If you’re having 19 people for Christmas…

[Florally]

How many bags / trays of roast potatoes would you do? 😅

I know it’s September, but just based off a debate with my DH when I was loosely weighing the possibilities of what we need / what we have (chairs etc) to make sure we’re okay to do this.

I was particularly concerned most about oven space and potatoes being a favourite (particularly of my children’s) I wanted to work out if this meal would work and there would be enough for everyone..

Meat we can do in advance, lots of veg I can just pivot to all doing on the hob… thinking maybe I can include microwave and air fryer for some things. But potatoes?! Feel like there has to be enough and they have to be amazing right? (Done in the oven!)

for reference, the 19 is 4 60 plus, 8 30’s and 40’s, 4 teens, 3 under 10’s and one other who basically eats nothing so i’m not counting them in the need for food.

Totally agree.

Right, I have done this. I also have two ovens (but they're small ovens), a microwave that can also be an oven and an airfryer.

Main oven is for meat and roast potatoes. Cook meat. While meat is resting (and it can rest for ages), roast potatoes.

Small oven if for cauliflower cheese and yorkshires. Cook cauliflower cheese, then whack up heat for yorkshires. Use Microwave in oven mode to keep cauliflower cheese warm.

Airfryers for pre-meal snacks/bread etc.

Don't you go back for seconds? 😭

Nonsense. This is Christmas dinner not a Wednesday midweek roast.

It's Christmas! It's the main feast meal in a period of feasting.

Do you really only have sprouts and red cabbage as your veg at Christmas? 😱

No honey roast parsnips? No roasted carrots?

No carrot and swede mash?

Oh my...

Quite, if I presented a grand total of 12 roast potatoes for our Christmas dinner for 6 people, they'd think that's the "first serving" and that the rest are being kept warm somewhere...

No advice I’m afraid but I’m in awe of your skills to host that many people! I’ve only ever done Christmas dinner for two and now three

I’d have 3 or 4 my plate and then graze on them during the rest of the day, I don’t have a sweet tooth so roast potatoes and cheese is what I’d rather snack on

Get a grip - it's one meal. Parsnips are sweet anyway, who needs to "honey roast" them?

They are much much nicer crusted with breadcrumbs and parmesan ( vegetarian version Italian hard cheese here ) nice crunchy outer to the sweet inside .
Not honey roast

I cook for similar numbers every year.
My tip is not to get another shelf for the oven, but buy a couple of Aga roasting tins. I have two and fill them with roasties. These tins slot into the rungs on the side of my Neff oven thus doing away with the need for a shelf. They are expensive but are solid and even though they are not recommended for putting on the hob, I’ve always put them on a hot hob when turning the potatoes. I’ve had them a few years and the quality is excellent.

I’d be smuggling in some I made the day before - just bung them in the air fryer for ten mins.

I Love all this advice, thank you so much!

On sides, we can’t skip them 😂 we need swede (it’s a family favourite), we need parsnips and usually do them in maple syrup, orange and honey as per my daughters preference after having these once in a really sketchy American diner… we need peas, sprouts, carrots (both roasted and steamed 😂) and then things like cauliflower cheese, pigs in blankets (pigs without blankets - and then just blankets!) two kinds of stuffing… To cover everyone’s likes and dislikes.

And all of that is fine, I’m so happy to do it. The leftovers are glorious! I’m picking up so many ideas from this thread.

Im thinking I need 4 trays of roasties and maybe I’ll also do some mash…

I do have a warming drawer but it’s pretty small, but I can utilise it to keep a few things warm.

Im not put out by the hosting, im excited. I want everyone to have an amazing time. We’ve hosted before for a lot just not for this many.

How much meat?! I’m thinking one large beef, one large pork / gammon and a turkey plus a turkey crown? Or does that sound like not enough?

I deep fry my roast potatoes! Best thing for lots of guests is a hostess tray

Well no-one needs to roast a parsnip in the first place...

Honey roast parsnips are a standard dish, that many people make and enjoy.

And yes, it's one meal, but it's a special meal, its not Tuesday evening at 6:45 after swimming lessons and you need the kids fed quickly...

You feel free to carry on with your miserable sounding Christmas dinner... the rest of us will happily to indulge with a few extras, like stuffing and pigs that makes it special.

Yup, as mentioned you need an extra oven shelf. We got one last year after seeing it on here and it really helped.

