We have Pigs in Blankets (small sausages wrapped in bacon) cooked with the Turkey, take the juices from the Turkey and mix that in with your gravy to take your gravy to a special place. (meat juice gravy is divine and add a little flour to it to thicken it no one wants gravy that's too runny). Roast Potatoes cooked in Duck fat for added flavour and crispiness Yorkshire Puddings (but then I'm a Yorkshireman :) ) if making yourself make sure the fat is piping hat if youw ant them to raise well, also if you want added flavour add in some sage and onion to the pudding batter. Mashed Potatoes with butter and cream mixed in when mashing Oven Roasted Carrots (until caramalised) Boiled Carrots, sprouts, few green beans Stuffing mixed with pork sausage meat and cranberries Serve with a choice of either Apple Sauce or Cranberry sauce to taste. For Dessert it has to be Christmas Pudding with a nice brandy sauce or it just isn't Christmas.
Bread sauce when properly made is absolutely delicious. When I was growing up my mum made bread sauce every time we had roast chicken. It also goes well with just about any roast bird, be that turkey, chicken, goose, duck, pheasant etc.
I think many British people would agree with this. What makes the best Christmas dinner is the gravy BUT it's not just any gravy. It is gravy that is made up of the juices from the turkey and roast potatoes (potatoes are placed around the turkey), cornflour, water and beef stock. Using the right portions of those ingredients you get an absolute smashing gravy. Any chef worth their salt will tell you THAT is the way to make gravy.
The first one that you mentioned was cauliflower cheese and you said that you'd not have the cauliflower, but would have the cheese. What you could do, is when your roast potatoes are done, put some on a metal plate or dish, with a thick slice of cheese on top and pop it under the grill for a minute or two. Cheesy roast potatoes.
The trick with cooking turkey is start cooking it upside down, thus the juices permiate the breast, then half way through the cooking time, turn it right side up to finish.
We're very traditional in our house: Roast turkey, (or sometimes turkey AND pork) Pigs in Bs (made with pork chipolatas and smoked streak bacon - no messing around with little cocktail sized bangers - we make 'em as big as you like - though that might mean you only get one,) stuffing, (sometimes chestnut, but nearly always sage & onion with added pork sausage meat - yep, we're all serious carnivores in our house,) mashed potatoes, occasionally roast spuds too, sprouts, (done various ways, depending on how adventurous we're feeling,) honey basted roast parsnips (for those that like 'em,) sometimes carrots, (for those that don't like parsnips,) turkey gravy (made from the turkey juices and stock from the boiled giblets, but with some sage & onion stuffing mix added to thicken it, as well as making it more savoury and a lot more interesting,) bread sauce on the side (for those that like bread sauce - or as my wife would say 'for those that can stomach it',) cranberry sauce on the side (my wife would say 'for those that like cranberry sauce' - though I'd say, 'for those that think that 'blobbing bitter jam' on their dinner doesn't spoil it.') If anyone can manage dessert, nobody in our family is too keen on Christmas pudidng, so it's usually sticky toffee pudding with custard or the same with vanilla ice cream, or hot mince pies with a big blob of thick double cream on top, (Note: all these 'sometimes', 'occasionally' or 'maybes' above depend on a) how many we have over for dinner, b) who we have over for dinner, & c) whether we have plates big enough!)
Save the mashed swede/turnips for New Years Eve/Hogmanay, together with mashed potato, as 'neeps and tatties' served with haggis! Best served somewhere in Scotland!!
Despite Christmas being in the middle of summer here in Oz many still have a dinner or lunch containing many elements of a British dinner. Ham of the bone is eaten all the time around Christmas. Many also add seafood, such as prawns (shrimp) or lobster. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you and yours Alana.
Replace the Turkey with Capon (If you can find it) or a large chicken - rub english mustard on the skin roast plus gammon as the second meat - Yorkshire Puddings, pigs in blankets- roast parsnips /onion/carrots all roasted sugar snaps peas brocolli - red cabbage - roasted chestnuts with bacon bits - stuffing
My Christmas dinner is roast turkey thats been roasted with a load of goose fat and wrapped in bacon and basted often so it isn't dry and it has lemon, onion and fresh sage and parsley shoved in its backside and sage, onion and minced pork stuffing in its neck cavity. I also cook it upside down for the first hour, again so it doesn't dry out ( I have an x shaped rack that I cook on ). Goose fat roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, maple syrup roasted carrots and parsnips, sprinkled with caraway seeds. Brussel sprouts cooked with smoked bacon lardons, onion, and garlic is a total game changer , red cabbage braised with apple, and mashed carrot and swede. I make a tonne of pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings , more sage and onion stuffing, home made bread sauce , cranberry sauce and gravy made with the giblets of the turkey .
Don't know whether we're unusual, but in our house we very rarely have turkey. More often than not, it's chicken, sometimes beef (I'd have that every year if it was down to me!) and sometimes pork, which is already waiting in the freezer for Saturday. We'll have Yorkshire puddings with anything, but generally Christmas pudding is not popular with us, so our "traditional dessert" is trifle. Start with the ready-made trifle sponges, slice them in half, spread jam on them and stick them back together, lie them on the bottom of a big bowl, add fruit (usually tinned pears, but fresh raspberries are nice, too) and an optional sprinkling of sherry. Make a pint of jelly (normally strawberry or raspberry, orange is OK, but lemon or lime just tastes weird), pour over the sponge and leave to set. Then make a pint of custard, let it cool, stir it round to make it spreadable (protecting it from my dad at all costs!) and spread over the top. In the fridge overnight, then just before dinner, whip half a pint of cream until very thick (sweetened with icing sugar here!), spread over the custard and top with whatever is handy. Could be hundreds and thousands, grated chocolate or anything else you'd find in the baking aisle at the supermarket. (Some people don't use jelly, though - jelly can be controversial in trifle!) Hope you have a Happy Christmas, whatever you're sitting down to.
I remember buying boxes of Stove Top in uni and that would be my dinner. Just stuffing. 😆 I just ate a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce, and gravy and the bread was baked with stuffing spices.
As being a chef ,my answer is me not cooking , but im cooking & on the menu is potato & smoked ham hock soup,prawn cocktail followed with roast chicken topped with Ayrshire smoked streaky bacon,pigs in blankets, roast potatoes & buttery mash potatoes, smashed turnip,sprouts finished with parma ham + roasted chestnuts ,herb Yorkshire puddings ,gravy , for afters home made cloutie dumpling(keep some for the full Scottish Breakfast on Boxing Day)served with homemade raspberry ice-cream & a dollop of clotted cream, then its homemade truffles ,shortbread & warm mince pies with a cuppa ( me half glass of Edradour single malt whisky)and that's Christmas Day done ,Merry Crimble to you and yours fae S.W.Scotland
Great video, I cook our Christmas dinner which comprises smoked salmon, blinis, sour cream, then, roast rib of beef on the bone cooked rare so it still moos, roast goose, nut roast, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, peas, carrots, spinach, Yorkshire puddings, gravy made from beef juices, horseradish sauce, red currant jelly, red and white wine. I don't really like desserts so I can't be bothered to cook any, I buy a trifle and heat up some mince pies, cream and a dessert wine. Cheese board, biscuits and fruit, port. Christmas crackers pulled at start of meal. Between courses, we work our way around the table so that by the end of the meal each guest has either sung a traditional song, played a tune or recited a poem verse. I always start the proceedings by singing The Boar's Head carol, even though nowadays I don't cook one.
Prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, sweet corn, cranberry sauce, gravey, green salad, olives, pickles, radishes, apple pie cheddar cheese slice and vanilla ice cream with assorted Christmas cookies. Crackers and cheese as a starter before meal to warm you up.
I'm Mexican so home made Tamales and Enchiladas for me! Also where I live a lot of people have fresh Dungeness crab with smoked oysters , bread and butter with local white wine for holiday meals...
