With Christmas and the holiday season approaching it’s a time when families, friends and loved ones come together, and everyone expects to be well fed. Christmas lunch takes an average of 3.3 hours to cook and will take over 4 Christmases to perfect.
BBC Food can help you along the way with recipes, menus and our new roast calculator.
This year I’ll be having turkey for Christmas lunch, and I won’t be alone. It’s expected that around 76% of UK families will be doing so too. Last year people in the UK consumed 10 million turkeys!
It was different back in the day...
Long before the turkey became the norm the popular choice was a goose. Until the 1950’s turkey was considered a luxury, which is why in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol Bob Cratchit had a goose before Scrooge bought him a turkey.
Looking back, most rural households in Britain would keep at least one pig. I’ve heard stories from my mum about when she was a little girl and how the fattening of the pig was a way to ensure there was plenty of pork for the family at Christmas.
Now there are plenty of choices. For example, 7% of people in the UK find a simple roast chicken is the perfect Christmas dinner because it works wonderfully with all the traditional trimmings.
After turkey and chicken, beef (6% of population), goose (2% ) and pork (2%) follow in popularity.
Don't worry, BBC Food is here to help
Whatever roast is you're doing this year, BBC Food is on hand to make cooking it as easy as possible.
Our Christmas present to you is a Roast Calculator which will give you the times and temperatures for cooking the most popular meats just how you like them.Once you’ve selected your meat the roast calculator lets you select your type and size of joint, and how well done you like it.
Take a look at our recipes for turkey, chicken, beef, pork and goose. Need ideas for the trimmings as well? Here's our guide.
Finally, from me and all at BBC Food we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
