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What is your favourite part of Christmas dinner? (Or equivalent)

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. As many of you probably know, tomorrow is Christmas, and over the years, I’ve come to realise that food plays a surprisingly large role in Christmas (or at least it does here in the UK, anyway). Many people’s Christmas Day celebrations revolve around some form of roast dinner (often turkey) being eaten for lunch, so my question to you today is; what is your favourite part of Christmas dinner? And what are your thoughts on Christmas dinner in general? Do you look forward to a festive roast dinner, or would you prefer to tuck into something else on Christmas Day (or do you already have something different)?

Personally, if we’re picking from a traditional roast dinner plate like one might typically eat on Christmas Day, I’m personally undecided between roast potatoes and stuffing. I do rather like both of those things; I’ll admit I’ve always had a soft spot for roast potatoes, and I do generally really like the flavour of stuffing!

In terms of my opinion on Christmas dinner more generally; turkey is up there with chicken as one of my favourite meats to have for a roast (I guess I like the meats that come from poultry!), so in that regard, I do like it. If I were picking a Christmas dinner based exclusively on my own preference, however? Perhaps controversially, I wouldn’t pick a 3-course roast dinner. If I were picking, I’d buy or make myself a nice individual pasta dish (probably either beef lasagne or macaroni cheese), and also a nice individual dessert for later; that sounds like my ideal Christmas dinner. And maybe a little bit of garlic bread too, if I felt like it; that always adds a touch of pizazz to a pasta dish for me! While I like roast dinner, it would never be my first choice, and while I might be alone here, I personally find the sheer quantity of food within a traditional 3-course Christmas dinner a bit much for my taste (although I’m admittedly not a huge eater).

But what is your favourite part of Christmas dinner, and what are your thoughts on it in general? Or if you don’t celebrate Christmas, what sort of things do you like about what you do instead? (That’s why I put the “or equivalent” in the topic title; I wasn’t sure if we’d have anyone who celebrates a different festival or doesn’t celebrate at all on here)

Finally, as tomorrow is of course Christmas; merry Christmas and happy new year from me! However you spend the period, have a nice time!
 
Roast potatoes, meat and gravy are the main components of course, so by default, those have to be my favourite parts.
Personally I find turkey quite a bland meat for Christmas dinner. I tend to prefer beef or a nice big fat gammon joint.
Beef dripping gravy is a must! Roast potatoes have to be tossed in goose fat. Also maris piper potatoes all day long.

I also expect any half decent Christmas dinner to have some juicy pigs in blankets and a nice big Yorkshire pudding. The rest can be negotiable.
 
Yorkshire puddings (I know they're not typical, but they are in my house!!)

Pigs in blankets are obviously quite fab as well, I'm hoping I'll get some smoked salmon at some point - and I admit I'll miss brandy butter this year.
 
Parsnips, stuffing, pigs in blankets. Specifically my dads, and I'm in Ireland this year so I won't get them 😭

Also I reeeeeally like Christmas Pudding. And Christmas Cake. Anything heavily spiced and smothered in marzipan can get in my face.
 
Turkey is getting replaced this year with Beef Wellington (rare fillet steaks in puff pastry with a prosciutto and mushroom filling).

Oh god, YES 🤤

Roasties for the win - gotta be king teds though.
 
nadroJ said:
Anything heavily spiced and smothered in marzipan can get in my face.
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Lebkuchen?

We haven't had those since falling out with my Aunt & Uncle, but it's just occured to me that Richard's married to a German, so I shan't give up hope :)

I've also got this dreadful image of the bloke from Maneskin wearing only marzipan and I'm not enjoying that nearly as much as you now are. I shall attempt to replace him with their bass player...
 
