To not know how to cook a Christmas dinner?

[boto]

Ok I need help organising cooking Christmas Day. Please share your wisdom MNers!

(I am a fine cook and enjoy cooking, but usually cook a regular roast dinner for 2 and not a full Christmas dinner for 9!)

I am cooking for 6 adults and 3 children.

Things I definitely need to cook are lamb leg, turkey crown, potatoes (might cheat and use frozen ones), roast carrots and parsnips, Yorkshire puds, boiled broccoli, pigs in blankets (will use ready prepared), stuffing (will use ready prepared)

and gravy.

Would also like to do a Brussels/chestnut/pancetta dish and possibly brazed red cabbage. (But these are only if space and equipment allows)

Have access to small fan oven (can fit 3 trays), separate grill, 4 hobs, microwave, slow cooker, pressure cooker and possibly steamer.

How on earth am I going to have all this hot and ready to eat at the same time

Dinner will be at 3ish. Have time to prepare things the day before (but not great at reheating things and get a bit twitchy about reheating meat).

Please MNers will you help me devise an exact plan for how to make this happen?

From Mary Berry (for reheating your veg):

When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6 and bring the vegetables up to room temperature, keeping the foil on. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until piping hot.

@PaintYourDreams

From Mary Berry (for reheating your veg):

When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6 and bring the vegetables up to room temperature, keeping the foil on. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until piping hot.

Thank you so much :)

Everything doesn’t need to be hot. That is what gravy is for!

Do we think I could do the Brussels dish the day before and refry it on the day?

Remember to heat serving dishes and plates – put them in a sink of very hot water and lift out with tongs – or wet them and put in microwave; it helps keep vegetables etc hot so you can stagger your timings.

In the olden days, we had one type of meat, potatoes & parsnips in the same baking tray as the meat, and sprouts and carrots in the same saucepan.

Having more than one type of meat and multiple vegetables, is a recent fashion which you do not have to follow.

Genuinely - it’s too much. Pare it right down and cook it properly. It’ll be much nicer.

I would also steam the broccoli the day before, then immediately plunge into iced water to stop it cooking, refrigerate them microwave on the day.

I would also buy M&S Turkey gravy.

@HeddaGarbled

In the olden days, we had one type of meat, potatoes & parsnips in the same baking tray as the meat, and sprouts and carrots in the same saucepan.

Having more than one type of meat and multiple vegetables, is a recent fashion which you do not have to follow.

Genuinely - it’s too much. Pare it right down and cook it properly. It’ll be much nicer.

I appreciate your suggestion, thank you, but I really do love a nice Christmas spread, with what I associate as the Christmas foods. It's a highlight for me :) This thread is probably reading as 'I hate cooking it's such a chore' but I genuinely do love cooking and am happy to do it and want to produce nice food (I'm just usually more of a curry cooker hence the stupid questions ).

Part cook any veg that can be roasted the day before. Put them in foil trays and then they go in the oven when the meat is resting. Put the pigs in blankets and stuffing in at the same time.

I'd cook the turkey crown the night before and slice. You can heat slices in gravy. Slow cooker for the red cabbage.

Buy a food warmer, if you're like me you can panic buy one two years in a row.

Jamie make ahead gravy x 2

Simple starters and desserts.

Enjoy. If it hot people will be happy.

@EbonanzaScrooge

I am the same! In my 30’s and never cooked a Xmas dinner before, never had it in my house! Thanks to covid it’s just the 4 of us this year so me and DH will have to do it. Thanks for posting this because it’s gave me some help! Good luck for the big day!

Thanks for making me feel less useless

And genuinely thank you for everyone who has shared some wisdom with me.

I have the buffet server mentioned at the top of this thread. It's so useful.
You'll be fine op. I would cook the meat and double wrap in foil and good hot gravy will save the day

My dh makes a dish with shredded sprouts, pancetta and pine nuts, he's already made it and frozen, so just needs to come out of the freezer on Christmas morning and be reheated in the microwave. Same with mil's red cabbage, we always have a supply of that (she makes a huge pot every time she visits and we freeze it). Gets 2 of the veggies out of the way.

Hope you have a lovely dinner!

We always cook turkey ham and stuffing in advance, then put it in slice of one of each meat and stuffing wrapped in foil then they get reheated like that on a tray for the last 20 minutes with the roast potatoes. I buy red cabbage already done and do in the microwave it's only me likes it.
Also along with roast potatoes is honey glazed parsnips, carrots and sweet potato chunks.
Sprouts and bacon fried up.
Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire. Ready made chicken gravy. Those bits last.
On the day its basically veg in the oven and faffing at the end. Having the meat done like that so much less stress

Would you be able to share the pancetta and sprouts recipe please

@R2G

Would you be able to share the pancetta and sprouts recipe please

Of course; https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sproutswithhchestnuts87565

No mention of beef in your menu, so cross the Yorkshire puddings off your list, one less thing to worry about!

