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

rofl at GetOrf in a panic stirfrying sprouts and pancetta. (Although I have been known to fry up a pancetta and chestnut mix the day before, that I added to the sprouts with a knob of butter once I cooked them on the day - worked very nicely.)

Agree with everyone else that you just need to be sensible about how many different things you are doing, and keep an eye on the timings. I write a schedule so I don't forget anything, and make sure that I don't have anything else much to do in the hours that it's cooking. Make someone else responsible for looking after dcs, laying the table, etc. Recruit help transporting things from kitchen to table.

The meat really doesn't have to be hot. The only things that need to be fresh out of the oven are the roasties. So, I do a ham in advance and serve at room temp, and let the turkey rest for an hour while I cook the veg (glazed carrots and sprouts here) and roast the spuds (I parboil them while the turkey is roasting but could just as well do them the day before. GetOrf is right about the polenta, or semolina is also v g). Like maryz I don't put anything else in the oven while the turkey is in - except for the sausages which I put around the bird when it's got half an hour to go. Hot gravy (yy to making it in advance with stock from the giblets) is essential.

If you have warm plates that is great but can be tricky to arrange; hot dishes for veg are really a good idea though (only takes a few minutes in the hot oven and you can do them while you send out other things).

I do a big lunch for 10-16 most years and have realised that the key is to keep calm (they can smell fear), don't relax too much (more than one glass of wine doesn't make for well-cooked veg), and definitely don't have too much to drink the night before because dealing with a raw turkey together with a hangover is vile.

I agree with a lot of posters re: number of different veggies and accompaniments, we abandoned roast parsnips a couple of years ago because we either forgot to put them in or forgot to take out of the oven.
Oh and don't underestimate how much longer roast potatoes take to cook when there are more of them in the tin, even when your oven is so hot it is practically on fire.

I've done this & the answer is to prepare everything on the 24th evening. We had a buffet of christmas dishes - nut roast (cooked 24th), roast potatoes, honey carrots,turkey prepared & cooked by a restaurant & we collected it on the day, sage stuffing, gravy & bread sauce mixes & other dips, olives. Christmas pud & cream. I bought mince pie filling & made lots of mince pies.

Lots of good advice from aquamortis ( at the pancetta, honestly I was as calm as can be until I had to get the wok out for that lot) - especiually that not everything has to be piping hot, except the roasties (which have to be hot from the oven) and the gravy. YY also to hot plates, that will help enormously as things inevitably hang arpound. If you have nowhere to make your plates hot, do what I did once, run a hot bath and shove plates in it for about 20 mins. Then get someone to dry them off prior to serving.

Last year I cooked two smallish turkeys on christmas eve, wrapped in parma ham and reheated on the bbq (a gas one so little checking required) - freed up the oven for potatoes and roasted veg - also prepared the night before.

I didn't find it any harder doing a huge dinner to the normal 6 people one - just bigger quantities (the timings went to pot but blame that on the wine I was using to help make the gravy!). You'll be fine - and just think of the brownie points!

Agree with advance prep advice and also steamer for veg - do remember to switch it on though, I forgot one year and everything else had to wait while the veg cooked. You can also do pudding in this while you eat.

Also agree you need a written time plan with everything you need to do (including switching on steamer).

Would also add using disposable foil trays for cooking turkey, potatoes and sausages/bacon - saves on mess, you an just throw away and there is no pile of dirty pans stacking up by the sink. Also, you can cook the sausage and bacon in the morning, wrap in foil and reheat for 10 mins under roast potatoes.

Definitely do gravy in advance too - Nigella and Jamie Oliver both have good recipes.

And DEFINITELY no starter. You are not a restaurant and you need some time out the kitchen. If need something first then smoked salmon and posh crisps as nibbles or something really is enough.

In our family the rule is that whoever prepares dinner is finished for the day once main course on table. It's up to everyone else after that point. This has come about from my mother who is usually well into G&T and cava by this point if she is cooking and is best not left in charge of any more hot things.

oh YES to remembering that the roasties take longer if there are lots of them

And don't overload the tins - I've ruined more roast potatoes than I care to admit by putting too many in the tin - they need space around them to crisp up

What I do for that many people is two not-too-laden tins that you hoik out when first dishing up THEN refill the tins with more parboiled potatoes to cook while people get going on their first helpings.

Like the idea of warming plates in the bath

and DEFINITELY get someone else to do the clearing up.

The disposable roasting trays is an excellent idea, I'm going to steal that.

I'd also suggest getting help. If you've got 12 people, at least some of those must be handy in the kitchen? In our house, it's me, my dad, my sister and SIL. Everyone else is banished but with the four of us, we get it all done and tend to enjoy ourselves too over a glass of wine while we're doing it.

Also, one of the most useful additional kitchen items is a small second oven (electric) - you can buy these for between £200 and £500 and if you regularly entertain, they are a godsend. If not, check round family and friends to see if you can borrow one - ours is a microwave/oven combo and although it's quite big and therefore a bit awkward we have been known to load it up in the car when heading to my sister's house. They are brilliant for giving you not just extra space but the ability to cook things at different temperatures.

[many are much more convenient to carry around than ours, so a friendly neighbour or friend might well have an easier one to transport]

I am bereft at the idea of having to abandon roast parsnips if we ever agreed to do a big family Christmas dinner. They are, without exception, my favourite.

So there's a good reason to have Christmas dinners just for us here at home, and then go visiting afterwards!!

Red cabbage can be made now and frozen as can apple sauce if you are having pork.

I always have mashed and roast potatoes. I do the mash the day before so just need to reheat on the day.

Agree on the no starter thing - dips, crisps left out for people to help themselves is the way to go - in fact get the others to bring stuff like this, to keep your costs down.

