German scholar tucks into a slice of life - the Sunday roast By Ernest Gill

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dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday December 6, 2006

By Ernest Gill, Hamburg- On any Sunday anywhere in the English-speaking world, the scene is the same. Walk into a pub in Sydney or a swanky restaurant in Johannesburg or a truck stop in Amarillo - and you'll find Sunday roast on the menu. Virtually unknown in other cultures, the tradition of eating roast beef with potatoes and peas and carrots at midday on Sunday, even on a sweltering summer's day, is one of the single most universal traditions in Anglophile culture.

Now a German scholar is making headlines back home for her trailblazing study of this myth-shrouded weekly rite of passage. Her pursuit of the traditional Sunday roast has enthralled thousands of people back home in Germany who follow her exploits via the internet and in the tabloids.

Communications student Rebecca Carl, 26, has turned her research project into a veritable quest throughout England and Wales by asking total strangers to invite her into their homes for Sunday roast.

Carl is doing a masters degree in visual communication at Swansea Institute, in south Wales. Her research schedule envisions a Sunday lunch with a different family each week until she graduates in June and she has issued an appeal for British families to help out in her new project.

That involves tucking into the traditional Sunday roast with a variety of families and playing a full part in this "uniquely British-origin ritual."

As an invited guest she whips out a notebook to study every aspect of preparing the meal and takes digital photographs and tapes conversations.

Whether she goes so far as to help with the washing up remains to be seen, but the completed project is already attracting lots of interest on the internet and could eventually find its way into a book and onto the internet.

"My goal is to get around 10 families to take part," says Rebecca, who comes from Leipzig in former communist East Germany.

"Back in Germany, Sunday lunch is nothing special. Here it is traditional," she says.

One of the first things she has learned about the traditional Sunday roast is that the choice of meat and vegetables is relatively unimportant. Sitting down for Sunday roast, even amongst vegetarians dining on a tofu-nut roast, appears to be a vital ritual for many two-income families who otherwise seldom sit down together during their busy weekday lives.

As an expert in communications, Carl says that the social aspect of the Sunday roast dinner is what appeals to her most, not just cadging a free meal.

"But it's not just about the food, it's about the communication, and the pictures. These things are important to me," says Carl, who is a professional photographer.

She is also intrigued by the fact that roast beef is so popular amongst speakers of English, while people in Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere made do with less expensive meats such as pork and chicken.

How did roast beef become the symbol of Olde England when it was strictly off the menu for all except the well-heeled until the middle of the 20th century?

It all has to do with the Tudor monarchs of England, specifically King Henry VIII, known for his love of rich food. Henry's court did more to establish British dining traditions than any other era before or since.

Henry loved a leisurely, two-hour midday meal. The midday meal was called "dinner" in Tudor times. It was only during the Georgian era two centuries later that the main hot meal of the day was served in the evening.

It was only in the 18th and 19th centuries that "dinner" became the word for the evening meal, especially in London and southern England. In northern England and in parts of America, "dinner" still refers to the midday meal, with the evening meal called "tea" or "supper" just as in Tudor times.

Henry insisted on being served a wide array of foods, which he sampled lovingly, leaving mountains of food virtually untouched. The scraps nourished his jovial kitchen staff, spurning them onto even greater culinary achievements.

Ornate sweet or savoury pies, quivering molded gelatines, rich puddings, tangy artichoke, roast pheasant and turkeys from newly discovered America, all seasoned with spices from the orient - Henry VIII and his chefs created a culinary tradition that lasts to the present day in all English-speaking countries.

And roast meat was always a feature of every dinner. Oftentimes it was a piece of game, especially boar or venison, from an animal brought down by Henry himself on his frequent hunting forays. Mostly it was roast beef.

In those days a Sunday roast truly was roasted - put on a spit and turned slowly over an open fire while being marinated continually by kitchen knaves. Today's "roast" done in an oven is really nothing more than a "bake" and has nothing of the smokey taste that Henry loved in his open-hearth roasts.

The English court became renowned among the crowned heads of Europe for having the best food. The French referred to the English enviously as "les rosbeefs," a nickname which stuck.

Henry's two-hour roast dinners were leisurely affairs, interrupted by music (the monarch played the lute himself) and with games and other amusements. Above all, there was much convivial conversation.

"That's what the Sunday roast dinner is all about," Carl says. "People eat and drink and catch up on news and gossip and mostly they enjoy each other's company. It really is a very lovely tradition."

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency