Have Sunday lunch for 12 to cook- what can I do in advance? Plus I want to make it tasty!

[LostMarbles99]

Am not cook and have a small single oven.

Can I make anything in advance?

Am doing roast beef but am not used to cooking for crowds! Any tips or tricks so I don't embarrass myself?

beginning to regret offering

Am stressed already!

Hi, do you want to do a classic Sunday roast beef lunch?
If so, I would buy ready made Yorkshire puddings, as they only take a couple of minutes in the oven.

Plan your cooking so you cook the beef and then it rests. Whilst it rests turn up heat for roast potatoes.
You can get all the veg ready the day before. Also you could choose a pudding for day before.

Personally for 12 people I would do a slow roasted pork shoulder, I think more tasty and you just get it ready and cook for 15 to 24 hours, therefore all prep day before. I use the Hugh fern whitingly recipe, but nigella does one too. Never fails to please and really easy.
Good luck

Thanks for that, really helpful.

What size of roast would I need for 12 people?

I think where I go wrong is trying to time everything to be be ready together, beef, veg all.

So can I cook the beef and then get the other stuff ready- wouldn't it get cold?

When you get the beef out of the oven cover it with double layer of foil and then a tea towel or 6. I usually park my oven gloves on there too AND if I've warmed a dish to put the sliced meat in I upturn that over the joint. Stays VERY warm .

I usually spend between £10-12 at the farm shop for a piece of bee which feeds 4 out of the five of us (dd1 doesn't like it) and does two more dinners for two adults and then possibly a bit left over. If I was feeding 12 I giess I would be spending £22 or so. Unfortunately I've no idea what that is in weight.
What I do with mine is put in tray with salt and peper and sometimes sliced onion on then I pour quite a bit of some red wine and a spash of water in the tin. Topside comes out very moist and the juices are excellent for gravy

when you take the beef out of the oven cover it with foil then store it in the microwave (not switched on) it'll be contained so the heat wont escape while you are doing other things.

it might also be an idea to have a "help yourself" like with bowls of veg etc rather than the faff of trying to plate everything up

I think if you are not a confident cook then making something that 'seems' simple like a roast can be quite stressful as there are so many elements to time and get right and you will be a bit distracted with 12 people milling about as you are trying to finish it off etc.

I am an experienced cook and I cook fairly regularly for dh's side of the family (approx 16) for Sunday lunch and other occassions and I would never ever consider cooking a roast on these days. I make life easy for myself and always cook something in a big pot with lots of nice sides, all of which can pretty much be made in advance. This takes the stress and exhaustion out of it for me. So for instance I have made the following over the past couple of years:

Chicken curry - made the day before, have chutneys, dips and poppadoms ready made and just have to cook rice on the day.

Lasagne - served with big bowls of salad with homemade dressing and roast garlic garlic bread

Pork stroganoff - made the night before and reheated very successfully and very delicious, I used a Jo Pratt recipe, cooked rice on the day and had a 'winter salad bowl' also a Jo Pratt recipe - delicious and hot crusty bread

Beef and red wine stew (bourguinon) made the day before and served with extra creamy mash made earlier that morning and popped into the oven with some butter on top and covered with a lid / foil, just stir the butter through when serving. Served this with steamed tender stem broccoli

Chilli con carne (nigella's recipe) served with bowls of cheese, gaucamole, sour cream, nachos and cook rice when they arrive

These were all winter dishes. I summer I have made things like:

Whole cooked salmon served with new potato and bacon salad, cucumber relish and bread

Chicken marinaded in honey and mustard traybake with potato gratin and green salad.

Thai Coriander Pork (Rachel Allen recipe) with rice

I don't do starters but sometimes stretch to a platter of small triangles of brown soda bread (i bake) topped with smoked salmon and pickled red cabbage with dill (buy the cabbage in M&S) OR olives, crackers and dips, especially if I know they won't all arrive together and we could be waiting about for one lot to show up etc. Saves them all wandering about and you having to offer endless cups of tea etc.

For dessert I always bake / make 2 things that can be made in advance so usually something like a chocolate cake or tiramisu or hazlenut pavlova etc so all I have to do is slice it up and serve.

Good luck, it is a lot of work, but if you play it clever you can minimise the effort on your behalf and still make something very impressive!

I thinks for big crowds it is nice to serve the main component (meat / stew etc) on the plate / dish per person (with some leftover for seconds) and then put everything else in serving bowls on the table or counter for them to help themselves - it creates more of an atmosphere of bounty and is less work than plating up everything for that many.