Sunday Roast

About Sunday Roast

Britain's most sacred meal — a joint of beef (with Yorkshire pudding), leg of lamb (with mint sauce), pork (with crackling and apple sauce) or chicken (with stuffing), roasted in a hot oven and served with roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables, gravy and all the trimmings; eaten at 2 p.m. every Sunday; the meal around which British family life organises itself.

Britain's most sacred meal: a joint of beef roasted with Yorkshire pudding, or a leg of lamb with mint sauce, or pork with crackling and apple sauce, or chicken with stuffing. Served at 2 p.m. on Sunday with roast potatoes that have been par-boiled and shaken until their surfaces are rough, then roasted in beef fat until each side is deep gold and crisp.

For beef Sunday roasts, Yorkshire pudding is not optional. A simple batter of egg, flour and milk poured into a very hot roasting tin of beef fat and baked at high heat until it puffs dramatically and turns golden — hollow, crisp outside, soft inside.

What to Expect

The Sunday roast arrives at the table as a centrepiece — the joint on a carving board, the potatoes in the roasting tin, the Yorkshire puddings puffed and golden in their own tin. You eat for 90 minutes and the rest of the afternoon belongs to the sofa.

Why Try It

The Sunday roast is the meal that British food culture was built around — the one weekly event where quantity is intentional and the kitchen takes no shortcuts.