Cooking turkey on Christmas Eve and reheating next day

Beware of compilorbactor, especially when cooking poultry.
My dh was very ill with it a few years ago.

We always cook the turkey on Christmas Eve. If necessary it can then be cut into smaller pieces to go in the fridge. On Christmas day it is sliced and reheated in the oven with some gravy. I find if I use the microwave bits of the turkey tends to dry out round the edges. It gives us more time for cooking the veg, pigs in blankets and stuffing. In the old days - 1950s - my mother always kept the turkey in the shed for several days. No one was ever ill, but I suspect the turkeys may have been less germy in those days.

Winters were usu colder in the ‘50s, Deeda. That’s the problem this year.

Witzend

I will do it now and then for the remains of an ordinary roast, but am 😱 at the thought of cooking the turkey in advance and then rehearing in gravy! In this house it has to land on the table in all its golden glory. The smell of the turkey cooking is part of Christmas - it is to me, anyway.

And TBH I don’t see what the big deal is, though if you insist on having the dinner at 1 pm it’s always going to be a rush.

Until we decided to have Christmas dinner at around 5 or 6 - so much more civilised IMO anyway, not to mention that everyone’s that much more ready for it - we never had it until around 3 pm anyway.

As for ‘plating up’, I hate the idea of that, too.

Am 😲 just as you are.The turkey is always cooked for eating with lunch around 1.30 and is so delicious hot from the oven and then rested for a short while before carving.I don’t reheat the leftovers the next day but have it cold with baked potatoes salad and chutneys.

My daughter (not a keen cook) orders the Xmas Dinner , which is delivered the previous evening. She reheats it before serving …..never had food poisoning.

I’m so glad not to be eating reheated or cold turkey with hot veg. Yuk!

I never reheat turkey, just use it up in a wide variety of made dishes.

I always thoroughly overcook turkey, first on its breast and then turn it over onto its rump. I have never had a problem with a dry turkey, but I do push the boat out with the turkey and spend most of my Christmas money on a large organic free range bronze turkey

Ailidh

Following my Mum's pattern I've always cooked the bird the night before (always chicken in our house) and served it cold with piping hot accompaniments. Sliced meat doesn't stay that hot on a plate anyway, and I wouldn't run the risk of re-heating.

I have done that and also don’t put the turkey in the gravy. As said by Ailidh the hot accompaniments are enough. I also noticed the turkey has more flavour when cold.

I use this tip from a chef. Put sliced turkey breast in a shallow tin. Cover with boiling water, cover with foil and put in a very hot oven. As well as being piping hot, the turkey is moist.

Just to add, we only started having Christmas dinner at 5 pm-ish one year when I had so much Buck’s Fizz, I completely forgot the potatoes - they weren’t even parboiled 😱. Hence sitting down at 5 rather than 3.
But everyone was that much more ready for it.

We always have a late breakfast (smoked salmon, bagels/cream cheese) and then plenty of canapés (usually M&S) at 3 ish, instead of a starter, and to keep everyone going.

Added advantage of a late dinner is that you don’t need to provide an evening meal - everyone is stuffed, and anyone who feels peckish later can pick at turkey/gammon/cheese.

I've never heard of the idea of roasting the bird on Christmas eve. I get a frozen turkey, let it defrost then I stuff the bird during carols from Kings on the radio. Then it's fine to sit in the garage overnight, in mild weather with freezer slabs, until it goes into the oven at about 10am for the Christmas meal at 3pm.

Be careful as it will probably be very dry and when reheating has to be heated properly! Why not just cook early Monday morning ?

Always cook my meats on Christmas Eve slice what I need and put in a tray and cover with gravy and then foil. Christmas Day the tray gets popped in the over to gently warm through its lovely

We have cooked our turkey on Christmas Eve for the last two years…it’s been a complete game-changer in terms of us not having to slave over it on Christmas Day, leaving only the potatoes, Brussels sprouts and gravy to be cooked from scratch. We have cold cuts when anyone fancies helping themselves, and only reheat what we need as required on Christmas Day and Boxing Day…we haven’t died yet lol! Also have to say that we bought an air fryer earlier this year, and it also has been a game changer for making roast dinners…it’s so easy and quick to cook or reheat Yorkshire puddings, roast vegetables etc, saving space in the oven when you have so much else to cook.

Pensionpat’s idea works really well. If you have no room in the oven then place cooked turkey in a steamer. You get the same result, moist, hot turkey.

I worked in a kitchen for many years. We always cooked the turkey the day before. To reheat it we put it in large trays and added a small amount of water or weak stock to keep it moist. Cover with tinfoil and reheat in the oven. It was always lovely and moist. I still use this method at home.

This year we are cooking our turkey bronze breast roll on Xmas Eve and having it cold on Xmas Day with all the usual hot and cold accompaniments. We decided we like turkey cold better than hot!

My Turkey crown cooks in 2.5 hours….
and lamb cooks in 1.5 hours . Turkey in at 8am…out by 10:30….then lamb goes in til at 11.30 ish and is nicely out and ‘rested’ for lunch at 2pm. Cooked Turkey wrappedin masses of foil and cuddled with t-towels to keep nicely warm . Or the other way around …all easy!

It needs 24hr to complete defrost and why are you heating it up just put it on your warm plate before you serve it. Please be careful or you will give food poisoning. I’ve always cooked mine day before we had a power cut one Christmas Day so we didn’t get to eat it until following day as power off until later that night. The whole street was off.

No reheating in our house as one of sons wont eat anything pre- done as he considers them 'leftovers' (most i could get by him his maybe a turkey sarnie later christmas day or turkey curry day after as we usually do- and as someone else said the smell of a roasting turkey on christmas day is part of christmas isnt it? I have fitted ours in meat drawer but not much else! If theres more turkey left after that ill freeze it cut off bone to make for myself stews or something.

Keeping the turkey warm (more than about an hour) is as bad as reheating it because it is going to be at the optimum temperature for bacteria to grow. Reheating it well kills them off.

I'm more concerned that most supermarkets are putting boxing day as the 'use by' date now as that means that by 25th theyre getting towards going off stage?!🤔🤨

We always do it on Christmas Eve, carve it and chill then heat it Christmas Day and have it in the Christmas dinner hot pot on Boxing Day - then it’s stock and soup from the carcass. This year however we did it yesterday because of fridge space.

pensionpat

I use this tip from a chef. Put sliced turkey breast in a shallow tin. Cover with boiling water, cover with foil and put in a very hot oven. As well as being piping hot, the turkey is moist.

That’s what my brother in law did for many years as head chef.
On Xmas day he catered for 300 people. Doing it all on Xmas day was impossible

Me too