Christmas is the one time of the year we go all out on the meat selection. 1 good big slab of organic farm shop beef £40-50 and also goose instead of turkey / chicken. We use the goose drippings to make to best roast potato's ever created. Cranberry stuffing and pigs in blankets is a must. Gravy made with the beef drippings. Braised red cabbage and apple. Honey roasted veg (carrots, green beans, maybe some peppers). When it comes to dessert I'm the only one who likes a Christmas pudding so I get one of those small ones. We also do an apple pie with marzipan, just before you put the lid on the pie you grate marzipan over the apples which when cooked melts and seeps into all the gaps, it is fantastic with custard or vanilla ice-cream. This all actually happens on Boxing Day. On Christmas day we have a really good big English breakfast and then just make a buffet of sorts to nibble on through the day.
We usually have a prawn cocktail starter, mashed and roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, honey glazed roast carrots and parsnips, turkey, gravy, Cranberry sauce, stuffing. ... second helpings! pudding is mince pies or apple pie with cream or custard. If we're not in cardiac arrest by then the rest of the Christmas holidays are buffets of left over turkey and pigs in blankets etc, with added stuff like salmon and salmon mousse, pork pie, sausage rolls, cheese board of different cheeses with cheese biscuits and crackers etc.
Parsnips- peel and slice as normal. Season with black pepper only, add olive oil. Spread on large pyrex dish for 45+ mins at 200c or until brown almost burning. Turn occasionally. Absolutely amazing result.
No it isn’t. 54 years of gluttony and a lot of those working in hospitality on this planet and in both west an North Yorkshire and the only time I’ve heard of this nonsense is people on the internet saying “Actually, I think you’ll find…”
@@jonathanfinan722 Actually, I think you’ll find that it is indeed traditional in some Yorkshire homes to start a roast dinner with Yorkshire puddings and gravy. It certainly was every time I ate at my girlfriend's parents house. Working in hospitality is not the same as "living it." Real life personal experience, not read on the internet.
Mushy sprouts (4), pile of ,just burnt roasties, paxo stuffing you have to chisel, yorkshire pud, bread sauce wedge, tasteless nut roast, all drowning in thick veggie gravy. Heaven. I want it NOW. Merry Christmas Alanna :)
We used to have banana wrapped in bacon. and home made cranberry sauce Heat cranberrys, water and a tablespoon of marmalade and add sugar to taste. For days afterwards it was turkey with sweet and sour, in a pie, in a curry then simmer the bones for a couple of hours to make a soup.. No one mentioned turkey for the next 11 months. Happy Christmas. x
I agree with pretty much everything you said except for the British Christmas puddings and desserts. I LOVE the puddings in Britain! They are amazing. Turkey can be done SO GOOD in so many ways that people over look. My favorite Christmas dinner is definitely a full roast dinner WITH all the trimmings mentioned as well as that AMAZING YORKSHIRE PUDDING YUM! Anything on my plate that is home made is great. I also like my Mom's own recipe of potato rolls and any trimmings she makes. Strangely, orange jello cottage cheese fruit salad became a tradition as well in our house. Lol We also have a Ukrainian background so like to incorporate all of the Ukrainian foods on Christmas eve. This year you will be shocked, as we are having a full homemade Italian dinner at my brother's house for the 3rd year running which will consist of all the amazing carbs! 😁
Christmas pudding is a necessity. It needs cornflower sauce (milk, cornflower, vanilla, sugar) or perhaps some nice vanilla ice cream to tone down the richness. It also adds an element of danger to spice things up: both from covering it with brandy and setting fire to it and also from biting down on the coin hidden inside and ruining some dental work.
We are vegetarian so have Quorn chicken fillets, scooped out and filled with cranberry sauce, stuck together with egg and rolled in breadcrumbs. Roast potatoes and parsnips, glazed carrots, mashed potato, mashed swede & carrot (mixed), peas, and sprouts with chestnuts. All served with extra cranberry sauce and swimming in a rich, thick chestnut & red wine gravy. Washed down with copious amounts of cider. Pudding is usually fruit salad (with cream) or homemade New York style cheesecake - Gert lush! Whatever your preference, enjoy & Merry Christmas everyone! 💜 x
Thank you for a year of videos when you have never failed to make me smile. You are amazing and I wish you and your partner and Edenbridge, the best that 2022 has to offer. Merry Christmas and happy new year to you , Alanna
A few years back we cooked a Ham instead of Turkey but cooked it in Cider and a smear of Honey - it was so good but most years now we go round the in-laws forTurkey with all the trimmings ( yum ).Hope you guys have a amazing Christmas and catch some great footage for future vids
Something my family always has on our Christmas dinner plate is large mushrooms filled with Philadelphia cheese, wrapped in bacon, roasted in the oven until the bacon is crispy, they are a staple that we cannot do without, and we only eat them on Christmas day.
@@stanettiels7367 Yes, portobello mushrooms. the recipe is super simple:- pull out stalk of mushroom, (these go in a wok to be shallow fried up with bacon and the sprouts) stuff the mushrooms with as much Philadelphia as possibe (i prefer the garlic and herb variety) wrap with as many rashers of streaky bacon as possible, (only one layer thick) and roast in the oven until bacon is crispy (It takes about 45mins to get the bacon crispy, there is a lot of water comes out of the mushrooms, and there is so much in the oven requiring different times and temps on Christmas day, its all a judgement call). Hope they come out as expected!
@@M05000583 Oh thanks friend. They sound absolutely amazing and I will be making them as a starter on New Years Day, when there’s less cooking going on. Have a nice Christmas, and thanks for the tips.
The secret of parsnips... grow them yourself, hope for a frost, after the frost, harvest. Steam gently for a long time; start with these, serve them last.
It's become a Christmas tradition that I get a single Brussel sprout put on my dinner plate that I refuse to eat 😂 However, last year I heard a TV chef say that if you roast them then it takes out all the bitterness, and it's true! So last year I had my first sprout that I actually enjoyed. Interestingly the intense bitterness that some people taste when eating a sprout is one of those genetic things, just like some people taste soap when eating coriander/cilantro. A Canadian Christmas tradition I've picked up is to listen to Stuart McLean's Vinyl Café stories about Dave and Morley. To me it's not Christmas without listening to them.
I grew up in an Italian culture in Ohio and we always had pasta and seafood for Christmas dinner. Because we always had turkey for Thanksgiving, we didn’t have it again for Christmas. Now, however, with my wife and kids, we have surf and turf for Christmas dinner including a nice steak with crab, lobster, mussels, scallops, and shrimp. To use your new favorite word, it’s lush! My wife is from Taiwan and seafood is big with them. Speaking of that, I’m surprised that seafood doesn’t seem to be very big on Christmas in Britain since it’s an island. Does anyone over there have seafood at Christmas. Finally, any recipes for a good Yorkshire pudding? I haven’t seen your video on that yet, so I’ll have to watch it. Thanks for the great video as always.
For the last few years, we've always had a seafood salad at teatime on Christmas day. It's light enough to still enjoy after you've had a full blow-out at lunchtime. For us, it always includes.... - large cooked prawns, - New Zealand green lipped mussels, - cockles (or baby clams, which are just as nice, and much cheaper these days,) - white crab meat, - shredded surimi (from seafood sticks/crab sticks,) mixed with chopped smoked salmon, ....all this supported by the usual salad staples (romaine lettuce, spring onions, mustard & cress, cucumber, tomato, sometimes beetroot) and a variety of dressings, mayo, marie rose, etc. Following that lot with a range of English cheeses, pickles and various crackers is sure to leave the hungriest of us sated for the evening.
I usually prefer goose to Turkey if I can find a decent goose for a reasonable price. Swede is sweeter than potato - mashed Swede is closer to mashed sweet potato than to potato (but potato and swede mashed together is the best of both worlds - like sweetened orange mashed potato).
I'm a Canadian with British roots. Always the same.. don't dare change it! Lol Turkey, garlic mashed potatoes with cream, turnip( rutabaga) with a dash of potato and brown sugar..for good texture, stuffing, green beans, carrots..w\ lots of butter, cranberry..lots of perfect gravy. Little tomato juice glasses with s/p and a bit of Worcestershire. Crackers! Plum pudding with piping hot rum sauce..made with lots of butter! A Happy Birthday Baby Jesus cake..for the kids!
