Easy christmas dinner?

[badgerfoxy1]

Havent cooked xmas dinner before, always go to my mums or dads but I want to stay at home this year and cook. Will be for 6.
Will be having beef brisket and turkey crown. Any tips please?

Sort all your veg the night before and keep it in pans of cold water (yes even the potatoes for roast potatoes). Write out a plan of what goes in the oven when. But in pigs in blankets and stuffing. I also make my cauliflower cheese the day before and keep it in the fridge until time for the oven

You can cheat with a lot of it and get preprepared stuff

You can cut out a lot of the prep by buying frozen prepared veg. roast potatoes and parsnips are available everywhere. Morrisons have a mixed root veg of parsnips and carrots that looks good.

Ready made turkey gravy - I go for whatever the finest range is. But that’s cos I have a block about making gravy.

If you want to cook from scratch, then def prep on Christmas Eve. Make red cabbage beforehand and just heat in the microwave. Cook the turkey first then let it rest while you roast all the veg. Bulk out the table with simple extras like peas or mashed sweet potato.

Get the timing right. Work back from when you want to serve and then write a list of when things need to go on or in the oven.

So eg:
11.00 - beef in
11.30 - boil potatoes
11.40 - heat fat
11.45 - potatoes in fat and in oven
12.00 - beef out to rest and veg on
12.05 - Yorkshire puds in
12.10 - gravy made
12.15 - serve up

@Screamingabdabz my oven must be rubbish, no way my potatoes get cooked in 30 min or the Yorkshire puddings in 10 min!
@badgerfoxy1 If you want to make your life easy prepare in advance/buy some side dishes.
And get people to help!

I too lack the magical oven that serves up roast potatoes in half an hour and Yorkshire puds in 15 mins.

OP, go to Marks and buy all the pre-prepared trays of veg, stuffing etc.

Pre-made yorkshire puddings are not bad, I usually get the bake-at-home Aunt Bessies, that come in little foil cups.

And I always do my veg the day before, turn off your heating in the kitchen if you are worried, I keep them all in cold water on the counter in a cool room and they are all fine. Just make sure potatoes are completely covered.

Ditto to M&S ready made, if you can afford it.

Otherwise, pre prep as far as poss, and ditto to a detailed list of timings, working back from when you want to sit down to eat, then written in time order. And stick it on the front of the fridge, or anywhere else it won’t get lost under all the paraphernalia, splashed with sauce or gravy, etc.

Obviously a waste and bad for the environment but I always get in those foil trays to cook things like pigs in blankets, roast parsnips so I just bin them and that's one less thing to clean after.

Yes me too! Bliss not to have to scrub baking trays. Lazy, I know but it’s one day x

Tesco usually does good pre prepared roast veg, yorkshires, roast potatoes etc. all you have to do is shove in the oven, huge time saver and still tastes good

Had these last year they were good :)

Par boil the potatoes the day before, that's my main tip, apart from preparing as much as possible in advance. I now roast all my other veg in one big try, no boiling. Everyone loves roast sprouts, no-one ate them boiled.

Practice with a couple of Sunday roasts before hand. The hardest bit is juggling the timings to serve up everything hot. But once you’ve done a couple of roast dinners, it’s not hard to scale up.

Have a plan for how to warm your plates, how to keep other things warm, what cooks where and when. I’ve tripped up on those details as a novice cook, because I was expecting to eg heat the plates in the oven, keep veg warm in the oven, forgetting that I’m also trying to cook Yorkshire puds at nuclear temperatures in that same oven.

Have an honest think about what you actually find hard and then you know which problem to solve. If peeling an endless piles of potatoes and chopping veg makes your heart sink, buy the sides. But if it’s spending hours in the kitchen that’s the issue, you might be happy to just do some of it advance to spread the load.

It's just a roast. My family like mashed carrot and swede with butter and black pepper, that will be done when we have a roast in December, I'll make double and freeze. Cauliflower cheese the day before in the fridge until it needs to go in the oven. Buy pigs in blankets, if you don't want to make it just buy stuffing

I'm in the just buy everything pre made bunch. Then all you have to do is monitor your timings to make sure everything is hot at the same time as the microwave will be in demand.

