What cooking corners do you cut at Christmas?

Fleurpepper

I'd much rather be served a very simple meal, with a big smile and good humour- than something really fancy cooked by some pretend celebrity Chef, behaving like a martyr and f*ing and B*linding all the way.

Ooh, has Gordon Ramsay cooked for you?

For several years my H and I were the only ones who liked Christmas pudding so I made an ice cream which had the usual fruits soaked in rum, glacé cherries and the glacé peel that came in large pieces, not mixed peel and some Christmas spices.
It was delicious and was in the freezer already some weeks before.
Now I go out for Christmas lunch and buy mince pies.
I don’t miss all that work one bit.

I'd much rather be served a very simple meal, with a big smile and good humour- than something really fancy cooked by some pretend celebrity Chef, behaving like a martyr and f*ing and B*linding all the way.

dragonfly46

I actually make very little. M& S is my friend. I like to enjoy Christmas with my family not stress about all the cooking like my mum did.

Ditto … I love M & S!

It’s really interesting to see what different people would never go without making themselves and what people have, over the years, decided they can cut corners on to make the big day slightly easier.

I think most of us did everything ourselves years ago because there wasn’t so much ready made stuff available. I actually enjoy cooking but have friends who hate it and have gone over to frozen roast potatoes, ready mash, containers of gravy and bread sauce, packet stuffing etc.

I will miss my Mum again at Xmas bringing her ancient biscuit tins and tupperware full of delicious homemade mince pies and sausage rolls. They were wonderful! Dad used to bring a big box of his homegrown leeks, sprouts, fresh parsley, potatoes and parsnips. They had both had hard lives with not much money so I knew their home cooked and home grown gifts were very special.

My first Xmas as a new bride I tried to cook just how my Mum did. I spent ages making homemade gravy. boiling up the giblets with onion and carrot and bay leaves then putting it all through the metal sieve, pressing it through with a spoon. There it was this wonderful tasty gravy base in a big jug. Hurrying to get on with the rest of my cooking ….. without thinking I poured it down the sink! 😥

I try to do as much as I can in advance and freeze it - par cook the roasties, sprouts, parsnips, carrots then pop in the freezer. Make the cranberry sauce ahead and freeze it, also the red cabbage recipe (Delia’s) is made in advance and frozen. These are then taken out of freezer Xmas Eve to thaw. The Xmas pud goes in the slow cooker Xmas morning and left to simmer during Xmas day. Prep the pigs in blankets the day before, defrost the prawns in the fridge overnight for the starter then make the starter with ready made mayo and bagged lettuce leaves Xmas morning. Much less stressful doing as much prep well in advance (just don’t forget to defrost them 😂😂).

DH and I have had a few health scares over the past couple of years so hosting Christmas has been a bit hard. Dd hosted last year and probably would do again but she has a really stressful job and a little one and looks so tired a lot of the time. Therefore, this year I made the decision to book a restaurant for Christmas lunch. It's expensive but, hey, no cooking or washing up! I just hope it will be as nice as I hope

From Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day we have between 8 and 14 people most days. This includes 2 people with a lactose intolerance, 1 with a gluten intolerance, 1 vegan, 1 very fussy (but lovely) autistic child and 1 adult who gets horrendous migraines if he comes into contact with cinnamon - Christmas is a very difficult time of the year to avoid cinnamon! I cope by using my freezer. I freeze red cabbage, stuffing, pigs in blankets, and a salmon mousse starter. I par boil potatoes and parsnips on Christmas Eve ready to roast on Chrismas day and also make cauliflower cheese on Christmas Eve. I buy cranberry sauce and Aunt Bessie Yorkshire puddings because I can’t stand the stress of maybe having flat Yorkshire puddings!

If it's simply me & DH then we have a nice easy "treat" meal which we enjoy. (Not a traditional Christmas meal.) One year we had a good quality "bought" steak pie. We do make our own mincemeat but the puff pastry for the mince-pies is bought! No hard work or kitchen stresses. Lovely!

I cook my Christmas puddings in the microwave oven and contract out mince pies and bread sauce (yuk) but DDiL and DD like it. DGD makes Christmas biscuits for those who do not like Christmas cake.

Since the turkey, gammon and stuffing are what everyone wants I only do one vegetable (sprouts) and potatoes come roasted only, no boiled or mashed.

