If you were having a dinner with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and gravy, some questions:

1) would you have some vegetables with it?
2) would you have wine with it, and what kind of wine? Or would you have a different type of drink?
3) what kind of dessert would you have? In fact, what are some British desserts?

Thanks in advance!

Ooooooooh! Roast Dinner! Yum!

I love a good Roast Dinner. In fact, I may have to make it again very soon. Not that all ingredients (like Yorkshire pudding) are easily availabe here, but I'll make do.

1. Vegetables are usually served with the dinner. Anything goes, really, but most common are carrots and peas.

2. The British are known to drink a lot of beer. It goes well with Roast Dinner. Red wine is also an option I found out I like. But you can drink anything with it.

3. Dessert is optional. The dinner was usually enough to fill for me the rest of the day. But apple crumble with ice and custard or trifle are what I had a lot.

Okay, now I'm really hungry and I just had breakfast.

Saskia

The other vegetables that might go with that meal are roast potatoes, cauliflower and roast parsnips. And don't forget mustard and horseradish.

that's what my grandmother served for Sunday dinner. She made the most wonderful Yorkshire pudding. (she was born and raised in Yorkshire.)

So answers to your questions:
1. yes - vegetables: Peas & carrots ( or sometimes green beans) + roast potatoes
2. no alcohol - not at my grandmother's dinner table! (however, serve red wine)
3. dessert - rice pudding.

c.

Well, I've been a vegetarian since I was nine, and even before then I don't think I ever had roast beef and Yorkshire puddings (my mum hated them), but I'll have a go at answering your questions.

1) of course, any vegetables would do. I'd probably go for seasonal ones.
2) there's no reason why you couldn't have wine with it. As far as I'm aware you can have whatever drink you want.
3) apple crumble, I love apple crumble. You can have other fruit in crumble like rhubarb and blackberries (which also work well with apple apparently, but I just stick with good ol' apples).

I just got hungry too! Good idea, Marcus. Be warned, Iolanthe, American parsnips are stronger tasting and smaller in size and generally tougher
than British and Irish parsnips. It's the soil here. So forget those and do potatoes, carrots and peas.
Have a good dinner.

Artemis

Yes, there would most definitely be vegetables with the roast beef. Alternatives / additions to carrots and peas might include broccoli and cauliflower, possibly even cabbage and brussel sprouts depending on the time of year and who is cooking. I also like Marcus's notion of parsnips, especially if roasted.

Incidentally, Yorkshire puddings! A big thumbs up! I may not be a huge fan of roast beef, but, oh, those Yorkshire puds!

If you are talking a Sunday lunch / dinner, I would assume that at least some of the potatoes would be roasted.

As for what would be served by way of drink... That would depend on who is doing the serving, to whom, where and also when. (I assume you are talking now, current day. However, times and tastes change, and the amount of wine drunk in the UK has definitely increased over the last twenty-five years or so.)

To be honest, anything goes, but if I were doing a roast dinner at home, with guests, I would be far more likely to offer wine or water than anything else.

I would imagine that red wine is the 'proper' choice to go with beef, but, of course, that depends on the drinkers preferences, too.

Beer or cider are also options, I suppose. Growing up, I lived in cider country (and remember, in Britain, cider is an alcoholic drink, not straight apple juice), my folks sometimes offered guests cider from a nearby cider farm. That, of course, would have had something to do with it being a good, local, treat.

Desserts: my immedate reaction was apple crumble and custard, although this will again depend slightly on the time of year, and whether you can get hold of the apples. (Bramleys are excellent cooking apples.)

Rhubard crumble and custard is also a possibility. Rice pudding, which hadn't crossed my mind, has also been mentioned. Why not? This turned up on the menu when I was a kid. So did apple charlotte, apple meringue, apple snow... (Perhaps I should say, we had an apple tree in the garden.)

Sponge pudding of some description, and custard... That's also a good bet. Also, fresh soft fruits in the summer...

Does that help?

Krissie

Thanks to all who have responded so far!

I should have been a little more specific. If you were serving that dinner to guests, what dessert would you serve? Is apple crumble too "not-fancy"?

I'd be proud to serve my guests apple crumble, and happy to be given it, too.

Then again, I'm not known for given silver-service banquets!

Krissie