I put everything out on the kitchen table - pull the table out and everyone can then walk around it and help themselves, they then take their plates into the dining room. Everyone trying to reach over the table in the dining room trying to pass hot turines around is a nightmare.

This thread is reminding me why I have never cooked a Christmas dinner (or any sort of roast apart from two chickens in 1999). It's like visiting another planet.

Personally I would avoid the disposable roasting tins after a hot fat and loads of potatoes (which you will have) burning incident. they are very flimsy when full. There are plenty of washer uppers present. You will be totally exempt from that i hope.

My BIL and I cooked for 23 people the xmas before last. It was grand, though we did have 2 ovens. We did 2 geese, roast, mash, candied yam, sprouts, roast parsnips and carrots, 2 types stuffing, red cabbage and gravy. And soup for a starter, salmon nibbles, and 3 different desserts.

don't bother with parsnip..? eh strange people out their not bothered about roasted parsnips what is the world comingto

We have parsnips - roasted in with the potatos

brussels - dropped into boiling water for 4 minutes and drained

Carrots roasted and boiled
peas

brocoli and cauli

sausages on horseback

leeks in a cream sauce

but we have lamb as it is the last of the lamb and alway the best time to eat

omfg

I am doing Xmas lunch this year and am in AWE of you lot

I am a passionate advocate of cooking the turkey on Christmas Eve - this makes everything else so much simpler. The bird can then be sliced on Christmas morning, warmed through and the oven has plenty of space for veggies and so on. Much less stressful. This was something my mother started doing years ago and it works.

Peeling veggies can be done the day before and should be delegated to a passing relation - you will definately need a list and should encourage delegation of tasks like laying the table, warming plates, organising drinks, laying out of crackers, lighting the candles and so on. It is helpful to have someone who is sufficiently bossy to act as "ringmaster" i.e. ensuring volunteers are doing their bit, giving people a countdown to the meal so everyone can get to the bathroom in time and so on.

Before the big day, I would check the number of plates, bowls, serving dishes etc you have and whether this is enough, along with cutlery and glasses. A trip to Ikea is v useful for a top up of cheap cutlery/plates/paper napkins etc. They also do cheap folding chairs that may be useful to seat everyone.

One option that may be quicker and simpler for serving is to arrange the food in a buffet style on a side table and let peopel help themselves to what they want then go and sit down. Otherwise you will need to set up a production line in the kitchen and will have to let first served ones start as otherwise theirs will be stone cold by the time everyone is served.

that's a very interesting approach scuttle - how do you warm the meat through? Do you pop the whole bird back in the oven for a bit or do it after slicing it? (I'm trying to think of a way it could be done without risking drying it out)

mikestand I was wondering whether disposable tins would be a bit too flimsy, and you're right that you shouldn't be short of washer-uppers (even if they don't really think you are going to accept when they offer [hgrin])

Re parsnips: dh loves roast parsnips so I usually pop a few in with the potatoes but I love parsnip puree (mmm, buttery and nutmeggy - inspired by reading too much Jilly Cooper!) and that can be done in advance.

Re the disposable tin, use them but put them inisde your normal oven dishes for a bit of security. I wouldn't just use the tins on their own as they are too flimsy, this was you still get the convenience of not having to wash hideously dirty baking trays.

YY to not crowding the potatoes all in together. I remember the f irst time I cooked christmas dinner for a load I packed them all in too closely, cue me looking through the oven window crying imporing them 'please go brown, please, please' (they didn't much, and were all mushy )

No parsnips at christmss is a scandal isn't it. They are the best bit. But if I cooked for 18 I would probably do without, they are one of the pain in the arse things to cook, frankly (they burn in the blink of an eye if you f orget about them, and they are likely to burn in the high heat of a potato roasting oven). You could have parsip puree a la Taggie O'Hara, however I always do mashed swede anyway.

I must be strange because the post christmas washing up and kitchen clear down I find enjoyable and relaxing. I would get someone else to sort out the pudding, though (mind you I am no pudding lover, I don't bother personally, everyone has mince pies and clotted cream)

Can you have a takeaway!?

getorf, you are a GENIUS, wouldn't have thought of putting disposable tins inside my normal ones [thick emoticon]. Brilliant.

and hoho at Jilly's parsnip puree cross posts

mind you taggie does all sorts of elaborate things with her turkey including stuffing truffles under the skin and making miniature sauteed potatoes, so I don't think she's a practical ideal role model really

No, Taggie makes work for herself, didn't she make tiny roasties which needed to be flash fried in clarified butter at the last minute? With two young children, Eddie Campbell Black, her husband's ex wife and Hermione Harefield in attendance? Honestly

yes, and she didn't make enough: Hermione ate all of them. I have an idea that the parsnip puree went wrong that year too [hgrin]

Chessie's Christmas dinner on the other hand was perfect iirc

Thank you all. great advice from everyone.

Def picked up some easier ways.

Was kind of thinking i would do turkey night before/ or morning of the day to safe time and stress...but not sure????

scuttlebrother; i was thinking of doing turkey day before and heating it through as needed.....but was worried about re heating the turkey again....and how do you do that safely? without drying it out too???....Same with the ham joint? is that ok to re heat???

Will def get a steamer to do veg as that will help.
Roast potatoes can be in the oven with parsnips.
Does everyone use goose fat?? i have never done that and wondered if there MUCH better???

xxx

goose fat does make for utterly delicious roast potatoes, yes

I don't bother reheating my ham, mindermummy - I serve it at room temperature, I think that ham is just fine like that. But like you I'm interested in how scuttle reheats her turkey.

MIL patented heating up turkey method

1 Hot plates
2 Hot gravy
3 Place sliced turkey on hot plate and smother in hot gravy.