how to deal with a christmas dinner for 18 people

[mindermummy]

can anyone give me some advice on how to deal with a typical christmas dinner for 18??

ie what things can i cook the day before and re heat safely?

my oven is just not going to take 2 lots of meat, roast potatoes etc for that many people....i need some advice on what way i can do it easily!!!

thanks

wtf are you doing this for?

give some of the food out to local attendees and have them cook it at their houses.

Its a family thing.....so i have to take my turn and do it!

none of them live that near.

Def have to do it all myself.
xx

Are your neighbours all home for Christmas? If not, will one of them lend you a kitchen?

go out and eat

three rounds of six at the table?

no one has that many chairs, do they? or do they bring their own

and some chairs Diggery and a hand with the veg

and handing round the nuts

it's just a big roast

get the timings from queen delia

everything will be fine - you can cook the potatoes as the turkey rests

Part roast the pots the day before.

Do a massive ham and either boil it (if you have a big enough pan) or roast it very early and it will be fine to eat warmish.

After turkey comes out and is resting finish off the pots in oven plus the teeny sausages wrapped in bacon (which should be bought in oven ready trays, not made yourself)

What other veg do you have? I do mashed sweet potato the day before and microwave it. Sprouts on the hob and peas microweved. You can do red cabbage ages in advance (even freeze it).

Do lots of a few things rather than loads of things.

I would invest in a large steamer and cook all the vegetables in that, bar the potatoes. Do the turkey and potatoes in the oven as normal. Potatoes can be par boiled the night before.

red cabbage can be done the day before

peeling and sorting veg on the day when turkey goes in - potatoes, sprouts, carrots

puddings the day before

shop buy bread sauce, cranberry etc

its not the food per se, but the whole workload and the space and chairs

Yes chairs are a pita. You need to delegate chairs, plus setting the table which includes making sure there is enough plates/cutlery glasses and borrowing the extra.

The table needs to be set on Christmas eve if poss, not when you are trying to put a turkey on it.

And on no account do a starter

I've had a separate children's table in the past and used garden tables brought indoors for extra space.

Rather than serve everyone their dish....have helpers do the plate ups from a buffet style counter...that way no one gets in the way while things are coming out of the oven.

I always have at least 12 and sometimes as many as 20 for Christmas dinner (and wouldn't have it any other way!)
top tips:
I choose a day in advance ( usually mid nov in this house) and make the cranberry sause, bread sauce, 2 or 3 different sausagemeat stuffings into blocks ( use loaf tins) sausages wrapped in bacon, red cabbage and sometimes the gravey. Then freeze it all. Defrost Christmas eve.
I've even frozen par-boiled roast spuds the day before and cooked from frozen, however don't normally bother with this.
Good luck

I should add, I freeze all the meat items uncooked and cook on the day

marz...agree about the alcohol....it all doesn't seem to matter so much if I've had a couple of glasses of sherry .

I can russekl up 10 seats to go round the table

beg a hostess trolley from anyone that has one and is not using it for christams - par boil the vegtables and put in the trolley an hour and a half before serving

last year a girl at work made the gravy the night before using jamie Olivers recipe for how to do christams dinenr easy

Do a ham as suggested and mash if you can

then a slice of ham and turkey each so you don't have to have an enormous turkey

christams pud, a triffle, ice cream and cheese and biccys

I do loads the day before...
prep the veg
peel and par boil the potatoes
cook a ham
make stuffing
cook red cabbage

I have cooked a turkey joint before and will do again this year; it's more expensive but there are no bones and it will not take up all of your oven. You might need two or three for 18 depending on how much you like the meat bit of your meal. Once the turkey is out of the oven and resting you can crank the oven temp up for the roast potatoes and sausages.

Pudding can be microwaved.

We did for 12 last year and it was a miracle we sat down on time.

We farmed out some of the food to family - most notably the turkey to DPs Mum, if we'd had to cook that too it would all have gone pear-shaped (or at least would have had to serve it cold having cooked it overnight)

The only way we got it all together was largely down to DP who masterminded the cooker like a sargeant major. Everything had to be juggled and turned and basted with a high degree of precision to prevent burning/undercookedness. One thing to remember is that with so many things in the oven it takes much longer to cook food - plus you'll probably be opening the door more often to turn and check etc.

We prepared all the veggies the night before, so they were pretty straightforward. It was the oven stuff that was the headache - so get youself a sous chef, who's sole role is to mind the oven!!!

As it was apart from sitting down for dinner I don't think I got to put my feet up all day . Everyone else had a nice time though, and at least I didn't have to do the washing up.

Good luck if you do agree to it

Most I have done is 12. That was enough.

Do everything you can on Christmas Eve.

-Peel potatoes and par boil them. Then when drained shake them to death in a pan and cover in a bit of polenta (makes 'em crispy)

-make mashed sweded (with loads of butter and black pepper). This can be reheated in the microwave on the day and really keeps its heat.

• ditto red cabbage - make it with spices, then it can be reheated in the microwave and covered in foil to keep hot.

• don't bother with parsnips.

• make the pigs in blankets, stuffing and gravy on chriostmas eve. Sod putting the turkeys juices in, you won't have the time or inclination to do that on the day. If you have used Turkey giblets nobodyu will notice anyway.

-prep the sprouts and par boil them, then dunk in freezing cold water until cool so they stay green. Store in cold place and then just dunk in boiling water for 5 mins on the day. Don't try to get fancy and fry them with pancetta. That is the one thing that nearly finished me off, stir frying fucking sprouts and pancetta. If you don't like sprouts cook brocolli as is easy (am of the opinion that you need somethiung green)

Do a great big ham the night before.

On the day, cook the turkey, with pots on bottom of oven. When turkey done take out and wack up heat, put pots on top of overn and out stuffung and pugs in blankets in oven. Then you have hob rings for sprouts, gravy and any other veg (would say carrots).