Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Christmas Meal Box

40 replies

billysboy · 27/12/2020 17:07

I thought i would be smart this year and a friend pointed me in the direction of a michelin starred chefs xmas box of food

Brilliant for my current situation and a real treat so paid my money and it all turned up last Tuesday , cooking instructions arrived via email

is it me being a bit thick but there were no timings for anything or how to bring the meal together eg Sprouts " heat in a pan until hot !
Mash potato , place in a medium saucepan with a little milk , Heat until hot and serve
Also came with Turkey breast and a Beef joint all to be cooked at 180c which is fine until internal temp is 40- 52 for beef and 60 for the turkey , again no suggested times
Every ingredient was the same

AIBU to expect an overall time ie this will take approx 1 hour for turkey and approx 10 mins for veg etc or the mains will take 2 hours overall

made for a very interesting cook on xmas day but help me out this was supposed to be easy

OP posts:
BestOfABadLot · 27/12/2020 19:31

@LowlandLucky

Maybe your skills would be better suited to a M&S ding dinner
OP didn't want a microwave dinner. She paid good money for something better than that. It wouldn't be hard to give approximate timings would it and would make it much easier for OP to cook. Surely the whole point of buying this boxed food is to save you the hassle of planning and timing.
Original poster
billysboy · 27/12/2020 19:44

I will try and upload a shot of the menu and "cooking instructions "

No meat thermometer supplied so I managed to get one at Tool station for £6 on xmas eve

It was all prepped in different cartons but my point was that it would have been great to have an overall plan , ie this will all take around blah so if you want to eat at 3 start at ?

OP posts:
lunar1 · 27/12/2020 19:51

Fucking hell that's awful! I'm a decent enough cook, but if I was buying something prepared I'd want timings on everything and it should have come with the thermometer at that price!

Posturesorposes · 27/12/2020 19:56

What I cannot get past is why someone wants to spend 300 quid for a box of ingredients for4, when that same amount would by top end luxuries for dinner and more from higher end supermarkets. Just why.

TallTowerFan · 27/12/2020 19:56

That sounds awful op. We paid £70 per head for a 5 course Christmas day lunch in a local restaurant a couple of years ago.

I'd feel ripped off if I'd ordered one to be delivered and it didn't have decent cooking instructions and I needed to buy things that most people don't have in their kitchen in order to prepare it.

greenlynx · 27/12/2020 20:09

I would expect detailed instructions and time plan to get you through the day. The point of these boxes are to eliminate stress and to guarantee fool-proof result every time. I would also expect one standard size oven being enough to cook the whole box.

StrawberrySquash · 27/12/2020 20:20

I think a timing plan is entirely reasonable to expect. Making one is part of the work of Christmas lunch, so what you were paying for. I suspect it's a chef being cheffy; they will do lots on feel and look, not just timings. And yes that's true, it's cooked when it's cooked, not after the number of minutes the packet says. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have timings as a starting point.

listsandbudgets · 27/12/2020 21:04

@LadyLindaT

I hate recipes that say things like "Meanwhile...."
Especially when the previous instruction tells you to stir something constantly!!
Hopdathelf · 27/12/2020 21:30

Are you sure there was nothing on the individual prepped boxes?

Original poster
billysboy · 28/12/2020 09:21

I would expect detailed instructions and time plan to get you through the day. The point of these boxes are to eliminate stress and to guarantee fool-proof result every time. I would also expect one standard size oven being enough to cook the whole box.

This is what I was expecting and the whole point of it to take some of the stress out of it all in an idiot proof sort of way
Each individual packet and there were around 25 did not have anything written on apart from the number

I know £300 is expensive however it was a one off xmas day treat from a top chef

OP posts:
Ileanna · 28/12/2020 09:23

What exactly came in the box? Eg turkey, stiffing, cranberry sauce etc. Just because I'm curious, hungry and like food!

I would definitely have expected specific instructions.

Ileanna · 28/12/2020 09:24

Stuffing obviously not stiffing!

KenAdams · 28/12/2020 09:24

Why won't you say where it was from?

DailyMailHater · 28/12/2020 09:28

We were due to go to Hawksmoor restaurant in London for husbands 40th but couldn’t due to lockdown, I ordered a hawksmoor at home box instead as a surprise, food was amazing, brilliant easy to follow instructions, included drinks for each course and also a qr code for their playlist to play whilst eating if you wanted to, wasn’t cheap by was totally worth it.

DailyMailHater · 28/12/2020 09:29

shop.thehawksmoor.com/

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread