Is the Sunday roast tradition dying?

We all still love a roast but not always on a Sunday.

I often used to do a Sunday roast, especially when we were first married and I put the leftovers in a pie with mushrooms which was one of my DH's favourites.
As I'm sadly now widowed and trying to lose weight I tend to do something much simpler, even if it's a repeat of things I eat during the week, such as salad. Roasts tend to be just for Christmas now and as I visit my sister I don't have to cook it - a blessing as it's a bit of a faff isn't it?

Well, today DH is having left over cottage pie from yesterday. We had a good brunchy breakfast of scrambled egg, mushrooms and bacon and toast and I just don't want another meaty meal so I am going to have cheese and crackers ...and a glass of black beer and raisin wine (tastes like sherry!).

I do love to cook a roast and agree with others that it is actually one of the easiest meals to do, but I know I cook less and less joints of meat now. Still like my roasties though /

I've just done a Sunday roast for 9! I do this every fortnight unless something crops up and often do more than that number. A roast is easier when you have large numbers but not efficient for a couple. Christmas dinner will be in the region of 15 to 20, maybe more! I will do Goose, Turkey, Lamb and anything else that comes along with all the trimmings. Everything gets eaten, even the sprouts which normally come from M&S (I do cheat a little there!)

If I miss anything off the menu, Sunday or Christmas, I get complaints which I take as a compliment as they must like it!

As a grandparent, I'm there to uphold the old ways!

Sunday means roast lunch! We love it & always have one if we're about with fresh veg from the garden. Both our married children are in their 30s & they both have roast on Sundays too. Today there were 9 of us & I confess, we did have lunch out but somewhere that does a trad Sunday roast. I like the leftovers on Monday & have some delicious recipes or we just have cold meat & bubble & squeak.

I cook a roast still nearly every Sunday, using seasonal vegetables to go with it. My DH loves them and so do family and friends when they come to lunch. What are Sundays for otherwise?

Until very recently we had a roast dinner every Sunday (at midday, being northerners). But for the last couple of months we haven't. I found it was all becoming too much hard work to prepare everything and get it in the oven before setting off to church so we've been having mainly veggie meals prepared on Saturday and put in the oven when I get back from church. I do miss the roast, think we'll be going back to it now autumn and the winter are on their way. Nostalgia for childhood roasts, I suppose.

No Sunday roast here either. Whatever I fancy, have in and takes shortest time to deliver is my absolute choice. As a child we sometimes had a roast in tha grand scheme of a mixed and varied menu but it was never exclusively on a Sunday. I was introduced to this regularity when I encountered English country pubs. Very pleasant I must add.

Jane I am with you re cold food and cold plates I hate both , Sarah I love fry up day after we are having beef stew today and probably tomorrow with Yorkies cos I always make lots .

No roasts going on in this house either. We go to a carvery midweek (less crowded) because my husband MUST HAVE a roast at some point of the week. To be honest its comparatively cheaper to go to the carvery where we live, than it is to cook a roast at home. No sweating over a hot stove, no washing up. Yay!

We always had Sunday roast even after DC’s had left home. Now I’m on my own I still try to have one although I sometimes cheat by using frozen roasties and sprouts.

The 2 of us nearly always have a roast on Sunday and our families also love a roast when they come to us. They also cook roasts themselves but they are never as good as ours, or so they say.

All the family invariably have a roast on Sundays and I'm lucky enough to be asked to share it quite often. Now I live alone I often have 'boil in bag' frozen roast beef, with roast
potatoes and Yorkshires or roast a chicken portion in the oven with roast potatoes and yorkshires.

Imperfect 27.
I am sure you are right and the traditional Sunday roast is another example, I fear, doomed to bite the dust.
How many of us only had roast chicken /turkey on Xmas day? Now with so many foods made up of these poor creatures they are not seen as something we look forward to on a certain day of the year.

I don't cook a roast very often - chicken casserole today. However, last Sunday we ate at my daughters and she did a delicious roast chicken dinner.

Jane43.
Shepherds pie on Tuesday from leftovers brought back memories of my childhood If we had beef or pork then dripping on toast for Sunday tea.We would have cold meat ie beef, pork or lamb, with fried left over veg on Monday then the inevitable shepherds pie with the beef or lamb leftovers. In the early years of my marriage I carried on with the same traditions.

Gave up roasts when D.C. left home and OH developed dementia. I am in and out of hospital at the moment so it's meals on wheels for us today

Sluttygran, my kids were raised vegan, and one of the easiest Sunday main items I used to do was sosmix - the dry mix you can get. Mixed with various different flavourings (herbs, or sundried tomatoes, or apple sauce etc, whatever you fancy and everyone likes), rolled into a big sausage, wrapped in tinfoil and baked in the oven, then unwrapped and sliced - very little work, delicious and different.

Smithy
A tradition amongst the indigenous of the UK be they vegetarian or meat eaters when on a Sunday .(allegedly a day of rest) it was supposed to be a day when families got together to enjoy a roasted joint of meat or roasted something else for non meat eaters.
Diversity, fast food business's etc have brought about changes, unfortunately, and as a child Sunday was the day we would either go to aunts and uncles ,grandparents, or they would come to my parents for that special 'roast.'

I don't much enjoy a roast dinner and groan inwardly when someone takes us to a carvery. Last Christmas I wanted to stay home and have a meal that we enjoy. It was glorious, salad then prawns, tagliatelle and samphire followed by crème brulee. Yum!

I always did a roast dinner when the family was at home but there's just me now. If they come there's always a roast and there is when I stay with them. Yummy!

Although there is just the two of us most weeks we do still have a Sunday roast - lamb today and there will be enough left over for a shepherds pie tomorrow or Tuesday.

We went out for Sunday lunch last weekend to celebrate an 80th birthday at a nice hotel but the meal was awful. I chose beef but it was as tough as old boots, DH chose lamb but there was very little of it and it was also tough. Service was at a snail’s pace and all of DH’s pet hates were there: cold plates and vegetable dishes and fancy ways of serving food instead of an ordinary plate. My soup came in a small bowl on a block of wood and the soup was luke warm in a cold bowl. The Bakewell tart we chose for dessert took 35 minutes to arrive and was accompanied by a small jug of cold custard which they called ‘Creme Anglaise’ but it was clearly from a tin of custard.

Our last few meals out have been very disappointing so we will continue to eat at home and Sunday lunch will remain part of our routine, served on proper warm plates.

We have a roast nearly every Sunday here. Youngest DD and family take it for granted. I don't think I would see much of them otherwise.
Roast Chicken and all the trimmings plus Eldest DGS would never forgive me if no Yorkshire puds on offer. Just finished making a lemon meringue pie for afters.

Rarely have roast dinners as DH dislikes them. I’m not fussed about them either. We actively avoid them in pubs & restaurants, on my part because the always seem to come swamped with gravy. When the family were at home I always did a roast.

I do a roast dinner every Sunday for my family - it’s a real palaver because they’re vegan!
Of course, all the veggie accompaniments are easy, but nut loaf and suchlike are very fiddly and time consuming. I always make my own, as ready made are horrendously expensive!
I am happy to cook for them as they are wonderful children and do a great deal for me, but oh, how I long for a roast chicken or a leg of lamb with mint sauce!