Introduction
Theres a lot to do on Christmas day, lots of plates to spin. Even if you’re just cooking for a small amount of people, prepping as much as possible ahead of the day will let you to be stress free and spend more time with family on the day.
Another tip is to make sure you have your timings documented and printed so you can follow them on the big day. Here i will run through my plan for the day including the prep and the recipes for each.
Food List
Savoury
- Turkey
- Sausage Meat Stuffing
- Pigs in blankets
- Vegetables
- Bacon Sprouts
- Yorkshire Puddings
- Honey glazed carrot and parsnips
- Bread Sauce
Sweet
- Mince Pies
- Brownies
Preparation
Probably the most important part. Get this done on Christmas Eve, and you can just stand around drinking a beer on Christmas day waiting for timers to go off and just putting things in and taking things out of the oven. Heres a list of everything i will be preparing the day before
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!
| Food | Preparation |
|---|---|
| Mince Pies | Prepare and cook mince pies |
| Brownies | Prepare and cook brownies |
| Pigs in blankets | Wrap all the sausages in bacon and put in a foil dish and cover in the fridge |
| Sausage Meat Stuffing | Make the stuffing and put in a foil dish and cover in the fridge |
| Yorkshire Puddings | Make the mix and store in a tupperware box in the fridge. You can make this 24 hours ahead maximum |
| Bacon Sprouts | Peel and trim the sprouts and store in a tupperware box |
| Honey Glazed Carrot and Parsnips | Par boil the veg and coat in the glaze. Store in a foil dish covered in the fridge |
| Potatoes | Par boil the potatoes, store in a tupperware box. Not in a foil dish as you will need to heat up the oil/goose fat in it first |
| Bread Sauce | Make the bread sauce and store in a tupperware box in the fridge. On xmas day you can just reheat with a touch of milk |
The Big Day
With all your food prepped, a beer in hand and a christmas jumper on, just tick off everything below. My timings are based off a 17lb turkey and eating for 2pm
I’d advise using something like Amazon Alexa to preset multiple named timers
Dont forget to get your foil dishes out to come to room temperature
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 08:00 | Take Turkey out of fridge |
| 09:00 | Put Oven on |
| 09:30 | Put Turkey in covered in foil |
| 12:30 | Take off foil |
| 12:30 | Put Potato pans in with goose fat |
| 13:00 | Take turkey out of oven and cover with foil and tea towels to rest |
| 13:00 | Put Potatoes in |
| 13:00 | Put Yorkshire tins in to heat |
| 13:20 | Put Carrots and parsnips in |
| 13:20 | Put stuffing and pigs and blankets in |
| 13:20 | Start Gravy |
| 13:30 | Put veg on |
| 14:00 | Dish up ours |