Top tips needed to make cooking Christmas lunch easy

[Kendodd]

What can I do in advance?

I plan to prepare the day before-
Stuffing- to be cooked on the day
Mashed carrots and swede- cooked and to be microwaved on the day
Sprouts prepared- to be cooked on the day
Red cabbage- cooked and to be microwaved on the day
Sausages with bacon wrapped round- to be cooked on the day
Bread sauce- to be microwaved

What else can I do in advance and do you think any of the above will suffer if not done from scratch on the day?

If I quarter onions for roasting the day before will they be ok over night?
If I par boil potatoes and parsnips will they go brown if left in the fridge overnight?
I was planning to make prawn cocktail with cubes of avocado mixed in as a started. Will this be ok if made the day before or will the avocado go brown?

Also money saving tip needed- can I use lard instead of goose fat for roasting?

Thank you in advance MNers.

If you've got a separate dining room, then lay the table well in advance (I usually do it a week before!). Fill the salt & pepper pots. If you're not plating up, work out which serving dishes you'll use & get them all out ready - include everything such as cranberry sauce, bread sauce - all of it. The time I've wasted scrabbling about for a jug or a bowl..... Anyway I digress. You can do the gravy in advance to a point - Jamie Oliver method here, Youtube episode - the gravy starts at about 6 minutes in. Then you would reheat on the day & add the turkey juices. Netto have done small pots of goose fat in the past few years, but not sure about this year though as I haven't been in for a while. Red cabbage freezes fine, so I would do that weeks before. Carrot & turnip freezes well for me, but only if I don't add the butter until after it is defrosted & reheated. Any old supermarket custard tastes lush with a good slug of cream added to it

Have to say Jacksgrannie that I disagree - ALWAYS worth making from scratch if you ask me for special occasions particularly! I don't think there is anything better than seeing your family enjoy a meal that you have worked for and tastes delicious - and even better its perfectly possible to prep loads in advance, and only have the last hour properly in the kitchen so get to enjoy the family too!

Hot playtes always serve the food on hot plates - either pop in the microwave to heat up or a kettle full of water or two over the stack in the sink

this way your guest will nto eat cold food it will stay hot on the plate - thermal shock cools food very quickly

I always roast potatoes in olive oil, and any other veg you wish to roast. Lovely and crispy.

you shouldn't roast with olive oil

Why not?

I roast in lard all the time. Very good results but if you all want to ponce about with goose fat then knock yourselves out

DON'T buy sausages and stuffing - the amount of salt in them is horrendous. You can make stuffing ahead of time and really it isn't hard to wrap a little streaky bacon round a good quality sausage!

I think the only reason not to roast in olive oil is that its smoking point is relatively low, so if you're roasting at a good high temperature you're likely to end up with a kitchen full of smoke.

yes umami, olive oil isn't for high temperatures and it is good at high temperatures for you, better if you can put soem butter in aswell - but basicly dont use it for roasting pots