Cooking turkey on Christmas eve ...

[sheeplikessleep]

... so I'm thinking about this (lots of family coming around and a crap oven!) and just wondered if anyone has done this (cooking turkey on Christmas eve, leaving oven free for potatoes, parsnips, pigs in blankets, stuffing etc etc on the big day itself).

If so,

Did you reheat the turkey on Christmas day? If so, how? Or serve at room temperature (to be heated up by the gravy?)
How did you stop the turkey going dry?

Any tips on this very much appreciated.

i did it last year, i served at room temp (i would be scared to reheat a turkey).
I was a bit dubious about cooking it the night before but it made the day so much easier. To stop it going dry make sure you baste it alot and keep it covered when its cooking, and keep it covered with foil and a couple of tea towels over night.

thanks nancy, that all sounds doable for me. our oven is so rubbish, it doesn't even have temperature indicators on the dials (very old!), so i'd much prefer to cook it the day before.

Unless you're into the 'grand carve up', there's no reason not to cook it whenever and slice it up. It can then be reheated in a steamer which also resolves the dryness issue.

We don't have turkey but do this with lamb/chicken/beef- very satisfying results

DH won't have pork in the house so am of your pigs in blankets.

we always cook the turkey the day before, slice it up and put it in tin foil, which goes in the the top oven (very low temp) to warm up. my top tip - cook the turkey upside down, then all the juices run through the breast meat making it lovely and moist. we also cook the sausages, kilted sausages (two sausages rolled in bacon - looks like two little legs sticking out the bottom of a kilt!) and stuffing all to be reheated on the day.

thanks all for posting, reassures me that it will be ok.
thanks