If you are doing beef brisket then I would put it in the slow cooker. That way your oven is free! My family love beef which is cooked with a glass of red wine for 6 hours.

Things like cauliflower cheese I make in advance and freeze, also cranberry sauce etc

Beef brisket doesn't make a great roasted meat (to my mind), it's best for slow cooking.
Agree with set a timetable and prep all veg day before. Also set table and get pots and pans out. You can make gravy in advance too.

oh great lets talk about the environment and then say you get things in foil trays and just bin them!! all the more for landfill!!!

I cook or part cook nearly all of it!

Cauli cheese - freeze in large foil tray
Red cabbage - same
Swede & carrot - same
Parboil, fluff and oil roasties & parsnips - freeze
Yorkies - cook and freeze

Turkey crown is dead easy so that's good.
Pigs in blankets ready made
Roasted carrots in with everything else
Broccoli on the day
Buy fresh ready made gravy - loads of it!

it depends on what sides you want.

Anything you can make in advance and freeze: do so. This includes red cabbage, bread sauce, cauliflower cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mash.

Any fresh veg: prep the day before.

Check you have the right roasting tins for meats and that they will fit in the oven together (unless you are braising / slow cookering the brisket)

I freeze things like red cabbage in a plastic sandwich bag pushed into the serving dish I will use. Then once frozen pack it away without the dish. To defrost get it out of bag, sit it in its dish to defrost and be ready to microwave or oven heat.

Have an assistant who washes up as you go during cooking, make it a fun team effort, different assistants after the meal.

Put dishwasher on after breakfast. Do you need to use the table the night before? If not, set it then. Or delegate table setting to a family member, with clear instructions. Leave all the tableware they will need ready on sideboard. Then add any special finishing touches.

Don't bother with a starter. Maybe just serve posh nibbles with drinks beforehand.

Relax: it’s just a roast dinner!

I literally acknowledged it's not great for the environment.

I do lots of things on a day to day basis to reduce my footprint so yeah sorry if my two foil tray once a year upset you. I hope you'll be protesting against the purchase of foil and other single use products in your nearest Tesco in the lead up to Christmas.

I agree about planning everything in advance.

As well as timings, I plan what is going to go in which oven when (I juggle between them so that one is very hot for roast potatoes etc and one is less hot).

I also plan what is going to be served in what dish so that I don't have to panic at the last minute about having nothing suitable to serve something in (especially important when you have vegetarians or vegans to cater for as well and you need two separate versions of the same thing).

I always make the puddings the day before. I usually do three. Two sit in the fridge overnight and the Christmas pudding goes in the microwave after we've finished the main course.
Accompaniments like cranberry sauce and brandy butter can also be made in advance.

Make sure you start the day with an empty dishwasher (if you have one) and keep on top of the washing up in the morning. It's very annoying having to wash things up at a crucial time because you've run out of cutlery/plates or whatever.

Finally, and perhaps most important, allocate jobs to others. If you can, ask a visitor to bring something like a pudding. Get someone else to lay the table, sort out drinks etc. Ask for help in bringing out the food when it's ready.

One of my pet hates is starting to bring our food and find that only then do people go and wash hands etc and then some stand around aimlessly getting in the way. Get everyone who isn't actively involved in doing something useful sitting down out of the way!

Oh and one last thing. If you are going have crackers, don't put them on the table. Unless you have a huge table they will take up too much room and once the food is on the table you want it to be eaten, not sitting there getting cold. We have crackers between courses or sometimes after pudding.

Good luck!

Can you afford to throw money at it? Pre prepped dishes that you like, pre made stuffing and vegetables that just need to go in the oven and ocme with instructions. Bisto gravy. Shop brought Xmas pud etc.

Box of crackers, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, both REALLY easy to home make in advance.

@Fifthtimelucky "One of my pet hates is starting to bring our food and find that only then do people go and wash hands etc and then some stand around aimlessly getting in the way."

I find the opposite. People start milling in the kitchen when it's critical timings stage and DH fannies about sort of making drinks but more getting in the way. Then they sit down the minute I started putting things out and one year all the pigs and blankets were gone and then the gammon at another meal, before I'd even sat down.

Now I put the dishes in the kitchen and people help themselves carvery style, but I also nab the choice bits I want first- chef's prerogative after all.