The Sunday roast dinner is Britain's riskiest dish to cook
A risk assessment of kitchen hazards by home insurance experts Zurich has put the Sunday Roast at the top of the list of the riskiest meals to prepare, ahead of Chicken Tikka Masala and the Full English Breakfast.
Zurich's modern risk assessors ranked UK culinary favourites as part of its 2013 audit of risks in the kitchen - which is where more than half of accidental fires in the home are started.
Britain's top five riskiest dishes:
1. Sunday Roast - Risk rating: 73 / 100
2. Chicken Tikka Masala - Risk rating: 54 / 100
3. Full English Breakfast - Risk rating: 39 / 100
4. Fish and Chips - Risk rating: 38 / 100
5. Bangers and Mash - Risk rating: 36 / 100
Britain's least risky dishes:
1. Beans on toast - Risk rating: 02 / 100
2. Boiled egg and soldiers - Risk rating: 11 / 100
The elements that put the Sunday Roast top of the ranking include the risk involved with simultaneously cooking a variety of ingredients, the number of knifes needed for peeling and chopping, the potential for pans to boil over and the severity of burns which could be caused by hot oil, spitting fat or heat from the oven.
Shelina Permalloo, Winner of Masterchef 2012, adds: "Given the number of elements and crucial timing involved in cooking a Sunday roast dinner, it's not surprising it's the riskiest to prepare. It's important to give yourself plenty of time - running around like a headless chicken will undoubtedly lead to an accident.
"Make sure you have all the preparation, such as peeling and chopping, done before you start on the cooking - trying to do everything at once is tricky to manage. Don't be distracted as pans on the hob can easily boil over and roast potatoes in oil can get dangerously hot.
"Preparation in advance will also allow you to relax and enjoy your Sunday roast with your friends and family."
Phil Ost, Zurich home insurance expert said: "The modern kitchen is a feast of gadgets and gizmos which can easily become a recipe for disaster.
"Celebrity chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and TV programmes like Masterchef have inspired many of us to get experimenting in the kitchen, with the likes of blow torches, deep fat fryers and mandoline slicers now common place.
"However, our 2013 risk assessment shows that it's the more you have going on at once when cooking which is likely to result in an accident - with the greatest danger being a fire.
"So it's not surprising that the Sunday roast dinner - often described as being like a ‘military operation' - tops the list of Britain's riskiest dishes."
To calculate the risk of the individual cooking processes, Zurich's contemporary risk team broke down each component action required to prepare and cook the dishes, estimating the consequence and frequencies of events and plotting them against the event consequence.
