Christmas shock horror. I have just discovered that

[2kidsintow]

My dad is going to cook the turkey the day before they reheat on the day.

Noooooooooo!

There is reason here so I won't complain. We've always eaten at lunchtime as we are elsewhere in the evening, he's been ill recently but still wants to do the dinner and he buys a large turkey and doesn't want to be up at sparrow's fart to start it off.

But still, noooooo!

What's up ?ith that?

My DH trained as a chef in a previous career and he does it every year.

When you eat out around Christmas I'm pretty sure the turkey in restaurants is PRE cooked.

It always tastes lovely if you cook it properly and reheat carefully?

Last year a MNer told a horrifying tale about her mother/MIL who par cooks the turkey on Christmas Eve, lets it sit at room temperature cultivating salmonella and then resumes cooking on Christmas Day.

At least it isn't that.

I saw dreadful cooking of Turkey at a school event once. I only eat poultry I cook myself.

I always cool mine on Christmas Eve, have done for around 20 years, have never had any complaints and not made anybody ill so far. Most meals you eat outside your home will be precooked and you won't even think about it, I don't see what your problem is

Think yourself lucky: my mil precooks the turkey but doesn't reheat it. It sits on your plate alongside hot vegetables and under hot gravy but is stone cold itself. Most odd.

I don't have a problem with reheated food, if done carefully.
But....
a) I'm pretty sure the microwave will be employed and
b) it just won't be his usual, scrumptious juicy turkey with crispy skin.

Ah well...

MIL does this. She is paranoid about under-cooked poultry so gives the bird a good eight hours on Christmas Eve then another few hours on the day itself. It is always as dry as a bone, and the whole family moans about how horrible turkey is, and that they only bother with it because it's traditional.

If they cooked it properly it might be a hell of a lot nicer, FFS!

She does the sprouts for hours too, because she likes them "tender" (in other words, cooked to mush). Bleurgh.

Another mnetter mentioned cooking the turkey on Christmas eve, cooling it, slicing it and storing it in gravy & then reheating it in the slow cooker.

Would cooking it from midnight on Christmas eve/early christmas day in a very low oven work? Then resting it in gravy to stop it from frying out.

Drying out not frying out obviously!

My mum I believe put her sprouts on on Easter Sunday.

My MIL used to cook the turkey on Gas Mark 1/2 overnight on Xmas Eve (about 16 hours cooking in total.....) Always tasted OK and no one got food poisoning that I know of!

We've done this. Although we get a boneless Turkey breast joint from the butchers so no faffing with bones either. It's lovely reheated in gravy - no worrying about dry meat. we also cook it off in a roasta bag so it's lovely and tender as a cold meat too.

It's so much easier than juggling timings for cooking with sorting dc out and enjoying the actual day itself.

I've cooked my turkey on Christmas Eve for the past 25 years...not killed anyone yet.