Christmas dinner

Glenster

Turkey is a dry meat. There a reason no-one eats it outside of Xmas.

I will fight anyone who has a pop at Ham though.

Glenster

Walter H Price wrote: »

not the biggest fan of the traditional roast meat and veg its a bit dull tbh.

I love cooking and like to play around with the ingredients a bit , last year we had stuffing balls with garlic butter to start , a turkey mince and gammon lardons lasagna with Brussels sprout and smocked bacon gratin , chocolate brownies and homemade Christmas cookies with custard and cream for desert , was awesome.

Thinking of trying maybe an Idian or Chineese theme this year

Jaysus, do you have a website I can donate to? I'm on the verge of tears over here.

Lasagna for Christmas Dinner?

Walter H Price

Glenster wrote: »

Jaysus, do you have a website I can donate to? I'm on the verge of tears over here.

Lasagna for Christmas Dinner?

the meat and veg thing is just so dull

Glenster

Walter H Price wrote: »

the meat and veg thing is just so dull

You've just mixed it up but instead of having a nice fancy ham and nice turkey, you're eating lardons and turkey mince.

A well cooked Christmas turkey is objectively nicer than turkey mince. Ditto Ham and lardons.

Walter H Price

Walter H Price wrote: »

the meat and veg thing is just so dull

How can food be "dull"? Christmas dinner is delicious and I get the impression some people are just trying to be different for the sake of it and its fairly sad.

GingerLily

Jayden Defeated Silhouette wrote: »

How can food be "dull"? Christmas dinner is delicious and I get the impression some people are just trying to be different for the sake of it and its fairly sad.

My mum never liked Turkey, so we'd have anothe bird (duck or goose usually) instead, as long as there's good stuffing and roast potatoes on the table I'm happy

Ah yes stuffing. One of my other obsessions after dips. I tend to make not one - but three - different types

midnight city

I'm really looking forward to my Christmas dinner.

GingerLily

GingerLily wrote: »

My mum never liked Turkey, so we'd have anothe bird (duck or goose usually) instead, as long as there's good stuffing and roast potatoes on the table I'm happy

That's different it's tradition in some families to have a different bird.

andekwarhola

Theonegun wrote: »

Does anyone else not care for it ??

I just eat it. I'm not looking to settle down with it.

OldGoat

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah yes stuffing. One of my other obsessions after dips. I tend to make not one - but three - different types

Would they be sausage meat, chestnut and sage&onion&breadcrumb by any chance?
I made all three once upon a christmas, and with the leftovers I made a roulade which I sliced and fried for breakfast the following morning.
Breakfast stuffing was more popular than the previous dinner stuffing.

andekwarhola

GingerLily wrote: »

My mum never liked Turkey, so we'd have anothe bird (duck or goose usually) instead, as long as there's good stuffing and roast potatoes on the table I'm happy

Same. Usually do Duck/Goose and Ham here. Turkey is hard-going sometimes.

riffmongous

I had a conversation with my mother about Christmas dinner recently, I was wondering when turkey became common in Ireland, anyone know? She said that as far back as she can remember in the 60s it was turkey. I'd have though it would have been duck or goose

HensVassal

DavidLyons_ wrote: »

Turkey and ham are two very, very mediocre meats to choose for the biggest family get-together meal of the year. I'd replace those if the wife would let me.

Why not replace the wife? :pac:

Shenshen

riffmongous wrote: »

I had a conversation with my mother about Christmas dinner recently, I was wondering when turkey became common in Ireland, anyone know? She said that as far back as she can remember in the 60s it was turkey. I'd have though it would have been duck or goose

I don't know about Ireland, but in the UK I think it changed back in Victorian times. It used to be goose, traditionally, but when turkeys started to become available people just went for the sheer size of them. They're easier to breed and you get a lot more kilos of meat for your money than you would with geese and ducks.
Not sure how accurate that is, but it sounded credible when I heard it.

evil_seed

Venison is where it's at :cool:

HensVassal

Deleted User wrote: »

I do not care for the Turkey dinner either. I find the meat dry and bland too. Someone else said "not with gravy" and sure, that helps. But I want a meat that is _complimented_ by the gravy. Not one where I am using the gravy to mask it's deficiencies. Gravy should accentuate the experience, not rescue it.

So I am a duck or goose man myself. I keep geese and have been giving it a nice happy well fed and well cared for life as we work towards his day of slaughter My 6 year old daughter has been looking after it a lot and has named him "Danny the Dinner".

So the roasties will be deep roasted in nice fresh goose fat this year, and the goose based gravy will be an addition to a wonderful meal, not a mask of it's horrors.

Never had goose. Tell me how it tastes

sbsquarepants

DavidLyons_ wrote: »

Turkey and ham are two very, very mediocre meats to choose for the biggest family get-together meal of the year. I'd replace those if the wife would let me.

