Keeping the Christmas tradition alive

From the turkey and stuffing, to the roast potatoes and gravy, Darina Allen begins our Christmas food special with recipes for the perfect festive feast.

EVERY Christmas, cookery writers wrack their brains to come up with new twists on the festive meal but after all our efforts most people just want the same old favourites. When the kids come home for Christmas, they cling to the happy memories of Mammy’s dinner and don’t want anything else.

They totally don’t want any change — the same starter, a big blousy burnished turkey or goose, lots of roast spuds and gravy, the pudding and maybe a trifle, and if it had jelly and hundreds of thousands on top, so be it. That’s what we want to find. There are so few certainties in life — Christmas dinner is a tradition to be cherished, not to be messed with and certainly not something to be tampered with lightly.