The great Christmas dinner thread

[21TonyK]

RC1807 said:

I cook all the meat, except pigs in blankets, on Christmas Eve, and have prepared all the veg too.
Christmas Day is then much simpler with only veg, stuffing and pigs in blankets to be cooked.

If you really want to save a bit of time PIB and stuffing precooked work quite well but not a fan of precooking meat (at least not more than a few hours ahead). At work we cook a day ahead but then this year we are doing over 40kg of turkey butterflys!

[21TonyK]

Turkey (crown) going in to brine later today. Not a fan of acid or alcohol on long brines but any other any favourites people use?

Using 3% salt, 3% white sugar in about 2l of chicken stock with extra fresh sage, bay and thyme, half a dozen peppercorns, a clove of garlic.

[illmonkey]

Tony, any help on my gravy predicament on the list page? TIA

[21TonyK]

illmonkey said:

Tony, any help on my gravy predicament on the list page? TIA

If you are going with a whole turkey I would take the drumsticks and wings off it and roast these now and then use them to make a stock based on a shop bought chicken stock (knorr jellies are half decent). Reduce this right down and then on the day use the shop bought gravy instead of water to make gravy from the pan juices and use your concentrated stock to boost it.


Not much help now but it does pay to plan ahead. Whenever I roast meats I always reserve roasting juices and add stock and reduce down. This 150ml vac pack came of last years turkey (30kg+ of it). Its like turkey marmite, a little goes a very long way.



Every time you do roast chicken keep all the scraps and freeze them, you soon have enough to make a massive batch of stock which you can concentrate and freeze ready for anything.

[illmonkey]

Thanks. It's a crown only

I will use the turkey juices with the stuff I've got. Unless I stumble across any on my visit to the shop today.

Turkey marmite, now theres an idea

[21TonyK]

illmonkey said:

Thanks. It's a crown only

I will use the turkey juices with the stuff I've got. Unless I stumble across any on my visit to the shop today.

Turkey marmite, now theres an idea

In which case you could always buy a pack of chicken drumsticks and use those to make a stock, or just go with a decent quality chicken stock base. Depends how much time and effort you want to put into gravy.

[omniflow]

illmonkey said:

Thanks. It's a crown only

I will use the turkey juices with the stuff I've got. Unless I stumble across any on my visit to the shop today.

Turkey marmite, now theres an idea

Jamie Oliver recipe with chicken wings - been around a good few years and works really well.

Just make sure that you roast the wings and veg for a good long time, otherwise it tastes more like chicken soup than gravy.

[illmonkey]

Thanks again chaps. There is only 3 of us for the big day/meal, so not overly fussed. I have the chicken knorr stock things, so just use that.

[eyebeebe]

21TonyK said:

Turkey (crown) going in to brine later today. Not a fan of acid or alcohol on long brines but any other any favourites people use?

Using 3% salt, 3% white sugar in about 2l of chicken stock with extra fresh sage, bay and thyme, half a dozen peppercorns, a clove of garlic.

24 hour brine for mine from tomorrow morning, before it goes on the barbecue. Does that count as a long brine for you, as it includes alcohol.

From Grillstock:

250g sea salt
250g soft brown sugar or maple syrup
250ml bourbon
15 whole black peppercorns
2 cloves
Wide strips of zest from 2 lemons
A few bay leaves

[21TonyK]

eyebeebe said:

21TonyK said:

Turkey (crown) going in to brine later today. Not a fan of acid or alcohol on long brines but any other any favourites people use?

Using 3% salt, 3% white sugar in about 2l of chicken stock with extra fresh sage, bay and thyme, half a dozen peppercorns, a clove of garlic.

24 hour brine for mine from tomorrow morning, before it goes on the barbecue. Does that count as a long brine for you, as it includes alcohol.

From Grillstock:

250g sea salt
250g soft brown sugar or maple syrup
250ml bourbon
15 whole black peppercorns
2 cloves
Wide strips of zest from 2 lemons
A few bay leaves

I guess it depends a lot on how much water that would be dissolved in? I normally brine 24 hours but if I was using acid or alcohol like cider as a base instead of water I would limit it to under 12 to avoid starting to cook the meat.