I also prepare the whole meal in advance on Chritsmas Eve (while listening to Carols from Kings) and have an oven with a timer on it so just before I go to bed, I put the turkey in the ovento turn itself on at 9.00am and I do not go near the kitchen (for Christmas lunch purposes) until midday

What cooking corners do I cut at Christmas? All of them!!

My daughter DIL is German and her parents came over for Christmas plus they had a family of Ukrainian refugees staying. My dil parents insisted on cooking and sensing it would not be the usual l kept asking my son to let me know what meat / fish to order. Don't worry we will get it nearer the time came the reply - l had a feeling of doom. So week before Christmas my son rings me to ask where he could get 9 goose legs. Strangely he found that Waitrose and the other butchers didn't carry them routinely!!!!!
My butcher and on line companies l use were helpful but the legs were not there. Then my neighbour suggested a company she uses and not only were they helpful but allowed us to pick them up at a depo near us as it day before christmas eve
The meal of goose legs, onions, potato dumplings and red cabbage was nice. However a week of blood sweat and tears trying to source these wretched legs and they only comment was that it was a shame they were frozen not fresh. My back up plan had been to get many duck legs - not sure how that would have gone down.
This year my son and his family are going to Germany for Christmas and although we were invited too we are staying here and having a curry. My husband is using my poor mobility as an excuse as their house is over 3 floors This is my christmas present.
If anyone knows of a regular source of goose legs l would be grateful to know as this year the company l used don't have them and not sure whether they will carry them again. So how lucky was l last year

I don’t cut corners. We are not particularly fond of turkey. I do roast chicken, make my own pigs in blankets with chipolata sausages and streaky bacon, own recipe bread sauce, stuffing and gravy, roast potatoes, carrot and swede crush or creamed swede, sprouts. 🌱 usually buy Aldi Christmas pud or make my own and make Chantilly cream using whipped double cream, sugar and vanilla extract. Make my own sherry trifle and mince pies with home made rich butter shortcrust pastry too.

Rosiebee

Always make mince pies, usually freezing half of them uncooked, bread sauce, stuffing and cranberry sauce. We're not keen on turkey so usually get a good sized chicken for the two of us and have it with lots of veg, roasties and all the trimmings. I've never found my home made chicken gravy to be very tasty so I now buy M&S turkey gravy and add redcurrant jelly to that. So much easier than faffing about with gravy at the last moment. One year I followed Jamie O's recipe for Christmas gravy involving roasting chicken wings and veg then pushing everything through a sieve - as I remember. Next year and ever since - M&S. We used to buy lots of M&S 4 for the price of 3 "bits and pieces" when DH's mum used to come and stay but generally found them to be a bit underwhelming. Haven't bothered since although I'm always open to temptation.

Have you ever tried a cockerel? Its bigger than even a large chicken and much easier to cook and keep juicy than a turkey. We have them every year now.

Witzend

None really. I like making mince pies and 🎄puddings, and I make stuffing and pigs in blankets - they don’t take long at all and I know what’s in them.
OTOH I keep the actual dinner pretty simple - not the array of different veg/side dishes that some people seem to do, not to mention mash as well as roast potatoes.
I no longer make or buy a cake - hardly anybody ever ate it!

I agree with you about all the side dishes. There used to be far more of us sitting down for Christmas lunch and I did roast parsnips, leeks in sauce, cauliflower gratin and all sorts. Now there are only six or seven of us there is so much meat of one kind or another that most of the vegetables don't get eaten that day. I think I'll do the potatoes and pigs in blankets in the air fryer this year, much quicker. Then I can do an action replay with the leftovers on Boxing day!
The only odd thing that we have is Yorkshire puddings as my grandchildren love them with any meat.

Grandmabatty

Turkey was cooked on Christmas Eve and sliced. I warmed it up on Christmas Day. But I make my own bread sauce and cranberry sauce, my own Christmas puddings too. Spiced red cabbage was made in the slow cooker and frozen until required. Trifle- I made my own sponge and custard. It was all done with love and I enjoyed it. Now, my daughter does it all

Nice to hear that somebody else makes spicy red cabbage, it's the only time of year that we have it. We started to make our trifle with ratafia biscuits because my mother was Coeliac and continue the tradition even though she died 14 years ago.

00opsidia

I buy Christmas pudding , Mince pies and Christmas cake to offer to people. We don't eat it ourselves as we don't like it. We will buy cranberry sauce too.

