Cooking turkey on Christmas Eve and reheating next day

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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 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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Have you got a meat thermometer?

I don’t mind the clearing up, winterwhite - because if I’ve cooked, I don’t do any of it - that’s down to dh and anybody else. 🙂

Actually, even when we’ve had small Gdcs staying, dinner at 5 worked well, it was their usual sort of teatime. We’d have given them something simple at their usual lunchtime.

One Christmas I put a fresh turkey in the utility room of our rather ramshackle cottage - it was very very cold out there. It was wrapped in plastic and I put a laundry basket over it. Next morning I found that a mouse had nibbled it. And there was evidence of the culprit in the form of droppings.

I brushed them off, washed the turkey and cooked as normal.
No word to anyone else - my OH would have had a fit!

I cooked a special stuffing to go with it.

During the meal one DD said: "What is this in my stuffing? - it looks like mouse droppings!" Gulp!

When I was responsible for Christmas dinner .... my eldest daughter does it now .... I used to cook the turkey on Christmas Eve and serve it up cold. No one ever complained and as someone has already said if everything else is hot it is fine. But we used to have a frozen turkey and I used to tie myself in knots working out when to get it out of the freezer! Would it defrost in time? Would it defrost too soon? Oh, I am so glad I don'thave that worry now BTW my daughter and I collected a fresh turkey crown from Sainsburys yesterday and it is in her fridge to be cooked tomorrow. Happy Days!!

I get the meal completely ready, bar cooking, on Christmas Eve and then put the turkey in them oven with the delay start set, so that the oven comes on automatically around 9.00am.

I do not go near the kitchen for christmas lunch purposes until midday. I serve Christmas lunch between 1.00 -2.00pm.

No big deal, Witzend, question of cooking the turkey the day before arose during discussion of this year’s v mild weather making it hazardous to keep turkey in box in garage from Friday to Monday.
I agree re roasting turkey being central to Christmas and have somehow got mine in the fridge, relegating much else to the garage.
But dislike the idea of eating at 5-6, and so clearing up at 7-8 or later so we still eat at 1.30ish as we did when the children were
young.

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.

DH reluctant to have it cooked on Sunday. Since I'm relegating his 'intermediate' wine store from the utility room back to the garage I will grant him the turkey cooking for the sake of domestic harmony. A lot of jiggery pokery will be going on here, but we can ram it in the fridge.

Cook it on Sunday and reheat.

I am quite cavalier, i heat and reheat almost everything, providing you get it hot enoigh for long enough it will kill any pathogens.

These rules are drawn up mainly for catering establishments, and in a care home, environment i would obey them meticulously, but very few cases of food poisoning start in the home. I have yet to make any one ill with anything I have prepared.

I do understand the Friday to Monday problem with turkey. Fortunately my fridge will take the tuekey, with a little jiggery pokery, also involving less critical items being put in a box on the floor of a north east facing garage.

Ours is a very old house and in the days before fridges, you put the buttery and pantry in the coldest corner of the house, usually north/north east facing, which, happens in our house to now be an integral garage.