A gammon joint is wonderful and is still good cold as boxing day leftovers. Bubble and squeak with gravy is a must. Veg is great: some cruciferous ones like sprouts, broccoli, etc but also the sweet roots like carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes. My mum does a great chocolate log for dessert too.
In north-east Wales we have something called “ponch meip” which is a mash of potato and turnip. Fantastic when served with a pinch of pepper and some gravy with traditional Xmas dinner. Mmmmm.
Pile almost everything you can think of on the plate. Turkey, 3 bird, sliced roast pork, roast potato, bread sauce, swede, Yorkshire pud, mash potato, Cider gravy, (OMG) potato cheese layers. Put as much of everything out and keep eating 'til you explode. A real feast, it's only once a year after all. lol
Having been born in the early forties, I love it when people talk about old Christmas traditions that must date as far as the 1980's or even the the 1960's amazing. God bless Saint Bernard Mathews
Hi, Alanna, very interesting, Christmas Dinner must be turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, Brussels, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce. Ideally followed by Christmas pudding. Very nice.
Christmas is all about tradition for me. Some traditions I deliberately flout while others I follow rigidly! Christmas dinner HAS to be Turkey because it always was when I was a kid. Roast potatoes are essential but I will also do some buttery mash. Carrots and Brussels will be boiled then marinated in a bath of melted butter. Parsnips I don't like but there will be roast parsnips dusted with parmesan and re-roasted. There will be cauliflower cheese. I don't really like cauliflower any other way. boiled, immersed in a very cheesy cheese sauce and then baked until the top is a mixture of browns and getting to black at the edges. The absolute essential though is good gravy. I boiled a whole chicken a while ago to make really good chicken stock which was reduced and is currently frozen. It comes out tomorrow and will be reduced, fortified with vegetable cooking waters and made into a thick gravy. Christmas day, the meat juices from the turkey will be added along with those from pigs in blankets. That will probably be the best gravy for the year - and there will be plenty left to have with leftovers.
I tend to go traditional but ditch the sprouts (never got over being told I had to eat them as a kid or I got no pudding!!). I usually don't have room for a full blown Christmas pudding, including brandy butter of course, so I save it for Boxing Day and have a boozy trifle instead after the Christmas Dinner...mmm, lovely!! And finally, I love cauliflower cheese on its own...but not on my Christmas dinner for goodness sake! Hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas and thanks for all the great vids ✨🎄✨
I have hated sprouts my whole life but my “mother in law” (I’m not married) would always put them on my Sunday roast. I didn’t have the heart to tell her and would sit there and force them down first. I’d eat them before anything else just so I could get them out of the way and enjoy my dinner and she’d say “ohhhh you love sprouts don’t you?” I’d be nodding through gritted teeth. Then she started putting more on my plate. My girlfriend would be stifling laughter watching me go through this every Sunday. After years of this I now actually really like them after I’ve put a ton of white pepper on them.
There's a very good reason we ONLY have turkey once a year. As for the reason we DO have turkey once a year , it escapes me. And before anyone says, get a good one - because I get outvoted for having Bambi wild shot or from the farm on the fen - we get ours from a farm in the next village where you could choose it in the field if you felt so inclined.
Hope you and yours have a good one. I love pigs in blankets in fact that's how to can kidnap me a bowl of them and a massive net. I did half expect about 8 mins in it to cut to you in the kitchen making cheese wrapped in bacon.
You've got to finish up with some cheese and biscuits and a few after eights (before starting again on something else!) Hope you have a cozy Christmas and let's all hope 2022 is the year everything gets back to normal!
Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots with lots of real good butter and fresh cracked pepper, Brussel Sprouts with also lots of butter-maybe roasted in the over with some minced garlic,cranberry sauce from where I live in B.C., stuffing is optional, and mince pie for dessert. Booze. Cheers, Marry Christmas and Happy New Year from the West Coast of Canada.
I like roast spuds, kumera (sweet potatoes), parsnips, pumpkin, carrots, loads of sprouts and peas along with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce but most of all I prefer it in July when it's cold. Having said that I'll be having most of this stuff on Saturday which is daft. Have a good one.
The turkey thing always seems strange to me. I think it must be a deeply ingrained tradition as people avoid it all year then go ballistic if there's a chance they can't get one this week. Merry Christmas, Alanna.
Love cauliflower cheese, it’s the best thing to come out of the UK. Can’t do the stovetop though - as a Newfoundlander, dressing must be home made with savoury. Mom sends savoury in to me so I can make it over here 😍
My Dad is Norwegian, my mother Cuban... we always have a bone in ham and codfish , but the sides are the best ! Thank you for sharing your Christmas table thoughts you are lovely and I am thankful to see your posts , Happy Christmas.
I am shocked that there are people who are eating a Christmas dinner without Yorkshire puddings. After last year when I couldn’t be with my family they can serve me anything but Mam is traditional and cooks accordingly so that’s what I’m looking forward to. I hope everyone has a great Christmas, thank you for another year of sharing your humour in your video’s and I hope you have a great Christmas with plenty of FaceTime with family and friends you can’t be with and a great dinner containing everything you want for your ideal Christmas dinner even if you do have to carry a massive turkey home on the train.
Goose fat roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, turkey, honey glazed gammon joint, sprouts cooked with bacon lardons... roast parsnips (which I always skip) ... and sage and onion stuffing. We always fight over the crispy bits of stuffing, and it's always double helpings of the stuffing and pigs I blankets. We also have a homemade chicken liver pate and seafood platter for early lunch and then starter.
Usually only one slice of turkey on Christmas, and have the left over slices as turkey and stuffing sandwiches the day after ... which is fine as you can pour on the sauce. As for desert ... raspberry panecotta from M&S
Love bread sauce, it's a must have, yum! Christmas dinner for me is turkey, ham, lots of roast potatoes, lots of pigs in blankets & some stuffing... It's terrible but I don't like most vegetables, so I'll probs have some sweetcorn, parsnips, maybe some broccoli... plus some "watery southern gravy" 😂 & for dessert some sort of chocolate gateau, cos I hate Christmas pudding... Not forgetting something alcoholic to wash it all down! Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas! 🎄
Gotta have chestnut stuffing, so dense and packed with chestnuts that you practically need a chainsaw to get through it! Our family also have these sausage ball things, sausagemeat rolled in breadcrumbs and cooked until crispy on the outside, kind of a Scotch Egg... with no egg. Gorgeous... As for the mashed carrot and swede, very nice, you should try it, especially with some butter melted in and plenty of salt and pepper...
We have a three game bird roast lined up this year. Wife (who hates sprouts) has found sprouts gratin with bacon for me try them dipped in chip shop batter and deep fried. If not into pudding try a British cheese board. Blue Stilton or Blue Shropshire, Cornish Yarg, a good strong mature cheddar, Wensleydale, double Gloucester, Red Leicester and if you can find it an old fashioned Sage Derby. Wash down with good port, sloe gin or a whisky mac. Also pace yourself. Have the main before the Queen's Speech and the cheese afterwards. Use the left overs on Boxing Day after watching the racing on TV.
I am looking forward to a turkey dinner, with roast potatoes, vegetables - no parsnips and all the trimmings. Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays and a great 2022 🎄
Our Christmas dinner includes turkey, gammon, pigs in blankets, homemade apricot and cranberry stuffing, roast and mashed potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, cauliflower and sprouts, home made cranberry sauce and gravy.
Christmas dinner: Gammon (smoked of course!), whole roast and stuffed chicken (Cornish hen), roast leg of mutton and mint jelly, roast potatoes, broccoli and gherkin salad with cheese chunks and mayo, minted peas, cauliflower au gratin, and for afters - trifle! and sometimes apple crumble with double cream. [Note: this is more a South African way of having Christmas dinner, bearing in mind it's mid-summer and probably around 30+ C outside, so an ice-cold beer (or 2, or 3, ....)would probably go down well. I'm having my first real English Christmas dinner this year here in UK so I have no idea what we'll be making, starting later today! Happy Christmas everyone!]
