Cooking both beef and turkey on Christmas Day - best way to do it?

[ArtyFartyQueen]

We've opened our house up to one of our neighbours who is on her own and some family friends for Christmas, all fine! However, three of them don't like turkey and would prefer beef but for us, it's not Christmas without a bit of a turkey so I'm wondering if I can do both? I normally do a turkey crown something like this and then we were thinking about beef joint this for the beef.

I normally do the meat first, let it rest and then do all the other bits such as roast pots, parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, pigs in blankets as our oven is quite small.

I'm worried that the meat will go cold.

Does anyone have any ideas on how best to manage this?

Would really appreciate any advice!

Whack a beef joint in the slow cooker in the morning and do the rest as normal

Oh god, I could eat either of them right now!

That would be a good idea normally coconut but I'm doing a ham in the slow cooker and would ideally like our beef to be a bit pink!

Does anyone know how long beef would stay warm for?

They look yum don't they mybrilliantdisguise!

Get a second slow cooker?

My microwave is also a combi and electric oven.

Beef wrapped in foil will stay warm for 30 mins in a warm place.

Could you use the neighbour's oven?

Use a tealight food warmer with tea lights - you sometimes get these in Indian restaurants. I have an electric version from the 1980s that is still occasionally used.

www.amazon.co.uk/axentia-Light-Oval-Warmer-Silver/dp/B003BWSD7G/ref=sr_1_12?s=kitchen&keywords=warming+plates&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1513153234&sr=1-12

We often cook additional meat on the barbecue in winter.

Can’t the turkey refuseniks eat the ham? And the pigs in blankets etc?

Good beef needs fast roasting, not slow-cookering, IMO.

I’m afraid neither of your links will work for me so I can’t quite work out exactly what you’re cooking, but if it were me I’d work out which one will take least time to cook and do the other first. I like my beef as rare as I can get it, so I would likely do the turkey first, leave it to rest and then cook the beef whilst that’s resting, with half an hour ish at the end for gravy/potatoes etc to finish off. I’m not a huge believer in the idea that your meat needs to be super hot when you serve it- I think so long as your plates are hot and so are the gravy and side dishes then you can get away with slightly cold meat. Actually we had cold beef from Sunday for dinner yesterday and once you’d put everything else on a hot plate and covered with gravy you couldn’t tell it was straight from the fridge!

And yes- I agree with the idea of slow cooker beef being an abomination!! Unless it needs slow cooking because it’s a tough piece then you’re just ruining it!