Christmas dinner help?

[Daniki]

Hi! 👋
I know it's early to mentioning the c word but sure anyway!
This Christmas will be the first one that iv hosted, and ever cooked, in our new home we've built.
BUT I HAVE NEVER COOKED A TURKEY 😂🥲
Any tips? I plan on trying out different sides over the next few months to get a feel for what I like and how my cooker works with several things at once etc. I do have a a massive leisure cooker with 3 ovens. My MIL is doing the ham. There will be 6 adults and 1 very fussy 3.5 yr old.
Also I'm not too bad a cook but I can get flustered easily so that's why I'd like to try out a few recipes first so I have a general idea of what I'm at on the day 😂

Once you know the weight of your turkey, you will be able to work out the cooking time, there is lots of timing advice available on line, also your Turkey may well come with cooking instructions. You can decide if you wish to brine it before hand for instance.
If you don't want too much left over turkey, you might consider buying a turkey crown for six people.

Have a look at the various home/women magazines in November/December, they are sure to have cooking timetables for Christmas Day.

Don't get carried away with sides and accompaniments, a few things well done is the best way. Prep what you can ahead, gravy for example, and encourage guests to contribute what they are good at, Auntie Mary's trifle or MinL's mince pies.
🎄 🦃 🎄 🦃 🎄 🦃 🎄

Thanks Ada! Will look into that 😁 should of mentioned one of the adults is a veggie so only eats the sides 😂

Get a turkey crown rather than a turkey. No bones to mess about with, just cook and carve.

Ready prepared veggies are also a good cheat, as are Aunt Bessies frozen roast potatoes.

As you're only feeding five adults, @Daniki a turkey crown will be ample for you, look for one just under two kilos I'd say. It will cook more quickly than a whole bird. 🦃 🦃 🦃

With three ovens you won't have any problems!!

Thanks guys, i think turkey crown is the way to go!

I always get a turkey breast roast from M&S, different sizes available, dead easy, no waste and absolutely delicious moist meat. I don't mind cooking but I don't want to be too busy in the kitchen on Christmas day, so I always get ready prepared sides.

Definitely buy a digital meat thermometer- they take the guess work out of it!

I usually prep as much as I can the day or two before, so I can just get the Turkey done on the day and crisp up the roasties/put a few bits in the oven. I even make the gravy a couple of weeks before and freeze it. I loosely follow Jamie Oliver's "get ahead" gravy but I don't put the aromatic stuff in like star anise, and I add some chicken cubes. This saves a lot of stress on the day and I keep it hot in a slow cooker so it's not using the space on the hob.

I part boil, season and roast my potatoes the day before so they just need 20 mins to get hot and crunchy on the day, and I prep cauliflower/brocolli cheese the day before so it just needs to go in the oven.

Anything else like stuffing balls, roast carrots/parsnips, pigs in blankets is prepped and on trays ready to go in on the day. I used my air fryer last year for stuffing balls and pigs in blankets, it was ideal.

This will be my first Christmas in decades not cooking Christmas dinner as I'll be in Dubai for Christmas day on my way to Australia so it will be something completely different for me.

I go all out with the Christmas dinner but I'm not adverse to having a few "cheats" as it's been my Christmas too.

These are a few tips that I've found useful.

Prepare as much the day before preferably two days before so you're not tired after Christmas Eve.

I made bread stuffing also sausagemeat stuffing a couple of days in advance, both freeze well.

My lot love honey or maple roasted root veg, Tesco's frozen red cabbage and apple, I used to make my own but this is very good and I'm just back from Tesco after buying a bag of it for later. I usually do three types of potatoes - roast, garlic and mashed potatoes. I like brussel sprouts and parboil them then roast them with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. There's lots of different recipes for them but only cook them if you or your guests like them.

Parboil veg the day before and use foil trays and store in the fridge so they're ready to go straight in the oven on the day. If you have a cool box you could put the trays of prepared food in it and keep outdoors or in a shed to free up fridge space.

A food thermometer is desirable for the turkey. A crown is ideal for the number of guests you're having, cover it until it's nearly cooked and baste often, a thermometer will let you know when it's done so you avoid overcooking it. I normally cook a whole turkey and brine it using Nigella's recipe so the turkey has never been dry and brined cooks quicker. Tesco usually have the cooking times on the front of the packaging. Safefood usually have cooking times but if I followed their cooking times it would be very dry and overdone.