Xmas dinner for me is: no starters. Roast turkey and Roast Pork, roast potatoes, potatoes and swede mashed together, cabbage, sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, carrots, roast parsnips, pees, broccoli, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, english mustard. dont bother with a desert straight away usually already stuffed after dinner. After a few hours for dinner to go down maybe a lemon meringue pie or an appie pie with custard or both... well it is Christmas.
Roast turkey with the crispy skin still on (we usually have several meats, though, like roast beef, goose, chicken and lamb so people can pick and mix), roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, sprouts, peas (mushy and garden or marrowfat), boiled potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, cabbage. Most of the vegetables are small portions with the majority being the meat and potatoes. Then keep extra dishes on the table of everything so you can add more of whatever you like. All covered (not like some people who just drizzle a little bit) in copious amounts of homemade gravy made with the turkey or goose fat. After all that stodginess, I don’t do the Christmas pudding. It’s something light and not traditional, like a lemon meringue pie. Mmmmmmmmmm. I’m already looking forward to mine. 🏴🇬🇧🇨🇦. Merry Christmas to you and your partner, hope you have a good one.
A couple slices or turkey and beef, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots, red cabbage, sprouts with bacon, stuffing, pigs in blankets, cheese in bacon, cranberry sauce, yorkshires, yorkshires, yorkshires and onion gravy Or do it like the yorkshire side of my family do it and have yorkshires and onion gravy for a starter and then all of the above afterwards haha
Alanna, that just hit the spot 😉. I am so busy I didn't have time to watch, but so glad I did. It was just what I needed and I'm now totally thinking about Christmas Dinner 😋 as well as the stream tomorrow 🎉👌.
We would often roast a chicken when I lived at home as there were only three of us, and we preferred the taste. Later on, we would have fillet steak for Christmas dinner, with chips of course! We never had Yorkshire pudding for Christmas, only ever with beef. We also had mashed swede and carrots, but mashed together! Christmas pudding and custard! Mince pie with custard is great too. here in Canada, we'll be making an English Trifle this year for desert! Have a Merry Christmas Alanna , or as we do say in Wales, Nadolig Llawen !
Ditch the turkey and replace with either beef or Chicken - either is a blank cheque to add Yorkshire puds and retain the cranberry sauce too. I've had chicken curry in the past, also ham sandwiches - and even a Chicken Pot Noodle. I'm easy to please! All the very best for Christmas and the Nwe Year girl - keep doing what you are doing and you won't go far wrong :-) xx
Cover the turkey breast in plenty of strips of bacon when cooking, it keeps the meat from going dry. Mashed sweede or turnip mix with mash is far better than plain mash. Got to have Yorkshires, home made roasties, baby button sprouts and thick beef gravy. Merry Christmas from South Yorkshire Alanna 🥳😁
I know I am very late to comment , or early for the next Christmas , but in my opinion it does not matter so much WHAT you have for dinner , but the people you have it with !! If you are lucky enough to share x max dinner with family , or good friends , anything goes. Happy Yultide 😀
Christmas without bread sauce isn’t Christmas. You need chestnut stuffing, crispy potatoes, pigs in blankets, honey roast carrots, roasted brussell sprouts with bacon, cranberry sauce, rumbledethumps potatoes and a rooster with gravy.
I’m a simple man, Crispy roast potatoes, turkey and gammon, thick gravy, half the plate full of pigs in blankets, and Yorkshire puddings, leave the veg, and mince pies have been banned since my mum heated one up and the single cream I poured on top started bubbling as the pie was so hot and rock hard we replaced it with chocolate or treacle cake and custard for desert
I'm in general agreement with you. Turkey is great unless you overcook it. The problem is that the done temperature for breast meat is lower than for the legs, and if you cook it to the right temperature for the legs it is dry. Turkey breast done at 74C 165F vs leg at 77-80C 170-175F but they recommend the higher temperature for a full turkey which is why most home cooked turkey breast is too dry. btw it's exactly the same temperatures for chicken so the breast is also overdone (but less noticeable to most people). I've started separating the legs from the breast for cooking. Sometimes I slow cook the legs so those tendons in the legs aren't as tough. A couple of questions though? You skipped over the gravy. Thin, thick or thicker (my preference). Made from granules or from scratch? I usually use the instant stuff- turkey variant. I can make proper gravy but usually use the easy granules for meals, but chicken flavour with everything as it tastes so much better than the beef one- and the onion one is just awful. How about a gravy video sometime you need a filler
You made me laugh with your ideal Christmas plate! Interestingly, my husband’s mom is from Yorkshire and said traditionally they don’t do yorkshire puddings on Christmas! Gutted! I’m American from NY and we always had roasted brussel sprouts with dried cranberries or raisins as a side dish. I don’t agree with you on the cauliflower cheese and variety of veg, I love it!! 😋
have a great christmas canadianado! all the best to you, your family, your friends, and, of course to all your wonderful followers! big love to all people :)
You missed something oot sweetie, what do you watch when eating your Christmas Dinner, for me it's 'The Wizard of Oz, chitty Bang Bang, The Generation Game, and The two Ronnies, Tom Thumb and the Queens speech 🎄
A tip for any new vegetarians joining us this Christmas, the meat eaters will dig in to your dinner as if it was a side vegetable so make plenty.
We have Pigs in Blankets (small sausages wrapped in bacon) cooked with the Turkey, take the juices from the Turkey and mix that in with your gravy to take your gravy to a special place. (meat juice gravy is divine and add a little flour to it to thicken it no one wants gravy that's too runny).
Roast Potatoes cooked in Duck fat for added flavour and crispiness
Yorkshire Puddings (but then I'm a Yorkshireman :) ) if making yourself make sure the fat is piping hat if youw ant them to raise well, also if you want added flavour add in some sage and onion to the pudding batter.
Mashed Potatoes with butter and cream mixed in when mashing
Oven Roasted Carrots (until caramalised)
Boiled Carrots, sprouts, few green beans
Stuffing mixed with pork sausage meat and cranberries
Serve with a choice of either Apple Sauce or Cranberry sauce to taste.
For Dessert it has to be Christmas Pudding with a nice brandy sauce or it just isn't Christmas.
Bread sauce when properly made is absolutely delicious. When I was growing up my mum made bread sauce every time we had roast chicken. It also goes well with just about any roast bird, be that turkey, chicken, goose, duck, pheasant etc.
my dad loved the stuff but i cant stomach the stuff! im glad theres some bread sauce lovers out there though haha.
Having Stephen Fry and Bob Mortimer round the Christmas table would definitely improve my Christmas dinner
Sounds good to me. I'd also invite Sir Michael Palin. He would have an endless number of stories to tell about his travels...
I think many British people would agree with this. What makes the best Christmas dinner is the gravy BUT it's not just any gravy. It is gravy that is made up of the juices from the turkey and roast potatoes (potatoes are placed around the turkey), cornflour, water and beef stock. Using the right portions of those ingredients you get an absolute smashing gravy. Any chef worth their salt will tell you THAT is the way to make gravy.
The first one that you mentioned was cauliflower cheese and you said that you'd not have the cauliflower, but would have the cheese. What you could do, is when your roast potatoes are done, put some on a metal plate or dish, with a thick slice of cheese on top and pop it under the grill for a minute or two. Cheesy roast potatoes.
The trick with cooking turkey is start cooking it upside down, thus the juices permiate the breast, then half way through the cooking time, turn it right side up to finish.
We're very traditional in our house: Roast turkey, (or sometimes turkey AND pork) Pigs in Bs (made with pork chipolatas and smoked streak bacon - no messing around with little cocktail sized bangers - we make 'em as big as you like - though that might mean you only get one,) stuffing, (sometimes chestnut, but nearly always sage & onion with added pork sausage meat - yep, we're all serious carnivores in our house,) mashed potatoes, occasionally roast spuds too, sprouts, (done various ways, depending on how adventurous we're feeling,) honey basted roast parsnips (for those that like 'em,) sometimes carrots, (for those that don't like parsnips,) turkey gravy (made from the turkey juices and stock from the boiled giblets, but with some sage & onion stuffing mix added to thicken it, as well as making it more savoury and a lot more interesting,) bread sauce on the side (for those that like bread sauce - or as my wife would say 'for those that can stomach it',) cranberry sauce on the side (my wife would say 'for those that like cranberry sauce' - though I'd say, 'for those that think that 'blobbing bitter jam' on their dinner doesn't spoil it.')
