Your best hack for cooking Christmas lunch

[Birdbuggerup]

I’ll be honest, I’m having a bit of a panic. I’m hosting lunch this year. Only for 6 but I’ve only done a couple of roasts so I’m worried about timings.
Bird is a frozen turkey crown and I’ve got all the usual trimmings.

Any tips for what can be prepped / cooked in advance? I’ve got a decent sized oven, air fryer, slow cooker and (I think) a warming section in the over.

I don’t care how out there the advice, how can I make my life easier?!
thanks in advance

There's nothing terribly difficult about Christmas dinner beyond timings and oven space. If you make a plan based on when everything needs to be ready and stick to that, it's a doddle.

And yes-nominate somebody to wash up as you go along and help keep worktops clear/clean.

Resting the turkey upside down in a solid cool box!

A friend and fellow mumsnetter recommended it. It does sound odd, but it works brilliantly. Keeps it hot enough, but lets it rest, and lets the juices drain towards the breast meat so it stays really moist. Also gives you a bit more leeway with getting everything else finished off, ready to serve together.

Make sure you know in advance how long it's going to take to defrost the turkey. The day before or the night before?

Stick reminder notes in large letters on your kitchen door / computer / fridge door / work top etc stating the time to remove turkey from the freezer.

You could even set an alarm to ring at that time.

Tell everyone who isn't you to go away out of the kitchen and leave you to it.

Then between things cooking away and new things to put on/take out, have a nice glass of wine.

People trying to 'help' are often the most unhelpful!

I also have a list of times all the ovens go on, what goes in when etc. Starts at Midday and goes through to 16:30 and plating up :) Really helps not panic

Have a tipple but don't get too sloshed 🤣 honestly, my best tip is the same as for roast dinners - most things won't suffer for staying in the oven a bit longer but will if they aren't cooked enough, so get stuff in early. Meat can rest longer than you think and in my book potatoes are better crispy!

Good luck - bet it'll be ace x

Make life a bit easier for yourself so you enjoy it too. Buy ready made good quality gravy for example. Same with bread sauce and cranberry. No one will care if it's bought.

Also a few sides well done is better than trying to do a whole range. Everyone loves roasties so do those really well and forget mash etc. aunt Bessie's luxury frozen ones are actually great. Throw a tea spoon of marmite in the fat to give them that yummy grunginess.

Parboil or steam sprouts and keep in iced water. Same with baby carrots or sliced ones. Then thrown into a frying pan of hot butter with seasoning and herbs to heat up quickly.

Use air fryer for stuffing and pigs.

Turkey. Just set your timer according to the instructions. You can leave it out of the oven for at least 45 mins covered. Whack up the heat and do the potatoes and parsnips. Par boil them ahead too.

Use the second oven to warm your plates and the turkey platter. Nothing worse than congealing fat on cold plates

Make sure you've plenty of serving spoons etc on the table. Much easier to carve ahead of taking through but less dramatic of course

If you're doing a proper pud get it onto steam ahead. But honestly I'd just microwave it.

Enjoy. I've done thirty years of Christmas dinners. We're going to the local pub this year. Fifty quid for four course. No washing up.

Agree with the timed list. Start at the time you want to serve the food, and work backwards from there. Cross each task off as you do it. I do this every time I do a roast. It’s well worth the ten minutes it takes to write the list.

Agree on letting the roast rest. Use the time to warm up serving dishes and individual plates if there's enough room in the still-warm oven.

I always make a list of what I'm cooking and how long it's going to take and then write a sort of timetable counting back from the rough time I want lunch to be ready. (Aim earlier than you would like, as it always takes longer). You can write it digitally so that you can move things around as you find amendments or just do it on paper then write it up again in a more legible format.

I recommend writing both timings like 10:35, but also T-1h25 mins - if you get off track, it's easier to convert to the new time using the T- bit than the clock time bit.

Remember to factor in time for things like taking items in and out of the oven and basting etc. The first year I did this I forgot to build in buffer time and got really stressed.

While doing this plan, you can also go through your cupboards and allocate which dishes will be used to cook each item. Then you can check what actually fits in the oven at the same time.

The meat is usually the biggest dish and can be left to rest for 10-15 mins while you finish off or warm up other things in the oven. Vegetables seem to lose heat the fastest so you don't want them sitting around for long. Anything small will get a boost of heat from the gravy, as long as it's not stone cold.

Air fryer is basically a mini oven and will cook things faster. You will probably find air fryer versions of any Christmas recipe online. Check if your dishes will fit in the air fryer, and that you can get them out when hot, if you are not cooking things directly in the basket.