Oh for goodness sake…. 🙄

I'm with the Yorkshire puddings only with beef brigade and never known anyone have two separate meats on the day. DH usually does a ham in ginger beer but it's for Boxing Day. Just the one meat for Christmas dinner.

I admittedly have never cooked a roast or much of anything really, DH does all of ours, so I don't have experience to share but is all of this that people suggest cooking beforehand really going to work? Surely a lot of stuff will be nowhere near as nice if it's cooked and reheated.

I'd do as much vegetable prep as possible the day before, and buy ready-made/ready peeled without a second thought, given the numbers involved!

Another point: check asap that you've got all the dishes, plates, cutlery etc you will need and look at how you are going to lay out the tables and chairs. Will you plate up in the kitchen or put everything on the tables in dishes/on plates for people to help themselves? The latter is nicer if you have space, but you need somebody firmly directing your diners to get on with serving themselves as soon as the food arrives so it doesn't all go cold.

Hot gravy does a lot to help keep the whole meal hot! Do you have a gravy boat, or a nice heatproof jug for that? (I have a gravy boat which comes out once a year for Christmas dinner. Lives on a top shelf out of the way the rest of the year.)

Get the meat on good and early. No experience with modern slow cookers, so I will defer to others there, but one thing I do know and that is that roast meat not just CAN be taken out at least half an hour before you eat, it SHOULD be taken out well before, as that resting period when the juices sink back into the meat really improves the flavour and moistness of the meat, and makes it easier to carve. It will stay warm for ages in a warm kitchen under foil and maybe a couple of towels. That gives you loads of time and oven space to do the things that need a hot oven and last minute cooking, e.g. roast potatoes, pigs, Yorkshire puddings.

Good luck!

Hi op. Good luck with it all. I don't know if it was Jamie Oliver who said this but take your turkey out an hour before you eat and wrap it in not just foil but also a bath towel. That keeps mine good and hot while it rests. During that time I roast the potatoes, pigs etc All my veg is peeled and blanched the day before, and I prepare cauliflower cheese and red cabbage Xmas eve too. I cook a 5kg turkey, ham and beef joints, sometimes other cultural dishes, I love every minute of shopping and cooking this meal, love Xmas!

You could roast the meats the day before (I do them in the afternoon/evening), slice them up then put the slices in a baking tray, cover in a bit of gravy to stop them drying out, cover with foil and store them in the oven overnight. You can just reheat the next day while you’re waiting for your veg and sides to cook.

Get everyone pissed, then it dosent matter! hth

The freezer is your friend. I cook roast potatoes in advance and reheat for 15 min when the meat is resting. Same with roast parsnips Swede and carrots. Prep the sprouts the night before and par boil in the morning so you just need to re heat. I'd do just one meat for 9 people if you can since your oven space may be tight. I also make a stuffing in advance and freeze, I do a lovely sausage meat, pork soaked apricots and chestnuts and just pop in the oven on the day.

Get another slow cooker, cook the lamb in one and the turkey in the other. They need to be switched on first thing, you could put them in a cold SC with a timer to set them off at 6.00 am on high.

Now forget about them for 4-5 hours when you turn them down on to low.

Peel and chop the potatoes, carrots and parsnips - you can do this the night before and leave them in cold water.

Make YP batter and leave.

Fr up some bacon or pancetta and leave to cool

About an hour before you want to eat get the biggest roasting tin you have and add fat - put in the oven for 15 mins then add the potatoes, turn and baste them at 15 mins and 30 mins this is when you add the other veg and again baste every 15 mins.

This is also when you put your second tray in the oven with cooking fat- at the top of the oven.

After another 15 mins add the YP batter.

Put the broccoli and sprouts in the steamer (I'd do extra carrots and potatoes for mash too).

After 10 mins put the chestnuts in the microwave for 2-3 mins and peel.

Last make the gravy, take the lamb out of the SC and pour off most of the fat, sprinkle with flour and add a stock cube and whisk, add boiling water and you may need to strain if there are too many meaty bits.

Everything is now cooked, so serve. The heat from the sprouts and chestnuts will warm the bacon.

My mum always takes the meat out before she puts potatoes etc. In.

Do not cheat on the roast potatoes

They are, in my opinion, the most important bit. Frozen roast potatoes would ruing Christmas for me. You can par boil then the night before/early morning so they just need putting in the oven when ready

I agree that Yorkshire puddings are part of every roast.

These are really good: groceries.morrisons.com/products/aunt-bessie-s-12-bake-at-home-yorkshires-111371011?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxsC_3cbv9AIVOIBQBh0tDgCBEAQYAyABEgJkLPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

They take about 25 mins but much nicer than the 5 min ones and they look more home made when they come out