one even dresses up for special occasions anymore.

I make one or two fancy meals a week, but rarely on Sunday.

R30 We had a roast every Sunday after Mass, in the 1950s, like all the other Catholics did - and probably the heathens as well. Mind you - this was Australia, so it was usually lamb of some sort - a Forequarter roast or Two Tooth which was actually nicer. Roast spuds, peas, beans or Brussels sprouts and gravy. It was our father’s only day off, because he worked in a pub on Saturday to support all the kids he had. The wages of sin.

Although I'm American, my family had a lot of British traditions. On my mother's side, my grandmother was a first generation American whose parents had moved here from England in their late teens/early 20s, so she kept a lot of those traditions. Sunday roast was one of them, which she passed down to my mother. Throughout most of the 1970s, my mother usually made a roast pork, Yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes and some kind of vegetable. We rarely had beef because it was too expensive. By the 1980s, my brother and I were teenagers and the tradition ended. I haven't carried it on.

Meat might have been in short supply R30 but you could have as many vegetables as you want, so roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, mashed swede all on the table with a small portion of meat, not hard to figure out how to do a roast dinner that's light on meat. The point of the modern roast is more the family sitting around a table for a shared home cooked meal at least once a week.

"Backstage Passes," by Angela Bowie contains the best description of the differences between the American and British middle class in the 1950s. "Two up, two down," to a typical American is meaningless.

I noticed something from an Oxford University (you can't alwyays tell, but most of them are sinister alien life forms with acid for blood) Doctorate graduate emphasizing to me that his and his partner's house was DETACHED, although both domociles shared a common staircase at the front entrane.

I rememeber feeling slightly bemusede, because it made no difference at all to me, but it is a matter of consideration for some in England.

R106 what part of Italy did you grow up in?

I never saw chicken with tomatoes and fried is not so common but certainly if you kept chickens roast chicken made the table.

I've spent a lot of time tracing my ancestry. All my direct ancestors arrived in North America before the American Revolution. Many arrived in the 1600s. As a result, I grew up with no cultural ties to Europe. That was all wiped out hundreds of years ago. In its place is a long, long, tradition of self-reliance and struggle to feed and clothe one's self and family. The photos I've seen of my grandmother when she was an adolescent

I would LOVE to have had a family with ties to Europe and a rich culinary tradition. Frozen peas, boiled, and a canned ham are no way to live. My maternal grandmother was born in the early 1890s. There are few photos of her family when she was a teen. It is pretty clear they had a hardscrabble existence slaving way on a midwestern farm that barely supported them. The only culinary traditions she might have had to pass on would involve how to slaughter the hog yourself. A few generations later... boil the frozen vegetables and slap a slice of meat into a cast iron pan. Midwest Cuisine.

It certainly caught on in the south long ago. Sunday dinner was always centered around a roast, ham, or some other major meat course.

My mother worked full time, sometimes 6 days a week when I was a kid. But she was an excellent cook and Sundays were her days to shine. She'd make either a pork or beef roast, or full pot roast dinner. But the best days were when she made her all-day simmered tomato sauce. She'd cook sausage, chicken, pork and meatballs in stages in the sauce throughout the day. It fed our family of 7 for 2 or 3 days. God her meatballs were the best.

AGA on fire!

The Italian Sunday dinners are so much better:

An Italian Sunday dinner is a traditional family gathering and a beautiful way to stay connected to each other. You know you are in an Italian household when you walk up to the front door the aroma of garlic, fresh herbs and meat sauce simmering on the stove flood your senses. Family and friends are greeted warmly with a hug and kiss, a glass of wine and an array of antipasto delights to “stimulate your appetite” Mom and grandma are usually in the kitchen making homemade pasta and the golden strands of spaghetti are spread across the kitchen table drying while a large pot of water is boiling rapidly on the stove. Ahh… the smells of Sunday.

We all sneak by the pot of meat sauce and grab a piece of bread to dunk……After all, someone has to test the sauce and maybe sneak in a meatball. The dining room table is always neatly set with linen and china and the sounds of Frank Sinatra or Pavarotti is playing in the background.. I can still see my mom in the kitchen singing while preparing our Sunday feast. Dinner is usually served around 3 pm, but last for hours as we linger around the table conversing and laughing while enjoying multiple courses of mom’s beautiful creations. The meals always ends with of bowls of fruit, nuts and cakes along with pots of espresso coffee…we love Sundays!!

