Sunday dinner .
It is popular in the UK, USA , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and Ireland . Its other names are Sunday roast, Sunday dinner, Sunday tea, or even Sunday bones (meaning meat bones). Food is often comparable to the "lite" version of Christmas dinner in British culture.
Content
Origin
There are at least two points of view on the origin of this tradition. According to one of them, it originates from Yorkshire during the Industrial Revolution, when families in the morning - before going to church - left in the oven a piece of meat that was ready to be consumed when they returned home at lunch time. According to another, tradition dates back to medieval times, when serfs worked six days a week. Then on Sunday after the church service they went to the field to practice martial arts, after which they roasted the oxen on a spit.
Traditional Lunch Dishes
Meat
Typical meat used for Sunday lunch is beef, chicken, lamb or pork, although it can be duck, goose, turkey, game or even ham.
Vegetables
Sunday lunch can be served along with a range of cooked, stewed or fried vegetables. Depending on the season and region of the country, different vegetables may be served, but as a rule, they always include fried potatoes fried in animal fat (they haven’t done so recently because of the unhealthy nature of such food) or in vegetable oil, as well as a sauce made from the juice of grilled meat. As an addition, you can use bouillon cube , bisto, ru or corn flour. Pieces of bacon are often put on the meat while it is being cooked so that it is not hard and soaks up the meat juice. Potatoes are fried necessarily with meat to absorb its juice and fat. However, some cooks prefer to cook potatoes and Yorkshire pudding in the oven.
Other vegetables served for Sunday lunch include rutabaga or turnip puree, fried parsnips, boiled or steamed cabbage, broccoli, green beans, and boiled carrots and peas. Cauliflower with cheese and red cabbage can also be served sometimes, but these dishes are seasonal. In Australia, pumpkin is popular for Sunday lunch, in New Zealand - sweet potato.
Garnish
A traditional side dish includes:
- for beef - Yorkshire pudding, lard, English mustard, horseradish;
- for pork - greaves, minced sage and onion, applesauce, English mustard;
- for lamb - mint sauce or redcurrant jelly;
- for chicken - sausages in pastry, sausages, sausage, minced meat, bread crumb or cranberry jelly.
Cooking
Sunday lunch requires considerable talent, experience and skill for quality cooking, so that all the individual elements of the dinner are cooked with the highest quality, especially if a large number of guests gather at the table.
The food left over from Sunday lunch traditionally serves as the basis for meals served during the week. For example, meat is used for sandwiches , lamb - as a filling for shepherd’s pie , and vegetables can be the basis for roast cabbage and potatoes .
Sunday Lunch at Pubs
Many British pubs include Sunday Sundays on their menus: they usually consist of different types of meat and a significant amount of vegetarian food, such as roasted walnuts. Often this lunch is cheaper than other dishes served on Sundays.