If anyone can manage dessert, nobody in our family is too keen on Christmas pudidng, so it's usually sticky toffee pudding with custard or the same with vanilla ice cream, or hot mince pies with a big blob of thick double cream on top,
(Note: all these 'sometimes', 'occasionally' or 'maybes' above depend on a) how many we have over for dinner, b) who we have over for dinner, & c) whether we have plates big enough!)
Occasionally roast potatoes? That’s sacrilege. We have tons of roast potatoes. To each their own I suppose 👍🏻.
Save the mashed swede/turnips for New Years Eve/Hogmanay, together with mashed potato, as 'neeps and tatties' served with haggis! Best served somewhere in Scotland!!
I love Haggis. It reminds me of posh Black Pudding!
Despite Christmas being in the middle of summer here in Oz many still have a dinner or lunch containing many elements of a British dinner. Ham of the bone is eaten all the time around Christmas. Many also add seafood, such as prawns (shrimp) or lobster. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you and yours Alana.
That's so cool! Merry Christmas!!
I saw the list of foods and knew before I looked you had to be here in Australia.
Replace the Turkey with Capon (If you can find it) or a large chicken - rub english mustard on the skin roast plus gammon as the second meat - Yorkshire Puddings, pigs in blankets- roast parsnips /onion/carrots all roasted sugar snaps peas brocolli - red cabbage - roasted chestnuts with bacon bits - stuffing
My Christmas dinner is roast turkey thats been roasted with a load of goose fat and wrapped in bacon and basted often so it isn't dry and it has lemon, onion and fresh sage and parsley shoved in its backside and sage, onion and minced pork stuffing in its neck cavity. I also cook it upside down for the first hour, again so it doesn't dry out ( I have an x shaped rack that I cook on ). Goose fat roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, maple syrup roasted carrots and parsnips, sprinkled with caraway seeds. Brussel sprouts cooked with smoked bacon lardons, onion, and garlic is a total game changer , red cabbage braised with apple, and mashed carrot and swede. I make a tonne of pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings , more sage and onion stuffing, home made bread sauce , cranberry sauce and gravy made with the giblets of the turkey .
Don't know whether we're unusual, but in our house we very rarely have turkey. More often than not, it's chicken, sometimes beef (I'd have that every year if it was down to me!) and sometimes pork, which is already waiting in the freezer for Saturday. We'll have Yorkshire puddings with anything, but generally Christmas pudding is not popular with us, so our "traditional dessert" is trifle. Start with the ready-made trifle sponges, slice them in half, spread jam on them and stick them back together, lie them on the bottom of a big bowl, add fruit (usually tinned pears, but fresh raspberries are nice, too) and an optional sprinkling of sherry. Make a pint of jelly (normally strawberry or raspberry, orange is OK, but lemon or lime just tastes weird), pour over the sponge and leave to set. Then make a pint of custard, let it cool, stir it round to make it spreadable (protecting it from my dad at all costs!) and spread over the top. In the fridge overnight, then just before dinner, whip half a pint of cream until very thick (sweetened with icing sugar here!), spread over the custard and top with whatever is handy. Could be hundreds and thousands, grated chocolate or anything else you'd find in the baking aisle at the supermarket. (Some people don't use jelly, though - jelly can be controversial in trifle!) Hope you have a Happy Christmas, whatever you're sitting down to.
I remember buying boxes of Stove Top in uni and that would be my dinner. Just stuffing. 😆 I just ate a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce, and gravy and the bread was baked with stuffing spices.
Merry Christmas, Alanna and to your family as well! Thank you for making my Tuesdays so delightful!
Thanks so much! Merry Christmas!
As being a chef ,my answer is me not cooking , but im cooking & on the menu is potato & smoked ham hock soup,prawn cocktail followed with roast chicken topped with Ayrshire smoked streaky bacon,pigs in blankets, roast potatoes & buttery mash potatoes, smashed turnip,sprouts finished with parma ham + roasted chestnuts ,herb Yorkshire puddings ,gravy , for afters home made cloutie dumpling(keep some for the full Scottish Breakfast on Boxing Day)served with homemade raspberry ice-cream & a dollop of clotted cream, then its homemade truffles ,shortbread & warm mince pies with a cuppa ( me half glass of Edradour single malt whisky)and that's Christmas Day done ,Merry Crimble to you and yours fae S.W.Scotland
My Christmas dinner will probably be Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, mashed potato, Turkey & pigs in blankets. No need to spoil it with veg.
Great video, I cook our Christmas dinner which comprises smoked salmon, blinis, sour cream, then, roast rib of beef on the bone cooked rare so it still moos, roast goose, nut roast, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, peas, carrots, spinach, Yorkshire puddings, gravy made from beef juices, horseradish sauce, red currant jelly, red and white wine. I don't really like desserts so I can't be bothered to cook any, I buy a trifle and heat up some mince pies, cream and a dessert wine. Cheese board, biscuits and fruit, port. Christmas crackers pulled at start of meal. Between courses, we work our way around the table so that by the end of the meal each guest has either sung a traditional song, played a tune or recited a poem verse. I always start the proceedings by singing The Boar's Head carol, even though nowadays I don't cook one.
Prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, sweet corn, cranberry sauce, gravey, green salad, olives, pickles, radishes, apple pie cheddar cheese slice and vanilla ice cream with assorted Christmas cookies. Crackers and cheese as a starter before meal to warm you up.
I'm Mexican so home made Tamales and Enchiladas for me! Also where I live a lot of people have fresh Dungeness crab with smoked oysters , bread and butter with local white wine for holiday meals...
Incredible!
Our family's typical Christmas dinner in Burnaby, BC (Canada) is as follows:
Main course: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed potatoes, Peas, Roast carrots, Cranberry sauce, Gravy.
Desert: Plain angel food cake, vanilla ice cream, Blueberries, Strawberries, Chocolate sauce, Cookies (some years).
Christmas is the one time of the year we go all out on the meat selection. 1 good big slab of organic farm shop beef £40-50 and also goose instead of turkey / chicken. We use the goose drippings to make to best roast potato's ever created. Cranberry stuffing and pigs in blankets is a must. Gravy made with the beef drippings. Braised red cabbage and apple. Honey roasted veg (carrots, green beans, maybe some peppers). When it comes to dessert I'm the only one who likes a Christmas pudding so I get one of those small ones. We also do an apple pie with marzipan, just before you put the lid on the pie you grate marzipan over the apples which when cooked melts and seeps into all the gaps, it is fantastic with custard or vanilla ice-cream.
This all actually happens on Boxing Day. On Christmas day we have a really good big English breakfast and then just make a buffet of sorts to nibble on through the day.
We usually have a prawn cocktail starter, mashed and roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, honey glazed roast carrots and parsnips, turkey, gravy, Cranberry sauce, stuffing. ... second helpings! pudding is mince pies or apple pie with cream or custard. If we're not in cardiac arrest by then the rest of the Christmas holidays are buffets of left over turkey and pigs in blankets etc, with added stuff like salmon and salmon mousse, pork pie, sausage rolls, cheese board of different cheeses with cheese biscuits and crackers etc.
Parsnips- peel and slice as normal. Season with black pepper only, add olive oil. Spread on large pyrex dish for 45+ mins at 200c or until brown almost burning. Turn occasionally. Absolutely amazing result.
In Yorkshire it is traditional to start with Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Then the Christmas Dinner.
No it isn’t. 54 years of gluttony and a lot of those working in hospitality on this planet and in both west an North Yorkshire and the only time I’ve heard of this nonsense is people on the internet saying “Actually, I think you’ll find…”
@@jonathanfinan722 Actually, I think you’ll find that it is indeed traditional in some Yorkshire homes to start a roast dinner with Yorkshire puddings and gravy. It certainly was every time I ate at my girlfriend's parents house. Working in hospitality is not the same as "living it."
