Bugger my agas dead - 16 coming for Christmas lunch!

[whojamaflip]

Help!!

Came down this morning and the aga is cold 😮

I've 16 for Christmas lunch and at this moment no bloody oven😩

Have messaged our aga engineer and keeping everything crossed he will be able to sort it out in time.

How the hell do I cook everything if he doesn't? I have 4 electric rings, no microwave and can't afford to buy an oven (and no where to bloody put it!)

I also have a wood burning stove with a flat top so I suppose I could boil veggies on that but I'm more concerned about cooking the turkey!

Any ideas wise mumsnetters? Please? 🤞

Fingers crossed for the engineer fixing your aga.
Maybe message the 16 people due for dinner and let them know you could have no way of providing dinner - maybe one of them will be kind enough to host?

Have you got someone who can cook your turkey Christmas eve so you just have veg to do?
Good luck though.

Oh no, what shitty shitty timing.
I agree with the pp who suggested contacting your guests.
Even if they can't host they may be able to roast meat.

Oh no! I feel for you. Maybe someone could bring a cooked turkey? ( or cook the one you’ve already got?)
Our oven packed up one year Christmas morning. My husband has never forgotten the smell of chopping up the lukewarm turkey into portions 🤢 that we then cooked in the grill compartment with door almost closed. Worked out fine, but there were only six of us.

Have you a gas barbeque or could you get one?

Do you have a BBQ???

Is anyone close enough to cook the turkey in their oven and bring it with them?

Have you run out of oil? Have you tried relighting it?

This happened to me last Christmas but we planned the menu around using the hob and microwave.
We did not achieve a turkey.

If you were my neighbour and you were happy to eat at a different time from me eg 1pm vs 5pm you could absolutely use my oven.

Do you have a BBQ? This method will give the closest result to an oven-roasted turkey, and it’s much less hassle than it sounds. Simply put your turkey in a roasting pan on your grill with the lid down and cook for about 1.5 hours for a ten pounder. This method works better without any stuffing so that the meat is cooked thoroughly.

Poaching is possible too. Obviously, this will require a freaking large pot, but it’s totally doable. Put your turkey in the pot and add cold water until it entirely covers the bird. Bring to a boil over medium heat before cooking it on low heat. At this point, you can add your usual stock ingredients like carrots, celery, onion, and herbs. The general cooking guideline is twenty minutes for every pound of meat. Not only will your turkey be tender and juicy, you’ll be left with an amazing pot of rich broth.

Make red cabbage, bread sauce, cheese sauce and gravy the day before and store in the fridge for re-heating quickly.

Some dishwashers have a "plate warmer" cycle: Instead of washing dishes, the dishwasher dry heats them. Run the cycle a few minutes before you are ready to serve.

No bbq unfortunately - plenty of oil in the tank but no smell coming through to the burner which makes me think that the pump may have packed up. Electric to the pump is working.

Have messaged a neighbour who I know is going away to see if I can borrow her oven.

Visitors are coming from away (3 hours drive) and were bringing pigs in blankets, veg, desserts etc so those will just need reheating.

Starting to calm down a bit now - just threw me coming down to a cold kitchen - and today was baking day as well! 😩

I wouldn't want to be outside probably in the rain fannying about with a large turkey on a BBQ ... too much bloody worrying over poisoning 16 folk on Christmas day.

You need a kind person to do the turkey and roast potatoes in their oven.

Ah x post!

This happened to us a few years back, (ancient oil Aga) I pitifully begged an engineer to come out.
Agree, barbecue is your friends, esp. If gas, I use ours in the summer when the Aga is off for everything, how about a mound of bbq pigs in blankets, with all the extras, or portion the goose / turkey, so it will cook quicker?
As a side note, DH got the kit and learned how to service ours, he reckoned if he could use an anaesthetic machine and ventilator, he could learn to service an Aga. He's been doing our for the last four years.

Sorry, just saw no bbq...

Can you get an Instant Pot? Cook the Turkey in that.

How big are instant pots? large enough to cook a turkey that will feed 16?

Aga engineer is coming out tomorrow bless him!

Now just need to keep everything crossed that it's something simple which doesn't need multiple replacement parts.

Have decided I will joint and poach the turkey if I can't borrow an oven and the agas not fixed. Veg can be done on the top of the wood burner, roasties can be part boiled and cooked off in the deep fat fryer, pigs in blankets can be reheated in the double boiler.

It will all be fine (as long as the bloody electric doesn't go off - but knowing my luck.......)

Good luck, op. I'm hoping your guests enjoy it as a Christmas emergency and get into the spirit of it if the Aga engineer can't sort it.
Poussin in a Dutch oven if you are desperate for poultry.

Put a message out to borrow a couple of combination/microwave ovens

The advantage of an AGA is they are simple creatures so easy to mend and the engineers always give excellent rapid service.
All will be well.

Hi someone could bring a cooked turkey with them. I always cook the turkey, its boned and stuffed. The second it reaches the cooked temperature I take it out wrap it in loads of tin foil and a towel. I then drive to my sisters and we eat it about 2/3 hours later and its lovely still hot.

Get some of the local village teenagers to stop staging impromptu nativity plays and playing rounders, and come and hold a candlelight vigil for your Aga. Their innocent voices raised in song should melt the heart of the aga engineer and bring him to save Christmas.

Alternatively crowdfund an emergency lobby group to get Parliament to reintroduce slavery under urgency so the working class bastard can be forced to come and fix your aga. Xxx

Eh? The local teenagers are my dc who are all busy doing their chores in the farm (and couldn't carry a tune in a bucket between them 😂)

And as working class bastards ourselves I don't think I like what you are implying!!

Slow cooker for the turkey, unless it’s a big fuck off one?

Oooo someones got Aga envy OP!