I am Yorkshire-born, Yorkshire brought up and still live in Yorkshire
OK, if you're that Yorkshire then how come you know where the cooker is?
Can't have it both ways...
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Christmas dinner help and advice please
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Posted 6 months ago #
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start practising and then you will know your timings
Posted 6 months ago # -
OK, if you're that Yorkshire then how come you know where the cooker is?
Can't have it both ways...
Posted 6 months ago # -
- Sprouts with smoked bacon lardons (of just diced)
- Potato dauphinois (get this right and it's proper nom nom - and works fine alongside
- Stuffing (get sausage meat from butcher (or remove from good quality sausages) and mix with diced onion/herbs/seasoning/breadcrumbs and anything else that takes your fancy, e.g. dried apricots, nuts etc)
Posted 6 months ago # -
I've cooked Christmas dinner for my lot (usually about 12 of us but has been 16 in the past) most years for the last 10.
Clear as much stuff out of your fridge in the week before as you can, its amazing how much space it'll all take.
Unless you have an Aga or access to another oven, then I think by far and away the most important thing you can have is an oven timetable, written down so you know what has to go in when and that it will all fit. Makes the whole thing much simpler. Project management!
Do as much of the prep work (vegetables, potatoes etc - get them peeled and chopped and stored in a bucket of water) as you can in advance, the day before ideally. That's the grim stuff, get it out the way.
Make it a team effort - what we usually do is get other family members to bring a starter or a dessert - gets the grans involved and its less to do. We get everyone who's drinking to give us a tenner or something in advance then go to Majestic or somewhere to buy a load of decent wine and beer so it doesn't end up costing us quite as much.
This year we're all going away to a couple of island cottages rather than buying presents for adults. The kitchen looks ace, I can't wait!
Posted 6 months ago # -
If you use the handle end of a wooden spoon from the neck end of your turkey, you can separate the skin from the breast meat without breaking the skin. This means that you have a pocket covering the whole of each breast which you can then stuff with butter - could be garlic butter, herb butter etc. as you wish. This all melts during cooking, of course, but it really helps to keep the turkey breast juicy and prevent it from drying out.
Again - best done the day before.
Posted 6 months ago # -
greeng - yeah I do that with my Sunday roast chickens - and stuff with a lemon for extra flavour
Posted 6 months ago # -
Cook & carve turkey the night before, less panic about timing on the day, just cook veggies, PiBs etc, gravy.
Posted 6 months ago # -
Cook & carve turkey the night before
Nooooooooo!I want the cooking meat smell filling the house all morning
Posted 6 months ago # -
The best solutionL
Nigella Lawson's book: Feast
It has a huge section on Christmas, and no silly pine scented sugar or such like from a chef/chemist
Posted 6 months ago # -
My top tip - the bird can be rested for as long as you cooked it - wrap it up in foil and it stays warm. This way you have loads of room in the oven to cook everything else - I found this approach much easier last year
Posted 6 months ago # -
Yeah that is what I am planning on doing - will give myself 3/4hr to cook the other oven bitsand to make up a gravy from the juices after the bird is removed
Posted 6 months ago # -
Posted 6 months ago # -
Last year I made my gravy using homemade chicken stock from the freezer, a bottle of dry cider and red currant jelly.
Best
Gravy
Ever
Posted 6 months ago #
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