Sitting down to a Sunday roast with family or friends is something of a British institution and there’s also a lot of comfort and warmth to be had from tucking into this classic hearty meal during the colder autumn and winter months.

Everyone has their own version of the perfect roast dinner though and opinions can vary wildly on which meats, vegetables and side dishes should be included. To help settle things for once and for all, Gorgeous Cottages have surveyed more than a thousand people up and down the country to find the nation’s ultimate roast dinner items and those things we would prefer were left off the plate. Find out more.

This is what the UK’s ultimate roast dinner consists of:

Beef
Carrots
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Roast potatoes
1-2 Yorkshire Puddings
Lashings of gravy
Beef reigns supreme as our favourite roast dinner centrepiece with 37% of respondents naming the beef their favourite. Lamb took second place with 28% followed by chicken with 14%. However there is one part of the UK that disagrees with these findings – the Welsh prefer to have lamb on a roast dinner crowning it their number one meat.

Turkey is just for Christmas

Turkey was not a popular choice for Sunday lunches with just 5% of respondents opting for this festive favourite as their roast dinner winner. Does this mean it’s time to end our turkey tradition and start trying alternatives for our Christmas lunch? Another Christmas classic that didn’t perform well in our roast dinner survey are pigs in blankets with the majority of people saying they could take them or leave them.

Half of us tuck into a roast dinner each week

That’s right, we love a roast dinner so much that 50% of survey respondents will sit down to one of them every single week and 86% of us will eat a roast at least once a month. Older respondents in our survey are the most likely to have a weekly roast dinner with 61% of over 65s doing this.

London and Scotland are the regions that eat a roast dinner least frequently and Wales is the area of the UK that tucks into the most roast dinners.

We LOVE Yorkshire Puddings

Yorkshire Puddings were named one of the top 3 essential items for a Sunday roast (along with gravy and roast potatoes) with most people choosing to have 2-3 of them on their dinner. 1% of people surveyed admit to loving Yorkshire Puddings so much that they would take at least 7 of them to have with their roast.

Yorkshire, as you would probably expect, is the region that loves Yorkshire Puddings the most and 14% of respondents in this region regularly tuck into more than three of them with their dinner.

Our favourite vegetable is carrots

Carrots came out top of the crops when it comes to vegetables with 86% of people choosing to include them in their perfect roast dinner. Other favourite vegetables in the study include cauliflower, broccoli, sprouts and peas while cabbage, turnip, kale and sweetcorn came bottom of the list.

When it comes to potatoes they HAVE to be roasted

Roast potatoes were named the number one essential item for a roast dinner (ahead of even gravy) so getting them perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside can make or break our favourite Sunday meal.

However, mashed potatoes are a middle of the road option for the British public with the majority of people say they can take or leave them from the Sunday roast

If you’re looking to create the perfect roast dinner for family and friends it’s best to keep boiled potatoes off the menu – the majority of the British public said ‘not on my plate’ for this boring version of the vegetable.

We are most likely to have our Sunday roast at home

It seems that home is where the heart is when it comes to Sunday lunch with 86% of respondents typically having a home-cooked roast and just 10% going out to eat. Over 65’s are the age group most likely to eat their roast at home and respondents from London are most likely to go out to a pub or restaurant for their Sunday lunch.

The UK really does love a roast dinner

When it came to scoring just how much we love this classic British dish, our survey respondents gave the roast dinner a very strong 8.5 out of 10. People in the 18 – 25 age group love roast dinners the most according to our survey, giving the Sunday staple an average score of 9.2 out of 10. Midlands and Scotland are the regions with the most move for a roast dinner – both giving the dish a sky high score of 9.1 out of 10.