As with almost anything, I feel like turning this into a ranking based on yesterday's experience:

1. Yorkshire Pudding
2. Stuffing
3. Pigs in Blankets
4. Turkey
5. Roast Potatoes
6. Gravy
7. Any veg I will eat
8. Any veg I won't eat
 
There is only one correct answer… Pigs in blankets…

Although one of the starters yesterday was up my street too… Brie and asparagus wrapped in Parma ham!!! 😍😍😍
 
Probably roast potatoes, for me. They're consistently the easiest thing to cook well, and on a good day I reckon I could make a sizable dent in one of those 2.5kg bags.

Pigs in Blankets and Stuffing (specifically pork and apricot) are very hot contenders for second place.
 
Roast potatoes and stuffing. Roast parsnips are high up too.

I don't like bacon but can tolerate a sausage-heavy pig in blanket.

If anything is in gravy though, no thanks. Hate the stuff.

The meat, other veg, Yorkshire puddings and cranberry sauce are all usually fine too.
 
all of you are wrong.

christmas dinner is overrated. I'm either too drunk or too tired to enjoy it fully, especially as the amount of stress that emanates from my family's kitchen for the hours beforehand. It's just a slightly abnormal roast with some paper crowns, no? But everyone seems to be ready to actually stab you if you get in the way of anything.

The real winner here, is the boxing day sandwich. All the stress, gone. Want it at 11? Sure, why not. 4pm? Go for it! Who's to tell you otherwise?

Nice rustic loaf from your local shop. leave everything to go soft in the fridge over night, just to chuck it all in one pan;
meat > veg > stuffing > reduce some gravy

Best damn sandwich of the year.

Finally all that stress has a pay off. A real shame between my brothers and I, we eat the entirity of the leftovers; it means i have to wait 365 days just to have the pleasure of it all again.
 
Matt N said:
As many of you probably know, tomorrow is Christmas,
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Benenen said:
Oh Matt, never change
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That bit made me chuckle too, Benenen. 😁

I like all of it, to be honest. The whole shebang. It's quicker and easier to list the bits of Christmas dinner that I don't like, rather than the bits I do. And those are, basically, that awful, spiced red cabbage stuff and Christmas cake/Christmas pudding. They can feck off.
We don't bother with starters in our house. The main course is so mahoosive that it really pays to save as much room for it as possible.
At least 3 meats. This year it was turkey, 12hr smoked brisket and maple syrup glazed gammon.
Pigs in blankets made with sausages from Craig Finch' butchers shop in Harborne, Brum. Britains best sausage - fact.
Bacon, chestnut and cranberry stuffing. 👌 (although pork & apricot stuffing is also a winner @Hixee .)
Goose fat roasties.
Honey glazed roast parsnips.
Cauliflower/broccoli cheese, an absolute must-have.
Loads of different veg, at least 4 or 5 but most important is the sprouts. Love sprouts, me, dripping in bread sauce for the win.
And finally the gravy, made with all the meat juices from the above.
Usually washed down with about 3 or 4 bottles of wine. Was proper sh*tfaced by 5pm yesterday. It was ace!

It might sound like an awful lot of faff, but it's really quite stress free. Me and Mrs Howie are a right pair of anti-social c**ts with no kids and only one parent left between us (and he was off doing his own thing) so there's only been the two of us for the past few years (+ 3 dogs). We do most of prep and the big cooking in the preceding 24 hours - the brisket and the gammon were just left in the smoker overnight - so that Christmas day is just a case of reheating stuff, steaming the veg and cooking fresh roasties. Piece of piss.
As has been mentioned, we live off the leftovers in various guises for about the next 4 days. 😁
In fact, writing this has made me very hungry, so I'm gonna mince over to the pantry right now and grab another plateful.

Merry Christmas y'all. X
 
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Howie said:
That bit made me chuckle too, Benenen. 😁

I like all of it, to be honest. The whole shebang. It's quicker and easier to list the bits of Christmas dinner that I don't like, rather than the bits I do. And those are, basically, that awful, spiced red cabbage stuff and Christmas cake/Christmas pudding. They can feck off.
We don't bother with starters in our house. The main course is so mahoosive that it really pays to save as much room for it as possible.
At least 3 meats. This year it was turkey, 12hr smoked brisket and maple syrup glazed gammon.
Pigs in blankets made with sausages from Craig Finch' butchers shop in Harborne, Brum. Britains best sausage - fact.
Bacon, chestnut and cranberry stuffing. 👌 (although pork & apricot stuffing is also a winner @Hixee .)
Goose fat roasties.
Honey glazed roast parsnips.
Cauliflower/broccoli cheese, an absolute must-have.
Loads of different veg, at least 4 or 5 but most important is the sprouts. Love sprouts, me, dripping in bread sauce for the win.
And finally the gravy, made with all the meat juices from the above.
Usually washed down with about 3 or 4 bottles of wine. Was proper sh*tfaced by 5pm yesterday. It was ace!

It might sound like an awful lot of faff, but it's really quite stress free. Me and Mrs Howie are a right pair of anti-social c**ts with only one parent left between us (and he was off doing his own thing) so there's only been the two of us for the past few years (+ 3 dogs). We do most of prep and the big cooking in the preceding 24 hours - the brisket and the gammon were just left in the smoker overnight - so that Christmas day is just a case of reheating stuff, steaming the veg and cooking fresh roasties. Piece of piss.
As has been mentioned, we live off the leftovers in various guises for about the next 4 days. 😁
In fact, writing this has made me very hungry, so I'm gonna mince over to the pantry right now and grab another plateful.

Merry Christmas y'all. X
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Sounds amazing!!! Honey glazed parsnips are underrated to be honest... Simple but easily one of the best vegetables to ever grace a roast dinner... Shame they're unusually expensive right now, at least with catering suppliers. Closely followed by sprouts... I'm the only fan of sprouts in our household, but they're still an absolute must!

I love cauli cheese too... But please tell me you don't buy the sauce in? Nothing beats a home made roux based cheese sauce.

Another favourite that we only seem to have at Christmas lately is Dauphinoise Potatoes. They're so simple, and yet so delicious. My recipe is literally 4 ingredients and a 1 pot bake... but it's just sublime. Thinly sliced potatoes, finely chopped garlic (not crushed / pressed.... VERY important!) and chopped fresh rosemary (not dried!) in a baking dish then covered in double cream... cover in foil and bake until top browns (about 3 hours.)

Owen Taylor's Country Sausage is my favourite of the latest Sausage Week award winners... Though I haven't tried Morgan's Shropshire... Our chef has been making a stuffed chicken breast special throughout December using Owen Taylor's sausage meat, cranberry, herbs etc, as the stuffing, wrapped in bacon and served with a creamy mushroom and chestnut sauce... God I'm going to miss that special :( How many days until next December???

You know, I think I'm starting to realise why I'm fat :(
 
Nicky Borrill said:
I love cauli cheese too... But please tell me you don't buy the sauce in? Nothing beats a home made roux based cheese sauce.
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Did you really need to ask? Of course it was a home made roux, made with an obscene amount of vintage cheddar, double cream and, for that extra bite, parmesan, although I must give credit to @DelPiero for that one - I basically stole his mac & cheese recipe and applied it to cauliflower. 👌

Nicky Borrill said:
Though I haven't tried Morgan's Shropshire.
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Small world bro - I can walk to Morgan's country butchers from my house! They supplied the meat for my post-wedding party a couple of years ago, and we had my mate Adam Purnell AKA The Shropshire Lad (winner of C4's Crazy Delicious programme) smoke and serve it for us. It was boss!
And yes, they are a superb butchers, I go there a lot, but when it comes to sausages, Craig Finch's bangers have the slight edge for me.

PS. Your chef's Christmas special sounds amazing, I so need to come and visit your pub one day. In fact, I think we all do. Who's up for 'Goonfest 2022' at Nicky's pub? 😁
 
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