Tell me if this can work at all please

[VanessaShanessaJenkins]

Sooo. I've never cooked a Christmas dinner before but have cooked normal roasts.
In the past we have visited relatives which live an hour away for Christmas but this year I want to do Christmas in my own house and cook myself. Problem is I feel like we still need to visit the relatives in the morning.

I hear about people taking hours to prep/ cook for Christmas and so I'm not sure being out of the house for 4 hours on Christmas morning means I won't have time to cook myself.

Realistically if we leave the house at 9am and return at 1pm what time could I serve food at? Assuming all possible prep etc is done in advance.

Is it possible? Not visiting the relatives is not really an option as I don't know if my grandparents will be around for any more christmases but I really don't want to have to stay all day.

P.s the local pub is fully booked too as that could have been the easy answer

I prep veg the night before. Stick the turkey on pre present opening and enjoy the morning! Stick pans on from 1pm and lunch for 2pm.
Easy peasy..

Can you not visit the relatives on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day, and leave Christmas Day clear for what you want to do?

The entire family of almost 30 have spent Christmas day together for over 30 years. Not being there for at least part of the day would probably kill my grandparents.
So I could put Turkey in before I leave on low?? Is that even safe?

If you’ve never cooked a Christmas dinner before with four hours of driving and visiting you are putting yourself under quite a bit of pressure . That four hours could be longer if say the weather was bad . I hope you are not cooking for guests too ? Part of the fun of Christmas Day is a leisurely start to the day - which you won’t get if you’re on the road by 9a.m . Only you can gauge how long things will take - but think of roast dinner and twice that time for all the little Christmassy odds and ends . You’ll be lucky to be eating before it gets dark unless you cut corners .

Thanks for your reply. That's basically what I was thinking. One be 3 of us plus 1 (maybe 2) guests.

I just can't really see it working. I'm hoping for a white Christmas so we have an excuse not to drive down!

Cook your turkey Christmas Eve, and do all your preparations for the vegetables etc early Christmas morning.

Cook the turkey the night before then heat it slowly with gravy in slow cooker if you have one or in a big pot on hob. All the other bits take up so much room in oven that I couldn’t deal with having to do the turkey on the day too!

How many are you cooking for? If you’re only cooking for 2-4, and you’re not bothered about leftovers, you don’t need a massive turkey so it can be like a normal roast dinner. You can get prepared turkey crowns which need about 2 hours in the oven so probably about 2.5 hours with heating up oven and resting time.

I wouldn’t cook a roast dinner for lunchtime if I was out all morning. Too much of a rush.

Could you have the big dinner in the evening? Or on Boxing Day?

How many do you need to cook for? Could you aim for a dinner at say 6 or 7 or are there little kids to consider?

If there's 2-4 of you, get a crown or a rolled breast from the butcher and you can have the lot done in max 2 hours. Make gravy in advance.

Seems like a lot of pressure to put on yourself if you're dealing with more than that though.

Cook the turkey the night before.
We always do that.

Peel / prepare the veg and potatoes and leave in saucepans all ready to go, in cold water before you leave

I would plan for it to be your evening meal in that case and have something smaller for lunch so you can enjoy your time with your family without being stressed about getting lunch ready.

We all like a lie in followed by a long, late breakfast on Christmas morning, so always do our roast for around 8pm, and that works fine. I like not having a sluggish post roast feeling in the afternoon too. We might feel differently in future I suppose if the children start to get up early on Christmas day as they get older due to being excited.

I cook the ham on the evening of the 23rd and the turkey on Christmas Eve. My oven isn't big enough to do it on Christmas Day! Get fresh, ready prepared roast potatoes and prep the veg on Christmas Eve and it'll be ready within an hour of you getting home!

It all depends really on the size of the turkey and when you want to eat it. If you’re happy to have an evening meal at 6pm you should have plenty of time.

I really would not be faffing about with low oven settings or anything like that. Some meats are more forgiving but poultry can actually kill you.

My suggestion would be to start the day with a big fry to fill you up. This will help keep you going and counter the temptation to stay with your family for dinner, and bring home a couple of slices of turkey in tinfoil for your own guests

Depending on when your own guests arrive either have some canapés prepped and ready to eat when you arrive home, or have a simple lunch ready to tuck into such as soup that only needs a few minutes to warm through.

You can have most things prepped from the day before ready to go into the oven so there’s no peeling and chopping to do.

It would be easier and give you a lot more flexibility to choose a different meat. Even 2 large chickens would be easier and there are lots of meats that could slow roast for the morning? Would a non-turkey dinner be an option?