May add a clove or two though, after all its Xmas!

[eyebeebe]

21TonyK said:

I guess it depends a lot on how much water that would be dissolved in? I normally brine 24 hours but if I was using acid or alcohol like cider as a base instead of water I would limit it to under 12 to avoid starting to cook the meat.

May add a clove or two though, after all its Xmas!

6 litres, so pretty dilute.

[21TonyK]

eyebeebe said:

21TonyK said:

I guess it depends a lot on how much water that would be dissolved in? I normally brine 24 hours but if I was using acid or alcohol like cider as a base instead of water I would limit it to under 12 to avoid starting to cook the meat.

May add a clove or two though, after all its Xmas!

6 litres, so pretty dilute.

Yep, assuming the Bourbon is around 40% ABV your brine will be about 1.5% ABV which is pretty dilute. I was thinking of brines at 4/5%.

One think I haven't tried is cooking the alcohol off first as I do with wine marinades.

Another thing to add to the to-do list!

[Wadeski]

The menu chez nous is looking like:

Xmas eve: seared scallop and fresh crab on top of a small saffron risotto, followed by a whole side of salmon with courgettes and new potatoes. Cranberry orange & cointreau tart for desert.

Xmas day: Standing rib of beef, roast root vegetables, Brussel sprouts and mash spuds. Pumpkin pie and mince pies for dessert, with port and cheese later.

Boxing Day: Glazed ham with leftover veg on the side.

[Claptonian]

Wadeski said:

The menu chez nous is looking like:

Xmas eve: seared scallop and fresh crab on top of a small saffron risotto, followed by a whole side of salmon with courgettes and new potatoes. Cranberry orange & cointreau tart for desert.

Xmas day: Standing rib of beef, roast root vegetables, Brussel sprouts and mash spuds. Pumpkin pie and mince pies for dessert, with port and cheese later.

Boxing Day: Glazed ham with leftover veg on the side.

I'm doing veggie this year as I will be the only meat eater present. Any chance I could do that cooking and then pop round yours to actually eat please? Leave the veggies to it.....

In all seriousness, I like how restrained your Christmas dinner main is. Four components (counting the root veg as one). I'd rather four things done well than the usual 7 or 8 things all done in a rush, finished at different times etc.

[RC1807]

Veg is all prepped
Nut roast is prepped (Dort v2 is veggie)

Big pigs in blankets are prepped (usually bought in the UK, not able to go there this year!)
Cranberry sauce is cooed (usually bought in the UK....)

Turkey is cooked!

[sc0tt]

Can you leave spuds in water overnight? Do they need to go in the fridge?

Can you leave yorkshire batter overnight as well?

[21TonyK]

sc0tt said:

Can you leave spuds in water overnight? Do they need to go in the fridge?

Can you leave yorkshire batter overnight as well?

You can leave potatoes in water overnight but they will absorb water which isn't ideal. If you do leave them in water then make sure they are all below the surface. They don't have to be refrigerated but don't keep anywhere warm or they will start to ferment!

YP batter improves if you refrigerate overnight but will need a quick mix before use as it will probably separate a bit.

[MissChief]

Picked up a 2kg Lamb Shoulder from the butchers who had a very impressive queue and it was bitterly cold waiting in line! Can't wait for tomorrow! Cooking it low and slow!

[h0b0]

I already went through the turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. I always buy back up gravy but at the end of the night no one has touched it. Since I moved to a turkey oven (called roaster oven) I haven’t looked back. The turkey is cooked perfectly and the gravy is excellent. It does rely on the turkey prep though and I have taken to brining the night before.

Christmas for us is going to be Beef Wellington. I prepared it this morning so just gets put in the oven tomorrow.

I’m not a gourmet chef but can follow instructions and have benefited from practice over the years.

[RC1807]

I can understand that, h0b0.
My eldest brother is in the Chicagoland area, so he did the turkey thing last month too. He cooks prime rib for Christmas. I can't even find that here.

Any snow left from earlier this week?
Have a good one!