Pre Cook Christmas Dinner: Tips for Easy Holiday Meals

We all know that Christmas dinner is one of the more stressful meals to make in a year, so anything you can do to pre cook parts of the meal is going to save you come Christmas Day, especially since it’s on a Wednesday this year! In this, we’ll give you a few tips to make your Christmas dinner and festive season as stress free as possible.

First things first, you need to plan ahead. You’ll need to ensure you have a good idea of what you want to make for your meal. Gather your recipes, determine what things you want to make ahead of time and what things need to be made on the day. The other thing people often forget to do is create freezer space, so that your festive feast isn’t interrupted by freezer burn and an overflowing fridge, causing unnecessary food waste. In order to help you plan this as much as possible, we’ll be going with a more traditional Christmas dinner menu:

• Turkey
• Yorkshire Puddings
• Brussels sprouts
• Pigs in blankets
• Roasted and glazed parsnip and carrots
• Stuffing
• Roast potatoes
• Cranberry sauce
• Gravy

Christmas pudding

First things first, if you’re making a Christmas pudding, you need to make that well in advance of Christmas in order for it to have time to mature. The date to make it is typically referred to as Stir Up Sunday and will land in November most days.

Mince pies

If you’re making mince pies, you can make those ahead of time. Although, you may end up eating them all in advance, so you’ll probably have to make these twice.

Cranberry Sauce

If you’d like to make your own cranberry sauce, instead of using shop bought, it can be made well in advance of the meal. All you have to do is freeze and then defrost in the fridge and either heat up, bring to room temp, or serve cold depending on your preference.

The weekend before is when you can really get going on your festive favourites. In order to reduce stress before the big day, these are what you’ll need to tackle.

Yorkshire Puddings

We know, this feels a bit rogue. But, you can make the batter ahead of using it. Just whip up your favourite batter and then toss it in the freezer, ready for the big day. On Christmas Eve, just pull it out to defrost.

Pigs in blankets

These ones you aren’t cooking in advance, just preparing. Wrap the sausages in bacon, and, you’ll see a theme here, put them in the freezer and then simply roast from frozen on the day.

On Christmas Eve, it’s time to really prep everything you can:

• Pull everything that you’ve put into the freezer (aside from the pigs in blankets) and add to the fridge to thaw overnight, such as the Yorkshire Pud batter and the cranberry sauce. If you did buy a frozen turkey in advance we’d also suggest giving that ample time to thaw properly.
• Next up, prep your fresh ingredients, such as the parsnips, carrots, potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Peel and chop as desired and then store in cold water in the fridge overnight to keep them fresh (this can be done up to two days in advance).
• Then begin preparing your stuffing and stick that in the fridge, ready to bake the next day.
• We’d also recommend preparing the table, setting it to save yourself the stress on the day while you’re cooking the entire Christmas dinner.

Once you’ve opened all the presents or before the kids wake up, there’s a lot you can be doing to make things easier come dinner time:

• First things first, we’d recommend starting to roast your turkey early since it takes the longest of all that you have to cook. You can use its resting time to cook the other dishes.
• Then you can start getting the gravy ready, from turkey drippings or stock cubes. You can also cook the pigs in blankets now if you’d like them for a starter, otherwise, cook them with the vegetables.
• You can toss the parsnips, carrots, and the potatoes in oil and place on a baking tray, getting them ready to roast in the afternoon and evening.

Time for the main event: Christmas dinner!

• Now’s when you roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips and cook the stuffing. Pop them in the oven at the end of turkey’s resting period.
• Then it’s time to pour your thawed Yorkshire Pud batter into hot oil in the muffin tin and bake until they’re puffed and golden.
• Heat the cranberry sauce if you’re eating it warm, otherwise bring to room temp or place in its serving dish.
• Carve the turkey and voila! You are ready to eat.

Hopefully this guide will help you prepare Christmas dinner in advance and give you a bit of time to get everything ready without panicking on the day ahead or day of. If you’d like to save on the washing up after Christmas dinner or handing it off to your loved ones, you can cook just about everything in our double roasting pan. We’ve written up exactly how to make Christmas dinner in one pan.