Sunday roast

The Sunday roast is a traditional British and Irish main meal on a Sunday, consisting of roasted meat with accompaniements. Other names used for this meal are Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner, and Sunday joint. The tradition arose because the meat could be put into the oven to bake before church on a Sunday morning, and it would be ready relatively quickly when the family arrived home at lunchtime.

Sunday roasts are also common (though less so in recent times) in other Commonwealth countries such as Australia.

Typical meats used for a Sunday roast are beef, pork, lamb or chicken. More rarely duck, goose, gammon, turkey or game. The more typical roasts are often served with traditional accompaniments, these are:

• roast beef[?] - served with Yorkshire pudding; and horseradish sauce[?] or English mustard[?] as relishes.
• roast pork[?] - served with crackling[?] and sage and onion stuffing[?]; apple sauce and English mustard[?] as relishes
• roast lamb[?] - served with sage and onion stuffing[?] and mint sauce[?] as a relish
• roast chicken[?] - served with pigs in blankets, chipolata sausages[?] and stuffing[?], and bread sauce[?] or cranberry sauce[?] or redcurrant jelly[?]

Sunday roasts are served with a range of vegetables, but almost invariably this will include roast potatoes, which have been roasted in the roast meat drippings. Additionally the Sunday roast will be served with a gravy made from the meat juices.

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In recent years the appearance of news programmes in the Sunday lunchtime slot in British television schedules has resulted in the term Sunday Roast being used to describe a searching (sometimes abrasive) interview of a leading politician conducted by the presenter.