Christmas lunch might be the most important meal of the year. So if you're the one cooking for the family this year, then there's a good chance you're going to be feeling the pressure.
After all, even experienced cooks who happily produce a Sunday roast week in, week out, can be daunted by the challenge of preparing a mountain of mouth-watering festive food.
We've put together this handy guide to make sure that not only will your Christmas dinner taste amazing, but you'll arrive at the table happy and smiling too.
Christmas Eve
Make stock for tomorrow's gravy by placing the turkey neck and giblets in a saucepan with a chopped carrot, onion and celery stick, two bay leaves, a few sprigs of fresh thyme and 600ml cold water. Bring up to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Strain, and put in the fridge.
Make bread sauce and cranberry sauce if you are doing your own. Cover tightly with clingfilm and store in the fridge.
Set the table, leaving flowers until the morning. Put any sauces, mustard and condiments on the table too.
Wash and prepare the vegetables. Peel the potatoes and put them in a pan of salted water overnight. Peel and prepare the carrots and sprouts and store them in a bag in the fridge.
Take frozen turkeys out of the freezer to ensure they're fully defrosted before tomorrow. For defrosting times allow the following: In a fridge, about 10 to 12 hours per kg. In a cool room, three to four hours per kg, longer if the room is particularly cold. And at normal room temperature (about 20C, 68F) two hours per kg.
Finally check the stuffed weight of the turkey to work out how long the bird will take to cook.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has the following advice for cooking turkeys:
As a general guide, for a turkey under 4.5kg allow 45 minutes per kg plus 20 minutes; for one weighing between 4.5kg and 6.5kg 40 minutes per kg; and for those over 6.5kg 35 minutes per kg at 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4 (after the oven has preheated). These times are for an un-stuffed
bird.
It is safer to cook stuffing separately in a roasting tin, but if you decide to cook your turkey with the stuffing inside, allow extra time for the amount of stuffing and for the fact that the bird cooks more slowly. Remember, some ovens, such as fan-assisted ovens, might cook the turkey more quickly so always check the manufacturer's handbook for your oven
8:35AM
Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.
8:40AM
If your turkey is going to take up all the space in your oven, roast your potatoes and parsnips for 40 minutes now and finish them off later when the turkey is out the oven and resting.
To prepare, take the potatoes and parsnips you peeled last night and parboil them for 10 minutes in salted water. Drain and give them a shake to get that crinkly edge in the potatoes when they're roasted.
Carefully tip them in to a roasting tin with oil (you can add crushed garlic for flavour if you like). Put them in the oven for 40 minutes.
9:30AM
Now is the time to put a 6kg (13lb) turkey (about 12 servings) in the oven. Adjust timings accordingly for a bigger or smaller bird, bearing in mind you will need to let it stand for half an hour before serving it. Resting the meat is important as it will make sure it's tender and succulent. Cover the turkey with foil until the last half an hour or so of cooking to prevent over-browning. Sitting the bird on a bed of root veg (such as carrots and parsnips), popping some onion, thyme and a couple of cloves of garlic in the cavity and pouring over a couple of glasses of red or white wine will help keep the meat as moist as possible.
10:00AM
Prepare the pigs in blankets (chipolatas with streaky bacon rashers wrapped around them).
10:15AM
Baste the turkey .
11:00AM
Baste the turkey again. This is also the time to check you have your white wine or champagne chilling. At this time of year it's so cold you can just put it in the garden, rather than the fridge, if there isn't enough room.
12:00PM
Baste the turkey.
12:45PM
Baste the turkey one final time, then take off the foil so that the turkey skin can brown. Pour excess juices from the turkey into a jug, leave to cool and pop it in the fridge to de-fat (the hardened fat will form a layer on top). You don't need to bother with this if you are using cheat gravy.
1:00PM
If you are serving red wine open it now to allow it time to breathe.
Put your plates and vegetable dishes in to warm.
1:15PM
Take the turkey out of the oven. Check it is cooked by inserting a meat thermometer into the inner thigh area near the breast of the turkey but not touching the bone. It should reach around 82C. If you don't have a thermometer, poke a fork in this area and check the juices run clear. If the thermometer doesn't read hot enough, or the juices are still pink, pop it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. If you've put the stuffing inside the bird the stuffing temperature must reach 73C to be safe. Once the turkey is cooked, take it out, cover with foil and a clean tea towel on top of that. This keeps the turkey warm for 30-45 minutes.
1:30PM
Time to put in your wrapped sausages and stuffings to cook.
1:40PM
Put the potatoes and parsnips back in the oven to finish roasting and put the water for veg on to boil. Cook the prepared veg to the following timings: finely-sliced carrots and Brussels sprouts - six to eight minutes; broccoli five minutes; frozen peas two to three minutes.
1:50PM
Make the gravy, with granules, or by pouring three tablespoons of fatty juices from the turkey roasting tin into a pan and stirring in three tablespoons of flour. Cook, stirring, for about one to two minutes until lightly browned. Stir in the turkey stock you made yesterday, along with 150ml of de-fatted turkey juices, and a splash of red wine. Bring to the boil, stirring. Add a little gravy browning, season to taste and simmer, uncovered, for five minutes.
2PM
Everything should be ready! Get one person to carve the turkey straight on to warmed plates while someone else puts all the veg into warmed dishes. Reheat the bread sauce in the microwave while you are doing this.
Bon Appetit!
Shopping list:
Turkey
Jar of cranberry sauce or the ingredients to make fresh
Ingredients for bread sauce, or a cheat's microwave version
Ready-made fresh stuffings in oven trays
Brussels sprouts
Carrots
Broccoli
Frozen peas
King Edward potatoes for roasting
Parsnips
Onion
Celery, bay leaves, gravy browning (for fresh gravy) or gravy granules if you don't want to make fresh
Fresh thyme sprigs
Garlic
Cocktail sausages
Streaky bacon
Wine for the meal