We prefer gingerbread or cheese cake, so we will make those. Maybe even a gingerbread cheesecake! Fresh veg , we make our own pigs in blankets with luxury chipolatas and smoked streaky bacon as then I know they're good. We make our own gravy too and home made stuffing.

In years gone by we've spent a fortune on a fresh turkey but one year it was a real disappointment with an aftertaste and we vowed to buy frozen in future.
Every year now we get a cheap frozen turkey from Aldi or the like and we marinade it for 24 hours in a home made brine like this www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/juniper-brine-355429 Honestly, it takes a cheap frozen turkey to wonderful! We then put butter under the skin and butter baste it, stuff it with lovely home made stuffing and put strips of bacon on the top criss crossed. After all of this you literally cannot tell that it wasn't a fresh free range turkey, it's super tender and tasty.

I used to make gingerbread houses but it depends who's going to be around to eat it.

I too buy a frozen crown and like you I brine it for 24 hrs and then cook it in the slow cooker with all the trimmings and it is marvellous. I know how it feels to spend nearly £60 or more on a fresh crown to find it is no better in fact not as good as the frozen one, which generally are a third of the price.

Loved reading all the posts.

traveller61

I’m cutting all Christmas cooking corners this year. Taking a Xmas holiday to son and daughter in law’s in Canada, 😆 🇨🇦 🍁 🎄

Fantastic! Have a wonderful time.

I have cooked 47 Christmas dinners. I would love to go away one year. I do get lots of help. OH and daughter prep all the many veg the night before. Son always sets a beautiful table. They all load dishwasher and wash saucepans by hand.

My Aunt and Uncle had 4 kids and loads of grandchildren. Every year she wished for a Christmas away. They finally went to a very posh hotel in the Canaries. My Aunt was very homesick, missed the family and kept ringing them up just to hear their voices. 🤣

I cook my turkey crown in advance and slice and freeze it. Defrost what we need when we need it.
I buy frozen roast potatoes and parsnips, frozen Yorkshire puddings, and everything else is shop bought. The only thing I make is the mashed potatoes. I just don’t have the energy, as a menopausal woman with ADHD, to do it all myself. I’d rather spend more time with the family than the oven.

None at all.

I love cooking Christmas dinner and making sure there is food in the house for the other days of Christmas and the New Year.

All right, I don't butcher my own meat or milk the cows myself, or cure ham myself, but apart from that everything is home-made.

Always make mince pies, usually freezing half of them uncooked, bread sauce, stuffing and cranberry sauce. We're not keen on turkey so usually get a good sized chicken for the two of us and have it with lots of veg, roasties and all the trimmings. I've never found my home made chicken gravy to be very tasty so I now buy M&S turkey gravy and add redcurrant jelly to that. So much easier than faffing about with gravy at the last moment. One year I followed Jamie O's recipe for Christmas gravy involving roasting chicken wings and veg then pushing everything through a sieve - as I remember. Next year and ever since - M&S. We used to buy lots of M&S 4 for the price of 3 "bits and pieces" when DH's mum used to come and stay but generally found them to be a bit underwhelming. Haven't bothered since although I'm always open to temptation.

🤣🤣🤣

I bought about six Tesco Finest Christmas £10 puddings in the post Christmas knockdowns for 50 pence each.

Sadly they are so delicious there are only three left. I will have to make sure there is one left for the 25th as there won't be time to make one.

Everything else I will make myself as I enjoy cooking.

Oh Dowsabella - would you share your nut roast recipe please?
Generally speaking, I've rarely met a corner I wouldn't like to cut...and not just in cooking, either

grandMattie

I used to make everything myself, except bread sauce. It’s revolting.
Now, not only am in my own but I go to DD’s whose family is vegetarian. No turkey, no chipolatas, no forcemeat balls , etc. Ok, so I just get on with it.

Can we come too, please?
We are both veggie, but I have a wonderful recipe for nut roast and even non-veggie friends come back for seconds. And it's a microwave recipe! A few days before Christmas it's a trawl round the supermarkets for offers on sprouts and parsnips which DH can't do without. (Not sure there will be any offers this year, though .) Because I'm dairy free and DH reacts badly to sunflower products, we have to do a lot of our own preparation, but I do buy stuffing and gravy granules.
DH dislikes Christmas pud and cake, so it's usually Aldi or Lidl for one for me, plus Lidl do wonderful vegan mince pies. A pity our local Lidls are now sold out till possibly next year .

PS. It's not Christmas without bread sauce, but I think I'm the only one in my family who likes it.....