Turkey is a bet meh after a slice or two, but it ain't Christmas without it. Ham however is out of this world delicious, as is anything you cook in the ham water, particularly chick peas. Om nom nom nom nom nom:D:D

Stuffing is always the tastiest part though.

HensVassal

Walter H Price wrote: »

not the biggest fan of the traditional roast meat and veg its a bit dull tbh.

I love cooking and like to play around with the ingredients a bit , last year we had stuffing balls with garlic butter to start , a turkey mince and gammon lardons lasagna with Brussels sprout and smocked bacon gratin , chocolate brownies and homemade Christmas cookies with custard and cream for desert , was awesome.

Thinking of trying maybe an Indian or Chineese theme this year

I usually have a turkey vindaloo on the 26th with the leftovers :pac:

sbsquarepants

HensVassal wrote: »

I usually have a turkey vindaloo on the 26th with the leftovers :pac:

Turkey sweet and sour for me, or sometimes szechuan - usually on the 27th

HensVassal

HensVassal wrote: »

Never had goose. Tell me how it tastes

One thing in life I have never been good at is describing how things taste. I know of no way to do it other than to compare it to other things. Which does not always help.

Closer to duck than anything else I guess. I have had pigeon and it has over tones of the taste of pigeon. It is a dark lean meat like duck rather unlike poultry "white" meat you associate with turkey or chicken. I guess when comparing it to duck the only word I can use is "rich". It is a dark, lean but _rich_ flavored meat.

The thing you will notice about it though compared to duck is that it is a bit greasier / fattier. Which adds a lot of flavor and also gives a lot more run off to use when making the perfect roastie potatoes. The fattieness is what differentiates it from pheasant and turkey I suppose.

I looked at people selling Goose Meat online like "Exotic Meats" and a couple of them said it tastes like Well Done Roast Beef. Not entirely sure I agree with that myself.

As with most meats it depends on the size and how the animal was kept and fed. Since we are keeping it ourselves as home farmed meat - it has led a very free range life and fed exceptionally well

pilly

If I'm doing the cooking I don't care for it all because by the time you sit down you're too tired to care! If it's handed up to me I love it though. Turkey done well can be gorgeous with nice stuffing and it's a meat I wouldn't be able to afford all year round.

pilly

evil_seed wrote: »

Venison is where it's at :cool:

Had venison once, was very disappointed.

_Jamie_

OldGoat wrote: »

In your face bland turkey meat.

It's not bland though. Cooked right, it's moist and full of flavour, without gravy. I actually don't find roast beef any more flavoursome even if cooked perfectly.

Glenster

pilly wrote: »

Had venison once, was very disappointed.

If its the Venison they sell in the old Superquinns I don't blame you. its basically nonsense meat.

Theonegun

Never tasted venison is it nice ?? Yeah turkey is too dry ,home made hot and crispy chicken is good similar to the one you would get out of a chinese.

Glenster

_Jamie_ wrote: »

It's not bland though. Cooked right, it's moist and full of flavour, without gravy. I actually don't find roast beef any more flavoursome even if cooked perfectly.

Name a blander/dryer meat than turkey.

You cant. there isn't one.

maudgonner

riffmongous wrote: »

I had a conversation with my mother about Christmas dinner recently, I was wondering when turkey became common in Ireland, anyone know? She said that as far back as she can remember in the 60s it was turkey. I'd have though it would have been duck or goose

I know my mam's family always had goose up until the 60s/70s. Partly because they had a farm and raised their own. (Turkeys are apparently quite hard to farm, so weren't as common).

Walter H Price

Jayden Defeated Silhouette wrote: »

How can food be "dull"? Christmas dinner is delicious and I get the impression some people are just trying to be different for the sake of it and its fairly sad.

No we just generally don't do roast meat , my OH eats literally no veg so to be honest were much happier just taking the traditional ingredients and something a bit different with them , still get all the great flavors of the turkey and Bacon , Stuffing and sprouts but mixed up and made into something totally different from the stand roast meat and boiled/roast veg, which i still find to be a bit dull.

we tend to cook allot of Italian , Chinese , Thai , that kind of stuff so its a bit of fun kind incorporating the Christmas thing into it

Glenster wrote: »

You've just mixed it up but instead of having a nice fancy ham and nice turkey, you're eating lardons and turkey mince.

A well cooked Christmas turkey is objectively nicer than turkey mince. Ditto Ham and lardons.

Exactly we've mixed it up because we're not into the traditional roast think even when cooked properly Turkey is pretty bland its dry cardboard at worst but even moist its pretty uninspiring ... its not like we used cheap ingredients in making dinner last year i make all my own sauces and pasta , stuffing etc from scratch we bought a gammon joint and cut it ourselves for the lardons and i minced a whole turkey breast fresh for the mince.

All depends what floats your boat and roast meat and a few over boiled veg doesn't float mine

pilly

Glenster wrote: »

If its the Venison they sell in the old Superquinns I don't blame you. its basically nonsense meat.

No it was in a restaurant. Just didn't like the taste at all.