Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Food/recipes

For related content, visit our food content hub.

Christmas Dinner - I KNOW I KNOW IT'S TOO EARLY!!

9 replies

JPM · 12/10/2004 23:35

In a moment of weakness I've agreed to do Christmas Dinner this year for my family and DH's family which means 12 of us in total !! Now starting to panic!! How on earth can I fit a big turkey plus all the rest of the trimming in my normal size oven??? And get it all to finish cooking at the same time?? Any suggestions? Is it possible to cook turkey in advance? Say on Christmas Eve? Help!!

OP posts:
mothernature · 12/10/2004 23:42

JPM found this, it a bit long but printer friendly, hope it helps...

Christmas dinner timetable
It's probably the biggest meal you'll cook all year, and it's all too easy to get completely stressed out. But don't panic: just follow Amy Willcock's Christmas dinner planner

The biggest feast of the year doesn?t have to be a hectic rush to get everything on the table, leaving you frazzled and frantic, and smiling your Christmas greetings through gritted teeth. Take a few deep breaths, have a large glass of wine and sit down with this three-week countdown. Then at least you can say you tried.

Early December
Order your turkey or buy a frozen one now. To work out what size you need, count on serving 450g per person. A frozen turkey will need 4?5 days to thaw. Make and freeze your mince pies. Order flowers for the Christmas table, if you?re planning something special.

One week before Christmas

Start to defrost the turkey at the back of the refrigerator.
Write your shopping list and purchase all non-perishables (don?t forget pet food).
Buy milk in cartons and freeze in case of emergency.
Two days before Christmas

Make Cranberry Sauce and store in the fridge.
For stuffings and Bread Sauce you will need stale bread. Cut and cube it now and lay it out on a baking tray in a single layer.
Make sure all napkins and tablecloths are washed and ironed.
Wash or polish cutlery, glasses, serving dishes and china.
Pick up the flowers you ordered for the table.
Arrange flowers and water well.
If possible, wait until Christmas Eve to buy vegetables, salads and fish. If not, buy them now.
Christmas Eve morning

Pick up fresh turkey.
Do last-minute shopping.
Prepare Turkey Gravy
Defrost mince pies.
Prepare your chosen pudding and refrigerate. If you?re serving a traditional pudding, make Brandy Butter and refrigerate.
Christmas Eve afternoon

Prepare stuffings. Don?t refrigerate, but leave covered in a cool place. The stuffings should not be too cold when you stuff the turkey.
Prepare the veg. Peel potatoes and put in cold water in the fridge. Prepare other vegetables and store in plastic bags in the fridge.
Make Bread Sauce, cover tightly with cling film and store in the fridge.
Set the table, leaving the flowers until the morning.
Christmas Eve evening
Take the turkey out of the fridge, cover with foil and allow it to come to room temperature. Do the same with the stuffing and butter so that it softens for the morning. With all the newly created space fill up the fridge with wines, mineral water and fresh juice.

Christmas day: lunch to be served at 2:00pm

7.30 am
Preheat the oven and prepare the turkey. Refer to our Guide to Christmas Turkey if necessary.

8.15 am

Make the bread sauce if you haven?t already.
If you are using a warming oven put in the required plates and serving dishes.
Set up coffee and tea trays for later.
11:30am
Prepare Sausages and Bacon Rolls for cooking. Reheat Bread Sauce and place it in a jug with butter on top to melt over the surface and keep warm.

Noon:

Start steaming the Christmas Pudding. (Make a traditional recipe or a low-calorie version.)
If you?re drinking red wine with your meal, you may want to give it time to breathe. Open now.
12:45pm:
Make the Roast Potatoes and prepare saucepans of boiling water for sprouts and any other vegetables.

1:15pm:
Remove turkey from oven, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest.

1:30pm:
Check Bacon Rolls, remove and keep warm.

1:45pm:

Put sprouts on to cook and gravy on to heat. While they are cooking, dish up food into serving dishes and carve the turkey.
Check Christmas pudding.
2:00pm:
Happy Christmas.

Juliehafrancis · 13/10/2004 13:58

Our oven is quite small so I always cook the turkey an hour and a half before dinner is served and keep it warm with lots of tin foil that way I can cook the potatoes, sausages in bacon etc.

Hope this helps.

I know delia's christmas book has lots of help and I found it invaluable last christmas. If you can't get hold of a copy cat me and I will happily email you a list of recipes that I can print off for you.

Good luck!

Jules x

princesspeahead · 13/10/2004 14:16

JPM

Christmas lunch is the best thing to make since it is dead easy, and everyone treats you like Einstein and Delia rolled into one for doing it.
First, remember that it is basically a roast chicken lunch, with a very fat chicken.
Second, Do the roast potatoes in the oven first thing in the morning or the night before, then you can just blast them for 15 minutes in a hot oven before serving them. No one will tell the difference and it frees up the oven for the colossal bird.
Also:

Do the bread sauce whenever (tomorrow if you like!) and freeze it.
Microwave defrost and heat it on the day. You can also make and freeze brandy butter in the containers you'll serve it in (but remember to defrost a couple of days in advance). Or just buy it.
Buy, don't make, cranberry sauce. Life is too short.
Buy ready cleaned sprouts. Ditto if you want to toss chestnuts in the sprouts, buy vacuum packed ready peeled ones (peeling sprouts is the biggest timewasting pain on earth).
Only do one stuffing, and not a pork one - they can have chipolatas instead. Do a light vege one and make sure you increase the bird cooking time to account for the full cavity.
NEVER steam a pudding - why put yourself through that when you can microwave it in 3 mins and it tastes the same?!

This leaves you with just a bird to roast, some ready cleaned veg to chuck in boiling water, some microwaving, and not much else. COmplete doddle!

Good luck

acnebride · 13/10/2004 14:59

There's only one colossal bird in my kitchen

thanks for starting this thread jpm as i have been wibbling about this for a while, tho only have 7 to cook for

quite tempted to do poussins or other small birdy things, but they probably take up more space in the long run.

strawberry · 13/10/2004 15:14

Can definitely cook the turkey day before - warms up nicely when you pour hot gravy on top! I usually cook mine early Xmas morming and keep warm with foil so have oven free for spuds, sausages etc.

Can someone else bring sauces? My mum is in charge of cranberry, bread suace (yuk!) and pudding and cake. Also what about asking someone to bring dessert if kids don't like xmas pud.

Do all the prep the night before - peeling veg etc and put in pans of cold water ready to cook.
Have a takeaway on xmas eve!

JPM · 15/10/2004 00:02

Thanks everyone. Will probably cook bird on Christmas Eve night after speaking to step-mother. She says this is what she's always done - I never knew before and have always commented on how nice it is so must work!! Never heard of bread sauce before?? Where do you pour this? On the mother-in-law??

OP posts:
sallystrawberry · 15/10/2004 00:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JPM · 15/10/2004 00:12

Anyone have the recipe for bread sauce then??

OP posts:
sallystrawberry · 15/10/2004 00:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread