How To Cook Christmas Dinner
To spare you the full nervous breakdown experience of cooking Christmas dinner for your loved ones – and other members of your family too – this is how I’ve been cooking Christmas dinner for around eight or ten people. It’s evolved over the years so I hope this is helpful.
Goals
There are a few goals I try to set from the very beginning:
- We aim to eat around 2pm
- No one gets food poisoning
- Nothing gets burnt
- We still have somewhere to live on Christmas Night
What To Cook
This is what’s on the menu. You don’t have to make all of these.
- Turkey crown (around 3kg)
- Gammon (around 2.5-3kg), cooked in Coca-Cola
- Pork, sage and chestnut stuffing
- Roast potatoes
- Mashed potatoes
- Roast carrots
- Roast parsnips
- Brussel sprouts
- Gravy
Timings
And how’s this for Swiss Watch-like accuracy?
- 10:30am Put the turkey on
- 10:30am Put the gammon on
- 12:35pm Boil kettle for roast potatoes
- 12:45pm Parboil roast potatoes
- 12:55pm Parboil the roast vegetables
- 1:00pm Put on the stuffing
- 1:10pm Put on the roast veg
- 1:00pm Steam the roast potatoes
- 1:05pm Roast the roast potatoes 1
- 1:10pm Boil kettle for mashed potatoes
- 1:20pm Roast the roast potatoes 2
- 1:20pm Put on the mashed potatoes to boil
- 1:30pm Let the turkey rest
- 1:30pm Boil kettle for the sprouts
- 1:35pm Roast the roast potatoes 3
- 1:40pm Boil the sprouts
- 1:50pm Drain and steam the sprouts
- 1:50pm Drain and steam the mashed potatoes
- 1:50pm Keep roast potatoes warm
- 1:50pm Mash the potatoes
- 1:50pm Make the gravy
- 2pm Serve
