Serving up Xmas Dinner-how do I keep it all hot!

Spanish Eyes

Ok, I am flapping re serving it up.

Got eight for dinner for Christmas. That's no bother, will pre cook as much as poss and yikes....freeze! Eg mash, home made croquettes, roasties (par cooked, then roasted until they lose the pale colour, then cooled and frozen), cauliflower cheese, carrots and parsnip mash. No one likes sprouts. Cook ham night before, so all that's left on the day is the turkey, stuffing and gravy, I think!

My problem ALWAYS is serving it all up without it going cold.

I suppose organisation is the key, line up your dishes or something.

How do you do it?

konman

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Ok, I am flapping re serving it up.

Got eight for dinner for Christmas. That's no bother, will pre cook as much as poss and yikes....freeze! Eg mash, home made croquettes, roasties (par cooked, then roasted until they lose the pale colour, then cooled and frozen), cauliflower cheese, carrots and parsnip mash. No one likes sprouts. Cook ham night before, so all that's left on the day is the turkey, stuffing and gravy, I think!

My problem ALWAYS is serving it all up without it going cold.

I suppose organisation is the key, line up your dishes or something.

How do you do it?

the mash and roasties will be horrible if frozen, croquettes will be fine though,roasties, cauliflour and carrots and parsnips can be par cooked the day before, it is a bit of a challenge but very doable. timing is key though. stuffing can be made the day before and put in tinfoil in oven with roasties and turkey. do you have a single or double oven and how many gas or electric rings do you have?

Spanish Eyes

konman wrote: »

the mash and roasties will be horrible if frozen, croquettes will be fine though,roasties, cauliflour and carrots and parsnips can be par cooked the day before, it is a bit of a challenge but very doable. timing is key though. stuffing can be made the day before and put in tinfoil in oven with roasties and turkey. do you have a single or double oven and how many gas or electric rings do you have?

Hi, thanks for reply.

I have frozen the mash and roasts spuds before, and they were great. Trick is just to mash the spuds nothing else, no butter or milk, that can be done on the day, . the frozen roasts are par roasted, then frozen, and honestly, are great when fully done on the day. Or I could buy them in M and S!

I have four rings and just one oven and a microwave.

My worry is serving it all up before the first plate goes cold!

Cedrus

Timing. Work out how long each thing is going to take (including resting times for meat) and work back from there. I wouldn't bother trying to cook and chill roasties, home chilled veg, unless it's mashed doesn't reheat well. Make sure you have oven dishes that will all fit in the oven when the plan says they need to.

goat2

do you have those heavy oven dishes that have covers, some are made of pottery and some are cast iron, these things are great for holding heat, if you cook your meal on the day all of it, i dont beleive in freezing nor micriwaving anything that goes on the dinner table,
so if you get these things good and hot in oven and put veg in and cover and then wrap a dishcloth around them they would hold for a while, you can try it out when you make dinner for yourselves long before christmas and then you will see how long these things hold the heat,
something i have is, i scrapped those storage heaters a couple yrs ago and i use the bricks that were in these lined up and pots on top to keep them hot, but firstly i get them good and hot in the oven or on top of multifuel stove and hey presto i have a fine hotplate to keep the dinner warm,

konman

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Hi, thanks for reply.

I have frozen the mash and roasts spuds before, and they were great. Trick is just to mash the spuds nothing else, no butter or milk, that can be done on the day, . the frozen roasts are par roasted, then frozen, and honestly, are great when fully done on the day. Or I could buy them in M and S!

I have four rings and just one oven and a microwave.

My worry is serving it all up before the first plate goes cold!

ok each to there own and its whats works for you, the trick to serving is just to have everything hot at same time, then put veg on each plate then mash then stuffing etc rather than doingfinishing one plate at a time. a second pair of hands to help with serving which wouldnt be a problem as you have 7 guests and in fairness shouldnt mind helping out for a couple of minutes.

Spanish Eyes

goat2 wrote: »

do you have those heavy oven dishes that have covers, some are made of pottery and some are cast iron, these things are great for holding heat, if you cook your meal on the day all of it, i dont beleive in freezing nor micriwaving anything that goes on the dinner table,
so if you get these things good and hot in oven and put veg in and cover and then wrap a dishcloth around them they would hold for a while, you can try it out when you make dinner for yourselves long before christmas and then you will see how long these things hold the heat,
something i have is, i scrapped those storage heaters a couple yrs ago and i use the bricks that were in these lined up and pots on top to keep them hot, but firstly i get them good and hot in the oven or on top of multifuel stove and hey presto i have a fine hotplate to keep the dinner warm,

Jeez the bricks sound great! but I don't have any.

I was thinking of putting some of the covered dishes you mention - I have three, into the hot press to keep warm, that's a great idea you've given me there, thanks.

I do as much prep before, and that means freezing some stuff like I mentioned. Never had a problem before, but there are SOME things I will not put near a freezer or micro though.:cool:

ArtyC

We use a Bain Marie? Not a bad investment if you often cook for a large enough party

Martyn1989

Not a major one but don't take orders, put the same on every plate and let people organise it themselves after, nothing worse then 8 people wanting extra this and none of that it slows the whole thing down

Swampy

When the meat is out resting, you can use the oven to heat or cook the veg.

