Do you roast your turkey on Christmas Eve ?

I've always cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve, slowly and thoroughly. Then brought it out of the oven to cool down before putting it the 'fridge. It slices easier and better with no dragging. All preparations done on the eve, trifle, etc, sauces, potato salad-( home-made ) salads washed. Veg peeled. Nothing to do on the Day except cook it.

I'll never re-heat turkey or any meat for that matter. Re-heating requires a rapid heat and you can't do that with fowl except perhaps in curry dishes.

If the turkey is brought out of the cold to rest at room temperature the taste isn't marred by it being too cold.

My Gran always cooked the turkey Christmas Eve in the range oven and we had the bacon for breakfast on Christmas morning.

I used to get the turkey boned and put the gammon and stuffing in the centre and stitched up and roasted.

Only ever cook turkey during the night.
I love the smell in the morning and the house is warm too.

My sister in law always dows this. But I can't say I fancy it. I had food poisoning once and since then I worry about heating up poultry. Also don't they say you can only heat it up once so if there is any left after the meal and you want to use it later wouldn't that mean you can't heat it again.

I have always cooked my Turkey over night and getting up to the smell of Turkey cooking on Christmas day is lovely put oven on no 2 and in morning turn it up to no 4 even my daughter has carried on the tradition

I do all the preparation on Christmas eve, turkey stuffed, in cooking tin and covered in foil ready to go into oven, all the other parts of the meal prepped and in pans, or on trays just waiting hot water or goose fat. Even all the serving dishes and servers are ready.

My oven has a delayed start so the turkey actually goes in the oven overnight and comes on automatically between 8.00-9.00am in the morning. I do not even begin to think about lunch until midday. We usually eat about an hour later.

As others say all the smells and bells of Christmas lunch with none of the hassle.

Nannan2 eating it cold is very different from reheating it. Also noticed mention of ‘yorkies’ surely Yorkshire Puddings are only for roast beef!!! Cook on the day and enjoy the smell. Everything else can be cooked while your turkey is resting.

Certainly not! Strange idea.

I don't cook a Turkey any more, there's only me so I go to either my son's or daughter's on Christmas Day. I always used to cook my meat on Christmas Eve, and even now so that I get the smell of meat cooking I always cook a small joint of beef on Christmas Eve. Brings back some lovely memories.

I don’t like that idea. Once the turkey is in the oven, apart from midnight mass, Christmas has really started. As I said on a previous post about fast food, why does everything have to be ready as early/quick as possible?

I brine my turkey for two days , roast it on Christmas eve . Keep it in a cool place . Carve and warm it in the gravy on Christmas day .

We mainly cook the night before, then finish off Christmas morning. Eat cold on boxing day, then finish with a turkey stew the day after.

If I have a big bird, like I will this year, I slow roast it overnight. I prep it ready and then stick it into the oven, set at just over 100°, when I get in from Midnight Mass. With lots of butter and streaky bacon on its breast, and a good tent of foil, it won't dry out. In the late morning I take off the foil and give it a 30 minute blast at 200° to brown it. Lovely stuff.

I couldn't cook turkey on Christmas eve for years. I worked night duty and put it into the oven when I came home on Christmas morning. It cooked away while I had a sleep.

No, cook mine on Christmas day morning. Start at 9.00am and by 1.00pm it's done, leaving the oven free for roasts, & pigs in blankets. Since getting a new kitchen, I now have 2 ovens, the ham goes in the other oven. When that's done, I put plates in to warm. I peel and chop everything on Christmas Eve, and cook the carrots and swede that night too (I mash them with butter and lots of pepper) put them in microwave or oven to reheat on Christmas Day (I think they taste better the next day, unlike turkey, pigs in blankets and roasties, which I think taste better when they have just been cooked).

SJamie Oliver didn't cook the turkey on Christmas Eve. He did all the prep, oranges in the cavity, butter under the skin etc, then put it in the fridge. Took it out early on Christmas Day to come back to room temperature then into the oven at 9am. It was done by 12 so then he left it to rest fir two hours while he cooked everything else. I know it has to be rested but two hours seems a long time. Wouldn't it be cold?
I don't do long cooking either, it just over cooks it and drains all the flavour out and into the juices in the tin.
I found out about fast hot roasting one year when we had a power cut on Christmas Day at 8am! Ten coming for lunch so sent them to the pub and told them I'd phone them later.
The power came back on at 11am so I bunged it in at 180 degrees expecting it to take hours but it was done by 2 o'clock
so I quickly got everything else cooking and we had lunch at 3
I've always kept that in mind even though I don't do Christmas anymore and go to one of my lovely girls or granddaughter.

When I was a child the turkey was always cooked the night before because it was so jolly big. One year dad had to hack its legs off to fit in. Always bought fresh from butcher. Sometimes mum would switch off the cooker, leaving it to finish "in the residuals" & it came out of the oven on our return from midnight mass. When she got a new automatic timer oven she was over the moon! Before we had a fridge they used a meat safe & marble slab in a very cold pantry. Shopping was done more frequently but nothing went off. The jellies & blanchmanges set. Can still remember the day we got a fridge!

Nah, I did Christmas dinners for 34ys and the turkey went into the oven waiting for the timer to ping on around 6am. Can still remember the aroma of it as I came downstairs on Christmas morning to put the kettle on! Gorgeous. Part of Christmas Day!

Mum &Nan always did this 8of us and cookers in the 50/60 ovens not large. In our tiny terrace house front room was my grandparents bedroom

But we all put cold leftover turkey into sarnies, do we not? That must be safe?

Did you have your christmas early then purplepoppies?(im just being nosey,sorry)

Would be much easier to cook 'pigs' spuds etc night before,& reheat.but i think my son may be right,things do seem to taste a bit different when pre-cooked and then reheated I would never tell him that though

No, why would you?
Reheated turkey in gravy doesn’t sound very appealing and unless you are cooking a 25lb bird there should be plenty of time on Christmas morning. Once it is in the oven, it will take care of itself.
No, Sussexborn, my impression was that the turkey came out of the oven and after resting, went straight to the table.
By all means do the prep on Christmas Eve, but please Ninathenana don’t even think of serving cold or reheated turkey even with hot gravy.

More‐ish?

No Jan51, christmas not same for me without the actual turkey carving on the day! Anyway,also my sons wont touch gravy either so couldnt reheat in gravy (they miss out really cause i do a lovely gravy just same as Gordan Ramsey way,still, more for me