Real life personal experience, not read on the internet.
Mushy sprouts (4), pile of ,just burnt roasties, paxo stuffing you have to chisel, yorkshire pud, bread sauce wedge, tasteless nut roast, all drowning in thick veggie gravy. Heaven. I want it NOW.
Merry Christmas Alanna :)
Have a wonderful Xmas, Alanna. You deserve it. 🎄
Goose is my favourite Christmas bird. It's a big bird, though, and a bit expensive. But nice.
We used to have banana wrapped in bacon. and home made cranberry sauce Heat cranberrys, water and a tablespoon of marmalade and add sugar to taste. For days afterwards it was turkey with sweet and sour, in a pie, in a curry then simmer the bones for a couple of hours to make a soup.. No one mentioned turkey for the next 11 months. Happy Christmas. x
I agree with pretty much everything you said except for the British Christmas puddings and desserts. I LOVE the puddings in Britain! They are amazing. Turkey can be done SO GOOD in so many ways that people over look.
My favorite Christmas dinner is definitely a full roast dinner WITH all the trimmings mentioned as well as that AMAZING YORKSHIRE PUDDING YUM! Anything on my plate that is home made is great. I also like my Mom's own recipe of potato rolls and any trimmings she makes.
Strangely, orange jello cottage cheese fruit salad became a tradition as well in our house. Lol
We also have a Ukrainian background so like to incorporate all of the Ukrainian foods on Christmas eve.
This year you will be shocked, as we are having a full homemade Italian dinner at my brother's house for the 3rd year running which will consist of all the amazing carbs! 😁
Christmas pudding is a necessity. It needs cornflower sauce (milk, cornflower, vanilla, sugar) or perhaps some nice vanilla ice cream to tone down the richness. It also adds an element of danger to spice things up: both from covering it with brandy and setting fire to it and also from biting down on the coin hidden inside and ruining some dental work.
We are vegetarian so have Quorn chicken fillets, scooped out and filled with cranberry sauce, stuck together with egg and rolled in breadcrumbs. Roast potatoes and parsnips, glazed carrots, mashed potato, mashed swede & carrot (mixed), peas, and sprouts with chestnuts. All served with extra cranberry sauce and swimming in a rich, thick chestnut & red wine gravy. Washed down with copious amounts of cider. Pudding is usually fruit salad (with cream) or homemade New York style cheesecake - Gert lush! Whatever your preference, enjoy & Merry Christmas everyone! 💜 x
Thank you for a year of videos when you have never failed to make me smile. You are amazing and I wish you and your partner and Edenbridge, the best that 2022 has to offer.
Merry Christmas and happy new year to you , Alanna
You are so kind, thank you so much!
A few years back we cooked a Ham instead of Turkey but cooked it in Cider and a smear of Honey - it was so good but most years now we go round the in-laws forTurkey with all the trimmings ( yum ).Hope you guys have a amazing Christmas and catch some great footage for future vids
Something my family always has on our Christmas dinner plate is large mushrooms filled with Philadelphia cheese, wrapped in bacon, roasted in the oven until the bacon is crispy, they are a staple that we cannot do without, and we only eat them on Christmas day.
They sound amazing. I’ll have to try that. What mushrooms do you use (Portobello)? Do you know/have a recipe?
@@stanettiels7367 Yes, portobello mushrooms. the recipe is super simple:- pull out stalk of mushroom, (these go in a wok to be shallow fried up with bacon and the sprouts) stuff the mushrooms with as much Philadelphia as possibe (i prefer the garlic and herb variety) wrap with as many rashers of streaky bacon as possible, (only one layer thick) and roast in the oven until bacon is crispy (It takes about 45mins to get the bacon crispy, there is a lot of water comes out of the mushrooms, and there is so much in the oven requiring different times and temps on Christmas day, its all a judgement call).
Hope they come out as expected!
@@M05000583
Oh thanks friend. They sound absolutely amazing and I will be making them as a starter on New Years Day, when there’s less cooking going on. Have a nice Christmas, and thanks for the tips.
The secret of parsnips... grow them yourself, hope for a frost, after the frost, harvest.
Steam gently for a long time; start with these, serve them last.
Merry Christmas. Thanks for entertaining my Tuesday's all year🎄🎅😀 Looking forward to lots more next year!
For me it's just the same as a Sunday roast. So flooded with gravy and mint sauce and I'm happy
It's become a Christmas tradition that I get a single Brussel sprout put on my dinner plate that I refuse to eat 😂
However, last year I heard a TV chef say that if you roast them then it takes out all the bitterness, and it's true! So last year I had my first sprout that I actually enjoyed.
Interestingly the intense bitterness that some people taste when eating a sprout is one of those genetic things, just like some people taste soap when eating coriander/cilantro.
A Canadian Christmas tradition I've picked up is to listen to Stuart McLean's Vinyl Café stories about Dave and Morley. To me it's not Christmas without listening to them.
What? I was expecting to see you cook a Christmas dinner! 🤣
Next time!
@@AdventuresAndNaps I think we'll see your boyfriend before we see you cooking Christmas Dinner!
Turkey and roast pork , yorky puds , sprouts , mash tatties , roast tatties , sage n onion ( wet n sloppy ) chestnut stuffing , pigs in blankets , roast parsnips , carrots , cranberry sauce , apple sauce , gravy , mash turnip / swede , sofa to recover on 😎
I grew up in an Italian culture in Ohio and we always had pasta and seafood for Christmas dinner. Because we always had turkey for Thanksgiving, we didn’t have it again for Christmas.
Now, however, with my wife and kids, we have surf and turf for Christmas dinner including a nice steak with crab, lobster, mussels, scallops, and shrimp. To use your new favorite word, it’s lush! My wife is from Taiwan and seafood is big with them.
Speaking of that, I’m surprised that seafood doesn’t seem to be very big on Christmas in Britain since it’s an island. Does anyone over there have seafood at Christmas.
Finally, any recipes for a good Yorkshire pudding? I haven’t seen your video on that yet, so I’ll have to watch it.
Thanks for the great video as always.
Yes - prawn cocktail starter
For the last few years, we've always had a seafood salad at teatime on Christmas day. It's light enough to still enjoy after you've had a full blow-out at lunchtime.
For us, it always includes....
- large cooked prawns,
- New Zealand green lipped mussels,
- cockles (or baby clams, which are just as nice, and much cheaper these days,)
- white crab meat,
- shredded surimi (from seafood sticks/crab sticks,) mixed with chopped smoked salmon,
....all this supported by the usual salad staples (romaine lettuce, spring onions, mustard & cress, cucumber, tomato, sometimes beetroot) and a variety of dressings, mayo, marie rose, etc.
Following that lot with a range of English cheeses, pickles and various crackers is sure to leave the hungriest of us sated for the evening.
@@DaveBartlett that sounds great. I may have to try that. Thanks.
@@nolslifegren we usually have this as well. My boys ravage these.
Hi Alanna hope you're well, I get you're not too keen on desserts but try Jamaican ginger cake smothered with Ambrose Devon custard
Thanks for the tip!
I usually prefer goose to Turkey if I can find a decent goose for a reasonable price. Swede is sweeter than potato - mashed Swede is closer to mashed sweet potato than to potato (but potato and swede mashed together is the best of both worlds - like sweetened orange mashed potato).
I'm a Canadian with British roots. Always the same.. don't dare change it! Lol Turkey, garlic mashed potatoes with cream, turnip( rutabaga) with a dash of potato and brown sugar..for good texture, stuffing, green beans, carrots..w\ lots of butter, cranberry..lots of perfect gravy. Little tomato juice glasses with s/p and a bit of Worcestershire. Crackers! Plum pudding with piping hot rum sauce..made with lots of butter! A Happy Birthday Baby Jesus cake..for the kids!
Christmas dinner is just a starter. Boxing Day is the main event, with smoked salmon, all the cold meats, bubble-and-squeak and pickles.