[quote] Most Americans now rarely make elaborate meals except for special occasions

Cooking is like sewing. First, people made all their own clothes. Then, it became mostly a mending thing or tailoring thing where you cinched the waist, or raised/lowered the hem of pants/dresses. Then it became where some women were knitters and made sweaters, snow hats, afghans & Christmas ornaments, but most women. weren’t.

Now food is like that. Most young people today who cook from scratch don’t usually make roasts & potatoes. They didn’t grow up with that type of diet because the meat is expensive & the culture has been lectured about meat being unhealthy for 40 years. It causes heart disease, it’s full of antibiotics, hormones, drugs. It’s force fed, or fed corn instead of grass. Factory farming is cruel., The problems with meat seem endless. So young people eat quinoa, peppers, beans, beets, soy, vegan , vegetarian, no red meat, on,y locally sourced chicken & vegetables and locally sourced vegetables can be pretty grim in some climates.

Most people are eating processed foods now. It started with bisquick & canned soup/vegetables. Then frozen food was a convenience. Single women entered the workforce, companies downsized & everyone had more work to do. They didn’t have time to cook. They met their friends at restaurants & bars after work for drinks and a bite to eat. They kept frozen in the freezer for the nights they were home resting up. Then they got married & had kids & didn’t know how to cook. So it became pizza, hot dogs, spaghetti with doctored jar sauce, tacos.

People spend more money dining out than eating at home. They don’t dress up to go out to dinner for special occasions. They stop at McD on the way home or meet friends at Applebee’s. Sunday dinner fell out of favor when single women went away to college & were expected to get a decent paying full time job.

R110 and R111 -- Mom usually prefers no-one else in the kitchen when she is cooking - its on the small side; so I just set and clear the table -- but I do re-arrange all the ornaments on the tree. Well not all, just the ones I didn't hang in the first place.

When Christmas Eve was still at my grandparents small Brooklyn apartment the makeshift table was set 2/3 in the living room, 1/3 in their bedroom - which opened onto the living room with double french doors. That was a truly tiny kitchen, but grandma and my mom would fry eel, smelts and squid while grandpa was in charge of making clam sauce for the linguine. Once Christmas Eve, after the meal had moved to our house, my then 80-something grandma got up to clear the dishes as soon as we finished eating - "Grandma, relax a second," I said. "I'll relax when I'm dead," was her matter of fact reply.

Because Americans are too fat and lazy to cook, they just get a bucket from KFC instead.

In the 1970s, my grandmother always fixed Sunday lunch for whoever was around. It was always roast beef, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn and some type of dessert. My grandmother loved to cook. Feeding people was her reason for living, she was always so happy when she was cooking.

[quote] Mom usually prefers no-one else in the kitchen when she is cooking

That’s why I never learned how to cook. My mother wouldn’t let me in the kitchen. Not that she was a good cook, mind you. And she only cooked a few things. Dried up pork chops. Dried up roast chicken. Spaghetti. Blackened burgers that were pink in the middle but had no taste. Macaroni & cheese with a fully carbonated top, like a roof.

But she made strews in an electric thing...not a crock pot. She never had one of those. She came from a very poor & ignorant family. They used to eat pig’s head soup & pig jelly. Kidney pie. No steak - just kidneys. She told me it stank of piss.

Anyway, I worked & put myself through school & ate lunch at the school cafeteria and dinner at work. When I graduated I worked in hospitals on the evening shift, skipped lunch & ate dinner I;hospital cafeterias for 30 years. The food wasn’t that bad really, until it all became Stouffers. (One of my cousins was a hospital chef & cooked from scratch. Had the newer kitchen employees peel potatoes, shell peas, peel & cut carrots).

And that’s how I cane to be a non-cook.

If you listen to old time radio and watch old movies, Americans did this as well. It got lost with TV in the 50s.

I don’t understand people saying roast beef isn’t good, it is my absolute favorite meal! If I had to choose a last meal it would be roast beef and potatoes, with au jus and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce.

I'm always amused by people who make a big deal out of NOT being a cook.

It's not that difficult...no huge skill involved with simple basic cooking other than some common sense and a bit of patience.

