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ASunday roastorroast dinner is a traditional meal of British origin. Although it can be consumed throughout the week, it is traditionally consumed on Sunday. It consists of roasted meat, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes and accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, gravy, and condiments such as apple sauce, mint sauce, or redcurrant sauce. A wide range of vegetables can be served as part of a roast dinner, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, parsnips, or peas, which can be boiled, steamed, or roasted alongside the meat and potatoes.
 | |
| Course | Lunch |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Region or state | Western Europe |
| Main ingredients | Roasted meat |
The Sunday roast's prominence in British culture is such that in a UK poll in 2012 it was ranked second in a list of things people love about Britain.[1] Other names for this meal include Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner, roast dinner, and full roast. The meal is often described as a less grand version of a traditional Christmas dinner.
Besides being served in its original homelands, the tradition of a Sunday roast lunch or dinner has been a major influence on food cultures in the English-speaking world, particularly in Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States, and New Zealand. A South African Sunday roast normally comprises roast pork, beef, lamb or chicken, roast potatoes or mashed potatoes, and various vegetables like cauliflower-broccoli cheese, creamed spinach, green beans, carrots, peas, beetroot, and sweet potato. It is also fairly common to serve rice and gravy or pap and tomato gravy in South Africa instead of Yorkshire pudding.
The Sunday roast originated in the British Isles, particularly Yorkshire, as a meal to be eaten after the church serviceonSunday.[2] Eating a large meal following church services is common to most of Europe, but the Sunday roast variant developed unique to the British Isles. On Sundays, all types of meat and dairy produce are allowed to be eaten; this is unlike Fridays, where many Christians of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Methodist denominations traditionally abstain from eating meats and instead eat fish.[3][4] Likewise, it is traditional for Anglicans and English Catholics to fast before Sunday services, with a larger meal to break the fast afterwards. These Christian religious rules created several traditional dishes in the United Kingdom.
There are two historical points on the origins of the modern Sunday roast.
Typical meats used for a Sunday roast are chicken, lamb, pork, or roast beef, although seasonally duck, goose, gammon, turkey, or (rarely) other game birds may be used.[5]
Sunday roasts can be served with a range of boiled, steamed and/or roasted vegetables. The vegetables served vary seasonally and regionally, but will usually include roast potatoes, roasted in meat drippingorvegetable oil, and also gravy made from juices released by the roasting meat, perhaps supplemented by one or more stock cubes, gravy browning/thickening, rouxorcorn flour.
The potatoes can be cooked around the meat itself, absorbing the juices and fat directly (as in a traditional Cornish under-roast).[6] However, many cooks prefer to cook the potatoes and the Yorkshire pudding in a hotter oven than that used for the joint and so remove the meat beforehand to rest and "settle" in a warm place.[7]
Other vegetable dishes served with roast dinner can include mashed swedeorturnips, roast parsnips, cabbage, boiled or steamed cabbage, broccoli, green beans, and boiled carrots and peas. It is also not uncommon for vegetable dishes—such as cauliflower cheese and stewed red cabbage to be served alongside the more usual assortment of plainly-cooked seasonal vegetables.
Common traditional accompaniments include:
Days of Fasting or Abstinence All the Fridays in the Year, except Christmas-Day
Media related to Sunday roast at Wikimedia Commons
