Does anyone cook the turkey the day before..?

[NettleMania]

This is probably sacrilege, but it would make my life so much easier. There would be more room in the fridge and more room in the oven. And I'd have more down time.

Does anyone else do this?

p.s. I am a turkey virgin as we usually have goose which I always do the day before. I have reluctantly been persuaded by misguided 'traditionalists' to do turkey this year...

Yep! Always! We have a large turkey crown so I tend to keep it 'whole' in foil in the fridge overnight so that it doesn't dry out. Then, I carve it Xmas Day & re-heat gently in the oven, in a dish, with some of the saved cooking juices from the day before - it's always lovely! 🤷‍♀️

My mil cooks her Turkey on Christmas Eve and then serves it without reheating on Christmas Day. It is absolutely disgusting, and makes everything else on the plate luke warm. She is a terrible cook and buys everything ready prepared (even the microwave veg) but still it is awful and terribly dry… last time we went to hers I bought the Turkey and cooked it myself that day- it was much nicer and meant I didn’t have to spend the whole morning at hers

Can I ask a question for those who cook it on Christmas day (I'm on the Christmas Eve camp 🤣)

Do you leave it in the oven cooking If you go out eg to church in the morning? That would make me nervous!

My mum always cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve so she could worry about all the trimmings on Christmas Day. Her lunch was always great and being the age I am now, can see it was a lot less stress!

Why would a turkey in the oven stop her worrying about the trimmings?

@Plantsandpuddlesuits

Can I ask a question for those who cook it on Christmas day (I'm on the Christmas Eve camp 🤣)

Do you leave it in the oven cooking If you go out eg to church in the morning? That would make me nervous!

We don’t go to church, although I’d love to attend a midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

But we eat later in the day anyway - anywhere between 4.30 and 6 really (whenever everything is ready, so again no stress about getting it ready for a specific time, and no need to get up at the crack of dawn to get the turkey in the oven), so if we were to go to church in the morning I’d just put the dinner on when we got back.

@boto

Heating conversations going on here. A few thoughts;

Leaving the oven on and unattended overnight??!!

And warmed meat in gravy can be bloody delicious.

Yep leaving the oven on overnight and unattended. Much like anything plugged in overnight and unattended. All I can say is I’ve done it like this for decades as has my mum and all is well.

@ancientgran she does a lot of trimmings and has a small oven!

JillBob The trimmings can cook while the turkey rests and then you get lovely freshly cooked turkey.

No.

Sounds grim.

A cooked turkey will keep hot for at least an hour, if you wrap it in foil with a couple of tea towels on top.

It will carve better when ‘rested’ too.

Surely no need to cook the day before - that hour should give enough time for anything else that needs to go in the oven, as long as you have parboiled spuds, pigs in blankets etc., ready to shove in.

I can’t imagine cooking it the day before and warming it up in gravy, ugh. A Christmas turkey needs to go on the table whole, in all its golden glory.

Always. And eat a turkey sandwich on Christmas Eve. Ive never cooked on Christmas morning.

@notanothertakeaway

My parents used to cook it on Christmas Eve, carve it and then reheat in stock on Christmas Day

My cousin cooks and carves on Christmas Eve, then serves cold turkey. She swears that on hot plates, with plenty of gravy, no one notices

Nah, they notice.

One of my exes' mum did that to make her life easier because her daughter would only eat meat if it was chilled overnight and then minced into a paste with gravy. It was pleasant enough in slices, but it was clearly cold turkey with hot gravy on top - otherwise, her daughter wouldn't have eaten it.

From my point of view, it was free food and avoided my having to sit alone at home for the entire Christmas period. So I wasn't exactly going to complain, but I could tell.

No, I can't stand reheated food from the microwave, it dries it out and it never tastes as good.

Leaving the oven on and unattended overnight??!!confused

How else do you do 24 hour slow cooked pork?

If people are worried about leaving oven on sort yourself some smoke alarms so you don't have to worry.

No, what's the point? Once it's in the oven the work is done, it's the other bits that take more time. My DM used to cook it the day before and it was dry as

@Plantsandpuddlesuits

Can I ask a question for those who cook it on Christmas day (I'm on the Christmas Eve camp 🤣)

Do you leave it in the oven cooking If you go out eg to church in the morning? That would make me nervous!

I don't do to church but yes I would

How does it save fridge space? Surely you don't leave a cooked turkey out overnight?

No wonder so many people get food poisoning at Christmas!!

I don't get it my mum's turkey usually spends it's time in conservatory resting 😂

Before being cooked I mean.

Definitely not! I cook it on the day. We have a large crown as we don't really like the leg
meat. I rub seasoned butter over the skin and put butter under the skin on the breast.
I also put some stuffing under the breast skin from the chestnut and apricot stuffing that is made the day before. I rest the Turkey wrapped in foil and teatowels and it stays hot for ages. I sometimes peel veg the night before and store it in plastic bags in the fridge. I make the bread sauce the day before too.

I cook the turkey on the day, but I cook the ham on Christmas Eve and prep the stuffing etc and have turkey ready to go into the oven in the morning.

@DeepaBeesKit

No, I can't stand reheated food from the microwave, it dries it out and it never tastes as good.

I would never reheat in the microwave!

Do you heat it up on Christmas Day? If so how just 20 mins in th4e oven or something?