Mass Christmas dinner

[picklemepopcorn]

Hi,
I'm likely to end up responsible for a local community meal (old folks etc). 50 people.

I'll have a double oven, lots of slow cookers and some pressure cookers. Also a warming cupboard.

I was thinking pâté/mushroom with Melba toast. I can make those up and stack them in a cool room.

Pudding- platters of mince pies, Christmas cake fingers, posh seasonal biscuits or little cakes.

Main course- gammon done in the pressure cooker. Turkey crown in the slow cooker overnight.

That means on the day I

Oops!

On the day I'd have the pudding platters and starters to arrange.
The gammon/ham to cook.
Gammon and turkey to carve.
The meat can wait in the hot cupboard.

I"ll have the ovens to do the potatoes.

I'll use an air fryer for premade stuffing balls and sausages. wrapped in bacon.

Pressure cooker for swede and carrot mash.
Sprouts on the hob.
Gravy and cheese sauce.

Can anyone see a better way to do it?

Jamie Oliver has a recipe for orange polenta biscuits...they store really well in an airtight tin .
I found the recipe made about 50 biscuits .

It was to go with a chocolate mousse.

Have you got access to a microwave?

Things like the mash, gravy & cheese sauce can be made in advance & reheated rather than juggling lots of hot dishes & co-ordinating timings. Frozen roast potatoes are surprisingly good.

Have you got people helping you?

Do you really need both turkey and gammon?

Good luck, some of my best Christmases were spent volunteering .

Yes. Good luck !

Frozen roasts
Frozen carrots or mixed vegetables
Frozen ready made Yorkshire puddings
Gammon in the slow cooker as well

Good luck

I'd cook the meat the day before, then when cold slice thinly and use the hot gravy and hot cheese sauce plus hot plates on the day. The ham will slice much better when cold.

I like the sound of the platters of cakes, they will look fab! Maybe have a little tub of edible glitter to sprinkle over?

Would bread rolls be easier than melba toast?

Oh yes! Lots of luck!

You are amazing for doing this! I'm a rubbish cook so can't help with advice, except...have you thought of approaching your local supermarket and asking if they would donate mince pies, cakes etc. This could cut the cost down and leave you with more money to spend elsewhere.

I would stick with 2 courses, they just don't eat that much. You need a veggie option, gluten free etc because there's always people with dietary requirements. The cash and carry sells turkey presliced - is this an option? Borrowed 3-4 electric steamers are good for veg, I do mashed swede, Brussels, carrots and peas for ours, plus roast potatoes, Christmas pud (microwave) or ice cream for dessert to keep it simple. I don't offer a second meat option but have a veggie option (which is vegan and gluten free)

This is a lovely idea.

I think you have two many options here. I would ditch the starter and instead do a ‘proper’ pudding such as a sponge with custard (in slow cooker).

I wouldn’t do two meats - just turkey will be fine although gammon is easier to cook and carve in a large quantity. Roast potatoes. Carrots and swede. Sprouts or something green. Gravy. I’ve never had cheese sauce with a roast so wouldn’t bother with that. Stuffing and/or pigs in blankets would be good. If you can borrow extra slow cookers they can be kept warm. You only need one each.

What you’re suggesting sounds really good. I hope you have help!

Good luck!

I'd avoid pate. I love it but elderly people, pregnant women and the immunocompromised are advised to avoid it because of the risk of listeriosis.

A lovely thing you are doing and I hope it goes well. I'd echo the suggestions re gravy and not having pate.

Lots of good ideas there for me to mull over!

I should have help, but I'll be the one organising and planning.

The thing about three courses and two meats- they've had that in the past when the team were cooking at home and bringing things in.
I'm not allowed to do that (food safety regs, my kitchen isn't registered- neither was theirs).

We've not had vegetarians yet (older demographic, pit village). I was planning to keep the veg meat free, and some vegetarian potatoes, so that they can have a lovely plate of roast trimmings with veg gravy and cheese sauce.

Agree that you can probably skip the starter, not everyone likes pate and it is not always to store and serve correctly. We do a similar three course meal for our old folks lunch but do a starter like melon that can be prepped in advance?

I'm an experienced outside events caterer so hoping I can offer a little advice. I would cook as much as possible before hand and reheat, the pressure of waiting for something to cook is not worth it for slightly fresher vegetables! A big pan of boiling water to quickly dip the veg in will be fine for reheating any steamed veg. As others have suggested, meat will carve a lot easier if cooked and cooked the day before. You say 50 plates of pate, bear in mind that will take up an awful lot of bench space you may need for preparation. Soup will heat quickly on the stove and you just have to line bowls out to pour it out and have bread on the table ready. A good job to delegate! I love the dessert idea, makes things easy doing little platters. Trimmings served in bowls for people to help themselves rather than on the plate may make life easier for you. Any specific questions I'm happy to help

Do you want to DM me. There's a huge meal done in our town every Christmas Day and I help (but not the cooking!) so could find you someone to ask questions of.

Smoked salmon is an easy starter, sliced and buttered brown bread with it.

Also, local businesses do donate here, so you might be able to find a butcher who will help with meats. We also get lots of donations of mince pies and Christmas puddings, and the local food bank also help by donating some things that they get but don't give out (cranberry sauce and so on).

Oh, also, if you can borrow a couple of microwaves, Christmas pudding is really easy.

Also, ask your local Christmas tree supplier if they will give you one or two leftovers on Christmas Eve.

Funnily enough, Queens, space isn't a problem! We're in church, and we have a side room where we do Sunday school (it's arctic unless you make a special effort to heat it!) with lots of tables, and we have those plate stackers.

That said, we could set up a soup table in the church, with the bowls and a slow cooker full of soup. That would definitely work and save space.

The problem with letting people serve the trimmings is on previous occasions they've been a bit overgenerous with themselves- we've not even been able to put gravy jugs out! We circulate with a big jug of gravy.

I might do a 'table host' arrangement- one person allocated to each table to fetch drinks etc.

The church will be beautifully decorated. We'll cover the tables with banquet roll, and use cheerful wrapping paper as a runner.

I'm pondering the reheating of meat on the day.

I think I'm going to buy ready made gravy- one less thing to worry about, bearing in mind I have to make and store it at the church to do it ahead of time.

I helped for a couple of years at a Salvation Army Christmas day a bit like this. Bloody hard work but a great day - good on you for doing this.

Soup is a good idea. What a lovely thing of you to do. I hope that it goes as smoothly as possible.

Sounds like a huge job! Hope it goes well.

Don’t know what your budget is like but tbh I wouldn’t waste it on ready made gravy. Tubs or sachets of ready made gravy will also need heating on the hob or take up valuable microwave space/time

Presuming you’ll have one of those big Burko boilers for hot water it takes seconds to make instant gravy and will cost pennies for several jugs full - even if each table needed a refill it would be no more than £1 to make several more jugs.

Also worth noting that regular Bisto is vegetarian, so no need to make separate for the veggies.

If you make a cheese sauce maybe use it for broccoli/cauliflower so that you can again just reheat in the oven and that would make a nice vegetarian dish too. (Unless you have no vegetarians, in which case ditch the cheese sauce and just serve carrots and sprouts)

Good luck!

I'm feeling like a fraud! It won't be on Christmas Day- probably the week before!