If you can't make simple egg dishes, potato dishes, make a roast, grill a steak/burger/chops then you're just a lazy nitwit.

My brother can't cook a lick. He was the baby and my mom spoiled him, even rushing home at noon every day to prepare his lunch. The older kids had to fend for themselves. Now he's married and his wife does all the cooking.

I would like a wife. A lot of you sound like good wives.

I made a beef roast yesterday with carrots, Yukon potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and Swiss chard. Roast is always better the next day.

I serve hot beef curtains and juicy lady ham every night of the week.

[quote]Roast is always better the next day.

I have never found that to be so. Do you reheat it? If so, doesn't that cook the medium rare right out of it?

I can't think of any situation where a roast is better the next day. None of the vegetables keep well and reheating any of the meat makes it overcooked.

You can make different dishes with the leftovers but you wouldn't serve them up as a roast dinner.

Frau talk

Can you cook it rare?

Jesus Christ, r127!

What part of the country was your mother from?

Omg.

[Quote] Every Sunday? That would get old, fast.

What part of "tradition" in OP don't you understand? Oh wait. America. Never mind. Carry on.

I'm a Brit and don't hate it, but tragically it's a meal I almost never look forward to. The best thing about it is that the leftovers are traditionally recycled into a dish called bubble and squeak, which is truly delicious when served up for brunch the next day.

Bubble and squeak always makes me thinking of fucking a twink. Ok I have dirty mind.

Cold roast potatoes make a divine Monday morning breakfast R136.

Growing up in the Northeast U.S. meant you pretty much had Mediterranean ancestry. So pasta, meatballs and a meat sauce every Sunday. Sure it had meatballs, sausage, bracciola , and on special occasions pepperoni. It was quite good but that sauce took the better part of Sunday to make.

I recall in my early 20's I'd be packed off with enough food to last for the week.

R5, you have one weird family. Most grandparents fuss over and stuff their grandchildren with food. I can't imagine going over to my grandparents house on a Sunday and not eating.

R66 that's a prime rib and very expensive. Different from a pot roast or one done in a crockpot which makes it so tender you can use a cheap chuck roast since it cooks for so long and will flake with a fork.

My family always had a beef or chicken on Sunday. These days it's more likely brunch with the obligatory mimosas or bellinis so Sundays are generally lazy and boozy.

I have never heard of this tradition before.

In Pennsylvania and New York where I grew up and lived most of my life, Sunday was leftover day. People would serve a cold lunch and usually just some light dinner.

It may have been a religious thing, because Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest.

R103 What a load of horse shit. Some people don't want tomato sauce and fried chicken cutlets with every meal.

One of my greatest childhood memories is going to my grandparents' house on Sundays after church. My grandmother would always have a roast, homemade mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy, along with pasta and meatballs and salad. My grandparents were pure love and I still think about them all the time.

Roast beef dinner makes for terrific leftovers...potatoes and carrots get heated up in the microwave and you make sandwiches with the meat (if it was cooked rare/ish) or if you like meat well done, heat the meat up in the microwave as well.

YUM!

What happened to Sunday being a day of rest? Did Christians follow this custom?

My Grandmother did this up until 2014, and if you were in state lines she'd successfully guilt/bully all of her children and their children to get over for Sunday Dinner as "you never know when we'd all be able to be together again. "

Was interesting to see familial dynamics replay themselves. The same arguments over who was to clean and the vocal queries as to whether it was possible for my grandmother to get any more dishes dirty.

My aunt tries, but its hard to do it beyond major holidays, but she's the only one who can make a perfect yorkshire pudding, only took a decade of lessons.

Huh. Never thought bout it until now, but every Sunday dinner at 2 we had a roast of beef, with Yorkhire Pudding. "Pudding" always confused me because it wasn't like the chocolate or butterscotch puddings my grandmothers mde. No one told me it was just a name, something like a popover, easily and quickly made in the beef drippings. With the vegetables and potatoes we always had creamed onions, My dad always did the roast, the onions; mother did everything else. Dessert was what I always called grahamcracker pie, which only was a grahamcracker pie shell, a cheesy-custard filling, topped with a layer of sweetened and thick sour cream. The recipe probably came off Philadelphia Cream Cheese boxes. Friday night dinner alway was fish. Pork, chicken, liver, spaghetti, lamb and such came midweek. "Garden Salad" always was iceberg lettuce and what you'd expect, cucumber, radish, tomato, etc. with a different Kraft dressing nightly. Never just oil and vinegar, always some Kraft "special." I still cook like that.

