starting to panic re my turkey now

[nailpolish]

ive never done xmas lunch and there are 13 mouths to feed - ie a 14lb turkey

mum says ill have to get up at 7am to cook it (!)

i thought maybe i could cook it xmas eve and slice it and then reheat it - is this possible?

and hows best to store and reheat

ta v much xxx

You are brave, np !

The only prob with cooking & reheating is that it is more likely to dry out, and turkey already has a tendency to do that when cooked and served fresh.

dont be daft it will take about 3 or 4 hours to cook

cook it over night on a low heat? it's what I do smells lovely when u wake up

Won't you be up at 7 with your kids anyway?

Like NDP says it will probably make it more dry. It is doable though.

what time are you eating?

before the day make sure it fits in a tray and you have enough silver foil AND that it all fits in your oven

how do you do that munz?

and what do you do with it until lunch (were having ours at 330pm I hope)

yes ill prob be up at 7am but i wasnt planning on stuffing a turkey!

i think im going to faint when the butcher hands me this beast...

oh blimey 3.30 you will be fine, dont panic its just liek a big chicken

I can look it up for you but I would imagine it doesnt have to go in until 11.30/12-ish.

i really like cooking, everything always turns out ok but i never ever ever get my timings right

write a full plan before the day with times

yes i think i should do that tonight - a timeplan

and wrap presents
and write cards
and write more lists
and more lists

sigh!

We never actually stuff ours ! It cooks better without, we find, but do put a couple of shallots/bayleaf in the cavity. Really it doesn't have to be that stressful. As long as it fits in the one just put it on at about 10.30 and it will be fine !!

well, I put it on about 1 am (admittingly it's normally once we've been out with friends and come home) then I put it on our lowest setting which I think is about GM 1 and i'm up at 8am ish normally to check on it. (I did have to turn it up) but we eat at around 12/12.30 so it's taken out at about 11.30 to stand and left on the top of the cooker to keep it warm.

I wouldn't recommend it for dinner at 3.30 - i'd prob say best bet would be to stuff it - if u wish to do that and prep everything the night b4 leave it in treys etc and pop it in on a low heat around 10.30/11 ish. (althou i'm not too good with timeings so ours is done when it's done iycwim)

so theres a chance it might not even fit in the oven..

great!

lol, how about it u can only fit that in cook it the night b4 and instead of nuking it in the mike carve it up, baking tray ontop of the oven with grevy in it and stick the slices in there to heat them back up again - would that stop them from going dry?

i really would rather do it on xmas eve, carve and reheat the next day tbh

it will mean i can enjoy xmas day more and not be stressed about food

i will maybe just drown it in gravy

ta munz

mailpolish - -don't you think that it never tastes as nice when it's reheated?

I push a load of unsalted butter under the skin to help with the dryness

I'm worrying about mine fiting in the oven too!

we have a built under double oven and it doesn't look very big

can't be worse than last year when the cooker went bang the week before christmas so we didn't have an oven for the turkey

sigh

but should i be all stressed out about a stupid bird or should i just make this as easy as possible for myself

my veg will be beautiful..

ive only got a single oven so its reasonably big

ooh this is gonna sound odd but my dad - don't ask me why he does it, cooks it mostly then turns it upside down then back over again - weird man! lol - also put a few rashers of bacon over the top - it's yummy and thta seems to help with he dryness.

oh yes im going ot put bacon on it

maybe butter under skin like zip says

dh is now shouting "No"
he thinks cooking is the 'tradition'

well he can do it then