A gammon joint is wonderful and is still good cold as boxing day leftovers. Bubble and squeak with gravy is a must.
Veg is great: some cruciferous ones like sprouts, broccoli, etc but also the sweet roots like carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes.
My mum does a great chocolate log for dessert too.
In north-east Wales we have something called “ponch meip” which is a mash of potato and turnip. Fantastic when served with a pinch of pepper and some gravy with traditional Xmas dinner. Mmmmm.
Pile almost everything you can think of on the plate. Turkey, 3 bird, sliced roast pork, roast potato, bread sauce, swede, Yorkshire pud, mash potato, Cider gravy, (OMG) potato cheese layers. Put as much of everything out and keep eating 'til you explode. A real feast, it's only once a year after all. lol
Having been born in the early forties, I love it when people talk about old Christmas traditions that must date as far as the 1980's or even the the 1960's amazing. God bless Saint Bernard Mathews
For a different taste try parsnip crisps/ Thin sliced parsnip then fried in oil.
May you have a Christmas with peace and joy.
Hi, Alanna, very interesting, Christmas Dinner must be turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, Brussels, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce. Ideally followed by Christmas pudding. Very nice.
Sounds great!
Christmas is all about tradition for me. Some traditions I deliberately flout while others I follow rigidly! Christmas dinner HAS to be Turkey because it always was when I was a kid. Roast potatoes are essential but I will also do some buttery mash. Carrots and Brussels will be boiled then marinated in a bath of melted butter. Parsnips I don't like but there will be roast parsnips dusted with parmesan and re-roasted. There will be cauliflower cheese. I don't really like cauliflower any other way. boiled, immersed in a very cheesy cheese sauce and then baked until the top is a mixture of browns and getting to black at the edges. The absolute essential though is good gravy. I boiled a whole chicken a while ago to make really good chicken stock which was reduced and is currently frozen. It comes out tomorrow and will be reduced, fortified with vegetable cooking waters and made into a thick gravy. Christmas day, the meat juices from the turkey will be added along with those from pigs in blankets. That will probably be the best gravy for the year - and there will be plenty left to have with leftovers.
Seasons Greetings Alanna, thanks for all of your 2021 videos.
Merry Christmas!!
I tend to go traditional but ditch the sprouts (never got over being told I had to eat them as a kid or I got no pudding!!). I usually don't have room for a full blown Christmas pudding, including brandy butter of course, so I save it for Boxing Day and have a boozy trifle instead after the Christmas Dinner...mmm, lovely!! And finally, I love cauliflower cheese on its own...but not on my Christmas dinner for goodness sake! Hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas and thanks for all the great vids ✨🎄✨
Thanks for sharing!! Merry Christmas!!
I have hated sprouts my whole life but my “mother in law” (I’m not married) would always put them on my Sunday roast. I didn’t have the heart to tell her and would sit there and force them down first. I’d eat them before anything else just so I could get them out of the way and enjoy my dinner and she’d say “ohhhh you love sprouts don’t you?” I’d be nodding through gritted teeth. Then she started putting more on my plate. My girlfriend would be stifling laughter watching me go through this every Sunday. After years of this I now actually really like them after I’ve put a ton of white pepper on them.
Noooooo spouts, cooked soft then mashed with gravy is wonderful.
There are some amazing sprout recipes online- brown them, grill them, season them! They can be delicious when made properly
There's a very good reason we ONLY have turkey once a year.
As for the reason we DO have turkey once a year , it escapes me.
And before anyone says, get a good one - because I get outvoted for having Bambi wild shot or from the farm on the fen - we get ours from a farm in the next village where you could choose it in the field if you felt so inclined.
Hope you and yours have a good one. I love pigs in blankets in fact that's how to can kidnap me a bowl of them and a massive net. I did half expect about 8 mins in it to cut to you in the kitchen making cheese wrapped in bacon.
Maybe cheese-wrapped-bacon will be a Twitch stream!
I’d completely forgotten about bread sauce, but now you’ve reminded me and I can’t wait to have some Christmas Day!!!
Merry Christmas!
You've got to finish up with some cheese and biscuits and a few after eights (before starting again on something else!) Hope you have a cozy Christmas and let's all hope 2022 is the year everything gets back to normal!
Totally! Merry Christmas!
Bread sauce with Turkey and Chicken? Yes! Every time. You don't need to make your own either, you can get good-quality packet mixes.
Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots with lots of real good butter and fresh cracked pepper, Brussel Sprouts with also lots of butter-maybe roasted in the over with some minced garlic,cranberry sauce from where I live in B.C., stuffing is optional, and mince pie for dessert. Booze. Cheers, Marry Christmas and Happy New Year from the West Coast of Canada.
No garlic you complete trollop
I like roast spuds, kumera (sweet potatoes), parsnips, pumpkin, carrots, loads of sprouts and peas along with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce but most of all I prefer it in July when it's cold. Having said that I'll be having most of this stuff on Saturday which is daft. Have a good one.
The turkey thing always seems strange to me. I think it must be a deeply ingrained tradition as people avoid it all year then go ballistic if there's a chance they can't get one this week.
Merry Christmas, Alanna.
Love cauliflower cheese, it’s the best thing to come out of the UK.
Can’t do the stovetop though - as a Newfoundlander, dressing must be home made with savoury. Mom sends savoury in to me so I can make it over here 😍
Beef Rib roast, Mashed potatoes, yorkshire pudding, gravy, roast carrots, boiled onions.
Desert minced pie, plum pudding.
Thank you!!
Thanks for watching!
My Dad is Norwegian, my mother Cuban... we always have a bone in ham and codfish , but the sides are the best !
Thank you for sharing your Christmas table thoughts you are lovely and I am thankful to see your posts , Happy Christmas.
Merry Christmas!!
I am shocked that there are people who are eating a Christmas dinner without Yorkshire puddings.
After last year when I couldn’t be with my family they can serve me anything but Mam is traditional and cooks accordingly so that’s what I’m looking forward to. I hope everyone has a great Christmas, thank you for another year of sharing your humour in your video’s and I hope you have a great Christmas with plenty of FaceTime with family and friends you can’t be with and a great dinner containing everything you want for your ideal Christmas dinner even if you do have to carry a massive turkey home on the train.
I thought Yorkshire puds were only served with roast beef!
Goose fat roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, turkey, honey glazed gammon joint, sprouts cooked with bacon lardons... roast parsnips (which I always skip) ... and sage and onion stuffing. We always fight over the crispy bits of stuffing, and it's always double helpings of the stuffing and pigs I blankets. We also have a homemade chicken liver pate and seafood platter for early lunch and then starter.
Usually only one slice of turkey on Christmas, and have the left over slices as turkey and stuffing sandwiches the day after ... which is fine as you can pour on the sauce. As for desert ... raspberry panecotta from M&S
And of course, Merry Christmas to you and the Butler, hope you have a wonderful time.
I love the amount of details here 😂 It sounds perfect!!
Love bread sauce, it's a must have, yum!
Christmas dinner for me is turkey, ham, lots of roast potatoes, lots of pigs in blankets & some stuffing... It's terrible but I don't like most vegetables, so I'll probs have some sweetcorn, parsnips, maybe some broccoli... plus some "watery southern gravy" 😂 & for dessert some sort of chocolate gateau, cos I hate Christmas pudding... Not forgetting something alcoholic to wash it all down!
Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas! 🎄
That sounds like a great plate!! Especially the chocolate gateau
Gotta have chestnut stuffing, so dense and packed with chestnuts that you practically need a chainsaw to get through it! Our family also have these sausage ball things, sausagemeat rolled in breadcrumbs and cooked until crispy on the outside, kind of a Scotch Egg... with no egg. Gorgeous...
As for the mashed carrot and swede, very nice, you should try it, especially with some butter melted in and plenty of salt and pepper...
