Pouring gravy over roasted meat© Getty
There is a constant debate across the country about which foods traditionally belong on a roast dinner and the Royals may have just provided the answer.
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to a Sunday roast, whether they add mashed potato as well as roast, what veg they include on their plate and how many Yorkshire puddings they prefer. Although, speaking to Heart Bingo Online, Darren McGrady, who cooked for the royals for 15 years, reveals exactly how they have their roast dinner.
He suggests that they keep things simple and stick to what he refers to as “the traditional bits”. There’s no jazzing it up or making it posher when it comes to the Royal’s roast, and they do in fact have both mashed potatoes and roast potatoes.
McGrady said: “They would just have normal food. You would think the Queen would have Yorkshire pudding with foie gras in there, but that never happened. The Queen could have anything she wanted, but for her to be able to tell the guests around the table that the carrots were grown in the gardens meant more to her.”
Christmas dinner – gravy© iStockphoto
The only difference between theirs and your average Brit’s is that it’s “cooked to perfection”. For example, the chef explains that the mashed potatoes had no signs of lumps or bits of skin, with the perfect amount of butter and cream – the devil was always in the details for him.
Like most of us, the royals are fans of a sizeable Yorkshire pudding. The chef explained: “The Yorkshires were so big we had to take the oven door off to get them out.”
They would always opt to eat them alongside beef, but notably they would never eat Yorkshire pudding paired with other meats on their roast.
As for the vegetables, they would always be served a tasty selection, all from whatever was growing on the estate. For example, if the carrots were ready to be picked, they would have that, and the applesauce was made using the apples from Highgrove.
The royals would never eat Yorkshire Pudding with meat that wasn’t beef© Angela Weiss/Getty Images for BritWeek
Although, another divisive element that often comes with the old roast dinner debate is what condiments accompany your food. As for the royals, there are a few aspects to this; according to the chef, they are a fan of horseradish.
He explains: “When it came to roast beef, they would have horseradish, as it’s the natural pairing with it. But they would have horseradish cream. It’s lighter, it’s creamer and it’s not as strong. “
The ultimate trick for this perfected taste relies on whipping cream and folding the horseradish into it. Typically, the cooks would work on a ratio of 2:1, meaning there are two parts horseradish and one part whipped cream, to lighten it.
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