I do pigs in blankets and buy them in Tesco or Lidl. I had to cook Christmas dinner for DS1 and his friends when they were isolating in a different house when they had covid a couple of years ago and one was vegetarian so I got him one of the Lidl Deluxe vegetarian meals and he was delighted with that. They have a large range of vegetarian dishes at Christmas.

I sometimes serve starters about an hour before the main meal depending on what I'm serving as it's easier to just concentrate on getting everything for the main course on serving plates without having everyone sitting at the table waiting.

I make sure to set and decorate the table the night before. It has made a big difference to how smoothly things go on Christmas day.

Yep, turkey crown is the way to go. If you've roasted a chicken before then this is no different, just adjust the timing. Buy a tray of stuffing from M&S - most supermarkets do fancy stuffing in foil trays. Par boil potatoes the day before, rough them up whilst still warm and put them in a large tupperware container in the fridge. Likewise par boil parsnips the day before. You can make bread sauce in advance but M&S usually sell it ready made and it is very good. You can even cook the veggies the day before and microwave on the day. I use the veg water in my gravy which you can also make beforehand then just add the turkey juice on the day.

Please don’t cook the turkey the day before is my advice, it’s never nice that way.

Other than that as PP have said it’s not much different to cooking a chicken, make sure you have a meat thermometer to hand, cover with butter, seasoning and streaky bacon, stuffing inside and make sure you allow plenty of resting time before serving.

Does it have to be a turkey? What's wrong with a large chicken? There will, no doubt, be about a billion side dishes, so meat is almost more of a condiment than a main part of the meal, so why not cook something you are more familiar with rather than put yourself through the stress of cooking an unfamiliar meat on the day itself?

There's no law saying you have to have a turkey. I'm not a fan and as I can't have it with my mom's bread stuffing (actually stuffed in the bird) then I don't normally have it.

The one time I did enjoy it was when I did a turducken. It was actually turkey, duck, chicken, pigeon breasts, and sausage meat. Took about 5 hours to prep but was delicious.

And for the veggie - are they bothered if things are cooked with whatever meat there is? So can the roasties be in duck fat? Can the carrots be kept warm in an oven with the turkey in it? Some people are very particular about this.

No not the turkey crown! I personally love the leg meat, I look forward to it every year! Turkey crowns can be expensive, if there's 6 adults just get a small turkey. Have you cooked a chicken in your oven? If not, cook one and see how you get on, it's pretty much the same just cooking time is longer the bigger the bird. I've hosted many times and the only tricky thing is keeping it all hot to serve at the same time. So make sure you have plenty of serving dishes and a plan for where to keep them so that food doesn't go cold. We have a buffet serving thing with 3 large lidded sections (you plug it in) that I put the veg and sides in, then use the oven for the other bits. When the turkey is cooked you need to cover it with foil and then several teatowels (or a big old towel is what I use) and let it rest. Jamie Oliver says it should rest for nearly as long as it was cooking! So that gives you plenty of time to sort out the veggies etc and pop dishes in the oven to keep warm.

Good luck! I absolutely love Christmas dinner it's my favourite part of Christmas!!

Thanks guys, yous are all a big help! 🤩 I mentioned the crown to my husband and he said the same he loves the leg so please get it 😂

I baste turkey with melted butter and maple syrup. I'd love a Christmas dinner now.

@honeyrider that sounds Devine, me too 😂

My tip is to let the the turkey to rest for ages.. I take mine out of the oven for at least an hour before we’re going to eat, put it on the side covered with tin foil and a heavy towel, that frees up the oven for an hour before dinner to roast potatoes or oven roast veg that I’ve prepped in advance. You can have roast potatoes made weeks ahead and in the freezer ready to go

Yes, this. It keeps hot for aaages especially if you cover it with foil and a towel or two. So plan the cooking time so it goes in early and comes out 1.5-2 hours before you want to eat it, then there’s loads of time for it to rest and for you to get everything else through the oven.

My little tip is homemade stuffing

fine breadcrumbs (I have mini chopper) and onion and either dried mixed herbs or fresh is nicer (eg sage) and real butter

put this in a bowl for the easy option to microwave or put in tin foil and oven cook

I've never microwaved stuffing, does it not get soggy?