I know this all sounds crazily organised, but I have ADHD with quite bad time blindness and I really struggle with coordinating multiple tasks to make them all culminate within a reasonable amount of time to each other. This works!! And you can take advantage of any gaps to e.g. serve the starter so that you're not missing everything stuck in the kitchen.

You'll also get a sense from making your timed plan which items can be done much further in advance e.g. the day before. For example, most chopping, peeling etc. Some assembling. Potatoes will go black (doesn't affect taste, but looks bad) if you peel and chop them early unless you keep them in a bowl of cold water. Sprouts, carrots, parsnips etc all fine to pre-prep.

You can buy all the sauces, gravy and stuffing in cartons from supermarkets such as M & S and Sainsbury's, if you don't mind paying.

Prepared vegetable dishes too if it goes to that, such as potato in various forms, glazed carrots, brussels with chestnuts and bacon and many more.

Just a few little things-

1. don't expect everything to be perfect. Even Nigella says that !
2. warm plates if you have the space in the oven last minute
3. the meat can / should rest for a lot longer than 10 to 15 mins. We take the Turkey out and rest it under a double layer of tin foil & a few clean drying up cloths THEN cook the beef. It will stay warm for ages. And once you add the hot veg and hot gravy it will be fine.

Cabbage is in the slow cooker. Ham going in there afterwards, probably overnight.

Turkey will be cooked overnight on Christmas Eve.

My other tip is to serve copious amounts of alcohol so that people don't notice any flaws

I make a list in advance of all the prep that has to be done including weights and amounts
also write down timings/temps
when I host for 5+ people and making a more elaborate meal, I write down a time line for tasks.

but this is not for everyone lol

This, work backwards in terms of your timings

Dont underestimate the time it takes for the water to get to boiling in a steamerr

Put things like gravy or red cabbage in a slow cooker to slowly warm

The meat can rest for a hell of a time, one year we did it for 1.5 hours, wrap in lots of foil and tea towels, it stays hot and gets moist.

We have heated burners in the middle of the table to keep things warm.

If you are having Christmas pudding, that can heat up in the slow cooker. My slow cooker is very old and works on a lower wattage than modern ones, so I put it on high first thing in the utility room (lucky to have a bit of space out of the way), put in the pudding and boiling water, lid on, forget about it until the end of the meal.

My other tip is heat the dinner plates and serving dishes. I don't bother the rest of the year but it makes a difference for a meal with a lot of components.

Good luck!

The turkey can and should rest for longer than 10-15 mins - crown can do best part of an hour under foil and towels.

Agree with all the above re writing down times working backwards, sorting pans/trays and serving dishes/boats in advance. The latter can be warmed in microwave (flick water on each plate) if no metal, or by filling with hot water to sit.

Label serving dishes so people can help dishing up veg.
Otherwise get the helpers to wash up.

Def make stuffing balls in advance.

If you're leaving veg in water once prepped, salt the water properly before you leave it (and remember you've done so!).

Good tip re starting with clear decks including empty bin and dishwasher!

Ooh I didn't know it could rest much longer - I might work this in this year then. I am always worried about things going cold because it's horrible when you're eating half cold half warm food.

Is the turkey still frozen?? Normally they need a couple of days to defrost.

My best hack is to get my husband to do it.

It's worked for the last 20 years anyway

This is one of my main worries!
I'm making the trimmings earlier in the day. Hoping I can bung them in the oven quickly while the roast is sitting and they'll come out warm enough.

My tip is to have nothing to do with it 😬

My husband has today made Tom Kerridge’s ‘make-ahead’ gravy and the turkey is somewhat discombobulatingly bobbing around in a tub of brine in the (cold) utility room. He will prep all the veg and sides tomorrow and we have bought various puds from M&S. This is our year where we don’t host the masses, so it’s all feeling very calm.

The turkey can be cooked first and will keep warm for up to 3 hrs whilst resting.
This gives you time to do everything else. Prep all your veg the day before.

Buy disposable foil roasting trays and use them inside your regular trays. Then bingo, no greasy great things to wash up.

My red cabbage, puddings and bread sauce were all made and frozen a few weeks ago.

Then on the day Dh does the cooking and the kidults do the washing up while I issue orders. It’s a good arrangement 😉

I saw Mary Berry say she cooked roast potatoes on Xmas eve then re heated them in the oven Xmas day. Never tried it myself, but tempted .