In the summer my dad would grill steaks and Mom made salad which was iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and green onion. The dressing was always Kraft French.

R153 Your mom's dessert is called "cheesecake".

Anyone getting his Sunday roast on today,

(that was a question...)

We are doing ribeyes on the grill this evening. Hopefully, the roof rat family, my bf calls them the Mousekowitz family) will restrain themselves from trying to invade the grill this time.

Just out of curiosity what cut of meat do Brits use for this? Top, eye of round?

I think a Sunday family lunch or dinner is something many families do in the US but it’s not Necessarily a roast, it can be a bbq or a big italian Sunday sauce meal etc. it’s a focus on the gathering not the food itself. Not many Americans in general cook a roast dinner except at holiday time.

R22, I think your father was a selfish jerk. And I think he learned it from his parents. I hope you fared better from your mother and picked up a bit of compassion.

r161 et. al. r5 answered his own question at r10.

I'm surprised none of the Brits mentioned it, or maybe they were being too polite. You weren't invited to eat, especially Sunday Dinner, because you were-gasp-Papists!!!!! And dirty Irish, too. OMG! the horror! LOL Been there, done that with my family.

There was probably an argument over exactly what kind of engagement would be happening before you came over. The unwritten rules were well delineated. It looks like you got the 'barely tolerated' level, i.e. he's still our son (key word son), but this is an appalling betrayal. We are embarrassed, and don't mention them much in our social circle.

My parents were both narcissists so they never explained any of this to me as a child. I only pieced it together as an adult, hearing more family experiences, and learning about how segregated it was.

r39, Perhaps the grandparents didn't want the grand kids to become fat and morbidly obese adults. They could see the trends and were ahead of their time.

I love popovers. I'm a vegetarian so I'd skip the roast but (yes, I know the popovers use beef drippings) I will definitely not pass over a poover.

^I know. *POPOVER

We had meat every night of the week, pork chops, roastbeef or pork, hamburgers sometimes Friday or Saturday nites, ribs, chili, you name it. Nobody went hungry, kids got fed by whatever adults, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, were in charge. I feel sorry for anyone deprived like that.

I grew up in the 70s my parents didn’t do this but my friends’ parents did, it was not strange for the parents to have good food like steak or roast and the kids to get something cheap to eat like burger/hot dogs. My mom was horrified by this but it was practically the norm in my neighborhood.

R167, my mother grew like that. I think many people were poorer back then. Her parents got steaks and the five kids got hamburger patties. The kids didn't really notice though. Kids have pretty simple taste.

I would rather have had a cheeseburger than roast lamb or roast pork. Still true. I liked roast beef, though.

What I would really rather have had is one of those Italian Sunday dinners mentioned above—nonna, "gravy," pasta, real Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Americans have fried chicken, green beans, and apple pie on Sundays. So much tastier

R164, you can make them without beef drippings. I make them with butter all the time.

The basics of Sunday roast were on the table for dinner most Sundays growing up (in PA), but it was never "Sunday Roast" nor did it have uniquely English accoutrements.

The basics of Sunday roast were on the table for dinner most Sundays growing up (in PA), but it was never "Sunday Roast" nor did it have uniquely English accoutrements.

+We're Italian, so Sunday dinner was at grandma's. Usually Lasagne, Eggplant Parm or Veal Parm. /Chick Parm with pasta, wine, soda, brown or black coffee. The thing I remember most is that each of us, man, woman children, was stark naked.

Back in the 60s this woman became famous in England for writing about her life as a servant in 1920s and partly inspired Upstairs Downstairs - she was an early example of a nobody becoming famous and milking it.

This 30 second commercial might interest our American brethren.

....

We had roast with potatoes and carrots a lot growing up. Not every week, but it wasn’t on rare occasions. Yes, we’re WASPs.

My family is English/Polish and we had Sunday roast--pork or beef. Either mashed potatoes or potatoes and carrots cooked with the roast. Always some kind of green vegetable and gravy. No popovers / yorkshire pudding though.

Ida Morgenstern always made a Sunday roast.