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?

@Legoandloldolls that's seriously impressive -20?!

@UndertheCedartree now I think about it, I think mostly keeping things warm and having space for Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese etc

I did Christmas with a 2 ring hob, a microwave and a tabletop oven once. Totally doable, just meant fewer sides.

Thanks earrings, it’s a bit wasted on the OP though

She clearly thinks she’s being humorous when I’m sure the majority really think it’s just sounds hugely entitled

@StrippedFridge I mean, fair. Although I'm not really keen on pigs in blankets (I'll get my coat now ).

@Bearbehind hugely entitled, me. Asking questions of people with more experience than I have because this is all new.

To answer the actual question, prep all veg and parboil potatoes once the meat is in, meat out to rest, roasties in plus anything that can be ccoled (stuffing, parsnips etc). Yorkshires in when the roasties have 22mins left (critical as you can't open the oven to adjust the spuds till the Yorkshires are done) veg on shortly after the roasties, gravy gets made as the main bits get served...

Haven’t RTFT but it doesn’t mostly look like advice 😂
Anyway, like Bluntness said for the turkey, and roast it on a ‘trivet’ of red onions, as once slightly over cooked they’ll help make your gravy brown instead of pallid. Par boil your potatoes while that’s in, prep veg etc. Then for everything else what you need is smallish cheap baking trays of the kind Sainsbury’s sell in multipacks, and space your oven racks out evenly. Then you have 4 layers (right on bottom of oven plus 3 layers of racks) to cook everything else. Potatoes go at the top where it’s hottest (even in a fan oven) or they don’t brown. Do them in the strained off turkey fat.

We have done Xmas dinner for 18 in a single oven like this, but that was pre kids. Since we had DS ten is plenty 😂

[quote roarfeckingroarr]@StrippedFridge I mean, fair. Although I'm not really keen on pigs in blankets (I'll get my coat now ).[/quote]
Drop this bombshell on your guests now and your problem will be solved as they rapidly seek out another more porky bubble.

Asking questions of people with more experience than I have because this is all new.

I think you lost the moral ground when you said someone who’d cooked for a lot of people in one oven must have cooked ‘beef a la bullshit’

Followed by the shock that not all houses have double ovens

I just feel sorry for the actual cooks who you’ll be directing

Enjoy your champagne

My first and only time usung a double oven was when, in my mid-twenties, I 'baby sat' for two young teenagers for the weekend.

Their parents had left me all the food for the weekend, including a full roast chicken dinner for the Sunday.

The girls were out playing hockey in the afternoon, so I got on making the dinner. No problems until when I was just going to pick them up from the playing field and went to get the chicken out to rest. I had put the top oven on, but put the chicken in the bottom oven. Totally raw.

They were lovely kids. They suggested using the microwave which I had only ever heard of but never used before. We stuffed the chicken into the microwave and whacked it on high while I cooked the veg. We ate the chickrn, no-one died and I didn't tell the parents.

It was only when I got my own microwave years later that I realised maybe I should have cleaned the microwave afterwards! The chicken was literally crammed into it and had been rubbed with oil and seasoning before going in the oven. It must have been such a mess.

Anybody got any southern hemisphere immigrant friends who insist on cooking Christmas dinner outdoors in the bbq? I do. I suspect my friend's Saffa DH mainly does it to wind up his MIL and my normally quite domestically controlling friend goes along with it for this reason too (plus an excuse to abdicate all responsibility and drink mulled wine all day).

I have one oven, one plug in hob ring and half a kitchen at the moment (and it will still be like that over Xmas and I've got 9 of us in the house) - it's one day - you'll manage. Oh good point about the instant pot tho.... I can use that at Xmas too!

I have one oven and there's 7 of us. Even more during a celebration! Not seeing the issue!

@roarfeckingroarr - I do that in my little top oven! Was thinking some kind of 5 course meal was the norm in double oven households!

It's tricky, lots of juggling, but like PP it can be done.

For me I ended up replacing my single oven in my small'ish kitchen for a double oven like this one to manage roasts for the masses, it's essentially an extra shelf that is a grill and mini oven with its own temp control, but has been very helpful.

I clearly haven't read the full thread so apologies if it's already been suggested! 😬

@PurBal

I did Christmas with a 2 ring hob, a microwave and a tabletop oven once. Totally doable, just meant fewer sides.

Bloody brilliant. Mumsnet top trumps is go.

Who did theirs on less?

One tealight under a rack to boil the sprouts and a pair of glasses used to focus the meagre mid-winter sunlight onto the turkey, which then fed a family of eight for three weeks? Anyone?

I’m SO HUNGRY now! I want goose, and duck, and pork, and to a lesser extent, turkey.

I want all the foods.

We cook Sunday dinner for 4/5 every week with a portable mini oven, a two ring electric hob, a slow cooker and a pressure cooker due to a Covid delayed kitchen refurb.

Cook the Turkey & potatoes the night before or the morning. Then put the roasts in after it’s cooked and the rest of the veg on. Easy.

Why are you even asking the question? You'll be drinking champagne! Bollocks to the one oven Christmas dinner - it's someone else's problem

I used one oven to cook dinner for 14 adults and 3 kids last year. I think you’ll manage.

If it helps you can part cook roast potatoes and freeze them so they only take 30 mins to cook in the day. Same with Yorkshire puddings. Cook them totally and freeze them. Defrost on the day and 5 mins in the oven.

Tom Kerridge has an amazing carrot and butter and star anise recipe can be donee the day before and warmed on a hob.

Oh bless you op, but sorry this has really made me laugh. Five people and one oven...how do you think most families live?!

Almost everything can be done now and frozen.
Make roast potatoes, cool, open freeze then bag up. Reheat from frozen on the day.
Prep and blanch sprouts, open freeze then bag up. Reheat in microwave with a splash of water.
Carrots - cut into batons, braise in butter and orange juice, freeze in microwaveable container. Reheat in microwave.
Mash - buy some decent ready made trays (Tesco Finest are good). Microwave and add a spoonful of cream and a knob of butter.
Pigs in blankets - cook now and open freeze. Bag up then reheat on the day.
Buy ready made stock for the gravy and make up with meat juices on the day
Anything that needs to go in the oven, use foil trays so youre not left with tons of washing up.
Have a cold starter.
Take all the frozen stuff out on Christmas Eve and put in the trays for reheating.

Ah you’ve had a very privileged life roarfecking. The Aga. The crab starters. I can picture it now. Guess what, most people don’t live like that. You’re out of touch with reality doll.