Could you not do it the other way round? That way less pressure and hopefully more relaxed.

We always eat in the evening, if you get back by 1pm there will be plenty of time to cook a small turkey for 7pm, do as much prep as you can the day before. O4 be radical, have something completely different & easier o the day & have your Christmas 'meal' on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day?

We usually eat about 4 but generally don't have turkey which might take longer to cook.
Coming back at one will be fine.
Just do all your prep the night before.

Some people even cook their roast potatoes in advance and then heat them up on the day. This clears oven space and apparently makes them crispier.

We’ve started having Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve, which means nobody is spending all day in the kitchen or being a slave to turkey timings. Could that work for you?

Cook turkey on Christmas eve?? How do you then heat it back up without it going dry? I think I'm going to have to get googling.

It'll be me, dh and dd (6) plus dm and possibly 1 more depending on if they are working or not.
Dm will be with us in the morning anyway and come back at the same time as us. She always comes up for the evening and stays a day or 2 anyway.

You can get some nice multi bird roasts that only take a couple of hours to cook and require very little in terms of checking on. Depends how many you are feeding, and if want a lot of leftovers. Was the year the roast was least faff as had a butter muslin on it and mostly self basted. Would def go with eating later in the day though as prob still need at least 2 or 3 hours to cook everything. If doing turkey we prep the bird night before (butter and bacon strips) and keep in fridge in roasting tin. We part prep most veg night before (par boil the potatoes and put in fridge in roasting tray, make red cabbage day before in slow cooker, do the peeling of brussels, buy pre prepped pigs in blankets and fresh stuffing, make ahead gravy and have these I'm freezer so just take out to defrost xmas eve. On morning just prep fresh carrots and parsnips. Or could do a chicken with fancy trimmings - a small one could just take 90 mins). So could eatva main at 3 ish, with nibbles or starter earlier. Then just have one main meal in the day and cheeses or similar later on.

We’ve given up trying to have Christmas dinner in the middle of the day. We go to church for a couple of hours in the morning and it just made it too stressful to get everything ready on time. So for lunch we do an easy meal of what people might have for starters (canapés, smoked salmon, charcuterie platter, pâté etc.) and then spend the afternoon all hands on deck getting the roast dinner ready for an early evening meal. Makes it far more relaxing! Everyone gets involved so it’s not all on me and makes it part of the fun of the day rather than one person in the kitchen being left out of everything else. I also put together a schedule of what needs doing when including all the prep and that also helps keep things on track, plus then we can see where we’ve got half hour gaps for some present opening / champagne drinking / games etc.

You could do your full Christmas dinner on Boxing Day? And do lovely canapés, buffet food for Christmas lunch served with champagne and whatever?

Otherwise yes I'd cook the meet the day before.

Also you can part cook roasties and freeze them so they only take 45 mins to finish off.

Same with yorkshires. Cook them before hand and freeze then defrost and 5 mins in the oven!

Assuming everyone likes gravy, I agree with cooking and carving the turkey the day before, then just warming it up in a slow cooker with gravy. Stops it drying out.

Mashed swede/parsnip/carrot made in advance and whacked in the over for the last 30-45 minutes with foil over it.

Roast potatoes/parsnips parboiled before hand.

Yorkshire puddings could be made and frozen in advance - we just chuck them in frozen for the last five minutes or so.

Stuffing, pigs in blankets and red cabbage made in advance.

It's definitely doable.

We eat in the evening at about 5. I do a turkey crown and according to roasting times a 4kg crown takes less than 3 hours to cook. A crown that size will feed 5/6 people easily with leftovers. I also do a ham and I cook that on Christmas Eve so we can have it for sandwiches.

There's loads of stuff you can make now and freeze to reduce the amount you need to do on the day. I've already got stuffing and pigs in blankets in my freezer - all I have to is remember to put them in the fridge on Christmas Eve so they can defrost. I make my gravy on the day but people swear by freezing the get ahead gravy from Jamie Oliver (loads of people recommend leaving out the star anise). We also have honey roasted carrots and parsnips and I'll freeze those soon. They just go straight into hot oil from frozen. Even sprouts can be part (mostly) cooked and frozen now to be added to bacon lardons or pancetta for finishing.

Thanks for all advice. I've decided to go visit family the day before and stay at home. Having never cooked Christmas dinner before I don't want added stress and why not just do what I actually want for a change as selfish as that sounds.

I'm really looking forward to making it as special as I can and adding little twists to suit us.

And the gravy reheating method- I am related to a weirdo who hates gravy