Sunday roast

• 1. Introduction

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  The Sunday roast came second. In a 2012 poll asking Britons what they love about Britain, this plate of roast meat, potatoes and gravy was beaten by only one other item on the list. The Sunday roast goes by several names: Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner, roast dinner and full roast. Many people describe it as a smaller, humbler cousin of the Christmas dinner. It is a British meal, tied above all to Yorkshire, and it is traditionally eaten on a Sunday. So why does an ordinary weekly meal rank so high in a nation's affections? Why Sunday, and why this particular arrangement of foods? And how did a dish tied to one country end up on tables on several continents?

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• 2. Fish on Friday, Feast on Sunday

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  Fridays hold the key to Sunday. Many Roman Catholic, Anglican and Methodist Christians traditionally avoided meat on that day and ate fish instead. That habit survives in the British custom of fish Fridays, still visible in fish and chip shops and restaurants, particularly during Lent. Sunday was the opposite. On that day all types of meat and dairy produce were allowed. Anglicans and English Catholics also traditionally fasted before the Sunday service, so a larger meal afterwards broke the fast. According to the source, the roast was created as a celebration marking the end of being unable to eat meat. Eating a big meal after church is common across most of Europe, yet the roast became a distinctly British version of it. The source offers two competing accounts of how the modern version took shape.

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• 3. Two Origin Stories

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  One account begins in the late 1700s, during the Industrial Revolution. Families getting ready for church would put a cut of meat in the oven. Potatoes, turnips and parsnips went in before they left for the Sunday morning service. By the time they came home, dinner was nearly finished. The juices from the meat and vegetables became a stock or gravy poured over the plate. The second account reaches much further back, to medieval times. Village serfs worked for the squire six days a week. On Sunday, after the morning church service, they gathered in a field and practised battle techniques. Their reward was a feast of oxen roasted on a spit. Whichever story is closer to the truth, both link the meal to church, and both give it a sense of reward.

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• 4. What Goes on the Plate

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  Chicken, lamb, pork and roast beef are the usual centrepieces. Depending on the season, duck, goose, gammon, turkey or, rarely, other game birds may take their place. Roast potatoes are almost always present, cooked in meat dripping or vegetable oil. Gravy comes from the juices the meat releases, sometimes helped along by stock cubes, gravy browning, roux or cornflour. Cooks can make the potatoes in the Cornish under-roast style, set around the meat so they soak up its juices and fat. Many cooks prefer a hotter oven for the potatoes and the Yorkshire pudding. That means taking the meat out first to rest and settle somewhere warm. The vegetables shift with season and region. They include mashed swede or turnips, roast parsnips, boiled or steamed cabbage, broccoli, green beans, carrots and peas. Cauliflower cheese and stewed red cabbage are also common extras.

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• 5. Matching Meat and Sauce

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  Each meat has its own traditional companions. Beef comes with Yorkshire pudding or suet pudding, along with English mustard, gravy or horseradish sauce. Pork is paired with crackling and sage-and-onion stuffing, plus apple sauce or English mustard. Lamb calls for mint sauce or redcurrant jelly. Chicken has the longest list: sausages or sausage meat, stuffing, bread sauce, apple sauce, cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly. National Geographic considers one combination, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, vegetables and horseradish sauce, to be the national dish of England. Those pairings travelled well beyond England.

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• 6. The Roast Abroad

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  In South Africa, a Sunday roast normally features roast pork, beef, lamb or chicken. Roast or mashed potatoes sit beside it, along with vegetables such as cauliflower cheese, creamed spinach, green beans, carrots, peas, beetroot and sweet potato. South African tables also offer something the British plate lacks. Rice and gravy, or pap with tomato gravy, is fairly common in place of Yorkshire pudding. The tradition has shaped food culture across the English-speaking world, particularly in Australia, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. In each place, the weekly roast keeps the same Sunday rhythm while adopting local sides.

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