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?

Things I make before are delia’s red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire batter and prep sprouts.

It's not that difficult. I do it every year, although our one oven is a decent size. Just takes a bit of moving things around and correct timings.

Insulated dishes are a good idea if you can stretch to it. They keep things hot for a long enough to get the next lot of side dishes ready. Once turkey comes out I let it rest and whack the oven temperature up to finish the roast potatoes etc.

Are you serious? there's 7 of us here and I manage daily, when I have people here I can cook for 30 people. Who even has more than one oven.

On Xmas Eve I peel vegetables and prepare stuffing.

On Xmas Day - I cook joint. Then when that comes out I put spuds and stuffing in. Make gravy. Take out spuds and stuffing and cook pigs in blankets. Steam veggies on job. Heat up gravy.

I cook for 14 people every xmas with one oven.... it’s doable 😁

@HollyandIvyandallthingsYule

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 was going to put the bit about the hostess trolley in my post too. I knew someone who had one in the 80's and I was a bit at the time, but I always hanker for one at Christmas now. Problem is what would I do with it for the rest of the year?

6 of us
Somehow ,we manage with one oven
Can’t imagine how we managed for 20 yrs with one oven ,but somehow we did

Here’s my advice :

Sit with with your feet up and feed baby. Eat chocolate and drink non alcoholic drinks . You have just made a human and pushed it out your body. Your DP has not. Let him do it with his sister and father.

One oven and 3 adults is quite enough to cook a meal for 5 people. Chill.

@knittingaddict drape an attractive cloth over it and use as a sideboard?

I’m actually very, very close to getting one - you can pick them up for £30-40 on Facebook marketplace!

@Lipz

Are you serious? there's 7 of us here and I manage daily, when I have people here I can cook for 30 people. Who even has more than one oven.

My brother and sil in law on my side of the family and my sil and bil on my husband's side. If I had room in my kitchen I would too, but I don't. My brother has the Neff slide and hide doors. I'm a tiny bit envious.

I have cooked for 10 people with one normal oven, you just get organised, and some people help you with bits of things. And not sure why you can't cook when you have a baby. ridiculous!

come back and talk to me when there's NINE...no babies, all adult appetites, you have a wilful oil range and TWO gas rings.

Drown your inner control freak with lovely champagne and leave DP and SIL to it.

@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.

😂😂😂

smoked salmon for a starter, it feels special and doesn't need cooking!

microwave the pudding and serve it with cream, ice cream and ready made fancy custard.

M and S for any special trimmings.

Then what you have left is a roast dinner.

easy

(maybe someone could give you a hand if you have a clingy baby?)

Definitely take the turkey out an hour early.
Plan in advance what’s going in the oven, what containers and oven trays will go where. If you are going to roast a lot of veg and stuffing as well as potatoes and think you’re short on oven space, have you got room for another oven rack? If so, buy one.

I mean plan for the turkey to be ready an hour before you want to eat. Don’t just give it an hour less cooking.

DH doesn't struggle with oven space on Xmas day but hobs can be tricky so he uses a steamer and the veg is nicer I think. We have 14 for dinner and just a big standard cooker

I’ve cooked for 13 with one oven and 4 hobs!!! It’s fine.
Meat goes in first, then take it out an hour before to rest (which is normal) cover in servedal layers of foil and a couple of towels/ stays hot. Then Chuck the veg etc in.
Use a slow cooked if needed and an electric steamer is handy.

Do you have a slow cooker? If you're having a turkey crown it's great in the slow cooker.

Par boil roasties in advance there's much better cooked from cold anyway.

If you have Yorkshire's, they can be done in advance, frozen and then just warmed up for 5 mins before dishing up.

Um...don't most people only have 1 oven and 4 hob rings?

I've cooked Xmas lunch for 17 people with this set up. It never occurred to me that people have more than 1 oven!

Cook all veg (except roast) day before. Run under cold water to stop over cooking, put in lidded puree dishes. Reheat on the day either in oven or microwave.

Two years ago I did xmas dinner with 1 over and a nearly 6 week old, was relatively easy with planning (there's an app for lining up oven times which is exactly what I needed with baby brain) I had a separate main for veggie DP but anything that could be done ahead was. I expressed milk for DP to give DD if my hands were full.

Supposed to be doing it again this year and I'm dreading it with DD who is now 2 and hanging off my legs all the time

I've always assumed most people have a double oven

Haven't rtwt so Apologies to is someone has already said it but I use slow cookers to keep things warm. I use my own and my mothers and have been known to keep roasties, pigs in blankets sprouts and stuffing warm in mine. You may not even need them but it's worth having one or more warm and waiting just in case.

My oven is a single one that sits under my 4 burner hob.