London - Getting the Christmas Day meal just right is so important to Britons that a third of them admit to “rehearsing” it ahead of the big day.
In fact, some start planning the Christmas meal at least a month before it’s served.
A survey of 2 000 adults has exposed the lengths people go to, to ensure the perfect “ta-dah” moment.
Those who do trial-run the big meal admit that it takes on average three attempts to get it right, costing them £32 (R540) in ingredients.
So it is no wonder that nearly a third (29 percent) go as far as buying a supermarket-prepared dish and passing it off as their own.
Almost half (40 percent) of those surveyed admit if it’s the first time they’ve had to follow a particular recipe, they’ll choose to rehearse it ahead of time, while a fifth admit their cooking skills aren’t up to scratch so thought it best to rehearse the dish just in case.
A fifth (21 percent) of Christmas cooks cited the gravy as the component they struggled most to get right, narrowly beating perfect roast potatoes (18 percent) and the king of the festive table – the turkey (17 percent). - Daily Mail