Some reports say Sunday Roast Dinner dates back to medieval times. Then, as now, people would attend morning service before returning to a dinner of roast meat. The difference now is that people spend the rest of their day washing the car, doing the gardening or watching TV rather than in a field practicing their battle techniques.
Sunday is traditionally the day of rest and the time people have free to spend with their loved ones. So for centuries people have been sitting down to Sunday Dinner with the family. Sometimes this is just the immediate family, while at other times the gathering is extended by additional family members and friends.
In our household today’s roast was lamb. For years we tried unsuccessfully to cook it until I discovered a wonderful Greek recipe. Last week it was Beef and before that Chicken and turkey. Yes, we mix the meats up to add variety to the proceedings. I don’t cook pork, because I don’t like it, but the family are free to eat it whenever they go out. Occasionally we have duck and once even tried goose. Nut roast made an appearance one week, but the cry of “where’s the meat?” was enough to send us back to the traditional choices.
Almost as important as the meat is the choice of accompaniments. Roast beef requires Yorkshire pudding and horseradish sauce or wholegrain mustard. Roast chicken must have stuffing and cranberry sauce. Roast lamb is served with mint sauce and all roasts have to have gravy.
A decade or so ago my cousin asked me who, apart from our parents, still cooked a Sunday Roast. Well, we do, I replied, much to her amazement. I love the idea of the family coming together around the dining table and sharing their stories and opinions. But is she alone in thinking the Sunday dinner is destined to die out? I read that “Dinner on Sunday, in consequence, has lost its importance. It is no longer Sunday dinner."[1]However, it should be noted that this lament was written in 1929!
So I can see the tradition of the Sunday Roast Dinner surviving….at least for a few years yet.
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[1]"Sunday Dinner, Old and New," New York Times, September 22, 1929 (p. SM10) via http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq7.html
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