We have a three game bird roast lined up this year. Wife (who hates sprouts) has found sprouts gratin with bacon for me try them dipped in chip shop batter and deep fried. If not into pudding try a British cheese board. Blue Stilton or Blue Shropshire, Cornish Yarg, a good strong mature cheddar, Wensleydale, double Gloucester, Red Leicester and if you can find it an old fashioned Sage Derby. Wash down with good port, sloe gin or a whisky mac. Also pace yourself. Have the main before the Queen's Speech and the cheese afterwards. Use the left overs on Boxing Day after watching the racing on TV.
I am looking forward to a turkey dinner, with roast potatoes, vegetables - no parsnips and all the trimmings. Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays and a great 2022 🎄
Sounds great! Merry Christmas!
Our Christmas dinner includes turkey, gammon, pigs in blankets, homemade apricot and cranberry stuffing, roast and mashed potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, cauliflower and sprouts, home made cranberry sauce and gravy.
Sounds great!
Chesnut stuffing. Homemade at end of october, using chestnuts picked from our local woods. (Didnt have time this year)
Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire pud's are a must for me Alanna, thanks for all your videos, wishing you a very happy Christmas. 🎄
Merry Christmas!!
Try goose it’s less dry and very tasty, make sage and onion stuffing wrap around portions with bacon, bake around the bird.
Christmas dinner: Gammon (smoked of course!), whole roast and stuffed chicken (Cornish hen), roast leg of mutton and mint jelly, roast potatoes, broccoli and gherkin salad with cheese chunks and mayo, minted peas, cauliflower au gratin, and for afters - trifle! and sometimes apple crumble with double cream. [Note: this is more a South African way of having Christmas dinner, bearing in mind it's mid-summer and probably around 30+ C outside, so an ice-cold beer (or 2, or 3, ....)would probably go down well. I'm having my first real English Christmas dinner this year here in UK so I have no idea what we'll be making, starting later today! Happy Christmas everyone!]
Xmas dinner for me is: no starters. Roast turkey and Roast Pork, roast potatoes, potatoes and swede mashed together, cabbage, sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, carrots, roast parsnips, pees, broccoli, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, english mustard. dont bother with a desert straight away usually already stuffed after dinner. After a few hours for dinner to go down maybe a lemon meringue pie or an appie pie with custard or both... well it is Christmas.
Some great things in there ..Christmas dinner, Can't wait. .Thanks for this week's vid ..
Merry Christmas!!
Roast turkey with the crispy skin still on (we usually have several meats, though, like roast beef, goose, chicken and lamb so people can pick and mix), roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, sprouts, peas (mushy and garden or marrowfat), boiled potatoes, pigs in blankets, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, cabbage. Most of the vegetables are small portions with the majority being the meat and potatoes. Then keep extra dishes on the table of everything so you can add more of whatever you like. All covered (not like some people who just drizzle a little bit) in copious amounts of homemade gravy made with the turkey or goose fat. After all that stodginess, I don’t do the Christmas pudding. It’s something light and not traditional, like a lemon meringue pie. Mmmmmmmmmm. I’m already looking forward to mine. 🏴🇬🇧🇨🇦. Merry Christmas to you and your partner, hope you have a good one.
A couple slices or turkey and beef, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots, red cabbage, sprouts with bacon, stuffing, pigs in blankets, cheese in bacon, cranberry sauce, yorkshires, yorkshires, yorkshires and onion gravy
Or do it like the yorkshire side of my family do it and have yorkshires and onion gravy for a starter and then all of the above afterwards haha
Alanna, that just hit the spot 😉. I am so busy I didn't have time to watch, but so glad I did. It was just what I needed and I'm now totally thinking about Christmas Dinner 😋 as well as the stream tomorrow 🎉👌.
Merry Christmas!!
@@AdventuresAndNaps Same to you pal 😉😀
We would often roast a chicken when I lived at home as there were only three of us, and we preferred the taste. Later on, we would have fillet steak for Christmas dinner, with chips of course! We never had Yorkshire pudding for Christmas, only ever with beef. We also had mashed swede and carrots, but mashed together! Christmas pudding and custard! Mince pie with custard is great too. here in Canada, we'll be making an English Trifle this year for desert! Have a Merry Christmas Alanna , or as we do say in Wales, Nadolig Llawen !
We have a chicken in our house too. Turkey is a bit dry...
Ditch the turkey and replace with either beef or Chicken - either is a blank cheque to add Yorkshire puds and retain the cranberry sauce too. I've had chicken curry in the past, also ham sandwiches - and even a Chicken Pot Noodle. I'm easy to please! All the very best for Christmas and the Nwe Year girl - keep doing what you are doing and you won't go far wrong :-) xx
Cover the turkey breast in plenty of strips of bacon when cooking, it keeps the meat from going dry. Mashed sweede or turnip mix with mash is far better than plain mash. Got to have Yorkshires, home made roasties, baby button sprouts and thick beef gravy. Merry Christmas from South Yorkshire Alanna 🥳😁
Merry Christmas!
I know I am very late to comment , or early for the next Christmas , but in my opinion it does not matter so much WHAT you have for dinner , but the people you have it with !! If you are lucky enough to share x max dinner with family , or good friends , anything goes. Happy Yultide 😀
Christmas without bread sauce isn’t Christmas. You need chestnut stuffing, crispy potatoes, pigs in blankets, honey roast carrots, roasted brussell sprouts with bacon, cranberry sauce, rumbledethumps potatoes and a rooster with gravy.
I’m a simple man, Crispy roast potatoes, turkey and gammon, thick gravy, half the plate full of pigs in blankets, and Yorkshire puddings, leave the veg, and mince pies have been banned since my mum heated one up and the single cream I poured on top started bubbling as the pie was so hot and rock hard we replaced it with chocolate or treacle cake and custard for desert
Mashed swede with black pepper and a touch of butter,yum. My mum makes the best turkey soup from the remnants
Paxo stuffing.
Yes, feel very hungry now! Thanks Alanna, enjoy all your treats!
Thanks for watching!!
I'm in general agreement with you.
Turkey is great unless you overcook it. The problem is that the done temperature for breast meat is lower than for the legs, and if you cook it to the right temperature for the legs it is dry. Turkey breast done at 74C 165F vs leg at 77-80C 170-175F but they recommend the higher temperature for a full turkey which is why most home cooked turkey breast is too dry. btw it's exactly the same temperatures for chicken so the breast is also overdone (but less noticeable to most people). I've started separating the legs from the breast for cooking. Sometimes I slow cook the legs so those tendons in the legs aren't as tough.
A couple of questions though?
You skipped over the gravy. Thin, thick or thicker (my preference). Made from granules or from scratch? I usually use the instant stuff- turkey variant. I can make proper gravy but usually use the easy granules for meals, but chicken flavour with everything as it tastes so much better than the beef one- and the onion one is just awful. How about a gravy video sometime you need a filler
You made me laugh with your ideal Christmas plate! Interestingly, my husband’s mom is from Yorkshire and said traditionally they don’t do yorkshire puddings on Christmas! Gutted!
I’m American from NY and we always had roasted brussel sprouts with dried cranberries or raisins as a side dish. I don’t agree with you on the cauliflower cheese and variety of veg, I love it!! 😋
Xmas dinner starters prawn cocktail or prawns and cream cheese wrapped in salmon. Followed main. Roast turkey, beef and pork with Brussels roasted parsnips and potatoes mashed swede Yorkshire pud & thick gravy. Dessert. Xmas pud brandy butter or crème. Mince pies. Fresh coffee mints and liqueurs ….
Christmas Day falls on a Saturday. Today is Tuesday. I suppose my Mum has already put the Sprouts on the stove by now.
Mixture of mashed swede and mashed potato. We used to call that "potch" where I came from.....the Valleys of South Wales.
have a great christmas canadianado! all the best to you, your family, your friends, and, of course to all your wonderful followers! big love to all people :)
Thanks so much! Merry Christmas!
You missed something oot sweetie, what do you watch when eating your Christmas Dinner, for me it's 'The Wizard of Oz, chitty Bang Bang, The Generation Game, and The two Ronnies, Tom Thumb and the Queens speech 🎄
Have a great Christmas and I look forward to seeing your videos in the New Year.
Thank you! Merry Christmas!!