Unfortunately, the traditional Sunday roast dinner, comprising of, a succulent joint of beef, pork, lamb or chicken, served with, golden, crispy roast potatoes, homemade Yorkshire puds, fresh carrots, green cabbage, broccoli shoots, golden swede mashed with oodles of butter, garden peas, and lashings of thick, brown gravy is no longer a must for a Sunday lunchtime. Years ago, the traditional Sunday was always the same, going off to church, then home for dinner, sitting together around the table, followed by a quiet afternoon of reading, playing board games or indulging in a favourite therapeutic pastime. Bringing out the knitting needles, crochet hooks or Crochet Blanket Kits supplied by a professional company such as https://www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/blanket-and-cushions-crochet-kits and spending a very pleasant afternoon sitting on the brown, comfy sofa as a family spending precious time together.
Nowadays, modern families tend to sit and eat their dinners on lap trays watching the television. It’s really sad that the old-fashioned way of sitting together as a family at the dining table and talking about simple things doesn’t happen anymore. Maybe, partly because the rising prices of obtaining fresh vegetables, a joint of meat and all the trimmings has become just too expensive for a once-a-week meal, or maybe it’s just about families preferring to watch television as they eat. The old, wise saying, “The Family Who Eats Together Stays Together” has proven to be true in the majority of couples who have managed to stay happily married. Those families who watch television and no longer communicate during mealtimes have proven to be a much higher part of the sad statistics of broken marriages.
Let’s try to get back to the traditional Sundays, where going to church as a family was important, eating a proper Sunday dinner together lovingly prepared by the whole family and spending quality time talking, playing games and getting creative together was a typical Sunday. Going for a long walk, out into the countryside, exploring waterways and woods then home for a pot of tea, enjoying a homemade cake followed by a quiet evening of knitting or crocheting. These old, traditional values of eating, walking, talking and playing together can help families stay healthy and happy.
Where the Sunday roast tradition began
The Sunday roast is thought to date back to the reign of Henry VII in the late 15th century, when people in Britain ate a great deal of meat. The yeomen who guarded the king became affectionately known as Beefeaters because of their love of roast beef.
Not everyone had a large fireplace big enough to cook a joint. Many poorer families would leave a more modest piece of meat with the baker on their way to church, and it would cook in the bread oven, which was not needed for baking on a Sunday. That gave almost everyone access to a cooked meal, and the traditional Sunday lunch was born.
The Yorkshire pudding has always gone with roast beef, but it was not originally served alongside it. Instead, it came as a starter with plenty of gravy. For poorer households the idea was that everyone would be full before the main course and eat less of the meat, which was still very expensive.