I parboil mine the night before and leave to cool, then roast on the day. You need a lot of fridge space but it saves messing around boiling them whilst juggling everything else, and that fridge space then becomes leftover space.

We had 14 people for the three days of 24/25/26 and got through 8kg of potatoes. Mainly in roast form. DH thought I’d lost the plot when he saw the online shop but I was right.

I did some baby potatoes as an extra one year now my DD insists on them every year as well as the roast potatoes !
Just steamed in their skins and if she must , butter on them.

You can do fake roasties if you have a deep fat fryer, just boil the potatoes (could be done the day before) and then fry then.

My mother used to do them this way, I prefer actually roasted potatoes so if you consider doing this try them out beforehand.

@BusWankers you know nowt about what we have for Christmas dinner so you can keep your judgement to yourself.

Coeliac here. It will only be gluten free if the sauce is thickened with gluten free flour and mustard if applicable. Just wanting to avoid any misunderstandings if anyone reading doesn't realise that. A good idea though, bring it on! 😊

ok as you have a lot to do day before prep the veg. Potato's can be peeled day before and left in cold water ..Steamed veg can be chopped and left uncooked ready to go for next day.I peel the parsnips,carrots, potato's day before and i chop and sort all the brussel sprouts the day before

meat i would do one very large gammon i cook it first in pineapple juice in the slow cooker .Then i glaze it in the morning ,it can be done before everything else

i would do a leg of lamb because it can be cooked in a slow cooker and i would also do a leg of pork because that can also be cooked in the slow cooker. A turkey crown can also be cooked in one to. You can also tend to find slow cookers cheap second hand from facebook market place. i would only cook beef if i had room in the oven

Your cooking a lot of roasties at once make sure you heat up plenty of beef dripping in the oven very hot before adding the par cooked potato's so they cook well

use a air fryer to cook the pigs in blankets

I would do 1 large bowl of mash - proper creamy mash or even a savoury “potato stuffing” (with onion and herbs through it).

The meat needs resting time anyway, and turkey really needs an hour - cover it with the foil you used for the start of the cooking (to keep it moist before letting the skin get crispy towards the end) and lay a couple of towels over the top to keep it hot, it really works.

So you have the hour then to cook your roasties. Get the fat and the trays ready before you take the turkey out - so you can slide them in to get hot while you transfer turkey to carving dish and cover it up to stay warm.

Have the potatoes ready in advance, par boiled if you do that, and definitely remove from the fridge if you store them there so they are up to room temperature before the oven (just like you do with meat).

When you have tucked up the turkey in its cosy bed, take the trays back out, pour in the potatoes and toss the fat around them, then put them back into the oven.

You probably want 3 full sized roasting trays (the proper big ones) at least so the potatoes aren’t too crowded together and will get crispy. Don’t forget to give them a toss halfway through cooking as well.

I would also be thinking now about what needs oven and hob space, and when. You might need hob space to par boil the potatoes before roasting. You might think that some frozen peas is a good veg to have (I use petit pois - let the defrost first and then pour a kettle of boiling water on them in a pot to let them sit for 20 minutes - but then they don’t need a hob ring to cook, just somewhere safe for the pot to sit once the boiling water goes in). Or you might want to boil or steam some cauliflower and make a cheese sauce that goes into the oven for 20 minutes - but you can do the initial cauli cooking, and even make the sauce and assemble it, the day before so just take it out of the fridge to let it come back to room temperature before the oven. So that’s a couple of rings removed from the equation. And you could make the base gravy in advance also, just pour a small amount (or some water/stock/wine as preferred) into the roasting tin once the fat is removed to get all the tasty bits off the bottom for the gravy as well as the juices, and just reheat the gravy in a pot - works best to use hot liquid in the roasting pan but means you’re not covering 2 rings with the roasting pan for 10-20 minutes doing the gravy, just 1/2 while you get the juices and bits.

I always make my cheese sauce with cornflour - so it’s suitable for coeliacs.

I mean the problem with roast potatoes is that they should be limitless. But thats hard enough when you have 4 or 6 to dinner. With 19, you're going to have to be conservative. Perhaps 5 or 6 potatoes as others are saying

Feels a bit mean though.

I always cater for 6 each, and there are always tonnes left over even when people go back for seconds. I think the average person only eats 3 or 4, and my family are the type that pile their plate so high, the gravy runs off the edges (ie. Not delicate MN eaters!)