Minder

Warm the plates.

LaChatteGitane

I think that is an awful lot of potato dishes for 8 people. But I do understand it's tradition in Ireland and the UK.
You do seem to make things very hard for yourselves :pac:

Swiper the fox

The turkey can be left to rest for pretty much as long as you want within reason obviously, an hour and a half will do it little harm, that frees up your oven for most everything else and you can carve the turkey when things are close to being done, suppose I'm lucky to have a giant oven but christmas dinner is the only time of the year when i write down everything that's happened and try to time and plan things to perfection, I wouldn't pre roast the potatoes myself but then again I've never done that and they could be absolutely perfect, for me the roast potatoes are the most important part of any roast dinner, if they ain't right I'm not happy.
Most important thing really is to have help for serving up, don't try to do everything yourself.
I do christmas dinner every year for the in laws and occasionally a couple of others, great satisfaction from getting it right.

Merkin

Stuffing can be done the day before.Potatoes can be peeled the day before and submerged in cold water with a tiny bit of salt before roasting and boiling them fresh.Ham is easy and cooks itself.Why don't you roast the carrots and parsnips to save time?I also don't think you need the croquettes when you already have two potato dishes, it's unnecessary work.Finally, if there's eight people, what I did last year was serve the turkey and ham on each plate and then bring warmed dishes of everything else to the table like the Waltons....quick, hassle free and everyone helps themselves!

Dizzyblonde

I put only the meats onto each plate and put everything else into serving dishes on the table so everyone can help themselves. It takes the stress out of serving and feels more social. I usually have another small table beside the main one for the dishes that don't fit and we pass them around. I don't get the 3-potato thing because although it's a special Christmas celebration dinner, you can only eat so much.

I cook Christmas dinner for our family and guests every year and a buffet supper later for yet more guests, and have found that nobody thanks you for killing yourself and coming to the table exhausted.

SBWife

Think insulation, we keep a turkey piping hot for the guts of 2 hours by covering it with foil and then putting a couple of bath towels over it. Be sure to use a warmed plate to put it on out of the oven also.

leahyl

I've always thought that idea of putting just the meat on the plate and then having the rest of the food in serving dishes was a great one! Like in the american movies and tv shows!

It sounds like a great way to keep things warm also - if you have a few cast iron dishes lying around like others have said they would be perfect for serving mash, roasties and veg and stuffing and then you can have 2 big jugs of gravy - one either side of the table. oooohh I'm so hungry thinking of it!:pac:

goat2

the person who gave you the hint to have a good hot plate, put the meat on that and covering with tinfoil with the shiny side twoards the meat, double sheet
make that two sheets of tinfoil and then towles over that, you then have a half hour to get everything ready while that is wrapped, say making gravy, having plates in oven warming, and taking care of all the veg,
if plates are cold they obsorb the heat from food, so by having them warm means the meal stays warm longer while you are plating,
if you have an earthenware jug to which you have let stand in oven to heat it will keep gravy hotter longer,
i do love my earthenware due to this fact, as i use them to keep veg and gravy warm,

boodlesdoodles

I'm from a huge family. Christmases always involved at least 20 people for dinner. Like a few others said, only put meat on the plates and everything else on platters on the table or even buffet style across the countertop. Get a flow system going, people go one way only, let them help themselves and then sit. Oh and gravy boats on the table, piping hot gravy goes a very long way! Sounds chaotic but it works.

B0jangles

It's a moderately expensive once-off purchase but a hostess trolley makes serving a big meal so much easier:

We have one that looks like this: http://www.simplyhostess.co.uk/HL6200DB.asp

It was my grandmothers, and was probably bought in the '70s - it's still going strong today

Basically you can cook your various veggies and put them in the bowls in the upper levels, and then store your crispy things like roast potatoes and croquettes in the lower shelves. They are specifically designed to keep food warm but not to continue cooking, so you can put things in there hours before you'll be eating it and they'll be perfect when they come out.

For christmas what I do is get the turkey into the oven and in the 3-4 hours it is cooking, I do all the other things a couple at a time - mash, carrots, sprouts, roast spuds, croquettes, gravy, bread sauce, etc and transfer them into the hostess.

I've noticed that once someone uses one a few times, they tend to want to buy one of their own - they are fecking awesome.

Edit: here's a view of how they look inside:

bizzylizz

Hi, A suggestion I have is to portion out the meat and have on a baking tray, covered in tinfoil i.e slice of ham with stuffing on it, covered in a couple of slices of turkey. This is much easier to keep in the oven warm and it doesnt take up as much space and can be prepared earlier in the day.

Spanish Eyes

Well THANK YOU everyone for the suggestions!

I had a few over for Sunday Lunch last weekend. We had simple enough lunch but kind of like Christmas....chicken legs and ham fillet and all th usual.

I put the meat on the (hot) plates, and covered with foil while I put the rest of the veg and spuds in dishes. Put the meat plates out and then put the veg n spuds in the bowls out plus a jug of gravy and one of parsley sauce.

It worked very well thanks, and the food was all hot!

BEST thing was...the leftovers were all in their separate bowls and I could freeze em! Happy days.