Cooking the turkey a day ahead

[cleaning247]

Has anyone cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve, sliced then reheated on Christmas Day? Any tips?

We have a tiny oven and I find it really hard cooking everything and thought this might make it easier.

Would you have the fridge space though for overnight?
I also find turkeys are very forgiving and better for having a really long resting time. Cook it early Christmas Day, cover with foil and wrap in a few tea towels. It’ll stay warm enough for ages. Then there’s little that can’t be made better with some very hot gravy.

Yes, I have done this, but we have an extra fridge in the garage which comes in handy for things like this. I just reheated slices in gravy, but I wasn't bothered about carving it at the table. Otherwise just cooking it in the morning and resting under towels for a few hours is fine.
I tend to cook several meats (stupidly started a 3 meats tradition and now DH would be devastated if we stopped!) and at least two of them are cooked the day before. By DH, if I'm at work.

We put the oven on timer so it’s ready when we get up , we carve it and then warm it up in a big pan with the gravy .

I cook my turkey every year after dinner on Xmas eve. I leave it to cool then put in fridge. It slices so much better. Leaves your oven free for everything else and you only need to reheat your turkey. Always moist and delicious

Depending on the size of your turkey it could rest for two hours after coming out of the oven, if wrapped in foil and tea towels as mentioned by a pp. That would give you enough oven space to cook everything else.

My parents always cooked it on Christmas eve. Didn't bother to reheat it - just poured hot gravy over it. No one ever complained!

I do it every year. Cooked, cooled, sliced and portioned. On Christmas morning I pop however much we need into the slow cooker with either some stock or thin gravy and leave it until we are ready to serve. I can fire up the oven to high to do decent roasties etc. If you use a sausage based stuffing you can also cook that the day before and pop in with the turkey in the slow cooker.

You can cook most of your dinner well in advance of the day. I do, so on the day all I’m doing is mainly reheating. The only thing I cook from scratch on the day is the meat though.

We eat quite early so this has definitely convinced me cooking the day before is the way forward. Thanks everyone.

I've been using this Raymond Blanc recipe for years as it's amazingly quick. It almost tempts me to make it on the day as it only takes a couple of hours.

It does need a decent quality turkey though.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/the_perfect_roast_turkey_01155

I still do it on Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, and it's all done and chilled in the fridge before dinner time.

We like to nip to the pub on Christmas day (though it was closed last year ), so if the meat is in the slow cooker, gravy made the day before and veg all prepared before heading out, when we get back it's just the veg to cook/roasties to get in the oven and chipolatas to do so we can be sitting down about an hour or so later.

@bigbluebus

My parents always cooked it on Christmas eve. Didn't bother to reheat it - just poured hot gravy over it. No one ever complained!

My father insists on doing the same these days. I HATE it. I much prefer turkey freshly cooked that morning but since I'm a visitor, I keep my mouth shut and just say thank you. Despite itching to get in the kitchen and do the cooking myself!

It's obviously possible but one of the things that I love about Christmas morning is the smell of cooking turkey or chicken. I time things so that the bird comes out of the oven an hour or more before we expect to eat. That gives me plenty of time to do the roast potatoes and parsnips, cocktail sausages, carrots, sprouts, peas, finish the bread sauce and make the gravy using the juices from the turkey. The skin is wonderful when freshly cooked but not otherwise, so if I did it the day before I know I would stand there for a bit nibbling at the skin.

My house still smells of cooking turkey in the morning as it's in the slow cooker :)

Any crispy skin and meat on the wings etc gets nibbled on Christmas Eve.

As I say, since i've been using the fast cooking recipe I have been tempted to just do it on Christmas day but I honestly just enjoy not dealing with the carving and jointing and sorting out the leftovers and cleaning the roasting tin etc etc on Christmas day.

But everyone should do what suits themselves and their circumstances though I wouldn't be too enamoured with cold slices of turkey with gravy poured over.