One oven! One! Five guests. HOW??!!

[roarfeckingroarr]

I'm a control freak who loves to cook and normally do everything at my parent's house with guests and my fiancé. This year we have a tiny baby so people are coming to our London flat. It's going to be me, partner and baby, DP's sister, my dad and his dad. COVID police - bugger off, support bubbles.

We have one oven and one microwave and a job with four spaces. How can I even start to do a proper Christmas dinner?!

Even worse, I won't actually be cooking becauSe of aforementioned tiny baby, so DP and his sister are doing it all while I hold baby and drink champagne. They're not bad cooks but what can I do in advance well so I don't have to trust them with everything?

This has to be a wind up

Ninja Foodie appliance ? They just plug in.

I hope it's a wind up!

Thanks for the giggle

Assuming your tiny baby won’t be eating much if anything so that is 4 people that are being catered for which is an average sized family , how do you think people manage all year to cook for their family ?

@ElizabethG81

This is pure Mumsnet. You obviously need one oven per 2.5 guests, plus one for the baby. Divide the number of ovens by 2 and you can work out how many dishwashers you need.

This

There's normally 12 of us for Christmas and we have one oven and a tiny kitchen. As others have said, it's easy - just cook the turkey first, cover it with foil and tea cloths and let it rest. Then cook everything else.

Christmas pudding can go in the microwave so: one ring to parboil potatoes for roasting, reuse for gravy. 3 rings left for veg, use a stacking steamer if you want but there’s no need. Stuffing balls and pigs in blankets in the oven when the turkey is resting and spuds are roasting. Bread sauce will sit happily in a warm oven to reheat while you carve.

Done it many times and happy not to be doing it this year! Tell anyone who wants a vegetarian alternative or different pudding to bring it microwave-ready.

How many ovens do most people have?

As long as your oven is larger than your turkey, you're fine.

(We had an interesting time of it many years ago, with an old tiny oven, slightly more inlaws than average, and DH's rash purchase of what was quite possibly an ostrich.)

Well quite a few people have double ovens...or Agas or some such...

Anyway I’m sure it will be fine! Just need a very detailed list of instructions and timings, and plenty of booze/snacks in case it all goes tits up

We're a family of 6 so have 6 ovens - one for each 😉 Not really, we have one oven and manage fine, 4 hobs and a microwave, my grandparents had one oven with the 4 hobs and she cooked for at least 20 of us on Christmas Day.

It will be fine.

The turkey can rest for an hour or more covered with foil and a coup,e of towels.
This allows time and space for potatoes, parsnips, stuffing and pigs in blankets.

If you have one oven, how many shelves does it have? I’d maybe invest in an extra shelf. I have two shelves, and two trays that fit the runners in a single oven and I have catered for 14 on Christmas Day before now.

I had a range cooker and never used the 2nd oven. Slow cooker for beef. Huge foil tray in the oven fitted everything else in. Always used a steamer for veg.

Ive cooked for 13 people with one oven. Everyone only has one oven!
I'm curious, are you used to 2 or 3 or 5? 10?
One for turkey?
One for pigs in blankets?
One for roast potatoes?
One for roast veg?
One for stuffing?

Honestly this isn't even a challenge. I've done dinner for 15 in one 50cm tiny electric oven and a hob.

Do the veg in a two/three tiered steamer. Part boil potatoes.

Put roasties and pigs in blankets/stuffing in the oven, as the meat comes out.

Do gravy in another pan as the meat is resting and spuds and trimmings are cooking.

I still only have a single cavity 60cm oven and regularly cook roast dinners with all the trimmings for 10 even now.

I’m hungry now 😒

A plug-in electric heated plate will keep food warm. Cook some of the vegetables ahead of time and put them on the plate. WE have two ovens but I always use my plate.

Buybacks Turkey crown, pigs in blankets to be added later around outside. Potatoes on bottom shelf in goose fat. All the rest of the veg on the hob. Stuffing and Yorkshires popped in in place of turkey while it rests for 10-15 mins.

Cook the meat the day before or mega mega early.

Well I have a double range oven and 5 rings on the hob - and there's only 2 of us! Should I invite more people?

*Buy, not buybacks

I’ve never had to keep food warm. If you cook the turkey first, then cook everything else together with the timings worked out properly, it’s always ready at the same time and can be brought to the table without delay. But I do still hanker after a 70s heated hostess trolley just to be on the safe side!

I cook for enormous numbers from one oven in a miniature kitchen but then I realised I wouldn’t do turkey. I do a rare beef joint so the temp suits all the other things and it’s quick but I assume one of the rolled turkey joints would work too?

Marks and Spencer