Christmas eve roast choices?

[JohnW63]

Just to keep the Christmas day gathering at my sisters house less hectic, my wife and I have started having a Christmas Eve gathering so we don't show up at my sisters. She can deal with her in-laws and her family without another 6 mouths to feed. We've had a standing rib roast a few years in a row, which I can cook just fine , but my Dad spent $200 on it last year! It's bound to be higher this year, so I want to poll the crowd for alternative roast cuts to consider. I don't have a smoker, so anything that really requires that cooking method is out. Crock Pot, Oven Roasting, Insta-Pot? Probably not a hole in the ground covered with leaves and coals and buried all day.

What cuts do you like?

 

[FNG]

How about a pot roast with chuck roast? I use a Lodge 7 quart dutch oven in the oven. Some mashed potatoes and gravy, couple side veggies, nice French bread and you're set! Crock pot would work fine, surf youtube for lots of recipes.


Of course chuck roast is even getting pricey, but not as pricey as rib roast. Top sirloin would work, but never cooked it as a roast and not sure of the price.

 

[richardp69]

I'm having a bag of Beef Jerky. Pretty sure I won't screw that up.

 

[twocorgis]

Do you have an Instant Pot or the like? If stew type things won't upset your audience, this Mississippi pot roast is killer, and super easy. I use unsalted butter, and water instead of beef broth. The "dump and start" method works just fine, too. Comes out perfect every time.

 

[HeyMikey]

I did a leg of lamb one year and it came out great. Very easy to roast. However, I knew everyone liked lamb in advance. Some people don’t.

 

[Opsimath]

We just had back-to-back pork roasts, Boston Butt, I think. There were supposed to be leftovers for Brunswick stew, but we ate all of the first one so had to do another one yesterday. Rubbed with seasonong, browned, and then cooked in a Dutch oven on low heat until fall off the bone fork tender. Threw some Yukon Gold potatoes in for the last couple of hours.

Excuse me, I need to go have some leftovers ....

 

[Brad Little]

There's always ham, too, or as suggested above, pork roast. Not to forget the traditional Christmas goose.

 

[DrumBob]

We are just doing lots of appetizers for Christmas Eve, and Italian for Christmas Day. I know we've been talking about a charcuterie spread first and stuffed artichokes, followed by a lasagna, meatballs, brasciole, salad and dessert. I finally found a butcher shop locally that knows how to cut brasciole.

I have a family of picky eaters. My younger daughter won't eat pork or roast beef, but she will eat my meatballs, and my older daughter won't eat the lasagna, so I have to make some ziti for her. My grandson probably won't eat the lasagna either, so he'll have ziti. I'm really the only one who'll eat the stuffed artichokes, but the Mrs. will pick on it.

Thanksgiving dinner cost us a small fortune. The price of fresh turkey was through the roof.

 

[Default]

We ended up with three free turkeys, courtesy of Giant supermarkets. Pretty sure we'll be having turkey.
One of my desires is to fabricate a dedicated turkey smoker. I did it a few times in the past, but I really need something purpose built to do it properly.

 

[Brad Little]

We ended up with three free turkeys, courtesy of Giant supermarkets. Pretty sure we'll be having turkey.
One of my desires is to fabricate a dedicated turkey smoker. I did it a few times in the past, but I really need something purpose built to do it properly.

When I had a smoker, it worked well for duck, cut down on the grease associated with them. Would probably to well for Geese for the same reason. Turkey is less greasy, but should do well in a smoker.

 

[Default]

It makes wonderful soup, I'll tell you what.

 

[gjmalcyon]

We ended up with three free turkeys, courtesy of Giant supermarkets. Pretty sure we'll be having turkey.
One of my desires is to fabricate a dedicated turkey smoker. I did it a few times in the past, but I really need something purpose built to do it properly.

I started breaking down my turkey when I smoke one for Thanksgiving. I remove the leg quarters and wings, and separate the breast from the back, also taking out the wishbone to make carving easier. The whole breast goes on the Weber rotisserie, and the leg quarters and wings are centered over the drip pan in the middle of my 22" Weber kettle. I was able to smoke a 17 pounder this year with room to spare. I used whiskey barrel wood chips this year and really liked the flavor.

Breaking it down speeds up the cooking, and lets you pull the breast and/or dark meat at the proper temperature without waiting for the rest of the bird to get to temp. And you get the back, neck, giblets to make stock for gravy.

 

[dreadnut]

Yeah, what FNG said. Dutch oven.

 

[gjmalcyon]

We do "Festival of The Soups" at our house on Christmas Eve - everyone brings a soup in a crock pot, and we cover my kitchen counters with a veritable smorgasbord of soup (wait, is that a mixed culinary metaphor?).

Recent choices include split pea with ham, cheeseburger soup (really good), Italian wedding, posole (aka pozole), pasta e fagioili, onion. Some good bread choices, some salad, and a nice selection of wine makes for cozy evening. The observant head off to midnight mass, and me and the other heathens sit around, drink wine and swap lies.

 

[jp]

We're partial to pork roasts in our family, so I'm with Cynthia on this one. Legs, shoulders, and butt roasts are all good choices. I splash vinegar over them, rub them down with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion power overnight, and slow roast in the oven.

Like, gjmalcyon, I've also broken down a turkey, roasted the separate pieces, and rolled stuffed the breast by rolling sausage, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, herbs, and spices into the center. We all think it's a huge improvement over the regular roasted bird.

And now I'm hungry!

 

[JohnW63]

I would be just as happy with a really good stew and some crusty bread and a salad and fruit, but I suspect after a few years of rib roast and all the fixins' , that would disappoint. That and I haven't come up with a good stew recipe.

I talked to our local Meat Co, and he suggested tri-tip. Rib roast is $25 a pound and Tri-Tip and $14 a pound. ( He told me they sell 3500 to 4000 lbs of rib roast around Christmas time. ) They'll have plenty of Tri-Tip. So, I bought a 1 pounder to practice on.

 

[davismanLV]

Tri Tip is super good. In other parts of the country it's called something else, but I don't remember what.

 

[FNG]

I would be just as happy with a really good stew and some crusty bread and a salad and fruit, but I suspect after a few years of rib roast and all the fixins' , that would disappoint. That and I haven't come up with a good stew recipe.

I talked to our local Meat Co, and he suggested tri-tip. Rib roast is $25 a pound and Tri-Tip and $14 a pound. ( He told me they sell 3500 to 4000 lbs of rib roast around Christmas time. ) They'll have plenty of Tri-Tip. So, I bought a 1 pounder to practice on.

The local publix has a special on rib roast for 5.99 per lb.

14 bucks a pound for tri-tip? Yikes.

 

[gjmalcyon]

I talked to our local Meat Co, and he suggested tri-tip. Rib roast is $25 a pound and Tri-Tip and $14 a pound. ( He told me they sell 3500 to 4000 lbs of rib roast around Christmas time. ) They'll have plenty of Tri-Tip. So, I bought a 1 pounder to practice on.

I like Tri-Tip. It is relatively unknown here on the right coast. I noodged the wonderful butcher at the meat counter at my Amish market about it and they started carrying it. I like doing it Santa Maria-style with a garlic rub and oak smoke.

 

[FNG]

Sure enough....choice boneless rib roast for 5.99 a lb. I'm tempted to buy a big one and cut it into ribeye steaks. My plan was steaks for our Xmas get-together, but ribeyes aren't my favorite.