All the trimmings

Potatoes, veg and gravy are not trimmings to me.
Trimmings are more, bread sauce, pigs in blankets, stuffing, game chips, Yorkshire puddings etc.

To me, those are similar to potatoes,veg and gravy - part and parcel of whichever roast is being served!

Well I think the roasting meat bit is quite simple but getting roast potatoes right and “none plastic” gravy made , not boiling vegetables to death ….and last but not least Yorkshire Puddings that look like the photo in the recipe book..is something of an art.
It certainly can be exhausting, messy, and stressful
( personally I eat Yorkshires in any stage of cookedness 👩‍🍳

I’m with Sago you’d have the veg anyway.

Trimmings to me are Yorkshire puddings and horseradish sauce for those who like it with beef.
Sausage meat stuffing and apple sauce with pork.
Onion sauce/ mintsauce or jelly with lamb .
Sage and onion stuffing, bread sauce and cranberry sauce with chicken.
Everything else is standard and goes with all meat.

I call them “the usual suspects” rather than trimmings which
bring to mind Christmas dinners.

I was just going to write the same annsixty. However these days Yorkshire pudding seems to be served with everything.

But, when did they become 'trimmings'? Until recently we had what Ann is talking about as a matter of course without calling it trimmings.

I ca not shake an image of roast beef edged in swans down or frills.

Stop giving me ideas kittylester 🤣

I don’t know the answer to that kitty
Is it only in recent times?
I don’t think we did in “the olden days”

I suppose the "trimmings" may have come from the very rich gravy made from the beef trimmings and wine?

Could it have included, say, sausages made from said trimmings?

But like others I think of the faffy things - not just the basics - it's the extras such as horseradish sauce, apple sauce, mint sauce, maybe several versions of potatoes...
Not the vegetables in general though.

My dad used to talk about an elderly neighbour who visited his home most afternoons for a cup of tea and a chat with his Mother. It would get to a certain time and the visitor would stand and say that she had to leave to make her husband’s dinner. When asked what she was making, her reply was always, ‘meat and that’.
To this day I don’t think they ever found out what ‘and that’ was.

Perhaps in days of yore, the meat took centre stage and everything else was placed around it aka trimming it? I don't know and am merely guessing.

I agree, Kitty. I dislike the expression even used of Christmas dinner. Think it meaningless, and pointless.

Grandmarderby10 In 1983 I was a new wife and mum with a small budget!
A roast then was one of the best value meals I could cook.
Roast on Sunday, left overs on as least Monday and lots of little pots of food in the freezer for our little girl.
I had Delias complete cookery course as a wedding gift and it became my bible.
She taught me so much, what in 1983 felt like a day of a job to prepare soon became easy and second nature.
I will be forever grateful for her common sense approach to cookery.

I didn’t have a mother who enjoyed feeding us, everything was poorly cooked and served with a big dollop of resentment.
So I entered my marriage with very little idea of how to cater for a family.

We are now in a much better place financially but the frugality from our early years of marriage has stayed with us, nothing is ever wasted our 3 AC are the same and somehow the rich gravy, crispy roasties and Yorkies touching the top of the oven all seem to just happen with minimal stress and effort.
.

According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, trimmings means ‘adornments, accessories’ which makes sense. The usage goes back to the 17th century.
Sago, what are game chips please?

From my point of view, we sometimes have a simple roast, with roasties and a couple of veggies.

If the GC /AC are here then all the trimmings come into play, Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets (GC favourites in their words to good for just one day a year 🤣) bread sauce, veggies cooked different ways etc.

I can remember by great Granny’s using all the trimmings to describe a full roast dinner, perhaps it’s a Southern thing 🤣

annsixty

I don’t know the answer to that kitty
Is it only in recent times?
I don’t think we did in “the olden days”

In the old days (!!!) it was what happened. I have to admit that I find it quite irritating and yorkshire puddings with turrkey are a complete no no!

Game chips are sort of crisps served with pheasant and other game birds along with, often, a hidden piece of lead shot designed to keep your dentist happy.

Don’t know why but I can’t bear that expression “
all the trimmings””

A sentence that would set my teeth on edge would be “my hubby made a roast dinner with all the trimmings but I made a really moist chocolate cake. LOL”

I can't bear yorkies! The word that is, not the pudding!

kittylester my MiL always said her roast came with all the trimmings. It was the first time I’d heard the expression and I was still a teenager when I first heard her say it. I always think of her when I hear those words.

I don’t like the expression, it grates somehow.

Trimmings are embellishments bought from the haberdashery. I sew more than I cook

I used to love going with my mom to the haberdashery department in Rackhams, Birmingham 🥰

Sago

Grandmarderby10 In 1983 I was a new wife and mum with a small budget!
A roast then was one of the best value meals I could cook.
Roast on Sunday, left overs on as least Monday and lots of little pots of food in the freezer for our little girl.
I had Delias complete cookery course as a wedding gift and it became my bible.
She taught me so much, what in 1983 felt like a day of a job to prepare soon became easy and second nature.
I will be forever grateful for her common sense approach to cookery.

I didn’t have a mother who enjoyed feeding us, everything was poorly cooked and served with a big dollop of resentment.
So I entered my marriage with very little idea of how to cater for a family.

We are now in a much better place financially but the frugality from our early years of marriage has stayed with us, nothing is ever wasted our 3 AC are the same and somehow the rich gravy, crispy roasties and Yorkies touching the top of the oven all seem to just happen with minimal stress and effort.
.

I’m with Kitty on this one, no trimmings here.

Sago…..I’ve still got my Delia’s cookery book given to me as a wedding gift by SiL in 1971. I also remember thinking how mean of her😄. She’s always been very tight. How times have changed!.

Like yours, my mother was a dreadful cook, everything drowned in gravy and meat always overdone and very chewy. My sister and I did have cookery lessons at our Convent school but I never enjoyed it and it was pretty basic stuff.

I’ve been very lucky as I married a man who could cook and he still does a lot of it. I still refer to Delia’s. I did learn to cook quite well when our children were small as I went on a few cookery courses. I had to as DH had to entertain quite a lot of clients which always threw me into a panic. I don’t actually enjoy cooking, never have. My best friend is never out of her kitchen, she’s an amazing cook but she loves doing it all.